Northern seems to focus more on beer, ,, I like their conical fermentors/ new sizes of glassware, ,, they are OK for basics as acid and corks and kits
15 month dilemma
- Thread starter SeniorHobby
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Hello VinesnBines,
I ordered my oak chips & today I added 1 oz of the medium toast French chips to 1 gallon of wine; I figure I can always add more in time. As long as I was at it I racked the wine again & found a lot of tartrate crystals in the bottom of my carboy so my cold stabilization worked. The picture is of the bottom of the carboy. As it turns out I have 5 gallons from the 1 carboy of wine, I will have another 5 gallons to play with. Hopefully I can come up with some kind of solution by the time I'm done!
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Hi Sailor 323,
I just added the oak today. I'm starting with 1 oz per gallon; wait a few weeks then see what happens. I do have about 10 gallons to work with. Suggestions?
Thanks,
SeniorHobby
Hello Jovimaple,
It turns out after racking 1 of my 2 carboys, that I have 5 gallons to play with. I added the oak & will give it a few weeks. I did add sugar to 1 gallon. Tomorrow I will add some calcium carbonate and give that some time. Any other ideas?
Senior Hobby
Ohio Bob
Senior Member
I had always heard that Riesling and Viognier were good blending partners, but I never made them in the same year, always a year apart. Recently I took a bottle of each out of the cellar and did a glass blend. The Viognier is a lot sweeter and just a little makes the blend taste more like the Viognier. I wonder if you got a few bottles of Viognier to blend in, you might take the acid edge off your wild grape? Like I did, you could always leave your wild grape in the carboy while you ferment a blending partner for it, then a year from now blend them together.
Hello Ohio Bob,
I am not familiar with Viognier; is it a bottled wine or does it come in a kit form?
Thanks,
Senior Hobby
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Ohio Bob
Senior Member
I have not seen it in kits, I get 6g buckets of juice my local shop (shout out to Grape & Granary, Akron,OH) ships from California.
Thanks, I have never ordered juice buckets before, still new at this wine making. I will have to check it out!
If you end up ordering juice buckets, they have to be picked up from Midwest Supplies, or at least that's what both stores advertised last year in the spring and fall.Thanks Jovimaple! Twin Cities is about two hour drive.
Where do you live?
Make sure you are staying topped up during this, as oxygen is to be minimized (if you don't know).
Thanks G259, yes, that is always a concern!!
Hi VinesNBines,
I added an 1 of the medium toast French chips about two weeks ago. When I added it, I noticed that the chip of oak that I added was floating in the wine. Over the last couple of weeks I tried to shake to bottle a bit to possibly get it to sink. After pouring a small taste test I saw that my oak chip was in my test glass. I took it out and tried the sample, I thought there was some improvement, but it still was a little strong tasting. Is this what usually happens with the oak chips, that they float? Does the flavor still dissipate into the wine? I might want to add another cube in order to soften the taste a bit more.
Thanks!
VinesnBines
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Don't worry about the chips floating or sinking. You may want to gently stir the wine to get the oak flavor throughout. I can't promise the oak will be the answer. I have a red raspberry that i was super tart. I added calcium carbonate and that helped a bit. Then oak chips; the oak is still working. After a few more weeks, I may try egg white fining. As a last resort I will back sweeten and bottle and hope for the best It may make sangria.
I have a Petit Verdot that has been on the verge of vinegar that I oaked twice, splash racked in between oaking, aged and finally used egg whites to try to pull out the off flavors. I'm now bottling and planning to use to blend with later vintages. Lastly I have a fig vinegar that I'm trying to turn back to wine. it may be a complete lost cause and may really be vinegar. I'm toying with wasting some brandy and trying a port...I only have 1.5 gallons so not a massive loss.
Keep on trying and don't give up yet.
I have a Petit Verdot that has been on the verge of vinegar that I oaked twice, splash racked in between oaking, aged and finally used egg whites to try to pull out the off flavors. I'm now bottling and planning to use to blend with later vintages. Lastly I have a fig vinegar that I'm trying to turn back to wine. it may be a complete lost cause and may really be vinegar. I'm toying with wasting some brandy and trying a port...I only have 1.5 gallons so not a massive loss.
Keep on trying and don't give up yet.
Jesus did it. Can’t be too hard
I still haven’t added the oak to my wild grape. I planned on doing it when I rack it at three month. It’s going to be interesting to see if it improves the wine.
I will do the stirring and see if that helps, then take another sample. I have one cube in one gallon, wondering if I should add another?
Bringing up another subject, I happened upon some domestic grapes last summer, more than likely Concord type, don't know for sure. I used a French Fry cutter to break the skin and get them squished a bit. I put them in a bag and started the batch, yeah, my first "non" wild grape vine. I had a yeast starter going for quite a few hours, pitched it. The best I got out of it was was a .10 ferment, that's it. I gave it a good stir a couple of times, no good. Seeing as it was only one gallon and it called for 12 lbs of grapes, I had a little over 9 lbs. With the large bag of grapes and only 1 gallon of liquid, there wasn't much free room for the yeast to make a run for it IMP. I had more grapes in the freezer but didn't want to ruin the whole batch if it didn't work with my first batch. I decided to take out the next batch, smash them, squeezed the heck out of the bag in the current wine and added juice only to my 2nd try. My first question, is there an amount of time you allow yourself as a maximum in the crushing process to prevent oxygen exposure? As I am smashing the grapes I decided to get met yeast going. After the fact I forgot that I needed to add the meta, wait 12 hours, then add pectic enzyme, wait 12 hours. In the meantime my yeast started and is kind of sitting there since then. I'm not sure I can resurrect it at this point. I thought I will start my oven to warm, add a little sugar & nutrient and hope for the best. I will give it a couple of hours and then if I don't see any action, I will move on from there.
Thanks!
I don't know what you mean by this statement. Could you clarify?
If I have understood your situtation correctly, and if it were mine, I would just let it sit and let the fermentation proceed.
it fermented down to 1.08 and stopped for two days, nothing happening.
Where did it start? And how are you measuring the SG?
On a side note, we find that it helps avoid a lot of problems and confusion when people post SG to three digits, like 1.080, instead of 1.08. Or, if you don't know the third digit, you can say 1.08x or "1.085-ish."
On a side note, we find that it helps avoid a lot of problems and confusion when people post SG to three digits, like 1.080, instead of 1.08. Or, if you don't know the third digit, you can say 1.08x or "1.085-ish."
I had it started at 1.090, I have a hydrometer. Turns out after trying to kick start the yeast again, it didn't work, I threw it out. I had started the same type of yeast in another batch the same day, no problem. I did not check the acid level on that batch. Seeing as it was my first batch of non wild grape wine, I didn't think of it. After restarting it with more grapes I checked the acid level and it was at 4, a little low, could that be it?
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