2017 Harford Vineyard Chilean Grape/Juice Pickup

[ibglowin]

In theory yes, but the acid blend you added contains much more Malic per gram than naturally occurring acid in grape must so you would probably never be able to taste any reduction depending on how much you added.

FWIW my first try at fresh grapes long ago I mistakenly added some Malic I had purchased by accident thinking that was what I needed instead of Tartaric. Luckily I had another 6G to blend it with down the road and it turned out fine.

This is one of those wine making mistakes you only make once. Like accidentally leaving the spigot in the open position as you pour in your juice bag on a Kit wine.

Well lesson learned, did some research on the malic and found what you were referring to the 2 types D and L. To boot Carlson's blend is 10% tartaric, 50% Malic and 40% Citric not a good ratio. I'm stuck with the citric so the question is would the MLB if left in long enough convert all the naturally occuring malic and I would only be left with the synthetic? Per the ratio I have about 13g of synthetic. The other recommendation rather then carbonate was to blend the wine. All I have to blend with is a lower end Malbec and a better Pinot Noir.
Any recommendations or should I just leave it and have a "not the greatest wine".

 

[Boatboy24]

Potassium Carbonate is an equal opportunity precipitator. You may get a bigger dump of TA but only because the amount is higher to begin with than MA.

Turns out, I was thinking of Calcium Carbonate, not Potassium.

 

[mainshipfred]

In theory yes, but the acid blend you added contains much more Malic per gram than naturally occurring acid in grape must so you would probably never be able to taste any reduction depending on how much you added.

FWIW my first try at fresh grapes long ago I mistakenly added some Malic I had purchased by accident thinking that was what I needed instead of Tartaric. Luckily I had another 6G to blend it with down the road and it turned out fine.

This is one of those wine making mistakes you only make once. Like accidentally leaving the spigot in the open position as you pour in your juice bag on a Kit wine.

Thank you very much, makes me feel a little better. Have plenty of time to see if I want to try the carbonate. As far as the spigot thing, thanks for the heads up. LOL

 

[Bodenski]

Today my Cabernet is down to .994. Took much longer than I expected (11 days from pitching the yeast). My Pinot Grigio has only made it down to 1.004. I'm actually thinking about stopping the Pinot tomorrow to leave it just a little residual sweetness. I doubt it's going to finish to dry tonight with as slow as they've been going!

Tomorrow I'll transfer the Cabernet to a couple of 3 gallon carboys since I split the 6 gallon bucket and added a lug of grapes to one. I'll try to keep them separate enough so that I can see if I can tell the different in a year. I plan on doing MLF on both halves, and I'll pitch that after I let them settle for a few days to get it off some of the lees first.

These all need a good degassing, and all I have is the whip degasser to do it. I"m having a hard time now appreciating flavors with the fizz being so prominent. But so far I'm not tasting anything off.

 

[ceeaton]

Today my Cabernet is down to .994. Took much longer than I expected (11 days from pitching the yeast). My Pinot Grigio has only made it down to 1.004. I'm actually thinking about stopping the Pinot tomorrow to leave it just a little residual sweetness. I doubt it's going to finish to dry tonight with as slow as they've been going!

Tomorrow I'll transfer the Cabernet to a couple of 3 gallon carboys since I split the 6 gallon bucket and added a lug of grapes to one. I'll try to keep them separate enough so that I can see if I can tell the different in a year. I plan on doing MLF on both halves, and I'll pitch that after I let them settle for a few days to get it off some of the lees first.

These all need a good degassing, and all I have is the whip degasser to do it. I"m having a hard time now appreciating flavors with the fizz being so prominent. But so far I'm not tasting anything off.

When I do MLF I rarely worry about degassing. I figure the CO2 in solution is better than O2 in solution, plus the MLB will create a small amount of CO2 on their own accord.

When I sample a new wine, I put it in a small container and shake the s**t out if it for a minute or two, then let it rest with the lid off, then pour it in a glass and about 20 minutes later take a sample. By then most of the CO2 is gone and you get a better example of where you are, though it is a young wine you should be able to taste any off flavors and be able to address them (with help from the wonderful winemakers here at this forum).

 

[Bodenski]

So today I went ahead and stabilized the Pinot Grigio. pH is 3.2, TA is .625, SG This morning is 1.004. Taste is very fruity, which is what a I was going for.

I think I need to bump up the TA a little, but all I have is acid blend at the house (I normally do country wines). I'll pick some up some straight tartaric acid Tuesday to have around the house, and I'll add it sometime when I'm degassing. There is a lot of CO2 in this right now, even though it was never a vigorous ferment. I might bring the temp up to 70+ with the heating belt so that I can give it a good degassing in a few days.

Overall I'm really happy with this batch so far. (I shook it like crazy before the taste sample this time. What a difference that makes!). This bucket was the impulse buy. The Cabernet is what I was planning all along. That might end up in the carboys today as well. Once you get in the rhythm of washing dishes it's easier to just keep going!

 

[Ajmassa]

Ah yes. The impulse buys are the best. Act first, ask questions later.
Are you concerned with CO2 for a specific reason? This is a fresh juice pale from Harford correct? So your probably going to age it for quite a bit. I wouldn't be sweating Co2 at all at this point. There's no clearing agent that requires degassing, and not bottling any time soon. If anything you've got an extra blanket of protection for a bit.
Before last year seasonal juice pales were all I did. No whites though. But usually they were gas free and clearing by the 2nd bulk age rack. To be honest though I mainly didn't wanna screw things up by getting fancy. (Yes, a clearing agent and manually degassing I would have considered "fancy" then) And always knew that with enough patience Father Time would degas and clear for me.

 

[Bodenski]

Ah yes. The impulse buys are the best. Act first, ask questions later.
Are you concerned with CO2 for a specific reason? This is a fresh juice pale from Harford correct? So your probably going to age it for quite a bit. I wouldn't be sweating Co2 at all at this point. There's no clearing agent that requires degassing, and not bottling any time soon. If anything you've got an extra blanket of protection for a bit.
Before last year seasonal juice pales were all I did. No whites though. But usually they were gas free and clearing by the 2nd bulk age rack. To be honest though I mainly didn't wanna screw things up by getting fancy. (Yes, a clearing agent and manually degassing I would have considered "fancy" then) And always knew that with enough patience Father Time would degas and clear for me.

I"m not known for my patience

Here's an interesting note. These are two different 3 gallon carboys of my Cabernet. Same juice, same yeast. The only difference is the one on the left came from the bucket where I added the lug of grapes (in a bag). When I degas the wine, the one that had the grapes the bubbles all disappear very quickly. When I degas the one that didn't have the grapes in it the bubbles stick around much, much longer. I wonder why there is such a marked difference in behavior? Do the tannins from the added grapes do this? Or is it just mother nature being mother nature?

 

[Ajmassa]

I'm curious about that too.

 

[AZMDTed]

I'm curious about that too.

I'm not sure, but my experience leads me to think that material, such as grapes, create points in fermenting wine from which CO2 bubbles are formed and released. Thus, wine with skins will degas more during fermentation than just juice. At least that's a theory I have based on loose skins versus skins in a bag.

 

[ceeaton]

We have enough science gurus (an influential teacher or popular expert) around here that I would think one of them would spend some time helping us to explain what might be happening between the two carboys.

If not I think they should ante (a stake put up by a winemaker for failing to solve all of our winemaking issues) up their best wine and send us each a bottle, agree?

 

[mainshipfred]

After my 17 day slow ferment experiment of my Syrah and one lug on the skins I'm down to SG .993. Pressed the skins and racked after the second day. When I tasted it it is nothing like my other kit wines. It's a big mouthfeel and a half. This weekend I plan on racking it again and put it in my barrel. My concern is with it being this bold will the barrel be too much?

 

[ceeaton]

After my 17 day slow ferment experiment of my Syrah and one lug on the skins I'm down to SG .993. Pressed the skins and racked after the second day. When I tasted it it is nothing like my other kit wines. It's a big mouthfeel and a half. This weekend I plan on racking it again and put it in my barrel. My concern is with it being this bold will the barrel be too much?

Remember, it's really, really young at this point. I think the "boldness" may be attributed to some rough edges that most young wines have, plus you had it on those skins pretty long (not a bad thing in my opinion). I think your barrel time will only enhance the wine and help some of the rough edges round off with the micro-oxidation it will experience.

Now as you know I don't have a barrel, but in my dream world that is how it should work.

 

[Boatboy24]

I agree with Craig and have nothing more to add.

 

[mainshipfred]

Thanks Craig and Jim, I did take the young harshness into consideration but man from what I remember it is totally
different from my kit wines at that stage. Barrel on tomorrow it is.

 

[Boatboy24]

Are you planning on doing MLF in the barrel?

 

[mainshipfred]

I added it on day 11 when the SP was 1.016. Haven't researched MLB very much so I may have to do it again in the barrel.

 

[ceeaton]

If you send me a sample of your wine in a few weeks I can test it along side mine, I'll have plenty of space on the test paper. I usually wait a month to test the progress of mine, so the middle of June will be a month. If you P.M. me I can give you my address and when we get back from vacation if you are interested.

 

[Boatboy24]

You're welcome to use my chromatography kit.

 

[mainshipfred]

Thank you both very much. I may take Jim up though since he's nearly my neighbor.