2131tom
New Member
I've just restarted winemaking after a 30-off year gap and I'm very impressed by the improvements in many of the aspects of it all, particularly yeasts. One thing about that has me intrigued, however.
I've noticed in quite a few of the 20 or so brews I've done over the past 6 months (both red & white grape wine kits and country wines from scratch) how variable the foaming can be from day-to-day and even hour-to-hour.
A Young's white wine kit a couple of weeks ago, for instance, in the afternoon of day 3 of an 8 day fermentation at a pretty constant 22C, went from no foam at all (although a vigorous primary with lots of breaking bubbles) to a thin creamy-white crust for an hour or two and then, in a matter of minutes, to a 'brain' like crust which almost filled the remaining space in the bin.
A few minutes later the process reversed itself - without me doing anything - to the vigorous, no-foam fermentation I'd had originally. The brew then continued like that and has turned out fine.
It's interesting that the composition of a fermentation can change so quickly - I'm assuming that the surface tension (driven by alcohol levels or other compositional changes in the brew?) are pretty critical in this but I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has thoughts on it.
I've noticed in quite a few of the 20 or so brews I've done over the past 6 months (both red & white grape wine kits and country wines from scratch) how variable the foaming can be from day-to-day and even hour-to-hour.
A Young's white wine kit a couple of weeks ago, for instance, in the afternoon of day 3 of an 8 day fermentation at a pretty constant 22C, went from no foam at all (although a vigorous primary with lots of breaking bubbles) to a thin creamy-white crust for an hour or two and then, in a matter of minutes, to a 'brain' like crust which almost filled the remaining space in the bin.
A few minutes later the process reversed itself - without me doing anything - to the vigorous, no-foam fermentation I'd had originally. The brew then continued like that and has turned out fine.
It's interesting that the composition of a fermentation can change so quickly - I'm assuming that the surface tension (driven by alcohol levels or other compositional changes in the brew?) are pretty critical in this but I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has thoughts on it.