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And I would be right at 5 gallons, making a lip-smacking tannin beverage, LOL. I would love to buy a bigger barrel, however, that is a lot of port and I don't know how my or my loved one's livers would survive. It seems though if I were serious about trying, I could buy a small barrel, age some...

I have been looking for a small barrel to try aging the port. This site Barrels Online - Premium Handcrafted wooden barrels for sale sells a variety of small sizes up to 20 L, which matches my volume. But I have NO experience with these tiny beauties. Any suggestions about trying to use a small...

I had not reached that point in the thread, to see your equations. I am a "long-form" reader and need to read the front page first before clicking around :p I assumed that there would be a closed form solution to the equation.

So funny, I basically came up with the same findings this week. I have some high Brix grapes and the juice in the must is full of particulates. Brix is about 1 degree higher in the unfiltered juice. Accurate Brix matters to me because I am adding acid and backwatering. But, I think as the wine...

I’m going through that thread and it seems that the method I found is the same as suggested in the thread—add the fortifying alcohol to the must and then press. The alcohol extracts a lot of flavor from the skins, but this does not make traditional port. @sour_grapes I will work through the...

The authorites fear that it will be used for Molotov cocktails to burn down San Francisco

Thanks, Bryan. I will do some further tinkering with FermCalc, what a great tool it is!

I have used a bumper jack in the past to pull up vines. Wrap a chain around the vine base and the shoe of the jack then pump it out. There are always remnants of root left. I try to dig out what I can. Sometimes the roots will push out vines away from the mother plant, but it is ususally easy...

I would like to ask for a sanity check on the calculation for the port fortification. I will follow the procedure given on MAKING PORT WINE. It is concise and since I am starting from raw materials, it seems appropriate. Following the traditional California port style of "10% sugar level and...

I had some Oregon Pinot Noir (Sokol Blosser) last night, came in at 3.46pH which I think was great tasting and appropriate for the varietal. But my friend refers to this style as “battery acid pinot”. To each his own. This seems like a good subject for a thread and maybe get a few more people...

As a datapoint, today's conversation got me curious, so we went to taste some wine at a local winery (name withheld). I tried their gold medal Malbec the whole time wishing that I had my pocket pH meter with me HAHAH (that's an idea, pull that out in the tasting room). Immediately upon coming...

I have started doing this also, and TA. I bought 1L of NaOH on Amazon and looking for ways to use it 🙂

I always assumed that 3.8pH was high, but my thoughts are changing. I think that the high alcohol wines I make are enhancing the acidic taste while also decreasing the tannin flavor and I need to change my acid target. It should not be a fixed number. The merlot tasted a little flat IMO before...

BM 4x4 yeast pitched last night, I am seeing activity. I am watching the raisin bran closely. I have added a no-name brand of Fermaid O to my batches. I pitched Vinaflora CH16 malolactic culture this morning into the cab and merlot. I did not put it in the port batch, not sure if I should try to...

Yes unfortunately I had to backwater and add tartaric acid. But, I have had worse years, 2021-2022. I need to get a handle on my ripeness. I can taste when tartaric has been added and it does not evoke a "fine wine" experience. Fortunately I have only adjusted up 1g/L this year on the Merlot...

Ha! Just ask him. The French emerge as critics from the womb.

You raise a good point about California wines, one mentioned by my French friend who took his brother wine tasting in Napa. To their taste all the wines were too young and too ripe. This ripe fruit bomb style seems to sell well and I am actually having trouble growing less ripe grapes while also...

I have been following along with your troubles with the ripening. It has been quite a year on the west coast. Some of my grapes are pushing 28 Brix with neighboring clusters full of green seeds and smelling vegetal. Ugh. Good record keeping pays dividends and I try to put all my measurements...

I remeasured the juice brix with my Hanna bench Refractometer, samples filtered using coffee filters. The numbers are still high but better. I can work with this. I tested the calibration with 20g sucrose in 80g distilled water and got 19.9 Brix 👍 Vineyard Brix TA M Cab 1 + Cab 2 26.0...

Hey, that’s great! I can totally use that recipe to make some “Porto” and I have some Frankenwine as well that had me scratching my head trying to find a use.