UKC

Ive made wine for many years but its only really occurred to me that the speed of fermentation / temperature might affect the finished flavour. Normally most of the year Id have a demijohn somewhere in the house where the temperature is fairly stable 12-18C but at present the temp varies from 4 to 20 night/day with heating on so Ive put it in the shed with a heater band on which maintains a more constant temperature which feels about 20C. I know the yeast will survive at low temperatures and still ferment but very slowly, and at higher temps it works furiously. Has anyone found any difference in the finished wine depending on the temperature?

Its parsnip 'sherry' im making this time.

In reply to Pesda potato:

With no links or sources to back this up, and not the foggiest of where I might have heard this theory in the first place, or even if I might have half-imagined the idea myself, but I was under the impression that colder, lower, slower, resulted in a tastier end product. But really, I cannot emphasise the opening disclaimer enough.

I expect it to be a lot like pizza dough, though... a low-yeast pizza dough left to ferment slowly in the fridge for three or four days is immeasurably tastier than one knocked-up in an hour with some sugar-fed turboyeast.

In reply to Pesda potato:

Commercial wine production in hotter areas has moved to cooler fermentation over the last 30 years to produce wines with more finesse etc. I think you can use double skinned stainless steel vats (expensive) or lob in dry ice. You could make big ice packs in 2L PET bottles and lob them in if your receptacle has a wide top.

In reply to Pedro50:

hmm, looks like ill be moving my demijohn then, i feared as much, but thought id ask the ukc hive. Still keep posting your thoughts please peoples.

In reply to Pesda potato:

At higher fermentations temperatures yeasts produce more esters, many of which are highly flavour active.

I'm afraid I don't know much about wine, but with beer it's one of the reasons that warm fermented ales taste different to cold fermented lagers.

In reply to nastyned:

Well lager is top fermented (Carlsbergensis Saychryomyisis {Sp?}) and ale is bottom fermented (some other yeast can't remember what) But yes hotter will give more flavours but may be unsubtle. No disrespect to OP but not sure how subtle parsnip sherry is!

In reply to Pedro50:
The other way round! Lager yeast bottom ferments. It was called Saccharomyces carlsbergensis but sadly has been renamed and is now S. pastorianus. Ale yeast is S. cerevisiae.

In reply to nastyned:

Oh yes you're right, shame about the renaming though. My guided tour of the Carlsberg brewery was in about 1970 so memory pays tricks

In reply to Pedro50:

Quite delicate after 3 years maturation

In reply to Pesda potato:

Sounds fab