So, if you've been following along, it was really cold in the winery and we installed some heaters last week. They did a pretty quick job of raising the temperature from 54 to about 60 degrees, but the temperature stopped rising.
Maybe it's becuase we didn't have a door separating the cold area from the area we aren't heating. I had hung a blanket across the doorway, but it didn't even cover the entire doorway, so it wasn't doing much good.
On Saturday Bob built and installed a "door." It's in quotes because really it's just two pieces of plywood coupled together and attached to a pair of wheels. It actually operates pretty well by just sliding it across the opening.
What it lacks in elegance is made up for by its function - the room is now a blissfully warm 71 degrees - warm enough to encourage our little bacteria to convert all the malic acid into lactic acid, which should give our wine a "rounder, less sharp" taste. Malic acid is a main acid of apples, while lactic acid is a main acid of milk. If we were making a white wine, we'd leave the malic acid in the mix, but we think red wines taste better with it out. After MaloLactic Fermentation (MLF) completes, we can sulfite our wine, lower the temperature (that should be easy to do), and start planning for our 2009 harvest.
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2 comments:
I know you used the blanket trick in the Beech Street house, but it was never meant to keep out the cold. Glad to see your still a carpenter; hopefully no smashed fingers.
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