A common question on the site, mostly by novices, is: Is my wine working
normally? Or some variation there of. My usual comment is that there is no
real norm. This weekend I started a couple off wines that are a case in
point.

I started two 3 gallon batches. One of Welch's White Niagara and one of
Welch's Red Concord, both from frozen concentrates. I added 7 cans to each.
Each got the same amount of pectic enzyme, nutrient, and acid blend.
(Basically Jack's recipe.) The starting SG's were 1.055 and 1.060
respectively. I brought this up to 1.098 and 1.095 respectively. I
sprinkled 1 pkt Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast on each. I did not stir it in. I
covered each primary bucket with a heavy towel.

The next morning the White had a moderate layer of yeast over the surface.
The Red had a light layer of yeast on the surface. I did not touch either.
That evening the white had a dense cap of yeast over the surface (perhaps
1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. The Red had no cap at all. Every thing had sunk. I
stirred each lightly. The red had a lot of CO2 in is so there was no
question about it working.

By the next morning the white had a layer of foam perhaps 1 inch thick
consisting of very tiny bubbles over the whole surface. The red had perhaps
4 to 6 inches of bubbles climbing the sides of the bucket with less in the
center and the bubbles were very large, mostly 1/4 to 1/2 in diameter.

My point is that 2 wines, both grape though of different types, both treated
the same using the same yeast, and the fermentation "looks" very different.
There may not be a norm. The norm is that they are both fermenting nicely.

These are just general comments but any other comments or observations would
prove interesting.

Ray

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