Recent content by BarrelMonkey

From what everyone says on this forum, your experience is typical. I made my first elderberry in 2021, so it's still a relatively new thing for me. My comments at bottling were 'sour, thin and tannic'; my wife thought it was like 'kool aid before you've added the sugar'. We almost didn't...

Perhaps also worth noting that, aside from commercial producers (who really do have to get contracts in place well in advance) it's really still very early to get grapes reserved for small lots/home winemaking. As noted above, most growers will want to sell commercial quantities in preference to...

1. If I have nice clean grapes, I don't add at crush unless there are extenuating circumstances (eg I am not going to be able to pitch yeast for a few days). Otherwise, as others have said 25-50ppm based on must volume. (If you're in NJ and receiving CA grapes, it might be good insurance to add...

Nicely done! How much (%) H2O2 did you use? Most protocols say to use 3% but, bearing in mind that it does go off over time I always use 30% straight from the (drugstore) bottle. I only need 10mL at a time so a bottle lasts me a while...

Yes, thanks I edited my post, what was I thinking... I'm sure 1000L/min would have glass and phosphoric acid flying everywhere 😳

I don't really know since I haven't done this, but it seems it would be easier to just start with 2x12" glass tubes rather than cut 24" in half. Easier still, maybe you can get tubes that already have a tapered end? I'm not an expert on aquarium pumps but (at least in my setup) you want a flow...

I came across this article a while ago - it describes an inexpensive homemade AO apparatus. For phosphoric acid he uses tile grout cleaner from the hardware store :) I've had good luck using Lab Alley for lab chemicals. $35 for 1L phosphoric acid. They seem OK shipping to residential addresses...

I have an AO setup in my home lab: The sample goes in the sidearm flask on the left (in an ice bath for FSO2) and the evolved SO2 is drawn up the tube and into the small tube with the violet indicator. The vacuum pump is that big thing on the right with the red light. It is pretty...

I've done this after fermentation when I couldn't press out for several days... picture here. I was mainly concerned with warding off fruit flies, but protecting the must against infection makes sense too. I haven't done it for extended maceration/cold soak prior to ferment but I think the idea...

You may already be aware of this, but Sonoma county winegrowers association has an online marketplace for Sonoma grapes: https://sonomawinegrape.org/marketplace/grapes/ Most listings include a note of whether they're willing to sell to home winegrowers, which I think implicitly means smaller...

Not sure I fully agree here... certainly there is less chance of O2 ingress in a carboy/keg than in a barrel but there are other SO2 reactions that can occur, particularly if there is some underlying/undetected issue with the wine (chemical or microbiological). My current approach is to test...

I have my 2023 Syrah in new Hungarian oak (30gal) and although it's still early I'm liking the results so far. I thought I might be racking out of barrel by now so as to not overwhelm the wine with oak, but so far there is a nice (subtle) vanilla note developing and no overtly woody flavors...

I've always used something like the Scottlabs protocol described above, with GoFerm and adding juice/must until temperature is within 10C/18F of the bulk juice/must. I typically pitch same day as making the starter. Why mess with success! Though reportedly some yeast strains do better if...

Bear in mind that winebusiness.com is largely a resource for people making wine from grapes... Your rule of thumb highlighted in green is what i use as a starting point when deciding on adjustments to grape must, but even then as others have said, buffering capacity varies between different...

Agree with others that open top (ie with a loose cover) is fine for reds. For white/rose where you want to preserve more delicate flavors, I'd go wwith a closed (but of course vented!) vessel as soon as you start fermenting, as well as try to keep the temperatures relatively cool.