Hi all - recently made my first batches of this. Based on the massive comment chains, this looks extremely promising...
Got a few questions which I can't seem to find great answers to in ALL the comments, so forgive me
I wanted to explore different variations on this, so I made 4 batches, each with 5 gallons Treetop juice + 2 lbs dextrose. Two batches received a pitch of Montrachet, the other two received Cote des Blancs, to look at the impact on final product.
Stupidly, I forgot to collect OG readings, but the consensus appears to be somewhere in the ballpark of 1.075. I'll just have to take readings for the next batch
Due to the time of year (started this in mid-October), ambient temperatures inside have been ~55-60 F, which made me somewhat concerned for its impact on fermenting. However, bubbles kicked off within 24 hours for each carboy, so I was happy. The Montrachet batches were more vigorous than the Cote des Blancs ones, but neither had any issues with blowoff. My bubbling looked nearly identical to those seen in the video in EdWort's original post, nothing like the Krausen seen in some other photos here (even the ones who still used wine yeasts).
Fast-forward 9 weeks, and all batches are crystal clear, with no sign of any bubbles in the Cote bathes in almost 2 weeks. I decide to keg up one batch of the Cote, to collect FG readings, as well as let it age for longer. FG was 1.020, a good bit above the 0.995 - 1.000 I was expecting... I realize 2 months in primary is young, I just wanted to see what it looked like at this point, and make some holiday Grog
The others will be remaining in primary for at least another 2 months longer. The Montrachet batches have calmed down significantly, but still have a few *VERY* tiny bubbles rising up, which I'm assuming is a little bit of natural malolactic fermentation. The Montrachet batches also had a very noticeably larger amount of lees than the Cote batches.
Question time:
- I don't think the one Cote batch fermented fully, though it tasted fairly dry. Was this most likely due to fermenting too cold? It's now in a keg at ambient temp and off the lees, so restarting fermentation would be tricky...
- If this was too cold, I'll be starting another batch once temperature warm up a bit in early spring, and let them ferment over the spring / summer. Other than the yeast's upper temperature limit, what's a good upper bound to stay under in terms of room temperature for this? I normally use temperature control for beer, but due to the large scale of this experiment, it wasn't an option here.
- I don't do much bottling, I'm mostly a keg kind of guy. Since this needs to age after primary for some time, what would the best way to do this be? Age in kegs at low PSI for several months? Rack to another carboy for secondary?
- People clearly have no issues with letting this sit on the lees in primary for an extended period of time, even though my beer senses are getting anxious Is ~ 4 months okay to transfer out of primary, without worrying about autolysis from the lees?
- For each yeast strain, I had wanted to pitch a secondary fermentation of a well-cultured malolactic bacteria, to really hit the malolactic fermentation HARD, to convert the green apple new-wine flavors to a stronger buttery apple-pie vibe. By doing a batch of each yeast with and without pitching a malolactic bacteria, I'm looking forward to seeing the difference! Any recommendations for a culture? I would assume that pitching into a secondary carboy after 3-4 months of primary would be a good time.
From my taste so far, while a little green, I can see why it's so popular
Looking forward to seeing how this smooths out in several months.
Thanks for all the help!
