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We're using false bottom flat stainless steel fermenters. I just love the vacuum press method myself and have been hooked on fermenting/pressing in the same vessel for a number of years. These range from 20gallons up to 60 gallons. Will need to buy more or larger ones as the vineyard expands...

Hey Dom! What quantity are we talking about? A case at a time, 1 at a time? Large format bottles like Jeroboams/demijohns also, or just standard 750mL?

Data 3/16/24 This will probably be the final measurements before yeast inoculation. Temperature Steadily rising and measured 18.4°C/65.1°F this morning. Took an analog measure also just as a sanity check. Digital and analog agree as exact as I can tell. pH No change Sugar Measured in at just...

Thank you! I'm realizing that there are a number of threads asking the same thing. Welp, at least I introduced the winery!

Hi all! I'm opening my first boutique (fancy word for silly small) winery in southern California and wanted to ask around for lessons learned. Check us out at meyerwine.com! What are some things that you would do differently/better if you had to do it all again? The rest of this is just info...

Absolutely! Please know that I am never going to be upset by someone's experience, opinions, or dissecting of methods! I am interested in everyone's experience and thoughts. I was once told that no one can fly when winemaking, the best you can do is fall with style. 😅 (Toy Story reference...

Interesting 🤔 I guess I'm a fossil! 😂

You're completely right! I don't know a lot about kits, but I can tell you that pros don't use distilled water, at least not in my sphere. I'd love to hear about it! If I can make a recommendation, use anything other than ec-1118 yeast 👍

To illustrate this, the best way is to make two yeast starters with the all ingredients and process being the same. Just swap out tap water and distilled water for each. Record the differences. The distilled water starter will be sluggish or may fail completely. It's a good learning experiment...

All great questions. I'll do my best to answer but I'm also passing on my teachers' thoughts which may or may not be archaic to some. You're completely right. I very much doubt it would bother 20 gallons of must. It's more the principle of thing that I've always been taught. It's absolutely...

Yeast osmosis. If you decrease the minerals in the must too much, the moisture inside the yeast cell wall will begin to leech out, causing issues. Small amounts of distilled water won't likely cause an issue, but it's just a generally understood thing among winemakers, I guess. I've always been...

Ok team! Added the following: 2g Lallzyme EX + 12g opti-red + 200g vineyard well water I completely forgot to take pictures of this! For those that are new, this is VERY simple. I grabbed a clean kitchen glass, put it on a food scale that measures to the tenth (0.1 sensitivity), zeroed it out...

Lallzyme is pretty amazing stuff, also needs to be added and well mixed before pitch or during cold soak (now). We ok with proceeding with Lallzyme EX and opti-red mix since it's here and should probably be added now?

Now is probably a good time to add crush additives that are for prior to ferment, like Lallzyme EX nice! looks like it'd be here at the earliest, the 20th. We ok waiting that long or is this ok to add mid ferment?

I'm actually new to color pro! I am interested in trying it. My suppliers don't appear to have it, so I'd have to order it direct, which may take a while.

Honestly, it's just what I had that wasn't a barrel xD

This is up to all of us! My personal vote is yes, I like opti red and lallyzyme ex, and similar products. I think we already had the recommendation to use scottsyme pec5l from someone. But I'm down for any combination you recommend!

Data 3/15/24 Sugar Continuing regular pour overs of around 5 gallons at a time 4x per day. Reading this morning was 21.5° Brix. Temperature Increasing much slower now, 16.9°C/62.4°F. pH Did not measure this morning. The must smells great, tastes great, and looks great. Here's the oak I'm...

I'm so sorry, I completely missed this somehow. I have never used Renaissance Avante or Bravo, but it looks intriguing. It's getting a little close to time to inoculate, but I'm happy to get some if you recommend it.

Yeah, they cheated....