Fresh Juice and Mould

First time posting question - four days ago I purchased two "fresh juice" kits from a local store. Both were AUS (cab sav and cab shiraz) Day one I brought the wine home and added yeast. I am fairly certain, althogh not 100 % positive, this step was done properly. Day four I went to check SG and both had and white/grey mould on top and on the sides. The Cab/shiraz was much worst then the cab sav. I went to the local store and his suggestion was to scoop off the mould clear a spot in the center of the wine and insert tube to siphon wine into carboy. There were no directions to add anything else. Does this sound right?

As an aside his directions for makeing the wine from fresh juice were

Day one add yeast Day four approx (1020-1030 SG) transfer to carboy After 60 days transfer to carboy and top up with commercial wine After another sixty day bottle and drink

any comments on this approach?

Your help is much appreciated. Thanks.

Reply to
GaryK
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My first thought on this is... what makes you think it's mould? Yeast flocculates and develops into a white/gray mass too! Unless it smells like mould, my bet is it's yeast. After 4 days, I would expect to see a colony of yeast on the surface of my wine.

Smell it, up close. If it's fermenting, you should get some CO2 bubbles in your nose. You'll also hear a gentle sizzle sound.

Only comment is that the steps are reasonable - but very, very general and shouldn't be treated as law. First of all, if you have yeast working on the must, don't let it sit for days without stirring. Once the yeast is active and flourishing, you can safely aerate the wine and prevent surface spoilage by stirring it up 2 or 3 times a day. This will blow off trapped CO2 and get some O2 to the yeast, aiding fermentation.

The 60 day windows for racking are reasonable guesses, but you should let your eyes judge for you - by noting the clarity of the wine and the amount of lees at each interval.

Regards, Roger Quinta do Placer

Reply to
ninevines

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