Red Bordailles / Bordeaux Progress, 07-20-08
We started by cleaning the equipment early in the morning, because last time it took 5 hours to dry. Today it still wasn’t dry by 8pm! We would prefer to clean the equipment the day before to allow for dry time, especially the big carboy and the hose. The primary fermentation bin was leaking through the nozzle part a little at the bottom, so there was a ring of wine on our floor that had been developing for the last week. Lateef tightened the nozzle up.
We drained the wine to the huge carboy through the nozzle. Very easy, very fast. Should we siphon instead in the future for less oxygen exposure? It sure did splash around alot. The nozzle is set slightly above the bottom of the fermentation bin, so the sediment sucessfully stuck to the top of the bin and stayed at the bottom below the nozzle. There was suprisingly alot of sediment.
Hint: Today, due to last week failing to take out the trash, we have lots of fruit flies in the house. We have perfected killing them with magazines but it would have been nice to eliminate them before, as we spent an hour tracking them down (lured them with fruit and bread dough on the counter) and then killing them.
Hydrometer reading: 1..000 + temp adjustment .002 (it was 77 degrees inside) = 1.002. Target on instructions 1.01. SWEET.
% reading: 1%
Our last % reading was 13%, and so I believe that we now know the alcohol % of our wine is 12%.
