What R you doing today?

[jburtner]

I scored 10 carboys today for $150. 3/5/6 gallon sizes total 50 more gallons of storage.

Cheers!
-jb

 

[Boatboy24]

Signed up for the Marine Corps Half Marathon in May. What am I thinking?

 

[ceeaton]

Signed up for the Marine Corps Half Marathon in May. What am I thinking?

That's the same kind of thinking that made you give up wine for 40 days. Body betterment.

 

[ceeaton]

Yesterday I bought Windows 10 (Full-Professional-Download version). Today I tried to buy a small hard drive and ended up with a 1T-6GB/second drive for $63 (included tax). Installed the hard drive, downloaded the .iso image for Windows 10, burnt a bootable DVD (in XP, no small feat, had me searching in old boxes for some software), loaded the software on the new drive, and was up and running in less than 3 hours (and I have DSL, the download took 41 minutes (like 3.4 gb)). Never thought I'd do that in a day let alone an evening, especially since I had XP on this computer and still use XP at work. I'll drink to that (I wish)!

Edit: It did an update this morning, rebooted and is now stuck at 70% updated with the "don't turn off your computer" bulls**t". I left it on, will probably have 50 apps loaded because it "thought" I would like them by the time I get home. I hate Windows, should have gone the Unix route.

 

[heatherd]

Today I am smelling the lovely bouquet of fermentation!

Kicked off the Bravado, Fourtitude, and Forza which all have grape skins. I used the RC212 that was provided on all three, and two started right away. The third didn't start, which I am sure is because the yeast was older, so I added new EC-1118 and it took off from there. I'll swap out the kmeta on these as I just bought a fresh package. I added powdered oak and powdered tannins to all. My typical process is to go from small to large on the oak; meaning that I use the dust/powder in primary, then chips/staves/cubes/spirals during six months of bulk-aging, so that the larger oak formats gets maximum time with the wine.

I bottled the White Zin kit, the Gewurztraminer/Verdelho/Muscat kit, and one carboy of Maryland Traminette from grapes over the last several weekends to make some room in the kitchen for more carboys. I had my first-ever bottling party two weeks ago, which is when we bottled the GVM. That was more fun than I expected; I am usually too uptight about it being perfect to have help beyond my husband and letting my 6-year-old wash bottles. Luckily my primary bottling party helpers were a guy who makes beer and another who grew up in his family vineyard, so they are experienced. I gave everyone a bottle of the GVM for their help.

I have another carboy of Traminette from MD grapes and 13 gallons of Muscat Canelli from California juice to bottle, although 12 gallons are not clear yet. I'm going to rack and degass to see if that helps. If not, I'll add bentonite.

 

[Boatboy24]

Today I am smelling the lovely bouquet of fermentation!

Kicked off the Bravado, Fourtitude, and Forza which all have grape skins. I used the RC212 that was provided on all three, and two started right away. The third didn't start, which I am sure is because the yeast was older, so I added new EC-1118 and it took off from there. I'll swap out the kmeta on these as I just bought a fresh package. I added powdered oak and powdered tannins to all. My typical process is to go from small to large on the oak; meaning that I use the dust/powder in primary, then chips/staves/cubes/spirals during six months of bulk-aging, so that the larger oak formats gets maximum time with the wine.

I bottled the White Zin kit, the Gewurztraminer/Verdelho/Muscat kit, and one carboy of Maryland Traminette from grapes over the last several weekends to make some room in the kitchen for more carboys. I had my first-ever bottling party two weeks ago, which is when we bottled the GVM. That was more fun than I expected; I am usually too uptight about it being perfect to have help beyond my husband and letting my 6-year-old wash bottles. Luckily my primary bottling party helpers were a guy who makes beer and another who grew up in his family vineyard, so they are experienced. I gave everyone a bottle of the GVM for their help.

I have another carboy of Traminette from MD grapes and 13 gallons of Muscat Canelli from California juice to bottle, although 12 gallons are not clear yet. I'm going to rack and degass to see if that helps. If not, I'll add bentonite.

How's your Traminette coming? Did you get any tips from the folks at Harford on their method? Were you trying to replicate theirs, or make one in your own style?

 

[heatherd]

How's your Traminette coming? Did you get any tips from the folks at Harford on their method? Were you trying to replicate theirs, or make one in your own style?

It is very tasty.

I talked with Kevin when I bought the Traminette grapes, and we discussed his theory on making adjustments to the grapes. He was saying that he makes very minimal changes to brix, pH, and acid; instead, he feels those characteristics are part of what makes each wine unique for it's vintage.

That was an underlying theory for my wine. My brix was in range, so I left it alone. I didn't adjust pH or acid prior to fermentation. I only adjusted the acid to my taste after fermentation. The first carboy, I didn't back-sweeten, but I think I will do so for the second one to bring it to off-dry.

I was reverse-engineering a Becker Vineyards Muscat Canelli at the same time, so I measured the SG to see how sweet they made it: 0.990. Tasting the wine, I would have thought it would be higher. So, my plan will be to sweeten the Muscat Canelli to that level. I may use that as a guide for the Traminette second carboy, as well.

PM me your address and I'll send you a bottle.

 

[Amanda660]

Day Off and working on paint your own cookie ideas for graduation & Easter. My fingers are the colors of the rainbow from making the paint sticks but thinking I nailed graduation so its a small price. Bonus - I finally have the best sugar cookie recipe!

 

[Boatboy24]

9 miles earlier this morning. Kinda chilling for the rest of the day. We are in that lull where basketball has ended and baseball is just getting going, so no games this weekend. Beautiful Spring weather here - sunny with highs around 73. May putz around in the yard a bit but will probably be too tired. I'll probably save it for tomorrow. Got plenty to do inside, including some winery chores.

 

[ceeaton]

Just bought a 2T USB drive ($87) with some of the money I'm saving not buying 30 packs of beer. Sounds like my younger brother is coming over to pick up his batch of PG wine I made last fall, nope, I'm going over there, oh well. About 75*F around these parts, opened the windows and turned off the heat pump. Plan on grilling some chicken wings later. Only thing missing will be some beer I think my psyche may be permanently altered/damaged.

 

[AkTom]

Bottled 12 gallons of wine while brewing 5 gallons of beer.

 

[ibglowin]

Pretty sure that qualifies you as a multitasking Master of the Brewery Arts..... or MBA!

Bottled 12 gallons of wine while brewing 5 gallons of beer.

 

[Merrywine]

Bottled a gallon kit of Merlot, turned out pretty nice.

 

[ceeaton]

After Church, ran down to the local Weis (was a Shurfine a few months ago) to find bone in pork roasts for $0.79/lb, unfortunately I bought two at BJs for $1.29/lb yesterday. Doing a eye round roast on the grill for some cheap ($2.99/lb) roast beast, just started some charcoal up so I can sear it first (and add some flavor). Will post images later. Finally did my federal taxes and found that we're getting more of a refund than last year since my wife's tuition expenses are partially deductible. Humm, what can I use that for...didn't even have to think about it, a few Chilean juice buckets or maybe save it for some Fall Cali-grapes.

 

[Mismost]

delabeled cleaned washed scrubbed and cussed about 20 cases of wine bottles. I will never do that again. I will buy clean new bottles next time I need bottles.

I also plan on disowning several friends and relatives who did NOT rinse my empty bottles....that is just rude behavior in my book.

heading back down to the shop and breaking down a ton of cardboard boxes. Then pack up the trash for a dump run tomorrow. Not my idea of a fun filled week end....but, it's done.

 

[Johny99]

A wine filled day. Pruned some more until rain started. A friend has gotten the bug and he and his SO came by and helped prune for some cuttings. His plan is 20 each merlot, Cab Sauv and Syrah! Since it started to rain, I went into the winery and racked 2016 merlot and filtered all the 2016 whites, Pinot blanc, a blend, chard, Viognier, and Sauv blanc. Mopped the floor and turned off the lights.

As I'm trying to lose weight I ended the day bar-b-queuing up some chicken breasts for lunch this week. My wife has picked out a movie to round out the weekend

 

[Johny99]

delabeled cleaned washed scrubbed and cussed about 20 cases of wine bottles. I will never do that again. I will buy clean new bottles next time I need bottles.

I also plan on disowning several friends and relatives who did NOT rinse my empty bottles....that is just rude behavior in my book.

heading back down to the shop and breaking down a ton of cardboard boxes. Then pack up the trash for a dump run tomorrow. Not my idea of a fun filled week end....but, it's done.

I hate it when they stack up like that. If they dont rinse, no more wine

 

[Boatboy24]

Tonight, I mowed the lawn after work.

And I had plenty of daylight to do it.

 

[wpt-me]

Sorry Boatboy24, but can't find lawn. Maybe next month.

Bill

 

[Hokapsig]

Stuck doing a milk run to Columbus, Cincy and Indianapolis this week. Stopped at 4 winery's to chat and taste. What I SHOULD have done was to see if there were any winemakers on this site that would care to open a bottle with a wayward travelling winemaker???

FYI - I'm in San Antonio and Austin next week. And I'm getting thirsty already. Leave me a message. Would love to meet and taste.