it If that's bad, what's 9 fermenters, 12 buckets, 100 glass DJs [1] and 10 plastic DJs? (Plus 2 presses, 1 scratter, 1 pulper, pasteuriser, 2 steam juice extractors [2], 2 filters, 5 hydrometers - different ranges, 3 corkers, 2 cappers, and a vast stack of other stuff). Also got a substantial homebrewing book collection. [1] That's allowed me to go for about 18 months so far since making anything (other than one gallon of pumpkin wine) without running out, but will need to make a load more next spring. [2] By extracting the juice from fruits and pasteurising it in bottles for storage I don't need to use fruits as I harvest them, so Blackberry, Elderberry, Blackcurrant, Raspberry, Strawberry, etc. wines can be made at any time of year or a year or two after picking, and they don't take up any freezer space. The resulting (juice) wines also mature quicker than those made fermenting whole fruit.
I set the trial demijohn up yesterday, 3 litres wine to 1 of water to leave a bit of headroom, and placed it on top of one of my amplifiers to give it a gentle bottom heat (few bits of paper between the top of the amp and the bottom of the demijohn to prevent the heat being too much), and it has restarted, albeit slowly. I couldn't convince myself that the turbo yeast was right for this job, so rather than stuff things up any further and end up with a load of completely knackered wine, I have ordered some Young's restart yeast which should arrive by mid-week and I can then get it into my new fermenter which arrived this morning (20 litres wine, 5 litres water), and hopefully it will produce something drinkable, even if it is a tad sweet. Regarding the second batch I am now wondering if I should split and dilute it before it really gets cracking? (@Scrungee, @Zigs) - I could decant half of the current load into four demijohns, dilute it, and add a wee bit more yeast (say half a teaspoon) to each, and then dilute the remaining half that is in the fermenter? I will be starting another batch of the strawberry jam wine tomorrow (with the turbo yeast), as it was really nice, despite the fact that we didn't leave it for the suggested six months, and will also be doing a couple of demijohns of dried mixed fruit wines with @Jiffy's wheat If this lot all comes ready at once, we will be swimming in wine Whilst I am posting, the turbo yeast warns about temperature regulation, particularly keeping it cool which the pack states is impossible without some sort of cooling apparatus. I have my Inkbird controller which I was thinking of using to switch a pedestal fan on and off as and when required - will a pedestal fan be suitable, or should I be doing something else?
[QUOTE="fat controller, post: 1051759, member: 11510" Regarding the second batch I am now wondering if I should split and dilute it before it really gets cracking? (@Scrungee, @Zigs) - I could decant half of the current load into four demijohns, dilute it, and add a wee bit more yeast (say half a teaspoon) to each, and then dilute the remaining half that is in the fermenter? Whilst I am posting, the turbo yeast warns about temperature regulation, particularly keeping it cool which the pack states is impossible without some sort of cooling apparatus. I have my Inkbird controller which I was thinking of using to switch a pedestal fan on and off as and when required - will a pedestal fan be suitable, or should I be doing something else?[/QUOTE] Sounds like a plan @fat controller I read that too, but think it's a translation error, turbo yeast needs to be warm not cool, works best at 25 - 30c I can't remember the brand of the one i'd been using but I've had a couple of failures with it, so I've switched back to Alcotec Vodka Star, which is working brilliantly, even on that special project brew that I mentioned
Thanks @Zigs - the one I have bought is the Alcotec 48hr Turbo Pure. Says on the back that temperature has to be constant between 18-24ºC (helluva size of a packet too, compared to the yeast I have been using!); it appears that it wants to be started at 25º, which is going to be a bit of a sod as I need to let the must cool and then let the pectolase work for 24 hours before adding the yeast - I have no idea how I am going to get it back up to 25º, although I can initially stand it in front of a radiator.
That's the one I had. Vodka star is better. It's working fine in here and there's no heating on at all
OK, been a bit busy today - I acquired a load of empty wine bottles (around 50) yesterday which had been stored outdoors so were pretty rough - they were lobbed into a scalding hot bath with seven dishwasher tablets thrown in and left to soak. This morning, I scrubbed them inside and out, and they now look just fine. I will be giving them another two cleans in baths of bleach before sterilising them and using them. Then, I went on to split batch two of the blackcurrant in half and then diluted it, so I effectively have almost twice as much. The first batch remains in bottles waiting for the restart yeast to arrive. Whilst in the process of syphoning off into the demijohns, Mrs C spotted a wee dead fly doing the backstroke in the fermenter; I was able to get it out and we carried on, but have I wasted my time? Is it a dead cert that this will ruin the wine, or is it down to a bit of luck? (@Scrungee, @Zigs) Everything is under air-lock now, so hopefully that should put paid to any more intruders. Next up was starting the next batch of Strawberry Jam wine - - this is in the fermenting bucket to leave my other fermenter free for the restart of the blackcurrant later this week; so I have roughly 22 litres of boiling hot mixture now cooling off in the 25 litre bucket (lid is on). This is going to be the first candidate for the turbo yeast, which specifically states on the instructions NOT to use an airlock..... I presume that this is because it is so vigorous that it would either foam out through the airlock, or it would give the airlock some free air miles around the room? So, my question now is what the hell do I use to cover it and protect it from fruit flies? Oh, and where do those little sods come from? They just seem to appear!
They can smell it a mile off, you might have a load of vinegar there If it does go off, bottle it in some nice clear bottles, stick a sprig of rosemary in it and give it away as Christmas presents
Aw shite, that would be about 60 litres of bloody vinegar then! Would sweet blackcurrant vinegar not be totally useless? If it is going to go off, how long will it be before I know?
You might get away with it. Vigorous fermentation is suposed to have something like a self sanitising effect (cant remember correct description), the main danger supposedly being after fermentation has died down, but that's when more sulphite is added when it's finished and racked off. I say more sulphite despite it being a juice wine because I add a CT to suphite all my juice wines, adding a yeast starter after 24 hours, because sulphite in a must has several beneficial qualities in addition to helping prevent spoilage. When racking from a fermenter I use 2 sheets of kitchen towel folded over to cover the fermenter neck and secure them under the clothes pegs used to hold the siphon in place. At other times when working with open containers, an electric fan blowing across them sends wine flies on their way. P.S. I've never bothered with turbo yeast, believing a slow steady fermentation produces the best results, so I now only ferment in autumn/spring, currentley at about 16/17 deg C to get a fermentstion with less impurities and more alcohol per sugar content.
Well, I certainly have a vigorous fermentation going on with the batch that I split up - there is so much fizzing and blubbing going on at the back of my living room, it sounds as though it is raining! So diluting the mixture appears to have massively improved the rate of fermentation. The restart yeast has been dispatched, so hopefully it will be here by Wednesday, and I can get that other batch un-bottled, diluted and restarted. Pectolase went into the bucket of strawberry today, so I will put the yeast into that one tomorrow - and it will be the turbo yeast, as that is all I have at the moment. The only way I can think of to cover the bucket and not use an airlock is to put a large cloth over the top of it and gaffa tape it shut - that should allow the mixture to breathe, but keep out any flies?
That method could be effective it the cloth was cut to shape so the tape covered the cut edge all the way round, but if used for pulp fermentation it would be a load of hassle to keep removing/replacing everytime it was given a stir. A piece of string/cord/etc tied around the cloth is easier, but I've seen wine flies crawling up undernesth the edges and waiting there until the cloth's removed before they launch themselves at the brew (a bit like how they gather on the back door so get inside the kitchen as it's opened). I always run my hands around the underside at the edge then sharply remove it, also doing something similar with snap on bucket lids incase there's a fly just under the edge.
I've siphoned the wine into another demijohn - and in the process lost about 20% volume due to leaving the yeast scum and sediment in the old container. Lobbed in the finings last night - I can see another thick layer of sediment forming - but looks like the vino is not going to be clear - is there anything else I can do?
The air trap on the second container doesn't bubble - so yes - but I haven't got a hydrometer (or whatever it is that you use to test the specific gravity). There's a fair bit of sediment at the bottom of the new container - and I can see 'bits' falling to the bottom. By the time I've siphoned off this lot - I'll be down to about 60% of the original volume. Perhaps I should have gone large?
