I've been making wine kits for almost 3 years now. I have about 30 successful batches under my belt and only 1 failure (it tasted like acid) lol.
I'm currently doing 2 kits from the Vino Europa Exotic Fruit Collection, Green Apple Riesling and Raspberry Merlot. I started the kits like the instructions say. When it came time to pitch the yeast it says you can per-hydrate the yeast or sprinkle onto the surface of the liquid and stir in 10 min later. I went for the sprinkling method, as this is how I've done it every time before this.
The liquid temperature was 75F when I pitched the yeast. I stored the 2 batches beside my water heater. The fire keeps them a steady 75F... or so I thought.
Now with spring time coming and the warmer temperatures, I didn't realize that the water heater isn't firing up as often, making the basement cooler then I originally thought. I took the temperature of the wine the next day and it was 69F, The instructions say below 68F is to cold for the yeast? So I put the 2 batches over top of a heater and wrapped them in a blanket. By the evening of day 2 the temperature was up to 80F (higher then I wanted it to be). I moved them away from the heater and took the blanket off. Now there holding a steady 73F.
Tonight is the evening of day 3. There is no bubbles at all in the airlocks. I poped off the lids and saw no signs of any fermentation taking place. Which leads me to believe that I killed the yeast with the extreme temperature fluctuations?
Where do I go from here? Is the batch screwed? should I wait? can I just add more yeast? I've never had this happen before.
Any advice?
I'm currently doing 2 kits from the Vino Europa Exotic Fruit Collection, Green Apple Riesling and Raspberry Merlot. I started the kits like the instructions say. When it came time to pitch the yeast it says you can per-hydrate the yeast or sprinkle onto the surface of the liquid and stir in 10 min later. I went for the sprinkling method, as this is how I've done it every time before this.
The liquid temperature was 75F when I pitched the yeast. I stored the 2 batches beside my water heater. The fire keeps them a steady 75F... or so I thought.
Now with spring time coming and the warmer temperatures, I didn't realize that the water heater isn't firing up as often, making the basement cooler then I originally thought. I took the temperature of the wine the next day and it was 69F, The instructions say below 68F is to cold for the yeast? So I put the 2 batches over top of a heater and wrapped them in a blanket. By the evening of day 2 the temperature was up to 80F (higher then I wanted it to be). I moved them away from the heater and took the blanket off. Now there holding a steady 73F.
Tonight is the evening of day 3. There is no bubbles at all in the airlocks. I poped off the lids and saw no signs of any fermentation taking place. Which leads me to believe that I killed the yeast with the extreme temperature fluctuations?
Where do I go from here? Is the batch screwed? should I wait? can I just add more yeast? I've never had this happen before.
Any advice?