Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
I thought I'd document the progress on my first attempt at using juice buckets. So, here goes:
Friday afternoon, I picked up 1 bucket and 1 lug each of Carmenere and Malbec juice/grapes from Harford Vineyard near Bel Air MD. They were nice and cold, but started their warm up on the roughly two hour drive home.
Still too cold to pitch, I set the buckets outside in a sunny spot while I cut the lawn (grapes stayed in the kitchen at room temp). After the lawn was done and I had cleaned up and had a snack, I took two, five gallon buckets, a few paint strainer bags and my grapes out to the deck with an ice cold Corona and got to work. A leisurely hour or so later, I had de-stemmed the two 18lb lugs and all the grapes were in 4 strainer bags. I crushed them by hand, and split each juice bucket into two batches each to make room for my "grape packs" - one in each bucket. From there, I measured the SG and pH of the buckets. Temps were in range, so I got to work preparing my yeast starters.
I chose to go with D254 on the Malbec and RC212 for the Carmenere. Originally, I thought I’d experiment with blending yeasts since I’d have each batch in two buckets. I ultimately decided to keep things a little more on the simple side, since this was my first attempt with fresh juice/grapes. I got the starters going with some warm water, then went back to the buckets to give them a dose of nutrient and some FT Tannin Rouge. After about 15 minutes, the starters were humming along, so I pitched the yeast and went to bed. I was a little nervous, as we were going out of town the next morning and wouldn’t return until Sunday night. By the next morning, there were visual signs of fermentation, so I left a little more comfortable; but still anxious about leaving my new babies alone for the weekend.
Sunday evening, we returned home to the smells of fermentation throughout the house. Immediately after unloading the car, I ran down to the basement; hydrometer and spoon at the ready. All four buckets were fizzing and foaming happily. I gave each a good stir/punchdown and measured SG. Both were approaching 1.060, and I was a happy camper. They had survived the weekend and were moving right along.
More to come as my Chilean adventure continues...
Jim
Friday afternoon, I picked up 1 bucket and 1 lug each of Carmenere and Malbec juice/grapes from Harford Vineyard near Bel Air MD. They were nice and cold, but started their warm up on the roughly two hour drive home.
Still too cold to pitch, I set the buckets outside in a sunny spot while I cut the lawn (grapes stayed in the kitchen at room temp). After the lawn was done and I had cleaned up and had a snack, I took two, five gallon buckets, a few paint strainer bags and my grapes out to the deck with an ice cold Corona and got to work. A leisurely hour or so later, I had de-stemmed the two 18lb lugs and all the grapes were in 4 strainer bags. I crushed them by hand, and split each juice bucket into two batches each to make room for my "grape packs" - one in each bucket. From there, I measured the SG and pH of the buckets. Temps were in range, so I got to work preparing my yeast starters.
I chose to go with D254 on the Malbec and RC212 for the Carmenere. Originally, I thought I’d experiment with blending yeasts since I’d have each batch in two buckets. I ultimately decided to keep things a little more on the simple side, since this was my first attempt with fresh juice/grapes. I got the starters going with some warm water, then went back to the buckets to give them a dose of nutrient and some FT Tannin Rouge. After about 15 minutes, the starters were humming along, so I pitched the yeast and went to bed. I was a little nervous, as we were going out of town the next morning and wouldn’t return until Sunday night. By the next morning, there were visual signs of fermentation, so I left a little more comfortable; but still anxious about leaving my new babies alone for the weekend.
Sunday evening, we returned home to the smells of fermentation throughout the house. Immediately after unloading the car, I ran down to the basement; hydrometer and spoon at the ready. All four buckets were fizzing and foaming happily. I gave each a good stir/punchdown and measured SG. Both were approaching 1.060, and I was a happy camper. They had survived the weekend and were moving right along.
More to come as my Chilean adventure continues...
Jim
). As of last night, everything seems to be humming along and based on the tiny bubbles I'm seeing in the carboys, I think MLF is underay.
