2013 Muscat, day 2 Sep 23

About 60 l. of juice w/ yeast gathering at 6 AM.

* 6 AM: Room 70 F, must 68 F, brix 23.
This was the first brix reading from the hydrometer. Nice that it's the same as last evening's measurement from the refractometer. The pic is into the opening of the poly tank that we've used for the Muscat the last three years. Clusters of yeast, but no real action yet. Nothing audible. Did not take an acid reading to see what the affect of adding the tartaric was, but will this evening.

*4:30 PM:  Cellar 70, must 69.5.  Surface of the juice if fully colonized now, but still no audible bubbling or visual cues.  Pretty sharp temp rise given no real activity: could be just matching the cellar or it could be there's more activity below the surface than obvious.  This evening will likely add one ice paddle just so we don't see a breakaway.  (Or, on second thought, let's do it now: from the D47 notes, "This strain tolerates fermentation temperatures ranging from 15° to 20°C (59° to 68°F) and enhances mouthfeel due to complex carbohydrates.")

3 years of Muscat fill-line markings.

This pic of the poly was taken when the last readings were made.  You can see the lines of where the 2011, 2012 and 2013 fresh musts reached.  You can also see (and I didn't notice this earlier) that there's enough ferment happening to slightly raise the must above yesterday's fill line.  The wider black lines at the right are the 50 and 75 liter markings.

*9:30 PM: Room 70.5, brix 22, must 67 (maybe).  Hard to say if the must reading was really good or I was too close to the ice paddle, but I'll take it.  Should we push it down further with a little more cooling?  Let it go to morning (when it might be in break-away)?  No noticeable action, but the first fall in brix and the layer of foam up top is like a shag rug.