Anybody use wild yeast method??

[HillPeople]

I agree with Turock. Looks like your wine is in a 6 gal. carboy, so rack/degas into a 5 gallon right now to get rid of all that headspace and off the lees and add 50 ppm of k-meta (about 6-7 Camden tablets crushed and dissolved in a little wine).
And yes- sanitize absolutely everything that comes in contact with your wine- new carboy, racking cane and tubing, new airlock etc. Put it in a cool dark place and forget about it for a while. You can ask some questions about clarifying in a couple of months!

 

[nayrea143]

You are SO close to dry stage---I think I'd get some meta on it. Rack it first if there are alot of lees at the bottom. Add about 50 PPM of SO2 to it, and in a couple months I'd add some more because a good portion of the initial dose will become bound. Too bad we don't know a PH on this wine because that's how you determine how much meta your wine needs.

Ok. I will do that!!! So should I be looking into something to test the ph?? U are awesome!!!!

 

[nayrea143]

I agree with Turock. Looks like your wine is in a 6 gal. carboy, so rack/degas into a 5 gallon right now to get rid of all that headspace and off the lees and add 50 ppm of k-meta (about 6-7 Camden tablets crushed and dissolved in a little wine). And yes- sanitize absolutely everything that comes in contact with your wine- new carboy, racking cane and tubing, new airlock etc. Put it in a cool dark place and forget about it for a while. You can ask some questions about clarifying in a couple of months!

Thank u!!!! I love the step by step directions. I promise I will have more knowledge for my next batch. I am chasing my tail with this batch bc I changed my method/plan for this wine mid way and I am trying to play catch up!!! U guys have been amazing!!!

 

[HillPeople]

Well- in regards to changing your method/plan- not really too much. Just passing along good info for future reference and trying to make your batch of au naturel drinkable after all your effort.
One thing that perhaps wasn't mentioned is that there are a lot of "old country" vintners that have been making wine the way you are going about it for centuries. But they have the advantage of fermenting in a winery that has been in use for a very long time. Yeasts and bacteria become established residents in those old wineries, and they are more than willing to multiply and go forth. Us newbies (less than a 100 year old winery) don't have that advantage, so we have to rely on a little chemistry to get a consistent and drinkable product. Adding K-Meta to your wine prior to bulk aging is not only insurance against unwanted little buggers multiplying and ruining everything, but will actually bring some of the dominant flavors and aromas to the forefront, like the ones you first tasted after racking. Hopefully they were pleasant and your finished wine will be even better, as in more "gathered together", smoother and mellowed.

 

[Stressbaby]

It is very refreshing to reread this thread and see the learning and sharing of knowledge.

 

[Turock]

I'm sure there was alot of bad wines consumed in ancient times. They just didn't know how BAD they were because they couldn't control the ferments as well as we can today to get better results.

The best way to take a PH reading is with a PH meter. If you think you're going to stay in this hobby, a meter would be a good purchase. We PH test every must we work with, and because we work with alot of fruit wines which almost always need PH adjustment because our soil here is acidic. But even if you don't have to adjust PH very often, you should always know the PH of your wine so that you know how much SO2 it needs. PH papers are quite inaccurate--and difficult to read on red wines. The PH on the Merlot is probably toward the high side, with the initial brix you reported. The PH is probably around 3.6 or so. That would mean you need about 60 PPM of free SO2. Look into a meter--be sure the 4.0 and 7.0 standards come with it for calibration. If you get one, let us know what the PH is.

Oh--we're not all that awesome. When you've been making wine for 25 years, you learn a couple things.

 

[Turock]

Ya know?-----I'm kind of concerned that you were reporting a metallic flavor. Metallic flavor is the sign of bad oxidation. There are things you can do to treat an oxidized wine but......

Be sure to get either 1 campden tab or 1/4 tsp of meta in that carboy right away.

 

[nayrea143]

Ya know?-----I'm kind of concerned that you were reporting a metallic flavor. Metallic flavor is the sign of bad oxidation. There are things you can do to treat an oxidized wine but...... Be sure to get either 1 campden tab or 1/4 tsp of meta in that carboy right away.

I know. Me too!!!!! and I am on the sulfite mission. Do u have a recommendation or preference to type??? I really value your opinion

 

[grapeman]

I prefer powdered potassium met-bisulfite as it is easier to measure for a carboy size and there is no need to crush it before using. A 1/4 tespoonful mixed in a bit of wine or even just a bit of water makes addition easy. It would take about 3-4 tablets to get the same dose. One tablet does a gallon at a bit higher rate than the 1/4 teaspoon.

 

[Turock]

I thought campden tabs were 50 PPM of sulfite. But I agree that for dosing a carboy, the powdered meta is so much easier and it doesn't have the binders in it that the tablets have--that makes it easier to get it into solution.

Stressbaby--Yeah, this has been quite an adventure for sure!! The new winemakers on this site keep things interesting.

 

[nayrea143]

Great!!! Powder it is!!! I need a glass if wine after all this work. Lol. On my way to Seneca wine trail. Watkins glen!!! Can't wait!!!

 

[Turock]

Powder is really more useful when making meta solution for sanitizing too.

Believe me--when you study some more on the grapes you use--get more experience--follow with good winemaking technique and understand some of the science--it will be MUCH easier. When you have control over your ferments, your results are so much better.

Have fun on the wine tasting tour--we expect a full report--LOL.

 

[nayrea143]

Thanks for the pep talk!!! Cheers to that!!

 

[Turock]

It might be fun for you to make some wine from "easy to work with" grapes like Niagara and Concord. These are our good old native grapes. Niagara is a very fruity white that you can blend with nearly anything--we make several versions of it and it flies off the rack. Our Niagara/lime and Niagara/raspberry are favorites for white wine drinkers.

These are non-fussy grapes to ferment. A great way to get some experience under you, and you'll have great results. You've got to have some successes with this hobby, or else you can get frustrated. Just hang in there--it will get better.

 

[HillPeople]

The Campden tablets I use are .52 g and provide 30 ppm/gal. of free SO2.
There is 1.2g in 1/4 tsp.
So 2 tablets provide around 60 ppm/gal. SO2.

 

[Turock]

Thanks,Hill. I remember--way back when--that the campden tabs had 50PPM. Maybe they changed it. I'm gonna have to take a look at that.

 

[Turock]

I just looked at the campden tabs---It adds 75 PPM of sulfate at the rate of 1 tab per gallon.

 

[nayrea143]

So my wine weekend was fabulous. Although I must report that their big reds were pretty terrible. They say the growing season for the reds is too short to really get a good grape. Their whites however were delicious. I did have their niagra and concord. Very tasty but I would never drink cases of it. Lol. It was so busy it was hard to really get any info. I will be visiting my friends winery soon and I will hopefully get all kinda of info one guy did tell me a cool trick with a penny to determine if it's a copper problem in my wine which is correctable.

 

[Turock]

I can see then that you really favor the big reds. How were their reds terrible? Which wines were these?

Well, the deal with the penny is if you have H2S on a wine. Some people report stirring their wine with a copper pipe--or using pennies. But this is not the recommended method because you can get an unhealthy dose of copper by doing that. If you ever have H2S issues, you should use a product called Reduless. It has only enough copper to do the job and will not over dose the wine with copper. If Reduless doesn't work, then you have to go to copper sulfate which also requires a test kit to find the right amount to use.

But if you do good nutrient management with your yeasts, you'll never have H2S issues. Next year will be our 25th season of making wine. We are working on wine from June thru Oct so it's quite a few wines. And in all that time, we've never had H2S issues because we learned from the start to always manage our yeast nutrient.

 

[nayrea143]

They were almost bitter. Some were good well so so. They had some amazing whites tho. The guy was telling me to put a penny in my hand and run some of the wine on it. And if the metallic smell/taste goes away then it's a copper problem and I think he said the chemical u said. In my defense I had been drinking for a whole weekend. Things are blurry. Lol