I decided to do a few hydrometer readings before my punch down this evening. Here's what I got:
Barbera #1: 17.5 brix
Syrah / Chenin: 17 brix
Sangiovese: 17.5 brix
Syrah / Sangiovese: 20.5 brix (a little sluggish ferment going on there)
All the juice is tasty, no off tastes or smells are detected anywhere. I'm bumping up the temperature of the sangiovese in the pod now to really kick the fermentation into high gear.
The punch down this evening was rough. I didn't anticipate the amount of cap that would be made in the flex tank. The cap was a couple of feet thick and made it really tough to punch down. I went ahead and added the second dose of fermaid-k to the syrah in the flex tank. Everything seems to be going fine but I just want to make sure that there are no snags.
Jay, good writing. Keep it up (and the winemaking).
ReplyDeleteWhoa! A couple of feet thick cap! That's a good way to work the muscles out Jay ;-)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I resorted to using a smaller tool and punching a few holes in the cap first then using the big punch tool. It's pretty fun. The other thing that is interesting is trying to get samples because my thief is too short. I am having to get samples during punch downs.
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