More Home Wine Making

ok…. So the fermentation bucket is full… now what?

Well, now we need gallon of hot water…

and then we need to use the hydrometer to check the specific gravity of liquids. Now… What can affect the specific gravity? Well…. alcohol.. but we don’t have any yet…temperature… which is not particulary our issue… or lactose… not that I am intolerant… but for now? Well sugar.

And why is sugar important? Because sugar and yeast work together to create alcohol and and carbon dioxide. Or, as I learned so graphically in high school chemistry, yeast eats sugars and pees alcohol and toots CO2. Ahhh, if so many parts of our universe were so simple to understand….

What now? Well, I was instructed to add cold water until we reached the six gallon level.. mmmK.

Now I needed to mix it all up and check the temperature. Why? well we need a temperature between 65o-75oF for the yeast… Because too hot? Kill the yeast.. Too cold? Make it go to sleep… so temperature is important… and quite frankly.. tempermental.

The temperature of our mix? 58. sigh. this is going to be a problem.

Solution? Well, I have a huge sink that I can put gigantic pots and pans into… (‘cuz I have an urge to clean.. NOT) That being said, I can fit the entire fermenter into my sink… which I did… and filled the rest of the sink with hot water. Why? Well, the density of water means that it imparts its heat/energy faster that through the air. Yup, I am kinding of cheating.. heating the water to the proper temperature fast than it would take if I waited the multiple hours that would be required to lift the water to the ambient air temperature. Yeah… Call me impatient.

But luckily it only took a 1/2 hour to raise the temperature to 70 so I could add the yeast.

Now ironically, the yeast packet in my kit came from Red Star Yeast! Oddly, I consider this to be the yeast of me making bread.. but I guess, ultimately when you know one yeast, you know them all… The rule for mixing it into grape juice is that you don’t mix it in with a spoon, but let it works its way in.. and so I did.

After that, the instructions are simple. Put on the top and add the airlock. This is a series of tubes with bubbles in the middle. When you add water into the center it creates a vaccuum. When alcohol and the is excess carbon dioxide is produced it is released into the bucket.. when the bucket fills with it… it is released slowly through the airlock.

Now it is just wait and wonder.. sigh.

This entry was posted on October 26, 2008 at 10:00 am and is filed under carbon dioxide, hobo, home winemaking, juice, yeast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.