A common question on the site, mostly by novices, is: Is my wine working normally? Or some variation there of. My usual comment is that there is no real norm. This weekend I started a couple off wines that are a case in point.
I started two 3 gallon batches. One of Welch's White Niagara and one of Welch's Red Concord, both from frozen concentrates. I added 7 cans to each. Each got the same amount of pectic enzyme, nutrient, and acid blend. (Basically Jack's recipe.) The starting SG's were 1.055 and 1.060 respectively. I brought this up to 1.098 and 1.095 respectively. I sprinkled 1 pkt Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast on each. I did not stir it in. I covered each primary bucket with a heavy towel.
The next morning the White had a moderate layer of yeast over the surface. The Red had a light layer of yeast on the surface. I did not touch either. That evening the white had a dense cap of yeast over the surface (perhaps
1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. The Red had no cap at all. Every thing had sunk. I stirred each lightly. The red had a lot of CO2 in is so there was no question about it working.By the next morning the white had a layer of foam perhaps 1 inch thick consisting of very tiny bubbles over the whole surface. The red had perhaps
4 to 6 inches of bubbles climbing the sides of the bucket with less in the center and the bubbles were very large, mostly 1/4 to 1/2 in diameter.My point is that 2 wines, both grape though of different types, both treated the same using the same yeast, and the fermentation "looks" very different. There may not be a norm. The norm is that they are both fermenting nicely.
These are just general comments but any other comments or observations would prove interesting.
Ray