What R you doing today?

[Rodnboro]

Did my 5 @ 5 this morning (5 mile run at 5 am) then presented the roses and candy to my valentine. I'm going to leave work early to start on her dinner. Marinated Cornish hens on the Green Egg.

 

[Rodnboro]

Have the day off (forced to, our Bldg at work has no electric from 5 am to 5 pm, so took a vacation day (lot's of arm twisting)). After the kids were safely on the bus, headed up to the local Giant to get some raw materials for a day of cooking. Planning on Chicken Parm for tonight as an early Valentines day dinner for my wife since she has class tomorrow and I'll see her for 10 minutes before she goes to work and maybe 0 minutes after. Did a batch of Fried rice for lunch (left over rice from last nights pork tenderloin and pineapple dinner), a loaf of whole wheat bread for my daughter, a loaf of Italian for galic bread with the meal, and just coated and wrapped up a Beef bottom round roast that I will put in the crockpot tomorrow morning so my oldest Son can make dinner tomorrow night without too much effort (which usually isn't much for an 18 yr old, he may starve when he leaves the coop if he doesn't go into the Air Force as planned).



Hoping to get to some wine related tasks this afternoon, I did clean a case of bottles this morning. I have many carboys that are approaching the 3 month since racking time frame so might start working on that since I have free reign of the kitchen. Have a bottle of Chilean Merlot blend from May 2015 decanting for this afternoon/evenings drinking pleasure.

Craig, I'd love to be your neighbor. Lots to eat and drink at your house!

 

[ceeaton]

Craig, I'd love to be your neighbor. Lots to eat and drink at your house!

And with four kids never a dull moment. I had to come to work to slow down and take it easy for a bit.

 

[Boatboy24]

Added enough K-carbonate to target 3.43 on my Chilean Cab - that's an increase of 0.2. We'll see how it does. I moved it to the garage for cold storage. Then I racked the CA Viognier and gave it a little more pectic enzyme. It tastes and smells terrific right now. I wish it were clear so I could bottle and begin enjoying this. Best impulse buy I've made in a long time. It was the last Viognier bucket they had when I was picking up my grapes. I quickly thought in my head that I 'probably' had the carboy space and I was right - but just barely. So I jumped on it. At under $2/bottle, this is an insane steal.

 

[ceeaton]

Added enough K-carbonate to target 3.43 on my Chilean Cab - that's an increase of 0.2. We'll see how it does. I moved it to the garage for cold storage. Then I racked the CA Viognier and gave it a little more pectic enzyme. It tastes and smells terrific right now. I wish it were clear so I could bottle and begin enjoying this. Best impulse buy I've made in a long time. It was the last Viognier bucket they had when I was picking up my grapes. I quickly thought in my head that I 'probably' had the carboy space and I was right - but just barely. So I jumped on it. At under $2/bottle, this is an insane steal.

Even if you had to buy another carboy it would be around $3 a bottle, still a very good deal!

 

[ffemt128]

Got to meet Rocky and his Son in Law this afternoon. Very nice folks, we chatted about wine making and enjoyed some 2015 Elderberry wine. If I decide to let anything else go, I'll be sure to let you know.

I look forward to enjoying the wine you shared with our family.

 

[Boatboy24]

Even if you had to buy another carboy it would be around $3 a bottle, still a very good deal!

I may very well do that...

 

[ibglowin]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzEY6ZqkuE"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzEY6ZqkuE[/ame]


Going where the weather suits my clothes for a few days......

 

[ceeaton]

Decided the weekend weather is supposed to be too nice not to grill/smoke something. Left work early to procure some vittles and fuel. Hit the local BJs for some ribs and charcoal. Plan on starting the day early by making a Guinness Stout knockoff, then doing some ribs on the bullet. Need to fire up the bullet tonight since I must have forgotten to clean it up last time I used it, nothing a little charcoal smoke and heat can't remedy. Really nice evening, little wind and 48*F. Need to keg my Irish Red so I have something in case my other two kegs give out tomorrow. I like to keep over the 10 gallon threshold of beer if possible.

Edit: smoking some Kosher salt since I'm warming up the smoker anyway. Hate to waste all that charcoal goodness.

 

[Boatboy24]

Need to fire up the bullet tonight since I must have forgotten to clean it up last time I used it, nothing a little charcoal smoke and heat can't remedy.

Ah, the cleansing burn. I've done a few myself.

Got home and moved the Chilean Syrah out of barrel #1. Then refilled it with a citric/sulfite solution to clean it a tad. Then emptied #3 of the citric/sulfite and put the Lanza Petite Sirah in. Didn't want to put another one of the spring Chileans in, as I'm hoping to save them with some K-Carbonate. If, after that treatment and a few weeks in the garage, they are significantly better, I'll give the remaining two (Merlot and Carm) some barrel time. If not, I'm going to dump them. I have kits waiting for carboys. Anyway, measured the remaining 4 Chileans (Carm, Syrah, Merlot, and a 3gal blend) and they were as follows:

Syrah @ 3.40
Merlot @ 3.17
Carmenere @ 3.44
Blend @ 3.23

All 4 taste like crap. Acidic with no fruit or tannin noted. The Syrah and Merlot both have bell pepper up front - blech. Tomorrow, I'll add the K-Carbonate and move to the garage.

 

[ceeaton]

Syrah @ 3.40
Merlot @ 3.17
Carmenere @ 3.44
Blend @ 3.23

All 4 taste like crap. Acidic with no fruit or tannin noted. The Syrah and Merlot both have bell pepper up front - blech. Tomorrow, I'll add the K-Carbonate and move to the garage.

I think I lucked out this Spring. Just checked my Pinot Noir, it was pH of 3.35, tastes and smells very good at this point. Now my Pinot Grigio batches are high in acid, but that was operator error because I added too much tartaric acid (though it was 1/2 of what I should have) because my pH meter was giving me issues (have since replaced with a very stable meter).

 

[Boatboy24]

Hit the Chileans with k-carbonate and banished them to the garage. Glad that's over. I was dreading carrying them up the stairs and across the house. 3 6's and 1 3 gallon.

 

[Larryh86GT]

Walker's peach into secondary today and started my Walker's Niagara.

Larry

 

[Boatboy24]

Just finished the draft of 2016's tax returns. Maybe batting cages with my oldest a little later (gonna be near 70 again today). Holiday tomorrow and we're getting together with some friends tonight. Would like to bottle the WS Amarone if I have time.

Yesterday, we had 82 boxes of hardwood flooring delivered as part of the repairs from the water damage we had last month. Installation starts Wednesday.

 

[Hokapsig]

picked up 35 gal of Niagara and 20 of Chambourcin from Erie today. Took my wife to Erie for a thank you for her working so hard to make the winery a success. We tasted a few wines, ate at our favorite places and generally relaxed.

Looking forward to a trip to NC with ffemt to trim the vineyard and planning a trip to the Finger Lakes to try some NY wineries.....

 

[Boatboy24]

Was going to bottle my WS Amarone, but a quick taste this morning revealed it needs a little oak. So I added that and will let it sit for a few more weeks. Was hoping to clear a carboy up and start the Vermentino, but that'll have to wait I guess. Need to go get some glasses for my oldest, and if I can finagle a deal, will hopefully pick up some prescription sunglasses for myself. I need glasses for distance, and am tired of driving blind on sunny days. :>

Been spending quite a bit of time on computers/phones this morning as well. My wife is an absolute hoarder when it comes to digital photos and never deletes anything. Her phone is full, and her computer not far off. I have free unlimited photo storage with Amazon Prime, and finally figured out how to get her set up on it without her mess of pictures cluttering up mine. Now she has automatic backup to the Amazon cloud, so when her phone gets full, all I need to do is delete everything off of it.

 

[Hokapsig]

oaking the Chambourcin with some medium toast plus American oak. Looking for that chocolate/coffee nose....

 

[Bodenski]

Went driving for an hour with my son (trying to get his 45 hours that Virginia requires to get his drivers license.) Now I'm fixing to do some soldering a few modules for my modular electronic synthesizer. All so I can stop checking my berry mead that I pitched the yeast into last night. It hasn't started bubbling yet and I'm paranoid I did something wrong! Better to keep busy doing something else and give it time. (I hate waiting. Why did I get into making wine again??!?)

 

[Boatboy24]

Getting new floors!

Flooring installation begins this morning and should be wrapped up by Saturday. Ended up going with exactly what we have now. We currently have 3 1/4" (a little wider than standard) planks and a nice color. I initially wanted to go with the 5" for more of a barnwood look. Even though it would have been an upgrade, the flooring guy talked us out of it. Regardless, I'll be very happy to put this little 'incident' behind us.

 

[Johnd]

Sitting in the NO airport for a quick up and down to Houston, then on to San Francisco. Dinner tonite at Bistro Jeanty, first wineries tomorrow, Del Dotto in the AM, followed by "The Ultimate Cab Experience" at Hall Winery in the afternoon. Very thirsty......