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Today was barrel day , cleaned and rinsed the barrels. Filled the 15 gallon and one ten gallon completely. For the last ten gallon I had to add 1.5 gallons from last year. Filtered it all thru a 10 micron filter so the wine should be fairly clean. Everything in the winery is cleaned and ready...

I suppose I could line it with Saran Wrap or wax paper next time. Then again I not fermenting in it, the wine only sits in it for a few minutes. I think I will use a liner next year. Thanks for the heads up. ( I just looked it up it is PET)

The wood is all black locust except for the block under the C channel, I made the piston and the basket. I used C channel for strength and it didn’t bend or flex.

The jack is a two ton , the cake is moist but dry enough , there’s not much juice left. I did break it up once and repressed it but didn’t get enough juice to make it worth while. Each press was from about 300 lbs of grapes. Amazing how little is left over after fermenting.

i use a laundry bag that menards sells, the mesh is just right for pressing grapes. i sanitize it and use one or two for pressing and racking. so no gross lees.

The filter bag I used really cleans it up. Next step is to filter it thru a paint filter bag and then a 10 micron cartridge filter. I’ll probably do that Tuesday. I pressed st 1.000 so it’s still generating some co2 along with the MLF, should be ok sealed up till then. I also bottled my other 10...

Can you post a picture of it.

Today I pressed 600 lbs of fermented grapes. They were picked 9 days ago. I used my homemade press and it worked great. Yield was about 38 gallons. Ph is 3.8 and TA is about 7.8 Tomorrow it will all go into oak barrels.

If you want elderberry wine without the goo, buy dried elderberries they make an excellent wine.

In my experience malolactic fermentation reduces fruit aromas and potassium changes the flavor. You could cold stabilize and drop some tartaric acid.

Marquette has a lot of malic acid. When the grapes started fermenting they were at 3.19 ph , now they are at 3.66.

Use either one, if you have the actiml use it. Use a tiny spoon and add a little mlb to each batch

MLF could drop your ta lower than 8 if your high acid is malic acid, if it’s tartaric not so much.

I've used the scott tan estate with my marquette, it's pretty smooth.

when i'm checking brix and ph prior to harvest i crush some grapes and then wait 24 hours to test as the ph and the brix both move upwards a bit.

i picked last friday and the night before got 3/4" of rain. all it did was wash off some dust.

This year I had a major phomopsis problem even tho I sprayed early and often. A few years ago I tried to figure out how much mancozeb and captan to add per gallon. I’ve been using that formula with mixed results so I’ve been using Microsoft’s AI to help me. According to the AI I’ve been using...

I added mauravin b to the Brute with the low ph and it’s up to 3.3 now. The fermentation is going great now. This is the first year I’m not using potassium bicarbonate to adjust the acid. After MLF the wine should be around 3.6.

Harvested the Marquette yesterday, Chuckd and his wife came down to help as well as some friends. Took only 2.5 hours to harvest 900 pounds. I was surprised the harvest was so big as I’ve removed a few vines in the last couple years.The top of the slope had a ph of 3.19 vs the bottom with ph...

Have you tried adding a lot of sacrificial tannin during fermentation? That’s what I do with my Marquette, it seems to help bind and remove protein to make the cellaring tannin last longer and have more of an impact.