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I stopped using bentonite a long time ago, I don’t think there’s any reason for it. Wine will clear really well if left alone.

Sorry for that. Damn birds!

I’m so jealous of you guys and the grapes you have access to. Good luck with your ferment!

My nephew used to cook them on the grill. I never tried them but he said they are very tasty.

No, I’m not getting any juice this fall I’m running out of room. When I used to go to Mitchell vineyard they had a bladder press for whites that pressed really fast, the small one I’m looking at would probably take a while.

I share your pain. I did the same ph yo-yo you described. It sounds like you were trying to adjust the ph without knowing the titratable acidity which is what I did in 2021. If you are trying to adjust the acidity you need to know the starting acid level in grams per liter . Then you can use a...

Tannins are also anti oxidants and anti microbial so contribute to aging.

I’m thinking about buying a small bladder press , my homemade press works ok for reds but just doesn’t do justice to unfermented fruit. If I could get 80% that would double my yield.

How do you press the grapes?

Looks like a really clean batch of fruit should make some great wine

After 24 hours I pressed the grapes with my newly modified press. Out of 125 lbs of grapes I only got about 4.5 gallons of juice. It does taste good so there’s that. Here’s my press operation

I harvested my itasca grapes today. I didn’t wait for them to all turn golden because I was seeing some rot. The ph is 3.26 and the SG is 1.095. The flesh of these grapes are very thick and gelatinous. They also have 4 seeds in each berry and average size is pretty small. After crushing and...

I don’t think a cyanide detector would work as the pits have amygdalin which metabolizes to cyanide. I think the yeast act as a poison detector, if the yeast die you might have cyanide as cyanide will kill yeast.

From that study: The pits were then ground to a relatively fine, homogeneous powder using a Tefal the Real Grinder. I don’t know anyone that grinds the pits to a fine powder. I was taught how to make plum wine by an octogenarian who didn’t pit his plums, but if you’re concerned definitely pit...

Exactly my point, why would you crush the pits? Is there a difference between organic cyanide from pits and inorganic cyanide?

I’ve never pitted plums and have never had a problem. I think some things just keep being repeated without any basis in fact. I also don’t pit cherries with no bad effects.

Yes I was talking about Marquette. My vines leaves generally stay green and healthy into October. You might want to add Captan to your sprays. Phostrol, tebuconazole and azoxystrobin also work on phomopsis. Just spraying sulfur during dormancy won’t kill the spires.

my brix is about 15-18 so I'm on schedule for mid september. the acid level is what determines picking tho. I go thru the vineyard every day picking out green berries and any rotten or split ones to reduce the odds of any fruit flies and wasps.

Looks like some of my vines. The extension office said it was phomopsis. Not much you can do now. Next spring after pruning try using lime sulfur just before bud swell. Then all we can do is make those early sprays. Are you using mancozeb and captan?

Normally one would ferment in an open fermenter until fermentation is almost over, then press and strain or filter the must into a carboy with an airlock. During and just after fermentation oxygen exposure isn’t too much of a worry due to the co2 in the wine. If you’re doing an em after...