What R you doing today?

[ceeaton]

Going after work to get some beer making grains/hops/yeast for some sort of lager (either Vienna or Marzen) for my wife. Noticed that the basement was hovering around 48*F last night, which is good for most of the lager yeasts I like to use (most range between 50-55*F for initial fermentation). Then I'll move to a corny keg and lager in the garage if/when the basement warms up too much. Here's to hoping I remember how to mash some grains, need to remember to make some RO water tonight (I use it for the sparge water to keep my pH from rising too much from the buffering effects of our extremely hard water).

 

[mainshipfred]

Yesterday we happened to be in DC the same time District Winery was doing a Winery Tour. I wish I took some pics but their C/D was very small and there was a small conveyor going to the hopper. I want to say they told me they did 30 ton but that amount is too small considering the amount of tanks and barrels they had. The conveyor was to sort the grapes which came in lugs. That really surprised me even if it was only a 30 ton crush. The bladder press was surprisingly small as well. The last thing was they only use neutral french oak barrels and oak with staves. On the economical side it saved them from buying barrels every year. This is their second winery and openned in fall 2017. The first was Brooklyn Winery.

 

[Boatboy24]

Loading up the snowboard (and the family) and headed to the hills!

 

[mainshipfred]

Probably going to be a busy day in the winery. Time to test and adjust SO2 levels. Have Syrah/Zin blend going on 18 months that has some kind of a funky taste and/or smell so I'll splash rack it a few times and see what happens. Have a barreled Petite Syrah and a Petit Verdot that are getting close being over oaked and may have to transfer them to carboy. Only have one wine that hasn't seen a barrel so I may have to fill the other with a SO2 Citric solution so it can neutralize a little.

 

[Johnd]

Bottled an extra carboy of Lodi Cab from ‘18, to be used to top up barrels. Topped and sulfited 30 gallon St. Martin (2017) and 60 gallon Alain Fouquet (2018). Racked wine from my last three 6 gallon Vadai barrels (2017 vintage) and into carboys, topped up all three carboys. Cleaned up all three barrels, filled em with sulfited water, set them aside for their next mission, two go to @Scott Harbison for his two carboys of 18 Lodi Cab, the third probably to a new winemaker I just met from New Orleans. Bench trials, acid adjustments, and bottling for the 3 carboys during the next few weeks.

Transformation is nearly complete, one large batch per year, only two barrels at any one time.....it’s finally feeling as though I’m in control of the winemaking instead of the way it has been controlling me.....

 

[ceeaton]

Brewing day. Luckily it's like riding a bike. Haven't done this for quite some time (almost a year). Added some bottled water to the kettle thinking my evaporation rate would be higher. Ended up with 5.25 gallons in my fermenter @ 1.052 SG (still a respectable 78% brewing efficiency). Was aiming for 4.75 gallons at 1.058 for an Oktoberfest, so I guess I'll have to settle for a Vienna style lager if I did enough hops (looks like only 20 IBUs). Pitched my yeast starter and it starting up already (within an hour) may let it up in the relative warmth of the kitchen and move it down to my 49*F basement tomorrow morning.

 

[mainshipfred]

Bottled an extra carboy of Lodi Cab from ‘18, to be used to top up barrels. Topped and sulfited 30 gallon St. Martin (2017) and 60 gallon Alain Fouquet (2018). Racked wine from my last three 6 gallon Vadai barrels (2017 vintage) and into carboys, topped up all three carboys. Cleaned up all three barrels, filled em with sulfited water, set them aside for their next mission, two go to @Scott Harbison for his two carboys of 18 Lodi Cab, the third probably to a new winemaker I just met from New Orleans. Bench trials, acid adjustments, and bottling for the 3 carboys during the next few weeks.

Transformation is nearly complete, one large batch per year, only two barrels at any one time.....it’s finally feeling as though I’m in control of the winemaking instead of the way it has been controlling me.....

Waah, Waah, Waah, sorry John, not buying it. Let's see, brand new top of the line motorized C/D, who knows how many empty carboys that will be pouting, lab equipment sitting around idle with the chemicals going bad and not to mention the boredom of just watching 2 barrels sit there. Your pond/lake is going to take a few years to get established so more fishing is out and hunting season is only a few months a year. Should I go on, LOL!

 

[Johnd]

Waah, Waah, Waah, sorry John, not buying it. Let's see, brand new top of the line motorized C/D, who knows how many empty carboys that will be pouting, lab equipment sitting around idle with the chemicals going bad and not to mention the boredom of just watching 2 barrels sit there. Your pond/lake is going to take a few years to get established so more fishing is out and hunting season is only a few months a year. Should I go on, LOL!

Ha!! All those things considered, my ways had to be reformed, just couldn’t handle the sheer volume of production, plus the commercial purchases. The two simply needed to be blended into a complementary duo.

Keep in mind, I’ve only made wine once a year for the last couple years, finished up some projects from earlier vintages in 17 & 18, but did around 30 lugs each year in Fall, as planned.

Still got some squirrel / rabbit season left, as well as light goose conservation hunting. The pond will shortly be stocked, fishing is only a few short months away. Don’t forget the other springtime delta gifts, crawfishing and frog season, we have plenty of both! The grass starts to grow, so the Kubota comes out of hibernation, and we’re building nine new shooting houses between seasons, replacing one duck blind, and installing two new pit blinds. The pouty carboys and c/d will be fine til October, and I’ll buy new chems, and you’ll be happy for me!!

 

[mainshipfred]

Ha!! All those things considered, my ways had to be reformed, just couldn’t handle the sheer volume of production, plus the commercial purchases. The two simply needed to be blended into a complementary duo.

Keep in mind, I’ve only made wine once a year for the last couple years, finished up some projects from earlier vintages in 17 & 18, but did around 30 lugs each year in Fall, as planned.

Still got some squirrel / rabbit season left, as well as light goose conservation hunting. The pond will shortly be stocked, fishing is only a few short months away. Don’t forget the other springtime delta gifts, crawfishing and frog season, we have plenty of both! The grass starts to grow, so the Kubota comes out of hibernation, and we’re building nine new shooting houses between seasons, replacing one duck blind, and installing two new pit blinds. The pouty carboys and c/d will be fine til October, and I’ll buy new chems, and you’ll be happy for me!!

So maybe we'll have the pleasure of a Southern invasion at Split Rock in June!!

 

[Rodney]

I just bottled up some strawberry fruit wine..

 

[ThreeSheetsToTheWind]

Nursing a hangover, but I need to get some wine bottled.

Gonna suck it up and start washing bottles I guess...

 

[mainshipfred]

Nursing a hangover, but I need to get some wine bottled.

Gonna suck it up and start washing bottles I guess...

The hangover is supposed to be tomorrow. Guess you'll have 2 in a row.

 

[Johnd]

So maybe we'll have the pleasure of a Southern invasion at Split Rock in June!!

It’s possible......just have another engagement on the calendar that I’d need to move, we’re working on ot......

 

[mainshipfred]

My commercial winemaker friend just moved into a new (old) house. He wants to throw his renovation ideas off me so I going to see it this afternoon. Can't beat networking and I can smell the Virginia grapes already. Just last week I bought 30 cases of bordeaux bottles off him for $9.50/case.

 

[CDrew]

Was in Dry Creek Valley today and stopped at Truitt Hurst to taste the new releases and eat some lunch out on Dry Creek itself which is rocking right now with all the recent rain. Then stopped at Ridge on the way home. Had a great time tasting there and then walked the dog around in the Lytton Springs vineyard. It was planted in 1900, mostly Zin but numerous other vines in the same vineyard. I’ll include a pic when back on wifi.

Actually photo won’t upload. Just imagine blue sky, cool air and 100 year old vines!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Q...WcU7KEiwNgJ63FU43h56N9NFMbeqs61c=w855-h641-no

 

[Kraffty]

@ceeaton, "Ended up with 5.25 gallons in my fermenter @ 1.052 SG (still a respectable 78% brewing efficiency). Was aiming for 4.75 gallons at 1.058 for an Oktoberfest, so I guess I'll have to settle for a Vienna style lager if I did enough hops (looks like only 20 IBUs)"

...and that is the reason I never tried to brew, how many measurements, percentages, volumes, ingredients, styles and acronyms did you just throw out in two sentences?
looks good
Mike

 

[ibglowin]

Playing with my new BBQ tool. Snagged a 4 probe Inkbird from Amazon for $43 this weekend with a coupon. When we finally calibrated our new LG oven over the holidays (it was waaaay off) I used my ThermoPro TP20 and my Maverick Redicheck probe side by side and it was obvious the ThermoPro was off by about 10 degrees on one side. The Maverick was spot on compared to an analog temp gauge inside the oven. The LG is now baking like it should have been all along. It was like 20 degrees lower than the setting so things were taking forever to bake and not done when they should have been. Not impressed with LG kitchen appliances I have to say. This seems to be better construction quality than the ThermoPro which always seemed a little cheaply made IMHO. Lots of people rave about them which is why I picked one up. The Inkbird has a nice app that connects via BT to your phone. Nice interface and No batteries to replace. USB charger and LiON batteries inside.

 

[ceeaton]

Playing with my new BBQ tool. Snagged a 4 probe Inkbird from Amazon for $43 this weekend with a coupon. ...The Inkbird has a nice app that connects via BT to your phone. Nice interface and No batteries to replace. USB charger and LiON batteries inside.

That's the one I got last Spring. I really like it. Just turn off the unit when adding a probe or it will sometimes wig out a bit. I use that with two for grill temp and one or two in the food. I get a solid signal down in the basement so I can cook and surf at the same time. The user settable alarms and ranges for alarms are nice, just be ready to be waken abruptly out of your sleep if you set it up for an overnight cook. The alarm it produces on my Andriod phone is rather loud.

FYI, all four of my probes were within 3 degrees of each other when I put them in a boiling water bath, so that's close enough in my book.

 

[Kraffty]

Yesterday I bottled 13 gals of skeeter pee variation that I'm now calling "Cottonwood Cactus Cooler", proofed down and bottled 3 gals limoncello and bottled 5 gals 17 cab from my own grapes. Also got the winery about 1/3 of the way cleared out. Plans for today, at least as far as I can get, are bottle and box 27 gals zin blend, 24 gals cab and 8 gals 2nd run from 2017. That should wipe out my stock of new bottles plus a few cases I'll probably have to wash. Moving is a pain, 10 days left in California.

 

[ibglowin]

Cant believe your leaving LaLa land Mike! Especially after we are thinking of snagging this little "fixer upper" next door! LOL

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/...27-8cdd-ebe595923f4b~X1-ZU12b803a872z2h_2yr7l