What R you doing today?

[Johnd]

What is 'the brix'?

Degrees Brix (symbol °Bx) is the sugar content of an aqueous solution. One degree Brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution and represents the strength of the solution as percentage by mass. ... The °Bx is traditionally used in the wine, sugar, carbonated beverage, fruit juice, maple syrup and honey industries.

Short story, it’s the measure of how much sugar is in fruit juice or must. If you know how much sugar you start with, and how much sugar is left after fermentation, you know how much has been converted to alcohol, you can determine the alcohol content of your wine.

As fruit ripens, the BRIX increases and acidity decreases.

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

Ah gotcha. I had no idea it was actually called that. I mean I get the whole specific gravity thing and the hydrometer (although I basically never use it).

 

[Ignoble Grape]

What is 'the brix'?

The sugar content of the grapes - they're not quite ready to harvest yet. But.... almost!

 

[Boatboy24]

Dad will be here in a few. We'll bottle the last of the 2017's (Merlot and Cab Franc). Then Mom will join us a little bit later for dinner.

 

[Boatboy24]

Spent a couple good hours with @mainshipfred this evening pressing the Petit Manseng. Excited to be working on my 2nd Virginia white wine. We got Viognier on Tuesday which had already been crushed, soaked and pressed. The PM was harvested early this morning. The winemaker crushed, sulfite and added enzymes for us. Fred picked up this afternoon, so we just had to press. Good numbers, and looking forward to see how it turns out. Especially looking forward to how our different approaches compare.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Made some more hot sauces this week, one sweet peach, one smokey peach.
About 20 bottles total.

 

[Boatboy24]

Headed to the Nats game this afternoon. Hoping they can stop the September slide.

 

[ibglowin]

Looking good!

Made some more hot sauces this week, one sweet peach, one smokey peach.
About 20 bottles total.

 

[mainshipfred]

Headed to the Nats game this afternoon. Hoping they can stop the September slide.

Not that they will go very far but I read in the paper if they go 4-11 they're in the playoffs.

 

[Boatboy24]

Made some more hot sauces this week, one sweet peach, one smokey peach.
About 20 bottles total.

Smokey peach sounds interesting.

 

[cmason1957]

Yesterday and today, bottled 5 cases of 2017 Norton, 5 cases of RJS Amarone started Jun 2018, 2.5 cases of a Cabernet / Merlot juice bucket from Spring 2018, and 2.5 cases of Pinot Noir from the same time. Now my bulk aging area looks bare. Not to worry, 600 lbs grapes coming in next week and 4 juice buckets end of the month.

 

[sour_grapes]

Wow, impressive work, Craig.

 

[crushday]

Me and Mrs. Burgin are in Romania building three houses with Habitat for Humanity. Before construction begins today, we spent the day yesterday investigating several wineries in Bucharest. Wine in Romania is quite good. On our way home, we will eventually make our way to Florence, Italy and plan on touring many of the wineries in Florence.

 

[pstracy64]

Finished bottling my first mead, aged for a year with vanilla beans, .5 cup of sugar per gallon used to back sweeten. Very nice

 

[Boatboy24]

Final organization and clean up in the winery in prep for next weekend's grape delivery. Gonna take a final inventory of yeasts, chems and additives to see if I need to make any last minute orders. Baseball game at 3pm.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Did another 300+ lbs yesterday, this was dornfelder grapes. Got 80 L.
Fermenting 60, keeping 20 frozen for back sweetening. I make this for one aunt who loves low alcohol, sweet dornfelder. She supplies the grapes from their farm. I leave the crushed grapes on skins just for 6 hours, then press. Has a nice lighter red colour.
so have 150 L of different wine in primary right now. Need to bottle about 100L in the next day or to, to make carboy space for this incoming stuff.

 

[Chuck E]

De-stemmed & crushed 110 lbs. of old vine zinfandel last night. The de-stemming part is laborious, OMG!

 

[GreenEnvy22]

De-stemmed & crushed 110 lbs. of old vine zinfandel last night. The de-stemming part is laborious, OMG!

What do you use for destemming? I zip tie two wire shelves, offset from eachother a bit, above my crusher. I put several clusters on and just rub them back and forth until all the grapes have fallen off. 350 lbs took me about 1 hour this way. You get a few small bits of stem on this way, but I'm sure 95% plus are removed.
You can see it this this photo.

 

[Chuck E]

What do you use for destemming? I zip tie two wire shelves, offset from eachother a bit, above my crusher. I put several clusters on and just rub them back and forth until all the grapes have fallen off. 350 lbs took me about 1 hour this way. You get a few small bits of stem on this way, but I'm sure 95% plus are removed.
You can see it this this photo.

I was doing by hand. I like your invention. I will try this for the chardonnay.

 

[sour_grapes]

There is also the upside-down milk crate method: