porkchopmessiah
Senior Member
So I graduated...did my first crush, no more buckets...Added yeast this evening.
Thanx to all of you for the advice and help over the past year of practicing g with the buckets
2019 Grape Season
- Thread starter pgentile
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So I graduated...did my first crush, no more buckets...Added yeast this evening.
Thanx to all of you for the advice and help over the past year of practicing g with the buckets
porkchopmessiah
Senior Member
One thing on both reds, the must was so thick, getting a sample of juice with the wine thief wasnt ez, wasnt expecting that...normal tho?
Normal. Press a colander into it and take your sample from the juice. The skins will otherwise clog up your wine thief.
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
I do exactly that. Or invest a whopping $15-20 in a refractometer and you only need a drop or two of liquid.
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
Looks like you're well on your way. Nice work!
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Congrats, more work but more fun isn't it!
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I completed the full harvest of my vineyard on Sunday morning. It took all of about 30 minutes. De-stemming by hand took a little while, but since all I had was one lug I figured I ought to at least have a nice clean ferment. This was year 3 for most of the vines and I had a decent crop going on the Marquette and the Leon Millot in spite of dropping about 40-50% of the clusters early on. Unfortunately, while I was on vacation the raccoons stopped by and cleaned out the Leon Millot completely. Since then I had been watching the Marquette closely and decided to go ahead and pick it at 20 brix before it fell victim as well. The must came in at an SG of 1.080 so it will be a light wine. In all I got one bin of grapes which included about 10 clusters of Noiret and 5 clusters of Seyval. I might get 2 gallons out it. Next year I'm installing a solar powered electric fence and I expect to have a decent amount of grapes on the Marquette, Noiret, LM and Vignoles. In spite of the setbacks I am enjoying my tiny vineyard.
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About to making my third Virginia wine of the season. This time it is a Tannat which I've been trying to get the past two years. As of this morning the numbers were brix 24 and pH 3.43 which I am ecstatic about. They will get picked tomorrow morning and I'll be picking up +/- 150 lbs around noon.
The Alicante from S&S should be ready to press in the morning and the Virginia Viognier and Petit Manseng are still fermenting in the cooler, chugging along nicely, and dropping steadily about .02 every 3 days.
The Alicante from S&S should be ready to press in the morning and the Virginia Viognier and Petit Manseng are still fermenting in the cooler, chugging along nicely, and dropping steadily about .02 every 3 days.
This morning I picked up some Nebbiola to blend with the Norton and Sangiovese for the Alicante. The Nebbiola was 27.5 bix. I haven't yet measured the pH but is 27.5 too high? I never had fruit with this high a brix.
Ajmassa
just a guy
Lol. I knew it. “Nebbiolo and/or Sangiovese” Ppffsh
“Or” was never gonna happen.
27.5 is hot! But since your blending anyway- I say let it ride!
“Or” was never gonna happen.
27.5 is hot! But since your blending anyway- I say let it ride!
My 2019 crush went great on Saturday. Field blend of 57% Cab, 28% Merlot and 15% Cab Franc, 7 lugs total. Split evenly and decided to use D254 in 1 fermenter and D80 in the other with the intent in blending both together post mlf . Co-inoculated vp-41 mlb this morning, 24 hours after I pitched the yeast. All going smoothly thus far. Original numbers were sg 1.102, ph 3.66 so I didn’t adjust anything. Will see where numbers shake out after fermentation. This is year 2 for crusher/destemmer and went even smoother than last year. More to follow as things progress.
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Both fermenters are humming right along although the batch with d80 took a bit longer to really get going. SG at 1.070 on the d80 and 1.060 on d254. Both smell great. Added Fermaid K this evening and may dose with Fermaid O tomorrow morning before work. So far so good!
pgentile
Still learning
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@Matty_Kay like the sound of that field blend.
pgentile
Still learning
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Batches so far this fall:
Premium Zin - all grape
Zin - 1 lug 3 buckets
Sangiovese - 2 buckets on premium zin skins
Muscat - 1 buckets on zin skins
Alicante - 3 buckets on second use premium zin skins after sangio
Going to use slurry(that's what it is basically now) on one more batch friday, all depends on what's left at supplier. Hopefully some grapes still left, if not then buckets.
Most I have ever reused skins, but I have kept up my rc212 feeding and all is good so far.
Premium Zin - all grape
Zin - 1 lug 3 buckets
Sangiovese - 2 buckets on premium zin skins
Muscat - 1 buckets on zin skins
Alicante - 3 buckets on second use premium zin skins after sangio
Going to use slurry(that's what it is basically now) on one more batch friday, all depends on what's left at supplier. Hopefully some grapes still left, if not then buckets.
Most I have ever reused skins, but I have kept up my rc212 feeding and all is good so far.
I had Zin at 26 brix this year and I added a little acidified water to the must.
Why? 26 is about perfect. It was ripe and ready to go.
My SG was 1.12, which I felt was going to make too much alcohol.
A SG of 1.12 equates to a BRIX of 28.1, 26 BRIX equates to a SG of 1.11, so something is slightly amiss there. A 26 BRIX must that ferments down to .995 would give you an ABV in the 15.7% range, a 28 BRIX would give you around 17%. In either case, pretty high ABV for a Zinfandel...............
Day 4 and fermentation progressing nicely, albeit slower than in years past. The d254 is at 1.040 and d80 at 1.060 as of this morning. I suspect a direct result of the high starting SG of 1.102. I added a 3rd dose of Fermaid O last night as well. The goal is to press this weekend.
