Mike brought back 250lbs of Malbec back from Zillah Washington and it was crushed on Monday into the small blue barrel with a fermentation liner and sanitized with approx 1 tbsp of meta (there was about 20-25G of must which will press out to 15-20G of juice). Lee pulled some juice out before we added the meta to do a starter. He started it right away, but we wanted to wait 24-48h before adding to give the meta time to work. In the mean time the starter fizzled out. :( This hasn't happened in the past because we didn't pull the juice until we were ready for the starter (24 hours after crush). So we either need to be ready to add the starter earlier or to delay waiting to pull the starter juice.
I did a second starter Wednesday evening with 4pkgs of Pastur Red yeast and once it was going added a tbsp of nutrient and stirred it into the must at about 11pm. We will need to check it today and see if it is taking. The weather has cooled off so we may get a slower fermentation. We should probably get the bin off of the floor so it stays warmer (up on a foam block or rubber mat). Also, the small bin is over 75% full which means the cap has the potential to push out. If it gets close then we will need to move it to a larger barrel. That may be a bit difficult because of needing a fermentation liner. We have a second we can use. We will order more.
Time to start the punch down rotations! Everyone please coordinate with Lee and help manage the punch downs.
Troy
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