Difference is speed of brewing ??

[madderbat]

Has anyone else noticed a phenomenon which I am sure could be worth noting.

I've been brewing wine since September, and having carefully followed CJJ Berry's recipes usually have a quantity of mash left over. Being incapable of throwing it away after topping up the demijohns, I firstly kept some for using as a starter in the next mash, which worked well. The problem is that on ocassion I have 1 1/2 litres left over, so have been keeping this in plugged water bottles in the kitchen, making sure they are full to the top.

What I have noticed is that the brew in these bottles works much quicker than that in the demijohn, despite demijohn's being kept in the airing cupboard and the bottles kept on the worktop by thekitchen window,

I wonder whether the volume of a brew affects its speed, I'm sure that there is negligible differnece in yeast or sugar volume and find it hard to account for such a difference.
Today my parsnip wine was decanted and sg'd. The demijohn was working in the airing cupboard and has gone from 180 to 130, while the bottle by the window had gone from 180 to 98 (and was therefore drinkable for my birthday )

Any thoughts/ comments please.

[Brewer-again]

brewing speeds?

Hi! Madderbat,
It Could be worth checking the temperatures of the two brews, it might be that the ones in the window warm up above airing cupboard temperature during the day if they are in the sun. Or the airing cupboard ones could be too warm for the yeast to work at its best. The airing cupboard temp could also rise and fall with hot water demand. The quickest brew should be the one with the most advantagous stable temperature.

What yeast are you using or re-using ? I will check on the temperature range that it requires for optimum performance.

[Brewer-again]

Happy birthday to you

Hi Madderbatt, Well we all have them. so hope you have a great one. Take it easy with the homemade wine, or not.

[madderbat]

Thanks Brewer-again, for the birthday wishes and the advice. I did take it fairly easy with the home brew last night, as the parnisp I was going to decant wasn't ready. Shared some Pear instead and it was only about 9-10%, so not much harm done, but had a good nights sleep!

I had considered temperature as a factor, but we have an East facing kitchen window which gets very little sun as it is shaded by the bathroom extension after about 9am, and the airing cupboard houses a very well insulated immersion, which has a variant temperature of 22-18 degC, so I don't think that affects it.
I put the demijohns in the airing cupboard because they were going really slowly on the kitchen floor (behind the door, where the blackberry raced away in the Autumn, and things were doing fine until the weather got colder).
It seems strange to me that the 2 litre plastic bottle by the window has worked quickest, The only difference being the container/ situation.

There may be a variation in the amount of sugar in the last bit out of the fermenting bin, but I dont know if that would make the yeast work quicker?

I have noticed this phenomenon for a while now with other brews, but only really logged it the other night when I wanted to bottle my parsnip and the plastic one was ready, while the demijohn will need another 2-3 weeks.

The Yeast I started with was Youngs superwine yeast compound which I got from Wilkinsons, which I've used for all by brews.

I'll be interested to read your thoughts.

[Brewer-again]

not so interesting thoughts

I have even asken a bio-chemist and I have no idea why the smaller should work better than the larger. It aint right!

[madderbat]

Curioser and ....

Thanks for your trouble Brewer again, I am sort of experimenting at the moment.
I have 2 x 2 litres + .5l of the parsnip in bottles on the worktop, having decanted it from the demijohn. I am measuring the SG weekly, and will report. Visually (subjectively) it rather looks as though the stuff in the smaller bottle is going faster, but I'll SG them all on Friday and report further.
So far the SGs are, for all bottles : OG 13.1.07 = 180; SG 16.2.07 120.

[Brewer-again]

reckon it could be suface area !!

it is likely that the surface area to volume ratio is the key. The smaller and taller vessels change temperature quicker than the larger demijohns. once a demijohn has cooled it will take longer to warm than a water container. Can you buy johns??, demi being half.

[madderbat]

That makes sense Brewer-again.
My parsnip went down to 098 in the bottles, but only 110 in the demijohn!
Have got some blackberry on the go at the moment, and have ended up with 1.75l extra which is sitting on the worktop fizzing away beautifully. The demijohn is plopping (tm) at 75mph, having gone down from 120 mph the first day! Because I haven't got an airlock in the bottle it's hard to judge the exact speed, so will have to rely on sg measurements.

Interesting though ain't it!

As for Johns, I think the yanks use them for another purpose!!