What R you doing today?

[tonyt]

Bottled 6 gallons of Petite Verdot from barrel. Racked 6 gallons of Sicilian Syrah into barrel. Racked 6 gallons MM Megioli Amarone from primary to secondary. Pretty tired now.

 

[Flem]

Bottled 6 gallons of Petite Verdot from barrel. Racked 6 gallons of Sicilian Syrah into barrel. Racked 6 gallons MM Megioli Amarone from primary to secondary. Pretty tired now.

Is that the new barrel you're using? How do you like it?

 

[tonyt]

Is that the new barrel you're using? How do you like it?

Yes, brand new. And I love it. There are a couple of threads floating around when I was deciding what to get but here is the jest of it:

After reading barrel posts of others I decided on the Vadai barrel from Sandro. I intended to get 20 ltr so as not to need topping up wine. Sandro SOLD me a 23 ltr. It arrived in great shape and I followed his French method or barrel prep with boiling water. Had one tiny leak for about an hour then sealed itself completely. I ran the Petite Verdot in it for 8 days. The PV was already oaked but my wife and I are both oak monsters and being a brand new barrel 8 days did the trick. Now the Sicilian Syrah is in for ~20 days. It too has been oaked already.

When I ordered the barrel I had 5 batches in varying stages of bulk age. But all of them had supplemental oak added after fermentation. Either Hungarian cubes, French spirals of American spirals had been added during secondary or bulk age. As I said we are oak monsters. So most of the batches aging will have shorter than normal trips through the barrel. Kits I have started since ordering the barrel will only get the oak provided in the kit and then have several months of barrel age.

I am kind of looking forward to the barrel being neutral so I can drop cubes, staves or spirals in the barrel appropriate to the wine I am making.

I apologize for rambling on but I am kind of excited. Good thing you didn't ask me about my new grand-daughter.

 

[Flem]

Congratulations! Is this your first?
OMG, they are wonderful! I have two.

 

[tonyt]

Congratulations! Is this your first?
OMG, they are wonderful! I have two.

Barrels or Grand-daughters? Yes, to both! Just found out this weekend my son and daughter-in-law are expecting too. Maybe I'll have to get another barrel in 8 or 9 months too!

 

[Flem]

LOL, I meant granddaughters. I'm not to the barrel level---------yet.

 

[xanxer82]

Sitting at the kids doctor. Hopefully heading home soon to deep fry some chicken wings.
Its been a long rainy day and I'm tired.

 

[Rootedmotion]

Just racked 1192 gallons of our Apple Demi into a tank and cutting our vodka to proof right now.. its a warmer sunny day and im in a good mood!

 

[ibglowin]

Thats a lot of Apple!

 

[RedNeckWino]

Dam, when is the party in St. Joseph?
I just made an f-pack for my strawberry and gonna stir up a new batch of blackberry as the wife got her hands on some fruit for me. Last couple days spent welding up a 3 burner brew rack. Using 3 15 gallon kegs with the tops cut off for the pots. My brew partner got hooked up with a license and has beer on tap at a local tavern. So I get to help get this thing off the ground.

 

[ffemt128]

Waiting for coffee to be ready. My 4 y/o woke up at 2:45 sick and finally fell back to sleep at 5:40 only to wake up getting sick again. She's asleep, I'm signed into work and looking forward to her afternoon nap. That one is for me too.

 

[Runningwolf]

For the first time ever, I have all my bottles washed and labels removed. In addition to the 15 cases shown draining I have another 25 cases boxed up. I'll be picking up another 30-50 cases in April after "Wine on the Lake" in Erie,PA

 

[Lurker]

It looks like Dan is the Chief Bottle Washer.

 

[Runningwolf]

It looks like Dan is the Chief Bottle Washer.

LOL Richard it took me a week to do these last two trees. I can clean 2 1/2 cases at a time in my sink.

 

[tonyt]

You have about 25 cases in carboys, 40 or so cases clean and fixin to get 30 to 50 cases more. Sounds like you need to make lots more wine.

 

[ibglowin]

Thats my type of Xmas Tree!

 

[djrockinsteve]

Just removed the cherries from 2 buckets of must. To get all the juice you can, I place all the fruit into another bucket. I snap on a lid tightly except one snap. Then I invert it to drain back into one of my musts.

I can get upwards of an additional quart of juice that would have been lost. I do not squeeze the fruit, just let it drip. It's finished in about 20 minutes. Halfway thru I'll shake the bucket a bit to free up some stuck juice.

I use a tupperware seive with a handle. It's very sturdy and works well. Great for pasta too.

 

[Runningwolf]

You have about 25 cases in carboys, 40 or so cases clean and fixin to get 30 to 50 cases more. Sounds like you need to make lots more wine.

Ordering my Chilean tomorrow. Actually trying to slow down and git under control before next fall harvest.

 

[ffemt128]

Ordered Beakers and Pipettes on Amazon. I'll be ordering my Chilean Juice on the 11th from Consumers Produce.

I should be getting my goodie bag from Wade this afternoon. Can't wait. Unfortunately I have nothing that needs filtered at this point. I'll have to run down to Busy Beaver and get some PVC pipe to construct my stoage canisters for the filters. Whoo Hooo, gotta love getting toys even if they are small ones.

 

[ffemt128]

Mr Brown (UPS) just arrived. Thanks Wade.