Recent content by bluecrab

Here’s another option. I don’t know if it’s a good one or if it’s practical. Have you thought about hanging a bag of dry ice above the surface of the wine in the Brute? It would blanket the wine with co2 and cool it at the same time. Whatever you choose to do, I like that you are attempting...

For the wine you just bottled, put it in the fridge for two weeks. The acid will precipitate and give you a smoother wine.

It's not that important to me. Besides, I married into an Italian family. I think they're OK with me following the old world ways.

I like your idea. My unit has a slit on the side of the filler tube. The end of the tube is sealed. It’s hard to get a good seal on the opening with anything but my mouth. I’ve tried, but in the end I give up.

There is some set up time when using this, so it works best for large volumes of wine. I have 15 gallon tanks. I’m not sure I would use it for 5 gallon carboys. The method of starting the flow that I posted doesn’t work for me. I still have to suck to get the wine flowing. Once it’s flowing...

Are you familiar with the smell of 'corked' wine? "Corked wines smell and taste of damp, soggy, wet or rotten cardboard." https://www.thekitchn.com/what-is-corked-wine-what-does-corked-wine-taste-like-164148 To me it smells of wet, musty newspaper. A few bottles of my wine had it. I believe it...

Your wine sample and sodium hydroxide should be at room temperature. If not, it can cause a false reading.

How did you calculate 12 g/l acid? As pH increases, it takes less acid to reduce it. So, in general, it will take less acid to reduce a must with pH 4.4 by 0.1, than a must with pH 3.8 by 0.1. I do titrations to determine the amount of acid to add. This year, it took about 3 g/l tartaric to...

With all that hang time, I wonder if the grapes are a bit dehydrated. My Cab Sav grapes this year were drier than normal at crush. I had to add 2/3 gallon of water per lug of grapes to balance out the must. After pressing, I wound up with the volume of wine I normally get. So, I figure I just...

I had something similar happen. The wine was fine.

I read on another thread that if you rehydrate yeast with nutrients not meant for rehydration, it can kill them. I’m not sure if this is true or if it is your problem, but it is a possibility.

I use shrink caps as a label replacement. Each batch of wine gets a unique shrink cap color. I label only one bottle with the information for the batch, but all of the bottles get a shrink cap. When I want to drink a bottle, I go to my wine rack and look through the collection of labeled...

I agree with winemaker81. Please report back on your results.

@distancerunner I don't know if this will meet your needs, but this is how I determined which oak I prefer. https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/oak-experiment.71465/

It appears one can accurately predict when H2S will occur, due to lack of oxygen during fermentation. "Opus One Winery in Napa Valley conducted a two-year research project in conjunction with UC Davis (UCD) to measure and monitor oxidation reduction potential (ORP) during red wine fermentations...