What R you doing today?

[Julie]

I took my wife out for an early birthday lunch at Luva Bella's and picked up 11 buckets of juice while we were there. I managed to get all of the buckets down into the basement but it gets harder to do every time I have to do it. I'm either going to have to rig up a transfer pump or move the winery out into my garage. Those buckets are heavy and I needed a nap after lugging them all down to the basement.

No kidding!!!! I'm right there with you buddy, and they call this "an old man's hobby"!

Roflmao, you two need to have your driveway level with your basement!

 

[Runningwolf]

Julie that would be a dream. Even if I had a back entrance with only half a set of stairs would be good.

 

[plowboy]

Carrying things downstates is the easy part. Going up however, not to much.

As for what I'm doing today. I'm enjoying the first weekend I have had off in a long time. The new job is going great. In the wine department I'm watching super kleer work it's magic. The apple is almost transparent and the skittles is getting there, a far cry from the milky liquid it use to be. Should rack it off the sediment in the next day or so. Then run them through the filter. Happy times. And yes, I have to carry the carboys up stares to filter them lol.

 

[ffemt128]

Put another batch of bottles in the tub to soak. I also took all my airlocks and bungs and gave them a soak in oxyclean before the fall juices come. Ill let them soak for a few hours then give them a good rinse. Bottles will be ready to delabel later this evening.

I really need to build a rack before fall juice comes so I can get last years juice off the floor.

 

[Hokapsig]

Pulling one batch of bottles out of Oxyclean and onto the drying racks. If the bottler gets home from seeing his girlfriend, we will bottle the Catawba (which has become my wife's favorite). We may visit a new winery in Apollo. Need to start a new batch of Cranberry Pomegranate and rack the Green Apple Riesling. That darn Doug has me shopping for 32 gallon fermentation containers. LOL.....

 

[Thig]

Good day, bottled 26 bottles of RJS Semillon /Sauvignon Blanc, 14 bottles of RJS Toasted Caramel Port, 15 bottles of fruit cocktail wine. Also re-racked 4 gallons of muscadine wine and 3 gallons of Vidalia onion wine.

 

[ibglowin]

Got my 2012 Petit Syrah Port perfectly back sweetened. Trying out a new oak adjunct. Winestix. Put a Medium+ Toast French stix into the carboy. Using Med+ Toast French Oak Beans in the extra 2 gallons. Taste great without any Oak can't wait to get some nice Vanilla notes into it with the oak.

 

[the_rayway]

Started up two co-op kits: CC Showcase Yakima Valley Riesling, and the Cheeky Monkey Red Zepplin. My boss is a wine nut and asked to make a couple kits to give it a go. Who am I to argue?

Our Pastor's retirement was today. He married Bryan and I, gave us counselling as newlyweds and individuals, and baptized our children. We enjoyed some music, roasted and toasted him and sent him on his way to the next adventure (studying entomology)...good times

 

[LoneStarLori]

This weekend I went to Dallas/Ft. Worth to attend Grapefest (In Grapevine TX) with my daughter. She lives just minutes from the DFW airport and was happy to put Mommy up for the weekend. The festival showcases wines from Texas Wineries. There is a very popular Peoples Choice wine judging that is the largest consumer judged wine competition in the US. There were 154 wines from 43 Texas wineries. For $24 you get to judge as many wines as you can handle, one ounce at a time for an hour an a half. I didn't make it through all 7 categories but I sure tried. I think I was taking it too seriously. (gotta get a better strategy next year).

Me and my baby girl.

The ballot list.

Pretending that I know what I'm doing.

Looking at the RESULTS I did pick a few winners. Then crossed them out and went with something else. Why can't I ever make up my mind?

 

[ffemt128]

I managed to get the bottles cleaned yesterday. It was also my grandson's 1st birthday party for family and friends(birthday was 9/11). A good time was had by all and after the party we went home and relaxed with some wine and family company. Today at work, ordered tickets for Kenny Loggins. Should be a good concert, we enjoyed the last 2 times we saw him. Show is at Heinz Hall. Smaller venue that only seats 2700.

 

[timber]

I worked on a Country Wine making Log (spreadsheet) so I can keep a record of my wines on my laptop. Using my (paper) logbook, I was neglecting to get all the information written down so I thought I'd try this instead.
Next on my list is a 5 gal batch of blackberry/ apple wine and some rhubarb wine.

Dave (aka timber)

 

[jojabri]

Where to start! I stayed up TOO LATE last night (til about 4AM) bottling 3gal each strawberry and peach, and 5 gal each caramel/chocolate/coffee, Tee Pee (or skeeter tee whatever you want to call it), and apple cherry. Granted I got a late start on bottling, but bottling was on my to-do list for way too long, and my kitchen counter was way too full.

Not to toot my own horn or anything (TOOT TOOT) but I think I found a winner in a recipe I made up using primarily Bacardi Frozen Peach Daquiri Mixer. This is definitely the BEST BATCH I've made to date. It's a shame I only made a 3 gallon, because I see this going FAST! I should have stocked up more when I saw those on sale... guess I know now for future reference.

Today I received some surprise goodies in the mail so I got those separated and ready to mail to their respective owners (more on this later, because it's a surprise to some people.) Either way, now my hand hurts from writing letters and addressing envelopes (it astounds me that people used to do this all the time; thank goodness for the interwebs.)

Tonight I'm finishing cleaning up my mess from last night (LOL at my homemade carboy cleaner) and going to help the hubby keg some of his home brew.

Better get back to it!

 

[LoneStarLori]

I gotta ask, Gina, did the peach wine have anything to do with being able to stay up till 4am? I need that recipe.

 

[Johngottshall]

Racked my batch of blueberry into secondary, started 4 gallon batch of peach, tonight going to start a gallon batch of Ginger peach Melomel.

 

[jojabri]

I gotta ask, Gina, did the peach wine have anything to do with being able to stay up till 4am? I need that recipe.

Well kind of. I knew from previous rackings that it was something special, and yeah, I was getting a bit antsy to have another taste. I'll admit, I was a bit 'happy' after sampling that many. Tee-hee.

But for the most part, I had been procrastinating and it needed to be done. Plus my family has decided to throw a wine tasting event into the goings-on of our annual chilli cookoff, and I wanted to use the peach. I suppose my mom enjoyed the Dragon Blood judging/ tasting so much that she wants to do it more often... she's come a long way baby!


-----------RECIPE-----------

As a note, I'm totally an experimental winemaker (and still very new at this) and use primarily what can be acquired at the grocery store. All my recipes are pretty basic and totally experimental, so it could be tweaked to be much better, I'm sure.


Passion Peach

4 cans Welch's Frozen Passion Fruit Concentrate
18 cans Bacardi Frozen Peach Daiquiri Mixer
7 cups granulated sugar (made into simple syrup)
2 TBSP Acid Blend
2 TBSP Pectic (probably overkill, but the mixer stuff is pretty thick)
2 TBSP Yeast Nutrient
1 TBSP Yeast Energizer
1 1/2 tsp tannin
water to 6 gal

OG was 1.092
Used Sparkolloid to clear
Back-sweetened with 3/4 cp per gallon granulated sugar made into a simple syrup

The Bacardi Peach Mixer has small "chunks" of peach in it, so there were substantial sediment the first few rackings.

I can't recall, but at some point in racking, I must have split it down to 1x 3gal and smaller batches... I'll have to search for those. Oddly enough for such a high alcohol content, it's not overwhelmingly "booz-ey"


So that's about it, sorry I didn't keep better notes... like really sorry. I'm totally going to re-do this recipe again, and hopefully keep better notes.

 

[jojabri]

I'd love to say I'm sorry for posting AGAIN today, but I just got some great news about 2 hours ago!!

We're approved for our house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!

I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself!

Celebratory bottle popped and the happiness flows!

 

[reefman]

Congrats Gina, great feeling isn't it.!

 

[ffemt128]

I'd love to say I'm sorry for posting AGAIN today, but I just got some great news about 2 hours ago!!

We're approved for our house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!

I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself!

Celebratory bottle popped and the happiness flows!

Congratulations, that had to be exciting news for you...

 

[Hokapsig]

Congrats Gina!!!

We racked the Brianna, stabilized the Stueben and started another batch of Cranberry Pomegranate. The Catawba is ready to bottle if I can get the chief bottler to stay home instead of going to his girlfirends place....

 

[rhoffart]

I'm trying to remember how to make wine ...