New Member Info

[texasermd]

Welcome and Holy $%^*! Looks like your nest egg just went into fermentation! What is that mounted on your wall behind your desk? Some wine making equipment store has a new friend!

I'm note sure what you are referring to. The digital temp control is
mounted on the wall above the freezer. On the desk is the blue vacuum
asiprator used in the medical/dental profession.


This is a different pic of the desk area. Some of the most commonly used<?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />
chemicals are on the top shelf, the apparatus for determining free sulphur
dioxide as well as the burettes for titrating TA are on the bench. The green
tank on the lower right is argon for purging carboys of air before transfer.

If you look on the lower left, you can see blue and red PEX pipe coming
from the laundry room to supply water for the sink. I put a "T" in each
one near the sink and you can see the braided hose with sprayers
hanging on the side of the sink - one cold and one hot.








You are right about a few happy vendors...check out the glass delivery:

And a pic of some of the lab ware I get to use....

It's all for the greater good of humanity is what I'm thinking.

 

[Dean]

All along with a HP ZD series laptop! You said you had not purchased your bottling equipment yet. I'd suggest an ENOLMatic bottler with 2 or 3 filter housings. That way you can place them all in line at 2 micron, .5 micron, and for those times you want some residual sweetness, .25 micron, filters.

Corkers, well, you could go with a couple of italian floor corkers, but, I'm going to go out on a limb here and think that maybe you might want something more automated. I'd suggest a pneumatic corker. They work very fast, and it looks like you might need to bottle faster with 200 gallons. For shrink caps, you might want to go with a unit like Wades here on the board. Just search Wade and shrink cap to get a few hits on his unit. Otherwise, you'd have to go with a full on commercial foil wrapper.

I'm still looking to go commercial here in British Columbia, but it's a whole lot easier to do here than in the US.

 

[texasermd]

Thank you for the info. I had looked into the Enolmatic and like what I have read. The price is good, to, compared to the other option I have considered - stainless cartridge filter units.
Can you forward a URL - I did a search for Wade and Shrink Cap and didn't get helpful info.


Also, why is going commercial less of a challenge in BC?

 

[grapeman]

I take one afternoon off and look at all the action I miss! Why don't you just move up here and I won't have to go out and buy all that stuff! With a little luck I will have more than enough grapes to fill all your equipment and what I currently have also. It's all very nice, and I especially like the fact that you got a lot of lab equipment and glassware to do it right from the beginning!

 

[Wade E]

Thank you for the info. I had looked into the Enolmatic and like what I have read. The price is good, to, compared to the other option I have considered - stainless cartridge filter units.
Can you forward a URL - I did a search for Wade and Shrink Cap and didn't get helpful info.


Also, why is going commercial less of a challenge in BC?

Texmd, this is a horizontal encapsulator and has a heating element in
there and does the job very fast. Let it heat up for 2 minutes
initially then put the capsule on top of the bottle rest it on there
and slide it up into the element touching the top of the bottle to the
top of the unit and take it out cause its done and repeat without
waiting caus once its warmed up you can just shove them all in as fast
as humanilly possible basically.

 

[rgecaprock]

Welcome texasermd,


Are you sure you haven't taken over the emergency room and turned it into a winery. Everything looks so sterile and clean and ready for action.

You have a wonderful winery there and I know where you will be when not helping the sick.

Glad you have joined the forum and we will be anxious to watch your progress and enjoy your pictures and hopefully try your wines next year at Winestock 2008.

I'm in Houston and work for a Family Practice doc for the past 18 years.

Once again......W E L C O M E !!!!!!

Ramona

 

[rgecaprock]

Venom,


A nice WELCOME to you also. Glad to have you here and will love to know what wines you have goingas well asgetting to know you.

Ramona

 

[Wade E]

Texdoc, I see clearly now that it is a black peg board. I was thinking that it was some elaborate widescreen wine inventory thing a ma jigga!

 

[Dean]

Also, why is going commercial less of a challenge in BC?

We only really have to deal with our provincial liquor distribution laws. There really isn't much in the way of federal licenses or red tape to go through as there is in the US. We also have our Vintners Quality Association (VQA), that if you join, does a lot of that legwork for you, and also enables you to get massive savings on insurance, supplies, etc because a lot of it is done on a group buy basis.

In general, Canadian liquor laws are a lot less all encompassing, and are actually pretty relaxed when compared to US laws. Provincial legistlation, on the other hand is quite restrictive! We still cannot sell wine/beer/liquor in shops other than those dedicated to the sale of that. You will not find beer, wine, or spirits at a grocery store, gas station, etc. Wine and Beer can be found in smaller non-goverment owned shops in BC, but spirits are still only sold through the Government stores themselves.

 

[Venom]

Ramona,

I'm Texasermds helper and i just wanted to loggon to see how the meggage borad was going.

 

[PolishWineP]

Ramona,

I'm Texasermds helper and i just wanted to loggon to see how the meggage borad was going.

How did you end up being his helper? Are you related? Do you get get paid? I'm just a Nosy Parker asking the question that others will wonder.

 

[Venom]

Im related to him; and no i do not get paid.

 

[texasermd]

Also, why is going commercial less of a challenge in BC?

We only really have to deal with our provincial liquor distribution laws. There really isn't much in the way of federal licenses or red tape to go through as there is in the US. We also have our Vintners Quality Association (VQA), that if you join, does a lot of that legwork for you, and also enables you to get massive savings on insurance, supplies, etc because a lot of it is done on a group buy basis.

In general, Canadian liquor laws are a lot less all encompassing, and are actually pretty relaxed when compared to US laws. Provincial legislation, on the other hand is quite restrictive! We still cannot sell wine/beer/liquor in shops other than those dedicated to the sale of that. You will not find beer, wine, or spirits at a grocery store, gas station, etc. Wine and Beer can be found in smaller non-government owned shops in BC, but spirits are still only sold through the Government stores themselves.

Thank you for the information. I am actually interested in the distilled spirits side as well. First, I would be able to produce my own brandy to fortify my port, but I am interested in other distilled spirits as well. So much so that I incorporated under Bluebonnet Winery &amp; Distillery earlier this year just in case I decide to go that way in the future (my wife came up with the name)


The city I live in allows sales of beer and wine and a winery can sell its own wine directly. The next city over is wet for alcohol sales as well. That would not allow me to sell directly BUT the Texas legislature had before it a bill that would allow small distilleries to directly sell up to 1000 gallons of each spirit they produced in a year. It died in session but it could be reintroduced of course.


I also bought several web sites such as http://www.BlueBonnetSpirits.com
as well. I also delved into label making.....tell me what you think.

 

[texasermd]

Welcome texasermd,


Are you sure you haven't taken over the emergency room and turned it into a winery. Everything looks so sterile and clean and ready for action.

You have a wonderful winery there and I know where you will be when not helping the sick.

Glad you have joined the forum and we will be anxious to watch your progress and enjoy your pictures and hopefully try your wines next year at Winestock 2008.

I'm in Houston and work for a Family Practice doc for the past 18 years.

Once again......W E L C O M E !!!!!!

Ramona

Thank you for the warm welcome. I am actually off the ER in a few minutes. The weekends are always exciting. We did have a little excitement at the house today as well. We performed a few "operations" on the front lawn and by the look on the kids faces, I don't think general surgery is their bag. Tell me what you think...

 

[Wade E]

D.O.A.

Those are some great looking mug shots there Doc.

 

[Bill B]

Fantastic winery Doc. Very nice label. I too am thinking of geting into some distilling as I love Brandy keeps us posted.
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[NorthernWinos]

Those kids don't look very excited about their jack-o-lanterns....

 

[Wade E]

Sorry, forgot to add that it is a great label doc!
Edited by: wade

 

[Waldo]

Looks like yuh got ya a mighty fine setup there. If you decide that wine making is not really your forte thats one yard sale I dont wanna miss.

Welcome to the forum and look forward to watching your progressionEdited by: Waldo

 

[texasermd]

Looks like yuh got ya a mighty fine setup there. If you decide that wine making is not really your forte thats one yard sale I dont wanna miss.

Welcome to the forum and look forward to watching your progression

Thanks! Sure thing, you will be the first to know ;-)