Initial fermentation question

Hello,

This is my first attempt at making wine, but i have successfully made beer for a year now, many batches! Well, I am making crabapple wine. I followed directions completely, and of course everything was sanitized. I have the must in a 5 gallon beer fermenter with an air lock on it. When i take the lid off to stir the must, it is really sizzling in there...........fruit looks fine, when i stir it it really starts sizzling even more. If you dare to put your head in the bucket and take a whiff, it is sort of an oxygen dpleted area...does not smell bad, really, but not sweet or apple odor at all. Should i be alarmed or is this normal for this first week before i siphon off into another container and leave the fruit behind?

I've never made wine, mead, yes, wine, no.

As for your description, I'd leave it alone for another week or so.

As for sweetness...crabapples don't have any that I am aware of. I have 6 crabapple trees in my yard. I just purchased the house and they were there already.

You are correct, crab apples are not sweet, but i added some sugar and granny smith's (per the recipe) and that should have sweetened it up a bit..............

I've never made wine either but, unless I'm mistaken, you're okay. I don't imagine it would smell any different than when I open my lager chest. I fling it open and it about takes the air out of my lungs.

You should be good to go then!

As long as you had a 1.080 -> 1.095 Gravity, then you should be good. ferment down to about 1.010 -> 1.020 in primary, then transfer into glass.

Kilroy

The only problem that I've heard of with wine not starting to ferment well can be easily detected by a rotten egg type smell. This is a biproduct of the metabolic activities of the yeast when it does have everything it wants and is a sulphur compound. To fix this problem all you have to do is stir. That's right, something that would be pure evil in beer brewing, wisk the must just a bit to put some oxygen in it if this is the case. Otherwise, no-go on the wisking for oxygen. This is a common problem in wine brewing, although I don't know how it would translate into crabapple wine.


Capt. Obvious