Recent content by tjmeyer

I have so many weeds out there I bet there's dozens of clover species 😂 the only thing I pull out nowadays are the goat heads. The fiddlenecks used to bother me as they stick to socks, but it turns out that they just die off with regular mowing since they propagate by seed only. I see the most...

Yeah that's a lot of energy to heat 60 gallons by 5°F. That's like.... 500BTUs? You may be cooking the first gallon or two as that kind of energy in only 2 gallons could be reaching 100°F+

This might be too obvious, but a chiller is a great way to do this. You don't need anything fancy with the exception of a temperature power switch. Just some water in a refrigerator pumped through hoses submerged in your wine is enough to do the job, especially if you're working with small...

60°F is not going to damage your wine. What is the temp of the barrel just before you fill? What size of barrel? To heat 60 gallons ish by 5°F, that's a good amount of energy. If it's 30 gallons, not too shabby imo

Was gonna say this. Your home Depot roses aren't going to do this for you. Roses on sale will be amazingly hardy

Yup, flowering here also. A few of my Malbec are starting fruitset. So far this year has been ideal. No critters. We never have fungal issues. A good wind storm has me nervous but everything came out just fine. I haven't seen a need for any pesticides or really anything extra at all this year...

Some folks actually like oxidized wine. I'm not a fan and any competition that I know of will call it a fault. It is highly recommended to add a k-meta before bottling to help the wine protect itself during transfer and while aging in bottle.

I use tilt pros regularly and find them to be very accurate. I certainly rely on them. Unfortunately, they don't really work in reds due to the cap, methods to strain out a spot for them I find to be more cumbersome than just using a hydrometer, but I still throw them in for temp monitoring...

I have NEVER seen that happen before. Maybe the cork compressor is too large? Maybe this is more common with rubber corks, I'm not too experienced with those.

I haven't been impressed with the natural nomacorcs, can't speak for agglos. I was getting consistent drying out after bottling (bottles on side) which can cause issues like tearing on the way out and other things. Could also have just been the batch I had, but they weren't dried out before I...

While family loves this time of year

@winemaker81 beat me to it. Alcohol is one of the primary flavors of wine, it's a very different drink without it. But the idea of neutralizing alcohol in the body is an interesting one. I'm not sure how to feel about it, but it's interesting.

Has anyone else been experiencing higher than normal wine damage through UPS? 3 of the last 10 shipments I have made through UPS have been broken, including a $200 bottle of 2013 Sangiovese that is very rare... 😭 My packaging has not changed, rigid inflatable bottle cases in bubble wrap in a...

Sadly, that isn't going to cut it for sparkling wine. You can expect in excess of 7 bar when naturally carbonating. Iirc, champagne bottles are designed for 20 bar, which should be a safe buffer. But it's a cool product for what it's designed for. Beer is in the ballpark of 2 bar.

That's wild! I'd never dare try a mere 1 meter spacing. Guess I need more education! Wine trip to Tuscany, anyone?