"My, umm, my name is Fred, and I have a problem....." 
2018 Grape Season Underway
- Thread starter pgentile
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The Petite Verdot is the only Bordeaux wine I didn't make this year. Now I'll have the full compliment.
pgentile
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Good luck with those grapes, one of these years I'm going to that Pittsburgh convention.
pgentile
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Just remember Fred you are not the one with a problem, they are all just jealous.
But I am a little curious is there any variety of wine grapes you didn't get this year?
I'm going to get the details when I go. I think it's in January.
This has the ring of truth!
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Just remember Fred you are not the one with a problem, they are all just jealous.
But I am a little curious is there any variety of wine grapes you didn't get this year?
I'm sure there are but you can scratch Petite Verdot off the list. Reserved 3 lugs and picking up on my way home Wednesday.
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
So, a month after pitching the yeast and SG of 0.996 and my Cab is still throwing a bubble through the airlock every 5 seconds or less.
pgentile
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About the same thing here with my zin, free run wine much more vigorous than press wine.
Same with my Cab Franc although I was forced to press sooner then I normally do. I normally wait until it's dry but this time the average SG was 1.012. Plus press wine usually has less lees/sediment then the free run. There is a lot more oxygen introduced with the free run but I would have thought the press would be full of yeast cells and nutrients. This one puzzles me a little, any thoughts.
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
OK, just finished the afternoon punchdown and SG on the HHH Merlot is down to a low, low 1.030. Pitched the RP15 last Tuesday - ten days ago. Crazy. And I'm a little pissed. I would love to just let it ride and take advantage of the extra contact time. Super smooth ferment, wine is smelling and tasting great. But I HAVE to press tomorrow.
OK, just finished the afternoon punchdown and SG on the HHH Merlot is down to a low, low 1.030. Pitched the RP15 last Tuesday - ten days ago. Crazy. And I'm a little pissed. I would love to just let it ride and take advantage of the extra contact time. Super smooth ferment, wine is smelling and tasting great. But I HAVE to press tomorrow.
Really surprising, did you rehydrate with Go-Ferm or add nutrients of any kind. I can't imagine you didn't.
pgentile
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Wine pressed de-gasses more than free run wine syphoned with the AIO? In my case it looks to me that the free run wine is degassing and going through MLF while the press wine is just MLF. Pressed wine has the small less frequent pinprick bubbles.
pgentile
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OK, just finished the afternoon punchdown and SG on the HHH Merlot is down to a low, low 1.030. Pitched the RP15 last Tuesday - ten days ago. Crazy. And I'm a little pissed. I would love to just let it ride and take advantage of the extra contact time. Super smooth ferment, wine is smelling and tasting great. But I HAVE to press tomorrow.
It could be below 1.020 by press time tomorrow. RP15 known to be a slow ferment?
Makes perfect sense there are less gases in the pressed wine.
Jim, if I remember correctly you had at least 15 gallons of must, I recalled but couldn't find the reference to some element that should be considered when adding yeast. Turned out to be the brix, see below. You were probably on the cusp of the higher rate which would have required 18.75 grams of yeast. I can't say first hand if this could be your issue since I ferment in must smaller quantities and an 8 gram pack is always enough.
- 24 ºBrix or below, 1 gram of wine yeast/gallon of must is recommended.
- 25 ºBrix or above, 1.25 grams of wine yeast/gallon of must is recommended
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
Yes to GoFerm and yes to nutrients. 8g packet of RP15. Got it started and let it go for about 4 hours before I pitched. Pretty much the same process I always follow, though the starter time was longer, as we had to leave for a baseball game.
You've been doing this a lot longer then me and obviously your process is proven. But just to help me avoid a mistake in the future did you add any must to the rehydrated yeast before you left. It's always been my understanding the yeast uses the nutrients in the Go-Ferm pretty quickly and the must is necessary to keep it going.
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
I did. At least up until we left for the game. I add a little every few minutes, both for the nutrients and for temperature acclimation.
I've got good news, I'm going out to dinner with my wife tonight (local brewery).
The not so good news is that two of your wines need some more MLB, or more time. Zin looks done.
I need to also order some supplies for doing the tests since I'm running low (that big blob of Merlot was from me trying to get a single drop out of the syringe and save a pipet).
