Hello everybody!
It's been quite a while since my last posts. A big move and quite a few successful batches of mead later, I find myself looking a your expertise again.
I got gifted with 15 gallons of ripe sweet concord grapes (lucky me!). So I rented a machine to make a mush of them, and got 5 gallons of sticky grape goodness. Sterilized it with campden and ascorbic acid for 24 hours. Separated it into two pails. Took two gallons of concord grape juice, heated it to dissolve 10 pounds of wildflower honey, cooled it, split it between the two pails. Mixed it well, rehydrated a packet of yeast for each pail, and pitched. The yeast was not as vigourous at rehydration as I like. But I had no other at the time. MG 1128. I put it in my computer room, as my meadery room is not ready yet, and the computer room is the warmest in the house (72). I have never worked from grapes before, only from the juice. I was told to stir the must each day for a week, and rack after two weeks. One of the pails has a happy fermenting smell. The second pail, however, has a sulfur tang to it. And it's not as bubbly as the first. This was pitched four days ago.
1. Should I worry?
2. Should I pitch another yeast?
3. Do I just leave the grape skins sit on top untouched for a week before racking?
4. I was planning to rack both pails into a 6 gallon carboy. Sould I keep them separate for fear of losing both batches?
Thank you for all the help! I trust those with more experience than me have gone through the same type of doubts before...
And I've missed you all! I'll be lurking around here again now that I have hight speed again!
It's been quite a while since my last posts. A big move and quite a few successful batches of mead later, I find myself looking a your expertise again.
I got gifted with 15 gallons of ripe sweet concord grapes (lucky me!). So I rented a machine to make a mush of them, and got 5 gallons of sticky grape goodness. Sterilized it with campden and ascorbic acid for 24 hours. Separated it into two pails. Took two gallons of concord grape juice, heated it to dissolve 10 pounds of wildflower honey, cooled it, split it between the two pails. Mixed it well, rehydrated a packet of yeast for each pail, and pitched. The yeast was not as vigourous at rehydration as I like. But I had no other at the time. MG 1128. I put it in my computer room, as my meadery room is not ready yet, and the computer room is the warmest in the house (72). I have never worked from grapes before, only from the juice. I was told to stir the must each day for a week, and rack after two weeks. One of the pails has a happy fermenting smell. The second pail, however, has a sulfur tang to it. And it's not as bubbly as the first. This was pitched four days ago.
1. Should I worry?
2. Should I pitch another yeast?
3. Do I just leave the grape skins sit on top untouched for a week before racking?
4. I was planning to rack both pails into a 6 gallon carboy. Sould I keep them separate for fear of losing both batches?
Thank you for all the help! I trust those with more experience than me have gone through the same type of doubts before...
And I've missed you all! I'll be lurking around here again now that I have hight speed again!