Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
You pressing on that rug too? 
Southern Crush Day!
- Thread starter Johnd
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No, the fermenters will get rolled into the kitchen for the pressing process, it's nice to be right next to the sink and have lots of countertop space. The press basket gets wrapped with saran wrap to stop those pesky little high pressure streams of juice from spraying all over the kitchen.
Too much work to move the couches off of the rug, roll it up and move it out of the area.
Too much work to move the couches off of the rug, roll it up and move it out of the area.
You know garages and back patios make wonderful places to do this kind of stuff! LOL
Point well made, depending upon where you live. Down here near hell, the high temps are still hitting the upper 80's, ranking up with the warmest October / early November on record. Although we purportedly have a "cold" front coming for the weekend, my first pressing will be prior to that, A/C work for me when the temps are like that!!! Might be able to do the garage by the time the bigger batches of cab are ready on Saturday / Sunday.
Holy crap!!! I literally laughed out loud at my desk! I'm pretty sure that you have too much time on your hands, but it's a very nice idea, extravagant, but nice!!
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Been doing lots of mental gyrations, talking to some winemakers in CA and two here locally, and came to a decision. A little under 2/3 of the way through AF and under 10% ABV, tonite I rehydrated VP 41 with Acti ML and inoculated all of my wines. Hit them with the second dose of Fermaid K just before, and OptiMalo afterwards. Feeling pretty good about the timing and giving this the old college try.
Nice you are willing to take the hit for the rest of us. Will be watching with anticipation of it working like clockwork!
I do have a fallback plan, whole additional round of MLB, Acti and Opti ready to go post fermentation. I am convinced that for my batch of wines, which will ultimately be pushing the ABV limits, that getting it established and operating in a friendlier environment will be beneficial, but also believe it'll be just fine post AF as well, so I decided to experiment..........
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
Take a chromatography. (wishing I was in the habit of doing that at the start)
Great minds think alike, I'll be doing one as soon as the kids go to bed.
Baseline Chromo for the Californians. Not sure why I put the samples above the "x", but it made everything ride a little high.
The PS looks a little funny because I got a little spot of wine on the upper right side of the PS tartaric spot and it trailed all of the way up.
Plenty of malic to munch on, the little buggers are well fed and should be happy.
The PS looks a little funny because I got a little spot of wine on the upper right side of the PS tartaric spot and it trailed all of the way up.
Plenty of malic to munch on, the little buggers are well fed and should be happy.
I like how the "red stain" part of the test that takes a ride up the test paper with the different acids gives you an indication to the red inkiness of the wine being tested. Shows your Merlot as the lightest and the Petit Sirah as the darkest. Noticed that when I ran my Zin and @jgmann67 's PS, the PS was darker hands down.
Did a little SG and temp work on the wines last nite, the two larger batches are now down between 1.035 and 1.040, two smaller around 1.015. By Saturday morning I expect the smaller batches to be getting pretty dry, and larger down to the 1.005 range, so looks like tomorrow morning will be press day. Looking forward to getting these guys into glass and ordering my next victims, gonna do a couple of varietals from Grapemasters, the Tempranillo and one other TBD variety.
Sounds like you'll be getting ready to press!
Sounds like you'll be getting ready to press!
That's two in row Mike, that's some funny sh*t!! These wines are a little hot, but not that hot! I pictured the look on my wife's face when she came out of the bedroom in the morning to see that figure hunched over the wine press. She already thinks I'm crazy, but that would put her over the top!
Even the misting system wouldn't keep me cool in that getup.
Ready to rumble!!! You'll notice that I'm using a dropcloth this year!
Reminds me of finger painting in grade school. Someone (I wonder who) always managed to get some paint far enough away to miss the tarp. Once they made a mistake and let me got to the bathroom with my hands full of paint. I think they called my Mom and sent me home that day (so that my teacher wouldn't end my life a bit early)!
PS done, pressing the merlot. Not worried about neatness with the dropcloth down, smells wonderful in here! If I could just keep the dog from licking the spillage........guess she'll sleep well.
