A note on notes

[jensmith]

I have always kept good notes in regards to my wine making. From the very first batch. ( the only paperwork I can manage to keep straight!) I make wine from odd amounts of fresh fruit. Notes are very handy when it comes time to reproduce a tasty blend.
However, they don't do much good when I don't refure to them before adding stuff to my wine! Some ingreadiants are simply not ment to be doubled!!
My last opps involes a cranberry wine and WAY too much tannin! The wine has been bulk aging for almost six months now. It was a very slow to ferment batch, as in months. So each time I sampled it I just stole a small bit and did not notice anything magerly off. I had a whole glass last night, and it was not as expected. Cranberry is tart, and mine is always very dry, but this one also dried out my mouth. So I went over my notes, and found I had added tannin, twice, in quantities far higher then I ever had before. Not sure why I added it twice, but at least I wrote it down
I always add 1/8-1/4 tsp powdered grape tannin at the start of fermentain. I ran out of tannin and bought a new bottle online. It came as a chestnut tannin. (I only used it in a few batches before I put it away and bought my old type of tannin). For some reason I added 1/2 tsp twice to a 5 gal batch.
I am glad I took notes, but refuring to them before adding tannin for the second time would have been even better!
Guess I have a nice blending wine, or top off wine. With sweetner it is drinkable as it. Hopefully lesson learned!


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[BernardSmith]

Hi jensmith - I think what you say is the story of our lives. We are, today, swamped with data but information is not the same as knowledge. Data - your notes, for example, are only ever meaningful when we make use of the information to inform ourselves. Simply collecting data or amassing information itself does nothing useful. When we transform the data we have into knowledge and then use that knowledge that is a bird of a different feather

 

[Toque]

I agree, taking notes is a great idea. I've been using 'Personal' notebooks to write all my information in.
I just recently started using Google Documents to store my notes. I found it easier to refer back and find information quickly.
Also, I can access them even if I'm not home or can't get to the note-pads, if they are misplaced for example.

If using Chestnut Tannin, like I do, I think it wise to mention if people have a tree nut allergy, which is different to a peanut allergy I believe.

Edit: Added info.

 

[jensmith]

I am still a firm user of paper and pen. Computers tend to deleat or miss file things around me or simply not work that day! Besides, I can leave the notebook out for updates. Faster then turning on, finding the files I want to update and hope the save button is working.
A nice three ring binder with cheet sheets, recapies, index, and extra paper is my prefured method. Easy to flip back to whatever recapie I want to try duplicating, or changing.




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[wineforfun]

I am still a firm user of paper and pen. Computers tend to deleat or miss file things around me or simply not work that day! Besides, I can leave the notebook out for updates. Faster then turning on, finding the files I want to update and hope the save button is working.
A nice three ring binder with cheet sheets, recapies, index, and extra paper is my prefured method. Easy to flip back to whatever recapie I want to try duplicating, or changing.




Sent from my iPod touch using Wine Making

I am with you. I write(pen and paper) down everything. Any step, taste, etc. that I do, I log in my notebook.

 

[the_rayway]

I use one of those 8x5, 5-subject notebooks and a good ol pen when it comes to my notes. I do keep a spreadsheet with my numbering system on it so that folks going into the 'cellar' (basement) will know what number they're looking for.

The only thing I don't do well with notes is the in-process tasting. I often found that I only wrote 'green' down with nothing else. Need to work on that so I have a clearer picture of what each batch is like along the way.