What R you doing today?

[Affe]

Should hopefully be picking up 2x 6 gal carboys and a racking cane for $40 this afternoon, provided the guy calls or texts me back

 

[Sirs]

Sirs,

Hey, those muscadiens are looking good. Hopefully we will avoid any heavy rain from hurricane Irene. It looks like it will skip up the coast and leave Western NC untouched.

I understand muscadines are already heavy with acid. Do you find you need to add any? If you don't mind, how about putting up your recipie.

This AM I bottled 15 bottles of sherry. It has a very nice taste, and I expect it will improve with more aging.

Thanks, Paul

Well if my computer was working I could tell you the recipe in a second or 2 you know copy and paste but it has been down for a few weeks. I can tell you basically what I do. With the nobles I get 3 (5 gallon) buckets full and crush up the grapes as much as possible, that normally gets me close to 4 gallon of must in each bucket. I'll get a quart of water and bring to a boil and add around 5 pounds of sugar to it till dissolved good let get to room temp and add to must cover and let nature do her thing. I'll stir daily once or twice for 10 to 14 days or till it goes dry, if it goes dry quickly I'll strain some of the pulp off and add more simple syrup normally about 5 more pounds sugar.....I know, i know, rocket fuel but it's what I like and my rocket fuel is normally not all alcohol mouthfeel . Anyway I'll rack it all over at 14 days no matter what and then I put it under glass or at least under airlock till it goes dry again then I leave it till I think it needs racking again or there is just a ton of sediment building up normally about once a month or so, It normally clears really nicely after about 3rd rack and very seldom do I need to do anythnig more unless I was it sweeter. Another story all together.. LOL
Most of my wines stop at around 18% I've had a number of them keep going on up to 24% but those are ones I just kept adding sugar too after it went dry, and they say wild yeast won't go past 14% lol don't tell that to these babies

 

[docanddeb]

So you just let it ferment on wild yeast? Have you ever had a batch go bad because of this? I would be too nervous to do that... and wine yeast is soooo cheap!!

Debbie

 

[Sirs]

not gonna jink myself and say no so i'll just say wild yeast has done excellent job for me and I've not been disappointed yet.

 

[Sirs]

myself I think unless your making wine that the yeast came from then your not getting the best you can get

 

[Sirs]

I guess thats one thing I never understood is most winemakers who use the wine yeast not wild will ferment to dry then sorbate and backsweeten if your gonna do that why not use the natural yeast on the product, i've never had a yeast give off odors or get stressed becuase I didn't use nutrient or anything else

 

[docanddeb]

Do you use commercial yeast on anything?

Debbie

 

[Redtrk]

Just checked in on my fermenting beer and fermenting concord. They both seem to be doing nicely. Heading out to the garage now to prep the bike and program the GPS for a trip to Akron for one of my riding friends tomorrow. I'm going to do a round trip and get home about 1:30 AM on Thursday morning. It's going to be a looooong ride home.

 

[Flem]

Just checked in on my fermenting beer and fermenting concord. They both seem to be doing nicely. Heading out to the garage now to prep the bike and program the GPS for a trip to Akron for one of my riding friends tomorrow. I'm going to do a round trip and get home about 1:30 AM on Thursday morning. It's going to be a looooong ride home.

75 north to 70 east to 77 north. Take your rain gear. LOL

 

[Redtrk]

75 north to 70 east to 77 north. Take your rain gear. LOL

71 to 76. That's because I said Akron in the earlier post. I meant Youngstown. Sorry!

Yeah I checked the forecast and the rain gear is packed along with the cool weather gear. This might be an over nighter if he rain comes down hard.

 

[Runningwolf]

71 to 76. That's because I said Akron in the earlier post. I meant Youngstown. Sorry!

Rick, you're a day early. I'll be down to Youngstown Friday morning to pick up the California Juice.

 

[Sirs]

Do you use commercial yeast on anything?

Debbie

only used it once on apple juice store bought

 

[Runningwolf]

Going to a workshop tonight at Presque Wine Cellars on Yeast, Nutrients and ML Fermentation.

 

[ffemt128]

Rick, you're a day early. I'll be down to Youngstown Friday morning to pick up the California Juice.

We're heading over Saturday for our juice and for lunch.

Going to a workshop tonight at Presque Wine Cellars on Yeast, Nutrients and ML Fermentation.

Sounds interesting.

 

[ffemt128]

Sent off an email about a press this afternoon. We'll see if it's still available and may make a road trip to look at it on Sunday. If it doesn't look promising, I'll have to start construction on the one I was going to build over the winter.

 

[Sirs]

speaking of presses I got a real good friend who is a cabinet maker by trade(a real honest to god one not anything prefab) about making a wine press a 5 gallon one he said at first glance would be no problem to make in fact would be easy compared to stuff he's had to do, anyway he said he'd check it out and see what it would cost to build one of that size. He said he didn't understand why some was making out of oak the main part then useing laminated oak plywood for the other he said would be better and probly cheaper to make from regular oak not plywood. So soon as he gets all the info together and says what it'll cost, I'll let you all know the way he talked it wouldn't be anywhere what these guys on ebay was charging even useing all stainless steel parts

 

[Julie]

Mike and I went to camp last Sat and got 24# of elderberries, still have another big batch that wasn't quite ready to pick, we are headed up there tomorrow morning, I'm expecting to get another 24#'s and then headed to LuVa Bella's for my juice buckets.

 

[ffemt128]

Mike and I went to camp last Sat and got 24# of elderberries, still have another big batch that wasn't quite ready to pick, we are headed up there tomorrow morning, I'm expecting to get another 24#'s and then headed to LuVa Bella's for my juice buckets.

Hopefully the birds didn't get them this week. I'm happy with my 10 gallons I have going. It would have been nice to have enough berries for another 10-15 gallons.

Were heading to L'uva Bella Saturday for lunch and to pick up our 5 buckets of juice.

Have a safe trip tomorrow. I'm hoping to hear tonight or tomorrow if the press is still available. If so we should be in good shape for pressing muscadines.

 

[ffemt128]

speaking of presses I got a real good friend who is a cabinet maker by trade(a real honest to god one not anything prefab) about making a wine press a 5 gallon one he said at first glance would be no problem to make in fact would be easy compared to stuff he's had to do, anyway he said he'd check it out and see what it would cost to build one of that size. He said he didn't understand why some was making out of oak the main part then useing laminated oak plywood for the other he said would be better and probly cheaper to make from regular oak not plywood. So soon as he gets all the info together and says what it'll cost, I'll let you all know the way he talked it wouldn't be anywhere what these guys on ebay was charging even useing all stainless steel parts

If I get the press I inquired about, I have a 3' piece of apex/ajax threaded rod i can hook you up with for your press. Also have the nuts that I was planning on welding to a piece of steel plate. I'm hoping to know this weekend if I own a press or not.

 

[Sirs]

cool who knows might come in handy