Does wine fermentation look like beer fermentation?

Hey wine experts, new winemaker here. I've been doing beer for about 3 years now and decided to switch it up a bit.

I got a 6 gallon pail of Chilean Malbec juice from the winemaking supply store. They guy there gave me a package a dry yeast to ferment it. I let the juice warm up to room temperature (around 70) overnight, then I rehydrated the yeast and poured it directly into the juice pail. I covered to surface with cheesecloth and placed the lid loosely over the cheesecloth.

My question is, I know with beer you can expect to see a nice layer of foam on the surface as it ferments. With this wine I don't have any foam. It's been going now for about 2 days. I can hear it fizzing if I get up next to the bucket and it smells like something, but I'm not sure what (not really sure what fermenting wine smells like).

Just worried that I might ruin a 60 dollar pail of juice and trying to avoid that if possible. Thanks for the input.

Some foam, some don't. Don't worry, it will turn out fine. Are you adding any nutrients?

Thanks for the reply. I took the cheesecloth off and put a lid on with an airlock and it is bubbling away vigorously so I'm confident it is fermenting well. I'm not really worried.

And no, I'm not using any nutrients.

Also, the bucket said just to warm it up and let it sit for three weeks at room temp. It doesn't say anything about adding yeast. Would it ferment spontaneously had I not added the yeast?

Dude, plz reduce the font size in your signature, super distracting!

jbrookeiv said:

dude, plz reduce the font size in your signature, super distracting!

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