Day 1

[JONJON]

Day 1 of our first ever wine making session!

We got 20 boxes (360kg) of Shriaz grapes form Swan Hill, Victoria, Australia.

After de-stemming and crushing we added 20g Pot Met and a packet of Enartis Enzyme Colour plus.

Day 2 (today 21/03/22) I added 50g EZ Ferm 44 wine yeast and 20g nuriferm arom plus. The must was 23C, pH 3.95, Baume 13.

Does this all sound good so far? Is there anything else I should do?

Oh and punching down, do you just do it a couple of times or spend 15 minutes doing it?

TIA

Jonjon

 

[Rice_Guy]

Are you doing a natural fermentation or adding yeast?
,,, you are at twenty four hours.

 

[Johnd]

@Rice_Guy , I believe EZ Ferm is his yeast, look in the first post.

@JONJON , looks like you’re off to a good start. Only thing you might consider is working that pH down a few points, it’ll make sulfiting and spoilage concerns easier down the road.

 

[mainshipfred]

I agree with John that you might want to consider lowering the pH. As far as punching down all you want to do is get all the cap wet. Try letting the punch tool hit the bottom and crush the seeds.

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

Those little guys are thinking “crikey, we’re going to have a LOT of grape juice”

 

[Chuck E]

@JONJON I punch down at least twice a day.

 

[NorCal]

Looks like you have some good helpers. I too would drop the pH down to 3.6 - 3.7. Add tartaric acid a little at a time, as the change in pH may not be linear to your additions, due to the buffering capability of the must.

 

[mainshipfred]

I agree with John that you might want to consider lowering the pH. As far as punching down all you want to do is get all the cap wet. Try letting the punch tool hit the bottom and crush the seeds.

I went back and reread my post. Try NOT letting the punch tool touch the bottom and crush the seeds

 

[JONJON]

Are you doing a natural fermentation or adding yeast?
,,, you are at twenty four hours.

Hey, I've add EZ firm 44 wine yeast

 

[JONJON]

@Rice_Guy , I believe EZ Ferm is his yeast, look in the first post.

@JONJON , looks like you’re off to a good start. Only thing you might consider is working that pH down a few points, it’ll make sulfiting and spoilage concerns easier down the road.

Hi JohnD, what do I need to add to bring the pH down? And how much? TIA

 

[JONJON]

I agree with John that you might want to consider lowering the pH. As far as punching down all you want to do is get all the cap wet. Try letting the punch tool hit the bottom and crush the seeds.

Thanks I made a broom shaft and screwed a lid to the bottom, I'll try to take a photo. The cap is pretty solid eh! Been punching down at 0600 and again at 1630. The wine is at my workplace so can't punch down later, is that okay?

 

[JONJON]

I went back and reread my post. Try NOT letting the punch tool touch the bottom and crush the seeds

Got it thanks

 

[JONJON]

Looks like you have some good helpers. I too would drop the pH down to 3.6 - 3.7. Add tartaric acid a little at a time, as the change in pH may not be linear to your additions, due to the buffering capability of the must.

Thanks NorCal, yeah the boys were a great help and loved eating them, lol! So roughly how many grams for the amount I have? 5g 10g 50g? Do I just add as is or dissolve in must? I'm told I'll get around 200 litres from 360kg, someone else said 220? TIA

 

[JONJON]

@JONJON I punch down at least twice a day.

Thanks I'm punching down in the morning and late afternoon.

 

[Johnd]

Hi JohnD, what do I need to add to bring the pH down? And how much? TIA

As @NorCal said above, we use tartaric acid to increase the acidity of must, though it’s not so easy to do once fermentation has started. In making any additions, its best to go slow, I’ve never seen two grape batches react the same to pH adjustments.

 

[JONJON]

Day 7

Today I checked the SG and it was at 1.000 with 8 Brix and pH 3.98

I bought tartaric acid to bring the pH down to between 3.4-3.6, when should I add?

Should I go to 0.990 before I rack?

What should I do next in the scheme of things?

Cheers,

Jon

 

[Chuck E]

@JONJON You should rack when the S.G. does not change for 3 days in a row. You can use a program called FermCalc to figure out how much Tartaric acid. I think I would wait until I was off the gross lees to deal with the acid.