So, I don’t post on here very often - if at all in my 3-4 years being on here - but, I have thoroughly enjoyed, and appreciated all of the wisdom and knowledge from all of you so thank you for always guiding so many of us.
I live in the Southwest burbs of Chicago, so growing my own grapes means it would have to be some type of hybrid : I have Frontenac grapes, not a ton of vines as this is a backyard garden, only a handful. This past season was a challenging one as we had a LOT of rain back in the Spring which affected production, and then - as others on here have conveyed: frustration with birds and squirrels…smh…man….
That said, I ended up with 1/3 the amount of grapes I harvested back in 2023, disappointing indeed.
So, to compensate, on the Saturday after Labor Day I went to a popular Italian food market in the Chicago area called Caputo’s as they had just received a large shipment of various California grapes. I don’t see much about Barbera on here, so I decided to grab 2 lugs to combine with my limited amount of Frontenac. I didn’t have the opportunity to crush anything right away, so I bagged them all and froze them until I had time.
Ended up with roughly 110-115 lbs of grapes in total.
Sept 27th was crush day, and I had 2 6-gallon buckets ready to go, and for extra flavor/complexity I tossed in some black cherries and Black Plums.
Luckily, I was able to split the total between both buckets evenly getting about 4 1/2 gallons of must in each bucket. Tossed the K-Meta in and called it a night since it was already 2am.
So, the next morning - the 28th - I measured both buckets, and - interestingly - there were slight variations between each bucket, but not much:
Bucket 1 - let’s call it : 25% brix, pH 3.38, TA 7.5
Bucket 2 : 25% brix, pH 3.26, TA 7.2
I assumed the additions of the cherries/plums affected one bucket more than the other.
I mixed sugar with 1 16oz bottle of purified drinking water - and after cooling dumped that into the bucket - and did that for each bucket. In addition to that, I added 1/2 tsp of Potassium Bicarbonate to help raise pH & lower some of the acidity.
Checked numbers later that day and had:
Bucket 1: 25% brix, pH 3.42, TA 7.0
Bucket 2: 25% brix, pH 3.35, TA 6.7
Added Pectic Enzyme, powdered tannins, and some Fermaid K to both buckets
Next morning, the 29th, I started to inoculate the Yeast, a packet of EC1118 for each bucket.
Followed instructions and then pitched them in. Gave it a day, and Monday night performed the first “punch down” around 10pm.
Tuesday, 10/1, in afternoon, decided to check #s again:
Bucket 1: 18% brix, pH 3.37, TA 6.9, temp 74*
Bucket 2: 18% brix, pH 3.0, TA 6.6, temp 74*
Concern about drop in pH to both buckets settles in, though drop in acidity eases that some.
Wednesday morning 10/2, tossed in some Fermaid O to both buckets:
Bucket 1: 14% brix, pH 3.39, TA 6.9, Temp 73*
Bucket 2: 14% brix, pH 3.32, TA 6.6, Temp 73*
Just worried about punching down over next few days. Things settled down and not much activity by Sunday night 10/5:
Bucket 1: 8% brix (which I found out is 1.03 SG), pH 3.46, TA 6.8
Bucket 2: 8% brix, pH 3.44, TA 6.5
Decided to press by hand, had a 5-gallon carboy and a 1-gallon jug ready to go.
Not gonna lie: a tad disappointed that I was only able to net what I got, and then knowing that when I rack off the gross lees, I will be lucky to have 4 Gallons probably. Oh well, it’s fun and it’s a learning experience.
If anyone has any thoughts, or suggestions, about how things went, please feel free to chime in as I would like to learn as much as possible.
I look forward to reading everyone’s posts and learning about their journeys as well!! SALUD!!
