Ever since I transferred my wine to the glass carboy, SoCal has heated up. Instead of keeping the heater on, It's now the A/C. Actually I only had to use the AC once. But, the avg temp of the wine has jumped from 71 degrees to a steaming 75.4 which is still within range of the recommended 68-77 degrees. Also, I haven't moved the carboy out of the kitchen. With the carboy on the plastic shelf on the floor, you can move it around fairly easy. So far, everything looks kosher. The wine continues to bubble as does the airlock.
I also forgot to mention that I tasted the wines progress after I racked my wine to the carboy. It tasted less like sweet grape cider and more like the makings of wine. Although still sweet, it had some wine taste without the body; almost like watered down sweet wine.
I get home from work and go straight to the gym with the neighbors. All day I was wondering if today would be the day.
SPOILER: IT WAS - Jump to pictures if you wish to discontinue reading.
I get back home and immediately pop the lid on the PF (primary Fermenter). After washing my hands and cooking up a batch of sanitation liquid, I drop in the hydrometer andCha CHING, 1.008. Then 1.010, then 1.012. Okay, what's gone on? I take the hydrometer, pick it up and drop it back in gently. Now it reads 1.014. At this point I'm in disbelieve because I swear I saw 1.008 on my original reading. I re-sanitize the hydrometer and drop it back in. BOOM, 1.008. I noticed this time that if you have a freshly sanitized hydrometer and drop it in your fermenting wine, the wine bubbles disperse away from your hydrometer as if you put a drop of dish washing liquid into a dirty pan. The hydrometer starts moving around as it settles and floats into the wine foam. My theory: the wine foam sticks to the hydrometer lifting it slightly which skews the reading. What matters is that the reading , 1.008 is between 1.000 and 1.020 which means its stage 2 time. With a sanitized carboy, racking siphon and tube, I prepare to transfer my wine.
I put the PF on my kitchen counter, the glass carboy on my linoleum kitchen floor and siphon in my sanitized water bucket. I have a auto racking cane which is super easy to use. I put the siphon hose into the glass carboy, the racking cane in the PF and start the flow. The instructions say for this step you should allow splashing for a little aeration. My tube is hanging about 6 inches from the bottom of the carboy so I should be good. The whole transferring process took about 8 to 10 minutes. I made sure to keep the racking cane few inches from the bottom in the PF to not transfer any sediment.
I start getting down to bottom of the PF, I tilt the bucket towards me to get as much of the precious wine transferred as possible... my precious. All of a sudden, I hear slurping coming from the PF. I look in but there's still a good amount of liquid in the PF with wood chips stuck to the end of the racking cane. I'm trying not to waste a drop because I want a full 30 bottles. I shake the racking cane and continue transferring. It happens again and again and again. I finally get down the the bottom and accept about a 1-2 cup loss of wine.
Here's where it gets interesting. 3 things happen: 1) My primary focus is on the PF, 2) I didn't notice is the lodged wood chips in the end of my racking slowing the rate of transfer from the PF to the carboy and 3) A lack of logic: when I lifted the racking cane out of the PF, the tube inside the carboy lifted out as well. The siphon, still full of liquid, was flowing slowly. And here I thought it was empty. When the tube came out of the carboy, it started to swing and spilled wine all over my carpet. My wife was sitting on the couch reading. I looked up to see if she saw, yeah, she was totally into her book. I put the grab the tube and put it back into the carboy and say, "Uh, hey babe, can you help me out of a sec." Her reply, "No, this whole thing is your deal." I say, "Yeah, could you run to the neighbors really quick and get some resolve because I kind of spilled a little." She wasn't furious but wasn't a huge fan either. I soaked the wine with resolve and moved to the final steps in this process. I put the end of my giant spoon into the small carboy opening and stir the wine around for about a minute or 2. The instructions say to do this for initial degassing. I pop on the rubber stopper and secure the airlock.
BTW, moving your wine in a glass carboy is a pain in the ass. There isn't any place to get a secure grip and that bad boy is heavy. I moved the plastic shelf top to the kitchen and put the carboy on it.
Hydro Reading with bubbles lifting it up - 1.014
Correct hydro reading - 1.008, notice bubble void
Here I am, PF on kitchen counter transferring to glass carboy on kitchen floor.
Transferring the nectar of the gods
Wanting to bite through the hose and my drink wine now.
Why the wife was pissed at me
All sealed up and ready to sit for 8-10 more days
What was left over and those pesky little wood chips.
So I'm a pretty patient person. I understand that wine needs time before it's ready but come on! It's Sunday and I check the hydro reading in the sample tube - clunk, the hydrometer hits the bottom. Awe crap, it needs more liquid. And there would have been more liquid if I didn't take a tasting sample :)
I open the PF and take a reading - 1.023. What does this mean? Absolutely nothing. I shall wait longer. I also add more wine to the sample tube and take a reading - 1.016. Constancy for the LOSE.
On a side note, I hope all of you have checked out those links I posted for emergency preparedness. It could make your life easier or even save it one day. I digress.
It's Friday, I'm excited, and can't wait to rack my wine. I spoke to my friend Fire/Paramedic Marshal, who's accomplished in beer making, and asked him about the sanitizing power of campden tablets. He said he always uses star san for sanitizing his gear when making beer. Concerned looms around campden tablets and their sanitizing power grows. I run over to oshea's during lunch to get to the bottom of this enigma. Jeff told me that Star San is used by professional beer makers to sanitize their stuff but the campden tablets will work fine for wine making; and is what wineries use (sulfur). I buy a small bottle of lo-star sanitizer just in case. Maybe I'll used it to sanitize my bottles.
I get home from work and first thing's first, I need to take a hydrometer reading. I create a new batch of sanitized water with the campden tablets (1 tablet to 1 gal of warm water), let my hydrometer soak for a few mins and wash my hands. I crack the lid (picture below) and drop the hydrometer in. And what do you know, the wine is no where near being between 1.020 and 1. The hydrometer reads 1.050. You have got to be kidding me! I sanitize the hydrometer liquid holder and take a sample of wine. Dropped in the hydrometer and it reads 1.044. WTF. I can hear the wine gods laughing at me right now.
The only thing I can come up with is that the temperature of the wine is on the lower side of the fermentation temp range. The instructions say to keep the PF's(Primary Fermenter) temperature between 68 and 77 degrees F. I've set my heater to 71 and the PF has been a consistent 70.9 to 72 degrees. As for the hydrometer mini reading, It is possible the side of the hydrometer is touching the side of the container skewing the readings a bit. Regardless, the wine isn't ready for the stage 2. The instructions specifically state that if in doubt, wait a day or 2. I seal up the container, put clean sanitizing liquid in the airlock and tell the wine, I like you, your cool but hurry up.
The Good News:
I poured a little bit of the mini hydro's wine into a cup and tested the wine. You know what, it tasted pretty good. My wife said it tastes like carbonated grape cider. Neighbor Michelle says I should bottle it as is. Michelle, thank you no. I ain't bottling no girly wine on my first time around. This means that A) the wine has not been infected (thank you Jeff and campden tablets) and B) if this is any indication of the wine, it should turn out pretty darn good.
Here 's my ghetto splatter protecting airlock bag
Opening of the PF on day 5.
The hydrometer reading - 1.050, COME ON!
Here is the hydro reading in its holder - 1.044, Wine gods, this isn't funny.
All is clear on the west side. No changes to note. Friday will be my first hydrometer reading since my initial reading before I pitched the yeast. If all is well, i'll be racking (transferring) the wine into a 6.5 gallon glass carboy for step 2 of the fermentation process. I temp checked the PF(primary fermenter) last night before I went to bed and it was at 70.9 degrees.
Okay, it's Wednesday. I get home after work and the house smells of wine. The first two days had no smell but today, I walk in the door and BAM, I got slapped with the smell wine confirming the fermentation process is rocking away. To regulate the temperature, I keep all the windows closed and the heater set to 70 in my one bedroom apartment which locks in all the CO2 off-gas inside. I do have a venting plan if the smell gets out of control. The wife hasn't been home since Sunday night so I needed to air this sucker out. I opened our patio's sliding glass door for about 5 minutes and presto, back to normal. Since it was a little hard to shower with my PF(primary fermenter) taking up half the tub, I moved the it back out to the living room. It's sitting on the plastic shelf (right side up this time for stability) and I put a plastic sandwich bag loosely over the air lock to prevent any additional splatter on my walls.
Worries of ditching my first batch loom in my head however I am confident I kept everything clean. I just hope those campden tablets do their job.
And as I write this, the USGS shows Chile getting hit with several aftershocks, largest being 6.9.
Check out these links, Be Prepared!
It’s Tuesday morning. I get up and start my usual routine before work. Now all these massive earthquakes around the world have been freaking me out. (Be Prepared!) I made the brilliant decision to move my PF (primary fermenter) from the living room to the bathtub right before I left to work. My PF is sitting on a plastic shelve that was left over from my garden stand. Its purpose is twofold: 1) to raise my PF off the floor so it doesn’t absorb the ground’s temperature and to catch any dripping wine. The plastic shelf lying upside down has with side channels and 2) can only hold a small amount of liquid. In my mind, if the spout on the PF leaks, I should be okay but if the whole thing goes, I’m hosed. The only problem is when the PF sits on this shelf (which is currently upside down), it sits on 3 plastic support channels that are flimsy and with all these earthquakes recently, even a tiny one, this bad boy is going down. I can see it now; it tips over and spills all 6 gallons everywhere. It seeps down through my downstairs neighbors ceiling and the next thing I know, the swat team is kicking in my door because they think I’ve murdered someone. No Bueno. Bathtub, Check! I check the temperature of the PF - 70 degrees, check that the heater is on and set to 70, looked at the bubbling air lock for a brief moment (ahhh its working) then leave to work.
So, I get home from work and walk straight into the bathroom. OMG, I’m not sure exactly what happened but all I see is that the airlock is filled with wine (instead of clear sanitizing liquid) and wine droplets are everywhere. It’s as if my PF sneezed big time. The airlock cap had blown off straight off and the airlock is bubbling very consistently. All I can think about is that I am the luckiest guy in the world right now because A) my wife isn’t home to see this and B) my decision to move it into the bathtub prevented wine from spraying all over my walls and my wife’s new curtains.
This is what I saw when I got home
Close up
Temperature between 68 and 75, Check
PF was originally sitting to the left of the bar. Notice wife's new curtains.
