Pitched the Yeast today

Today I added 20g of Opti-Red in 100ml of water. Then a little later in the day prepared the ICV-GRE yeast (16g) in 200ml of water and 20g of GoFerm. After testing it with a pinch or two of table sugar I pitched it about 3pm into the Syrah. I would have liked to do it yesterday but I was waiting for a new shipment of GoFerm which was a little late.

Anyway all seems well and I'll know in a day or two whether I've got a vigorous ferment going.

For the Barbera I used 8g of UVAFERM-43 suspended in 100ml of water and 10g of GoFerm.

My procedure is to first take the clean non-chlorinated water and heat it to 104 degrees F. Then put the GoFerm in and stir it gently and wait about 10 minutes. Then I add the yeast and let them settle into the mixture. After about another 10 minutes I test the mixture with a pinch of plain table sugar. Once I confirm that that creates a few bubbles then I know that the yeasts are alive and ready to go. I then place the container in the must until the temperature of the mixture is no greater than 10 degrees hotter than the grape must. Once that happens I go ahead and pour the mixture evenly over the top of the must.