Recent content by bathman

So, I have now bottled some Rose and Red 'Pet Nat' style (really 'ancestral method' rather than Pet Nat), bottled at 1.000 SG so will see how it goes. Will probably open a bottle in a month to see if it has become carbonated and check if the wine is dry. Found this website useful, it follows...

I think providing I only bottle if the hydrometer reads 1.000 or slightly below I should be ok. I 'think' each 0.001 of SG is equivalent to 2.6g/l of sugar. Worst case the wine would reach dryness at 0.990 which would give 26/l sugar (as you say a full champagne charge). More likely based on...

Well, it confirms that 1 brix is the correct figure to achieve as that gives 10g/l sugar, but it doesn't really give any clue as to how you work out when you have 1 Brix left. I'm sure there must be a way as plenty of people make pet nat! From some video's I've seen sometime Pet nat can cause...

Yep sorry should have made that clear...it is for the Pet Nat experiment. Trying to stop/slow fermentation by chilling it, so that it will settle out slightly and give me time to bottle it. Will then let temperature increase post-bottling in order to complete primary fermentation and get some...

In an attempt to stop fermentation in a vessel of red wine (so that I can bottle it and finishing primary in the bottle) I dropped the temperature - it has been at 3DegC (37F) for 48 hours but it is still bubbling away! Not sure I can get the temp much lower without risking freezing it. I'm...

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about working out correct point to bottle fermenting wine for 'pet nat' style wine? I have seen the 1 brix mentioned a few times, presumably that means adjusted brix as opposed to the brix you would get from a refractometer? (which would be affected by...

I'm in Bath in the South West. Cornwall has some great vineyards if you get a chance to visit - Camel Valley in particular does great wines. Dornfelder is grown a little bit over here but I wouldn't say it is a particularly popular commercial grape, I don't see many places growing it in the...

Picked up 250kg of Pinot Noir nearly a week ago and only just finding the time to give an update as been busy every night racking, pressing and cleaning! The grapes were not particularly good quality - very low sugar (15 Brix), battered and bruised from 6 weeks of wind and rain and some grey...

Thanks for the advice. I have a tub of sodium percarbonate and VWP cleaner/steriliser (which contains troclosene sodium) so sounds like that should do the job. Pic of my setup below, picking up 250kg of Pinot Noir next weekend, 10 hour round-trip unfortunately. Will be adding photos to my other...

I am just about to clean and sanitise two 170L plastic tanks. The tanks are food grade medium density polyethylene. These will be used initially for cold soaking grapes for 3-5 days and then for fermenting the red wine. They currently have a strong plastic odour which I don't want to transfer...

Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier probably covers 50%+ of grapes grown (for English sparkling). A lot of Bacchus if grown here, which has become a traditional white English wine that most vineyards grow. You then get some grapes like Regent and Rondo that tend to ripen enough to make...

I'm going to try my hand at some pet nat this year. Whilst it all involves finishing primary fermentation in the bottle to get the bubbles, there are various schools of thought on other aspects of it e.g. adding (or not adding) sulphites and whether or not to disgorge. I think traditionally to...

Have been trialling in the DIY chiller this week. It does the job of getting a tank full of water down to 4 Deg.C (40F), my only concern is the compressor is constantly working to try and lower the freezer temperature, which isn't really how it is designed to operate. Will keep an eye on it but...

Still a week or so away from picking up grapes and getting the winemaking room prepared, so thought I would share pics of some of this seasons setup. I want to cold soak the grapes and also control fermentation temperature this year so have invested in a DIY chiller setup. I have two 170 litre...

I've been making wine from imported Italian grapes the past couple of years, but managed to secure some English Pinot Noir grapes for this years wine making. I will be picking them up on the day of harvest so will be nice and fresh - never really sure how long the Italian grapes have been...