Cold Stabilisation - Step by Step

[medpretzel]

Alright,

My photography skills have not improved much since this morning.

But here you go.

The first picture are the grape wines, taken against the light. The one on the right looks so cloudy because I had moved it too much and the sediment got shifted a little.

The one on the left is the surprise rose. It's forming minute tartaric crystals, and I'm hoping that since the weather will stay cold for a few days, I will be able to precipitate out more. I tried taking some close-ups of the crystals, but it simply looks like blush-blur...

The two middle ones are my reds. (DOH!) I really can't tell if anything is going on in the demijohns, but they are cold to touch.

The second picture is a close-up of the chardonnay. This one shows that the crystals are forming, although quite discrete.

Let's hope that tomorrow morning, there will be more interesting pictures than these.

[medpretzel]

Day 4:
Temperature @ 6:45 a.m.: -7.4*C ~ 19*F

Not too many more crystals have formed. Will take pictures.

[medpretzel]

We had about a second of sun today, so I thought I'd take the opportunity and take some pics.

The crystals are so small that you need to see this in full size to appreciate that they are even there.

This is the surprise rose...

The dirty-looking specks are actually crystals that have formed on the side of the demijohn. It's NOT dirt!

Naturally, you really can't see anything going on in the reds, but in one of them, there are a few crystals floating on the surface at the neck of the demijohn. I don' t know how to interpret that, but I'm thinking that it's the tartrate again. The other red, where I did MLF, currently shows nothing. Nor does the fruit wines that I have.

So, tomorrow will be the last day I am conducting this experiment, as the temperatures are due to go up over the weekend. I will then rack and show you what is left over in the demijohns. Tonight, temps go down to -8, so that's the last of the cold-stabilisation until January, I presume.

[medpretzel]

Day 5:
Temperature at 6:45 this morning: 0* C.

I decided to rack and get the wines in.

There were crystals in all the grape wines, but none in the fruit wines.

So, I proceded to rack just the grape wines.

Here are some pictures.

1. Rose's crystals.
2. Racked the rose' into a new demijohn
3. Without knowing, the red had tartaric crystals as well. WOW!
4. Chardonnay's crystals
5. A close-up of the crystals on the side of the demijohn.