Moved on to the Koch Cab. Vacuum racking to carboy using a racking cane inside of my gajillion hole pipe. Works like a charm!!!
Southern Crush Day!
- Thread starter Johnd
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Ur gonna have a lot of skins for kits, that's for sure!
The aftermath of press day, 9 gallons PS, 10 gallons merlot, 15 gallons Koch Cab, and 19 gallons cab Clone 169. All bubbling along peacefully, headed to dry bliss. This one man show is whooped.
Now for a little football...... Geaux Tigers!!!!!!!!!
Now for a little football...... Geaux Tigers!!!!!!!!!
That's almost as much as I have down in the basement at this point. Quite the productive Fall for you @Johnd !
I've got 7 carboys and 4 barrels full in the wine room. Getting stoked for some frozen Spanish varietals, which I'll order shortly.
I wish I had some funds available, but some of the diabetics bills came due all of a sudden, so I think I'm done until next Spring (Chilean harvest). But I can't complain, I have 81 gallons worth to eventually bottle, so the pipeline is pretty full. I'm just having a lot of fun planning and making batches, need to spend more time bottling and drinking them and giving them away. Not a bad lot in general.
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That's pretty sweet @ceeaton, 400 bottles in the pipeline, nothing to be sad about there!! I agree, the planning and preparing, looking at the available varietals, big part of the fun.
It was hard watching you guys getting your grapes and must knowing mine were at least a month out. Now that it's all pressed and in carboys, I'm wishing for a little more. Itching to run my first chromo in a couple weeks to see how the co-inoculation is moving along.
It was hard watching you guys getting your grapes and must knowing mine were at least a month out. Now that it's all pressed and in carboys, I'm wishing for a little more. Itching to run my first chromo in a couple weeks to see how the co-inoculation is moving along.
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We weren't pushing it in your face on purpose, but as I've gone back over the threads I can see that if you couldn't get any fresh grapes at the time it could be a little demoralizing. It's your turn to turn the tides on us, it really seems like your enjoying this Fall's ride, so keep riding the wave (for us poor people who are waiting for next Spring...).
I'm listening to some Eric Clapton and drinking too much beer, so my demeanor is steadily improving.
Didn't mean to insinuate any face shoving if it was taken that way, the excitement was just infectious and I was ready to go. Truth is I guess, in the lives of the '16 wines, it made no difference, other than some extended frozen / cold maceration for me. Fresh grapes are possible here, just not practical, refrigerated shipping from Cali area is a killer, and an even worse drive. Local varieties, meh.
If it's in the cards for you at all, the prices on the Spanish wines is pretty dang good, better than the Chileans for sure, and looking at the numbers, they are similar numbers to what we just saw for the Cali reds, high Brix and tasty, pH's in the 3.6-3.8 range.
Think I'm going to skip the Chilean run this year, found the grapes to be early picked and lacking flavor, which I understand to be typical. My guy over at Musto told me that the way they are shipped with a constant infusion of SO2, means that many arrive at 40-50 ppm of SO2, and if you crush and sulfite those grapes, MLF is sometimes incredibly challenging as the bound SO2 becomes problematic.
At any rate, cheers!!
stickman
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I'm not getting my frozen grapes until first week in December, but I'm getting a little practice running this fresh batch of Sangiovese for a friend. I'm also enjoying watching everyone dig into this years harvest. I'm planning on bottling our 2015 Cab (33 gallons) this Friday.
I've been eyeballing this thread for a while. I think Momma would kill me if a took over the kitchen making wine. But, hokie geeze, 43 gallons of wine is a major undertaking.
Will be interesting to see your blending notes.
Will be interesting to see your blending notes.
My post press look back. Did a little SG testing this morning to see where the wines are, and everything is in order.
The PS, which was the fastest fermenter with BM 4x4, is pretty much still and sitting at .995, will have to get it off of the gross lees in a day or so.
The merlot, in second place with RC 212, is still a little busy and sitting at 1.001.
Both the Koch and Clone 169 cabs, BM 4x4, are down to 1.010. They're a little behind, as it took longer for the bigger fermenters to warm up.
All in all pretty pleased with AF, no off smells at all, got some good temp spikes into the upper 80's on each for a few days, and all sitting at 75F now, good temp for MLB.
Pressing was long, but not arduous, 11 hours from start to sitting on the couch after a shower. Guess it'd be quicker if I had help, a bigger press, and didn't fluff and repress every cake. Larger batches are less work for the yield.
The 169 (largest batch to date at 25 gallons) was nice, vacuum racked 2 full carboys of beautiful clear wine, almost no lees, got another 7 from pressing. Took about the same amount of time as the batches that yielded 7 / 8 gallons. Bigger batches for me.
Tastewise, I am very pleased with all of the wines, very big fruity wines with nice tannins, the 169 is really tannic and looks like it's going to need lots of barrel and aging time.
The PS, which was the fastest fermenter with BM 4x4, is pretty much still and sitting at .995, will have to get it off of the gross lees in a day or so.
The merlot, in second place with RC 212, is still a little busy and sitting at 1.001.
Both the Koch and Clone 169 cabs, BM 4x4, are down to 1.010. They're a little behind, as it took longer for the bigger fermenters to warm up.
All in all pretty pleased with AF, no off smells at all, got some good temp spikes into the upper 80's on each for a few days, and all sitting at 75F now, good temp for MLB.
Pressing was long, but not arduous, 11 hours from start to sitting on the couch after a shower. Guess it'd be quicker if I had help, a bigger press, and didn't fluff and repress every cake. Larger batches are less work for the yield.
The 169 (largest batch to date at 25 gallons) was nice, vacuum racked 2 full carboys of beautiful clear wine, almost no lees, got another 7 from pressing. Took about the same amount of time as the batches that yielded 7 / 8 gallons. Bigger batches for me.
Tastewise, I am very pleased with all of the wines, very big fruity wines with nice tannins, the 169 is really tannic and looks like it's going to need lots of barrel and aging time.
I'm happy to say, that the kitchen, with good prep and cleaning (remember the 7 P's), has been returned to its former glory, and the rug you were all so worried about is blemish free!
As for blending, I'm planning to do a little, would like to bottle 2/3 of each varietal as is, and do some blending with the remaining third. Cab, merlot and PS certainly give good options........
Racked the PS and Merlot off of the gross lees yesterday evening, not much AF activity in either and didn't want them in there too long. Tasted the PS, very tart, very pronounced tannins, MLF and time should bring those both back down to earth.
The two cabs are still a little active in the carboys, right at 1.000, the lees seem to be settling down now that the AF has begun to slow. Will probably rack them either tonite or tomorrow nite to get them cleaned up a bit.
UPDATE: Racked the rest of the gang this evening, ended up with 44.5 gallons of wine. Although I'm sure to lose a little more in racking off of the fine lees as well as some angels share to the barrels, I'm sitting at 68.5% yield. 65% is the number I use when calculating chem additions, which looks to be pretty much on track for the 2016 vintage.
The two cabs are still a little active in the carboys, right at 1.000, the lees seem to be settling down now that the AF has begun to slow. Will probably rack them either tonite or tomorrow nite to get them cleaned up a bit.
UPDATE: Racked the rest of the gang this evening, ended up with 44.5 gallons of wine. Although I'm sure to lose a little more in racking off of the fine lees as well as some angels share to the barrels, I'm sitting at 68.5% yield. 65% is the number I use when calculating chem additions, which looks to be pretty much on track for the 2016 vintage.
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It's been 18 days since I pitched VP41 during alcoholic fermentation, and since I like the smell of the developing solution, ran a chromo to see how the coinnoculation was working out. Looks like the PS still has a little time to go, merlot getting close to being done, and all of the Koch and Clone 169 cab carboys are done. Second pic is the chromo I ran before adding MLB.
Sigh of relief, and pretty stoked that some wines are done just a short couple of weeks from pressing. The cabs will sit another two weeks before another racking, sulfite, and some pH / TA readings and / or adjustments if needed.
Sigh of relief, and pretty stoked that some wines are done just a short couple of weeks from pressing. The cabs will sit another two weeks before another racking, sulfite, and some pH / TA readings and / or adjustments if needed.
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
After bottling three kits that had been hanging around waiting for a while, I ran what I hoped would be my last chromo from the fall grapes. Needed to check the PS and Merlot, which were a little slower than the cabs, as well as some small jugs that didn't get tested last time around. I also tossed the Bravado in there, since it was fermented on skins that were in an MLF environment.
PS is done, that's good. The Merlot is still showing malic because, well, it's Merlot, won't sulfite this one with the others. The Bravado has malic also, so I'll keep an eye on it to see what happens there....
PS is done, that's good. The Merlot is still showing malic because, well, it's Merlot, won't sulfite this one with the others. The Bravado has malic also, so I'll keep an eye on it to see what happens there....
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
The Bravado should have Malic. From what I've seen, kits are high in Malic.
Yes, it should, but I'm checking it because it was fermented with pressed skins from this fall's grapes, which were inoculated with MLB just after alcoholic fermentation started. If the MLB survived the freeze/thaw, the kit may go through MLF. Frankly, I hope it does.
But wouldn't that put it out of wack with the acid balance? Guess you could always add some more tartaric to liven it up.
