Room 69F, juice 65F, Brix 27.5.
Raisin 64F.
+32 hours since adding yeast, slightest budge in sugar. I underestimated the CO2 production and stuck my face in the tank to smell the must and quickly got the classic gasp and tingles. Replaced the ice paddle.
Raisin at 64F, no other measurements taken. More yeast froth than last evening but still nowhere near the main juice. Replaced the ice pack.
Potential alcohol: just checked the reference books. Setting aside a bazillion other factors, 0.56 is the multiplier to determine potential alcohol from the starting Brix level. Potential 15.68%, which seems so insane as to make me hope we don't reach our potential.
Oh, and here's something interesting to worry about: ICV-D47, the yeast we're using, has an "average alcohol tolerance up to 14%". Mommy! Might we end up with something high alcohol, high acid, and off dry?
Alison Crowe says:
Estimating potential alcohol is tough, even for veteran winemakers. Things like yeast strain, fermentation temperature and dried up grapes can make it hard to first get an accurate initial Brix reading and to subsequently translate an initial Brix reading into final alcohol. Though in a lab we may say that for every degree Brix you'll get X amount of ethanol, in reality it's never that simple. You can certainly help yourself, though, by only using your hydrometer to help you calculate potential alcohol at the beginning of the fermentation, where it will most accurately reflect what you'll be getting from the sugar in your juice or must.
2100:
Room 70F, juice 68F, Brix 26.5.
The heavy foam has broken up into something more like curds and there is very active carbonation rising up through the juice. Temp is at the top of D47's happy range, so I replaced the ice paddle & added an ice pack. (Room and juice temps this evening are where they were in the morning of day 3 last year.)
Raisin is turning from foam to curd, too, but is much less active. I changed the ice pack.
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