Ok Ok Mike
Decided to go ahead and drive - to Delicato in Manteca, CA. It was a 403 mile round trip. Left at 0500 and got home at 1400. Brought back 65 gallons of unfermented juice. The blend is 56% Allicante, 29% Syrah and 15% Rubired. The numbers are Brix 20.3, Ph 3.5 and the TA 0.74. Except for a little light on the brix everything is ok and it taste wonderful. SO, more wine wine wine wine iwne ewin eniw etc.............etc..........etc...........
This is juice and was quite cold so will have to warm it up a little bit. I will split the barrel into 2 open-top fermenters and start fermentation today or tomarrow. Then when finished will pump into a neutral oak barrel and add oak and let 'er sit for 3 months. Then rack into plastic - clean barrel and rack back into barrel for long term. Maybe!!!!
Here we are at Delicato filling our containers. There was a line about 30 cars/trucks long and I guess it never stops for the entire 9 'juice' days. They sell about 50,000 gallons in that week to homewinemakers. WOW! They also had a white blend that I tasted but did not have any containers for that. This blend was odd - 91.5% Thompson and 8.5% Symphony grapes. Was very good but did not get any.
line waiting to get in
security lets in 3 vehicles at a time
our 60 gallon barrel and a 12
just back up to the fill station hoses
brother-in-law David starting to fill
happy camper - fill fill fill
Unloaded with a tractor loader and set on a metal roller platform so we could move around on the concrete floor. Let sit overnight and checked temp today - juice temp 68 degrees. Decided to use the RC-212 yeast since it works with cooler must. Split into 2 equal containers and rehydrated the yeast and gently stirred into the juice. Covered with a towel and waiting for the 'magic' to start!!!
Some of the home winemakers getting juice were fermenting directly into wood barrels. They were old time 'makers and do not add any yeast at all. Just warm up the juice to 70 degrees ish and let the natural fermentation start on its own. SO, we decided to try this method in a 5 gallon plastic carboy with a brew belt to warm it up. SO, we will see if there is a difference. And, these ol boys do not bottle - they just pour, siphon, or chug right out of the container. Should be interesting. Let you know more later.
rrawhide
