Crushed grapes this weekend!

Crushed yesterday...800 lbs of Songiovese, 1600lbs of Cabernet from the Chalk Hill region of Sonoma, 500 lbs of Petite Verdot, 300 of Malbec and 300 lbs of Merlot... About 3500 lbs total... Hardest part.... Drinking all day from everyones last year harvest! My take will be 500 lbs of Cab and 108lbs of Petite Verdot....

I took some grape and
some juice and ran it through a blender to get a better sample to test
out. It was a little of a game to get just the right amount of juice and
just the right amount of blended grapes to create a solution that the
hydrometer would react tooS.. But it did after playing with it a bitS I
also added some Lallzyme EX-V to each bin as advised(.075 gram per gallon
of must). I then also had a bag of some French Oak chips on hand so I
decided to tie them off in some beer stocking bags and submerse them into
each binS Not too much of themS I think I had about a pound that I split
up according to the size of the must bin eachS They are tied to a twine so
I can pull them out before the pressS. Two heaters running in the garage
now and just waiting for the temp to come up for fermentationS Looks like
the PV will be ready quicker then the Cab due to it's sizeS I am going to
try to monitor the temp of the must this time and attempt to keep it down
so it does a slower fermentation. I am using BM4X4 and ICVD21 yeast that
can ferment as low as 65 degreesS. I am going to try to keep it right
around 70 degrees. In the past I get too aggressive and let the temp get
up to around 80 and I think it burns off some of the flavor. Hopefully I
can make it take two weeks this time. The two yeast nutrients I have been
using is Fermaid K and Go-Ferm. Been working out real well in the pastS..
For Malolactic like I said yesterday I have tried Scott's but did not get
good results from it at allS Read a lot about it that it does have
problems from time to time. I used Lalvin Bacchus before and it worked
real well! This time I am using VP41. I have read great things about it
and it has a higher tolerance to so2 tempS.. Gona use Go-Ferm as a
nutrient with it as wellS.. Here are the results of the tests I ran this
morningS What yeast did you decide to use this year?

Wow that is a lot of grapes to process at once.
How many people in your group?

I wanted to use VP-41 this year but couldn't get it in small quantities. I hear it is one of the best.

Only three of us actually making the wine but had about 10 people helping.... I am the smaller guy at just over 600lbs...
Added yeast to the must tonight. Even 48 hours later in a heated garage the bins just hit 62 degrees.... Adjusted yeast down to 75 degrees after nutrients and must to help not shock.....

Were you really picking through all the grapes picking out bad ones? It appears that way in the picture. I was thinking 3500 pounds with ten guys crushing wouldn't be too awfully bad, that was until I realized your crusher/destemmer was non motorized. That was quite a day.

With that volume every year it would be worth the investment. What kind of press are you using?

Runningwolf said:

Were you really picking through all the grapes picking out bad ones? It appears that way in the picture. I was thinking 3500 pounds with ten guys crushing wouldn't be too awfully bad, that was until I realized your crusher/destemmer was non motorized. That was quite a day.

With that volume every year it would be worth the investment. What kind of press are you using?

Click to expand...

I was jut going to say the same thing RW.

Get yourself a motorized crusher/destemmer. At the volume that you do, it will be well worth the investment. They also last forever. I have had mine since 1990.

We use two or three people to go through the grapes and give it one last look for stems and matter... It makes just a little better product. Use a bladder press to do the pressing... With enough people it is no work at all!