Recent content by Luse_Cellar

I guess I would wonder how much they have left to give. If they still have a bunch of color and flavor/aroma then it may be worthwhile. If, however, they have been really stripped of color, flavor, and aroma, it probably isn't really worth it. I know there's some supposedly wonderful wine made...

I just realized that I actually had the solubility of oxygen in wine mixed up, cooler temperatures actually allow for more oxygen to be dissolved in the wine, not warmer ones. Keep your barrel as cool as possible (55*F ideally) to get the most oxygen in there.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with him at all but Clark is a really off-the-beaten path winemaker who is extremely intelligent. He has a whole mythology surrounding wine and music pairing, and he also revolutionized the reverse osmosis filtration system being used in making wine. An...

Sounds like a good approach, I hope it works out for you! Where'd you purchase the MOx setup? I'm thinking about piecing a little one together just for during primary fermentation with reductive reds like Syrah. There's some interesting info out there about MOx. Clark Smith would be a great...

I would think that a TA of 11.0 would be very very tart, so I would agree that your measurement is likely off. TA does affect stability to some degree, it is after all a measure of total acidity. However, pH is much more important in terms of stability, as it will show you directly the...

How does it taste? If it was really a TA of 11.0 I'm sure it'd be very very tart. The pH is a great level in terms of microbial stability. The TA is really mostly going to affect the taste of the wine, so I would adjust the TA based on taste.

Interesting, I've not heard this before but I also don't see why not. However, the Syrah on it's own was very dark purple, and the Grenache on it's own was a much lighter pink/red. Both of them were consistent in color on their own. My inclination is that the color is as it is because of the...

So after blending and tasting, it's still quite tart and fruity but once you get past the tartness it has wonderful body and finish. The aroma is quite pronounced as well, the green jolly rancher aroma really shines through, along with raspberry and strawberry. The color is a rather...

Oops I missed that, sorry. How full is your barrel? I think the barrel would need to have quite a gap between the bung and the level of wine to allow for more oxidation. Additionally, splash racking somewhat frequently would probably help. I would also bet that aging it in a little bit of a...

I don't think the issue is bacteria penetrating the barrel but rather from different microbes that are already present in the wine and/or barrel taking off while in the barrel. Even the cleanest of wine will have some small amount of various microbes that are considered bad, it's just a...

I concur that topping with water isn't the best idea. It probably didn't ruin the wine, especially if it still tastes good, but going forward it is far preferable to not add any water except maybe some right at the start if sugars need to be reduced. This is because that water addition then...

It's most likely tartrates, and if you're seeing that much now you should definitely cold stabilize.

Well those numbers sound promising. I would leave the sugar content alone. At least you know your fruit is in the range of acceptable pH. Unfortunately, the difference between 3 and 4, or even 3.7 and 4 is quite large when it comes to SO2 additions, but perhaps you will be OK making up a...

No problem at all! I would get Go-Ferm to rehydrate the yeast with, and Fermaid-K as a nutrient. If you wish you could get some DAP, I don't think that'd be a bad idea. Fermaid-K has DAP in it already but I'm betting those grapes are real low in Nitrogen so more DAP may not be a bad idea...

2. Brix is a good measurement, how are you planning on measuring that, hydrometer I assume? If so, it's best to temperature correct the measurement (vinoenology.com is a good resource for this). What is the accuracy of your pH strips? If they are only accurate to 1 pH they won't tell you too...