We got the grapes last Thursday and they were very …. very, heavy.  I struggled mightily to get them around the driveway, in the elevator, down the hall in finally into our guest room.  I paid the store $50 to deliver them to our place, which was money well spent. I don’t think I could have gotten these in a van/truck even with the help of another person.  I wanted to weigh them to make sure I got what I paid for, but there was really no use.  The store put in sulfite for me; and they said that the must was 25.43 brix, 3.49 ph, .82 ta.  I didn’t verify any of that; I’m taking their word for it.  Upon the stores recommendation, I got 60 grams of D254 yeast which will apparently be “jammy”.  I put 6g / 100lbs of must at the 24 hour mark to wait for the sulfites to do their thing.  I sprinkled it on, waited 30 minutes, and then punched it down.  On day 3, I put ~1oz of yeast nutrients on top of the must, and sprinkled the other 1oz at the 5 day mark.

The temperature of the guest room is generally staying around 65-72 degrees.  Leah and I are taking turns punching the cap, in the morning, immediately after work and right before we go to bed.  Every few times, I try to really rotate the solids so the same grape skins don’t just rise to the top again; I try to push them down, and then pull up new ones from the center.  The cap is very hot, up to 95 degrees before punching.  Also, the cap seems to rise, and be punched down, by a magnitude of 5-6 inches or so.

Leah and I will be out of town for days 8-10 for 60 hours or so, so we hope to get some help so that the cap is punched once every 24 hours or so.