I’m not worried.

Some yeasts take days to wake up. My blueberry wine, although crap, took days before fermentation started. So I don’t expect the vidal blanc that I bought 24 hours ago to have begun.

Still exhausted from my wine-tasting/juice-buying-marathon-birthday-weekend, I go to check my tank.

Heck yes.

That fizz means I win!

Good. But check your excitement. Yeasts make more than just alcohol and fizzy CO2. Their busy bodies also create heat. Too much heat kills fruit, drives rapid fermentation, and spawns volatile acidity. Worse, it could stop fermentation altogether by killing the yeast. Only in the age of AC and temperature controlled tanks can Texas (or for that matter California, Australia, Sicily etc.) make wine that isn’t already vinegar.

So I need to keep an eye on my tank’s temperature.

But the work day calls.

Once back home, I check our progress…

Not bad. Although it makes me wonder how Fallbright (my grapegrower) had a Brix of 17.8 (1.070 specific sugar gravity or 9.5% potential alcohol), while my reading was nearly 20 Brix this morning and is still around 18 or 19 now. Granted, my tank temperature has jumped to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. But that temperature means my Brix reading only needs minor adjustments (around the .01 territory). Who knows….

Either way, if things get too warm, I have a stolen…I mean borrowed mini-fridge from students to stick the tank in. But too much cold will put the yeasts to sleep. A happy balance is everything.

Tune in next week!