Newbie from Franklin County Virginia

[Workman]

That's right its the moonshine capital of the world right in the heart of the appalachian mountains! In fact I live on an old locally well known moonshiners homestead and have some incredible fruit trees still alive that fed the trade. Well anyway I'm here learn about making wine. I just bought a bunch of 6 gallon carboys from someone getting out of the "trade" and am looking to fill them up with some good quality wine. I started some Cherry wine about a month ago and just started some Peach the other day. I've picked about 16 lbs of Wineberries (like a rasberry) and have them waiting in the freezer for a special project once I make sure I'm not going to screw anything up. I'm most excited about a future apple wine though. I have one of the undisputable best apple trees around. No one can beat my apple pies. And I'm a horrible cook. I can't wait to turn these things into wine. I would describe myself as a laid back perfectionist. Love the outdoors, love hippie music.

Paul

 

[ffemt128]

Welcome to WMT.

 

[Workman]

Thanks! Here's my newbie question. This three day old Peach must is heating up. My basement sits at the perfect 71 degrees but the must has not read a temperature below 90. I probably made a bad mistake but this morning I put it in an extra fridge I have and set the temperature at the warmest temperature possible. I'm at work so I'm not able to monitor it but I'm hoping to get things cooled off and that the fridge will counteract with the heating of the must. I had no idea a must would heat up like this and have panicked a little that it's going to give me an inferior product. Should I be concerned? Any advise? I'm using a ice cooler as the primary with the lid wide open and a cheese cloth covering.
Paul

 

[harlantk]

Welcome Workman!
Soon there will be ideas from the experts here, forgive I am new.
Hot, yeah, Fridge is good thinking!, water bath maybe otherwise.
Keep us posted.

Tim

 

[Runningwolf]

Paul welcome to the forum. Glad you found us as there is a ton of knowledge here to help you out with any questions you have. We even have our own legal moonshine, we call it Skeeter Pee!

 

[UglyBhamGuy]

Welcome.
Lot's of information and friendly people here.

Don't forget the search function, it will get you through the times of waiting for someone to answer your question. Lot's of people from all parts of the world are here, so they may no be on when you are, but they will answer.

The search function also has at the bottom of most results a "Similar Thread" that can lead to like minded searches, then they will have "Similar Threads" at the bottom so on and so on until like 3am or something.

Have fun!

 

[Workman]

The fridge did indeed cool it down nicely. I took a temp reading of the fridge and it was 43. After several days the must finally migrated down to 66 at which time I removed it and it's taken a couple days to get back up to 75. The nice thing about having a cooler as a primary is it takes a long time to raise or lower the temp of what's inside so their was no super fast swings in the temp of the must. I'll be putting it into the secondary tonight. Thanks for the help. Glad to be on the forum!

Here's my notes...

7/5/10 1am crushed fruit added metabisulfate
7/5/10 10pm (added water and ingredients except yiest):SG 1.096, PA 13.0%, total gal 7.2ish
7/6/10 8pm: added yiest, temp of must 72.6 degrees
7/7/10 7am: PA 20%...must be wrong or else didn't mix sugar well enough.
7/7/10 9pm: 81.6 degrees 1.083
7/8/10 7am: 87.1 degrees, 1.060
7/8/10 9pm: 91.4 degrees, 1.040
7/9/10 7am: 92.2 degrees, 1.030? (in fridge)
7/9/10 9pm: 81.0 degrees, 1.020
7/10/10 8am 73.4 degrees, 1.011
7/10/10 9pm 66.0 degrees, 1.011 (removed from fridge)
7/11/10 9am (no readings)
7/11/10 9pm 75 degrees, 1.005
7/12/10 10pm 76 degrees, 0.997

 

[jeepingchick]

wow! wonder why it got so hot....mine never gets more than room temp...usually a bit lower in fact!

anyways, welcome to the forum!!! i LOVE the roanoke area , makes me happy when i ge to drive thru all the mountians!!