Update Day 14:
Two weeks into the pumpkin wine! Here's a little "taste" of how it's going!
The bubbles are starting to slow down. I've been shaking the carboy a little bit once a day - not enough to stir up the sediment, but just trying to move the wine around so that any CO2 bubbles will rise and not be absorbed into the wine. I decided after further reading on malolactic fermentation that this is not what's going on with my wine. Jack Keller's blog talks about this, and says that as long as the must was properly sulfited, you should not expect to have mlf as long as you didn't introduce any malolactic bacteriato the wine. I didn't, so I don't. Most likely, it was just some "bottom-feeder" yeast putting out CO2 - they may even be down in the sediment and the bubbles are havign a tough time making their way up to the top of the carboy.
I will check the SG tonight, and if it has fermented out, I should probably rack into the 5 gallon carboy to get the wine off the sediment, and allow more of the lees in suspension to fall out. I think I'll try racking a few times to get the wine clear, instead of adding fining agents (at least at first - if racking doesn't work well enough, I'll use the fining agents.) Maybe add some glycerine before the final racking to improve the body and sweeten a little.
That's all for now. Check back tomorrow for an update on the SG and possible racking!
The bubbles are starting to slow down. I've been shaking the carboy a little bit once a day - not enough to stir up the sediment, but just trying to move the wine around so that any CO2 bubbles will rise and not be absorbed into the wine. I decided after further reading on malolactic fermentation that this is not what's going on with my wine. Jack Keller's blog talks about this, and says that as long as the must was properly sulfited, you should not expect to have mlf as long as you didn't introduce any malolactic bacteriato the wine. I didn't, so I don't. Most likely, it was just some "bottom-feeder" yeast putting out CO2 - they may even be down in the sediment and the bubbles are havign a tough time making their way up to the top of the carboy.
I will check the SG tonight, and if it has fermented out, I should probably rack into the 5 gallon carboy to get the wine off the sediment, and allow more of the lees in suspension to fall out. I think I'll try racking a few times to get the wine clear, instead of adding fining agents (at least at first - if racking doesn't work well enough, I'll use the fining agents.) Maybe add some glycerine before the final racking to improve the body and sweeten a little.
That's all for now. Check back tomorrow for an update on the SG and possible racking!
posted by Rob | 12:26 PM
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