The place where I purchased the merlot grapes, crushed and squeezed the
grapes giving me just juice. They mix in rice hulls during the squeeze. If
you wanted, you could get some of the pulp to add to the juice for
fermentation. I choose to get just the juice with sediment still in the
juice. Since my hydrometer says the sugar levels are low, I racked the
must/wine into carboys, leaving most of the sediment, and added a little bit
more SO2. There is very little bubbling in the air locks. In the 30 years
that I have been making wine, I just have never seen a fermentation as quick
or one lacking so little foam or bubbles. I thought maybe it was because I
couldn't get to stir the must during the week. Anyway, I can smell the
alcohol so I guess I proceed from here.


"pp" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Seems like the sg he numbers are telling you all you need to know -
> yes, it's fermenting, and fast at that. You can always taste the must
> to make sure - at this point you've got about 10% alcohol so that
> should be pretty obvious that it's not just juice anymore.
>
> I haven't seen ferments without bubbles a/o foam but apparently it's
> possible.
>
> What are you making anw? I'm puzzled that you've only got juice from
> the Merlot and not crushed grapes. If it's just juice, then you don't
> need to stir it at all during ferment.
>
> In any case, if your numbers are correct, you should start thinking
> about racking into a carboy soon.
>
> Pp
>
> Tom wrote:
>> I've got a little problem here that I thought someone could weight in on.
>> I
>> purchased two boxes of Merlot grapes on Sat., they pressed them for me
>> and I
>> took them home. I poured it out and got about two buckets of 5.5 gallons
>> of
>> juice. The SG was 1.100 and the pH was 3.64. I did not measure acids. I
>> added two campden tablets (.75) to each bucket and started two packets of
>> yeast in two dishes. Sunday, I mixed the two yeast starters (and
>> nutrients)
>> into the two buckets. Unfortunately after Sunday, I was not able to stir
>> the buckets until Tues. and again on Thurs. My problem is, I never got
>> any
>> bubbles or foam on top of the must. I tried another yeast starter (and
>> more
>> yeast nutrients) and again nothing. I tried a third time and said " hey
>> whoa, what's going on here". I took a reading with my hydrometer and it
>> was
>> around 1.010. Could this must fermented already? Can juice ferment
>> without
>> foam and bubbles? Anybody got any ideas about what happened? Thanks in
>> advance for any help.
>