The use of mineral oil to "top up" a carboy

[vacuumpumpman]

oh no, not this again!!!!!!

Don't worry John -
I did post rather earlier on 2 great threads on topping off and use of inert gases

Steve

 

[john-c]

Urgh - the single greatest test of a winemaker is keeping their fingers out of the pie while mother nature does her thing. Too many adjustments and you have crap wine even though the numbers might be in the sweet spot (I think all winemakers learn this lesson at some point in their endeavors). The last thing I would want to introduce is something else to have to dink with later. Some things you cant get away from like bentonite in whites, but as a hobbyist you are probably not sitting on a reverse osmosis machine to separate that oil out of the liquid medium. If you know your Alc% (or at least ball parked it by 54% of brix) you may get away with adding distilled water especially if you are oaking it and your pH is low. Adding the cheapo wine is also a way to go, but you have to consider pH and TA of that cheapo and what it might do to your wine numbers and stability there of (more a concern in whites). Lastly there is glass (one of my favs). You can really suck up a bunch of space displacing the air with a dense solid like glass marbles or glass anything else that fits through the hole you can get clean and sanitary. Long story is don't add anything that interacts with the wine unless you absolutely know it is going to add to the overall quality through bench trials, or be absolutely benign and impart nothing to the wine.

 

[joeswine]

What wine makers do?

ALL WINE MAKERS HAVE THEIR FINGERS IN THE PIE THAT IS HOW WINE IS MADE WHETHER YOUR A HOME WINEMAKER OR A PROFESSIONAL,ADJUSTMENTS ARE A WAY OF LIFE IN THIS WORLD.

I DO AGREE THAT ONE SHOULD KNOW THE WINE PROCESS AND THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE,YET EVER WINE MANUFACTURE OUT THERE ADJUSTS ,ADDS,AND CORRECTS TO TASTE ,HIS OR HERS WINES PROFILE. .
RACKING DOWN IS ALWAYS THE BEST COURSE IF REQUIRED,MARBLES IS NOT A GOOD CHOICE,BUT SOME HAVE TRIED AND SUCCEEDED WITH THEM,WE ALL TRY DIFFERENT WAYS OF DOING THE SAME PROJECT,PERFECT EXAMPLE,I DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE MLF PROCESS FOR HOME WINEMAKERS,YET ALOT HAVE DONE IT WITH GREAT SUCCESS DOES THAT MEAN THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TRIED,TRYING IS HOW WE GROW, FAILING IS HOW WE ALSO LEARN....SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO FAIL TO LEARN.

 

[jamesngalveston]

joeswine, I consider you one of the for runners for experimenting...Hats off to you...
Now that said...
If you start reading all the white papers on wine making from various universtitys, etc...you will find that not one is written about, peaches,blackberrys, strawberrys are any other fruit but grapes.
THere has not been any research in to making fruit wines except that which is grapes.
Is a grape fruit..yes...is a strawberry are black berry , yes.
Should you treat them exactly as a grape...I say no.
Filet Mignon is beef, so is a chuck steak, would you cook them the same.
A pork tender loin is pork, so is a pork jowl...you wouldnt cook them the same.
It seems to me that everything about fruit wine making has been copied pasted, copied again, and said over and over again about how to make fruit wine, using grape recipes...
In other words, remove the name grape, add in blackberry and you have blackberry wine.
I do not agree...I think we, the people that are trying different things, are the ones writing the white papers on fruit wine making...

Example...Should a blackberry, age for a year to clear and degass to make it taste good, are can you manually degass and use a finning agent to get to the same taste....I really do not know.
I am sitting aside 50 gallons this year for a year to find out.
My bet is on no.
Will it help a grape wine treated accordingly...History has proven so.
But there is no history to rely for a blackberry,strawberry,peach, are what ever.
my thoughts nly JO.

 

[Runningwolf]

James you are so right. I can't believe no one ever figured that out before and now you're going to be the forerunner and figure out how to make fruit wine. After several thousand years where the heck have you been. I've got a feeling the entire wine world is going to change when you get done with your 50 gallon batch. That's awesome.

Look at silly me crushing 1800 lbs. blueberries with a grape crusher. What the he!l was I thinking?

 

[jamesngalveston]

LOL..im not figuring out anything..
where is there research on a non grape wine. not a recipe, not a copy paste . but some real research....if you could give me a link i would greatly appreciate it...and not by someone selling juice, equipment,etc...but some hard research.

 

[joeswine]

comments????????????

Maybe i should have read this thread from the beginning i was just commenting on john c statement,about making adjustments.

MOST OF THIS THREAD IS ON OIL, ON WINE,

 

[Runningwolf]

LOL..im not figuring out anything..
where is there research on a non grape wine. not a recipe, not a copy paste . but some real research....if you could give me a link i would greatly appreciate it...and not by someone selling juice, equipment,etc...but some hard research.

James those white papers are just a guide you can wipe with. The real research is bench trials and tasting. As Joe tells us all along his journeys, it's the science that begins the process but it's art that finalizes the product.

You talk about no copy and pastes, dang near all of your posts are copy and pastes and not experience.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Maybe i should have read this thread from the beginning i was just commenting on john c statement,about making adjustments.

MOST OF THIS THREAD IS ON OIL, ON WINE,

I was thinking that myself as it is an old thread -

 

[BernardSmith]

Sorry, but I have to disagree with James. There are many, many academic and scholarly papers on the use of fruits other than grapes for wine if for no other reason than because people in Asia and Africa want to be able to produce and consume wine made from local fruits rather than import grape wine. The first reference is for a wine made from papaya , the second is for mango wine, the third is for banana wine, fourth includes pawpaw

http://pelagiaresearchlibrary.com/advances-in-applied-science/vol2-iss3/AASR-2011-2-3-37-46.pdf
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01093217
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:QUAL.0000041138.29467.b6
http://www.usa-journals.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Awe1_Vol112.pdf

 

[RegionRat]

Has anyone heard of or read anything by Jack Keller?

RR

 

[Runningwolf]

Has anyone heard of or read anything by Jack Keller?

RR

Did he do White papers?

 

[LoneStarLori]

I have done at least 3 of his recipes. I love his website.

 

[Runningwolf]

It's amazing how much that guy has made and documented. I understand some of his recipe's are short on fruit but what a wonderful resource as most people tweak recipe's anyways to their own style.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Dan -
I must agree - I have been reading his post as long as I've been making wine !!!

 

[LoneStarLori]

Speaking of Jack, I saw this wine cellar on craigslist a couple of weeks ago and wondered if it might be his. He lives in Pleasanton TX and it's not a very big town.Wish I had $2200 I could part with.

Wine cellar on craigs list