What R you doing today?

[winemaker81]

I drove to @VinesnBines's western VA vineyard this morning, and she, her husband, and I crushed 120+ lbs each Chambourcin and Vidal for me -- plus more Vidal, Chambourcin, and Chelois for them.

It's a 4 hour drive each way plus 2 hours of work (finished with her very tasty Vidal), and while I'm a bit tired, I'm in the middle of making starters and sorting grapes & juice into fermenters.

I'm performing 2 experiments:

Vidal -- I'm separating out ~4 gallons of juice to ferment as a normal white, and the remaining pulp/juice will be fermented as an "orange" wine, using Renaissance TR-313 yeast. I want to see the differences between the two.

Chambourcin -- this will be fermented in 2 batches using Renaissance Avante and Bravo, respectively. Post-fermentation I'll retain a sample of each batch, but most of it will be blended. The goal is to see how much difference there is between the three wines.

Note -- Avante is supposed to eat 25-30% of the malic acid, so I'm taking pH readings along the way, far more than I normally do.

The starters are created -- 2 tsp of each yeast, 1/2 tsp Fermax, and 3 Tbsp sugar. I'll inoculate in the morning, right after checking brix and pH.



I haven't paid a lot of attention to yeast in the past, but making 4 starters from 3 yeast made me look. In the following picture the 2 on the left are TR-313, then Avante and Bravo.

TR-313 and Avante look alike at first glance, but are clearly different. Bravo is MUCH darker and even more different.

EDIT: added the picture of the yeast:

 

[VinesnBines]

I drove to @VinesnBines's western VA vineyard this morning, and she, her husband, and I crushed 120+ lbs each Chambourcin and Vidal for me -- plus more Vidal, Chambourcin, and Chelois for them.

It's a 4 hour drive each way plus 2 hours of work (finished with her very tasty Vidal), and while I'm a bit tired, I'm in the middle of making starters and sorting grapes & juice into fermenters.

I'm performing 2 experiments:

Vidal -- I'm separating out ~4 gallons of juice to ferment as a normal white, and the remaining pulp/juice will be fermented as an "orange" wine, using Renaissance TR-313 yeast. I want to see the differences between the two.

Chambourcin -- this will be fermented in 2 batches using Renaissance Avante and Bravo, respectively. Post-fermentation I'll retain a sample of each batch, but most of it will be blended. The goal is to see how much difference there is between the three wines.

Note -- Avante is supposed to eat 25-30% of the malic acid, so I'm taking pH readings along the way, far more than I normally do.

The starters are created -- 2 tsp of each yeast, 1/2 tsp Fermax, and 3 Tbsp sugar. I'll inoculate in the morning, right after checking brix and pH.

View attachment 106287

I haven't paid a lot of attention to yeast in the past, but making 4 starters from 3 yeast made me look. In the following picture the 2 on the left are TR-313, then Avante and Bravo.

TR-313 and Avante look alike at first glance, but are clearly different. Bravo is MUCH darker and even more different.

EDIT: added the picture of the yeast:

View attachment 106291

It was great to have Bryan come out to SW VA. The weather was perfect for crush (cool and sunny) and not too many yellow jackets. No stings, so I call it a win. I'm anxious to see how his experiments turn out.

The Chambourcin are looking fantastic. They dodged the late frost and never looked back. We are getting abut 12.5 lbs a vine.

Good luck Bryan!

 

[winemaker81]

The Chambourcin are looking fantastic. They dodged the late frost and never looked back. We are getting abut 12.5 lbs a vine.

The color from the Chambourcin is strong. There's no way to make a white from this -- the juice coming out of the crusher was dark. This picture is after 4 hours in the car on the way home.



I added Color Pro, but it's not necessary for color.

 

[winemaker81]

@VinesnBines, your crusher worked fine. It's far better than mine!




The outside dimension of this as 10.25" (26 cm). I have used this in the distant past, and it works ... if there are no other choices!

 

[Hazelemere]

tasting a variety of red and white wines fermented with 4 different yeast strains:

Marechal Foch home grown organic - fermented with RC212-71B as a combo. 71B seems to be a good yeast for Marechal Foch to soften acid and add to all the positives of RC-212 It just started MLF on medium toast American oak. So far this yeast combo seems to be a winner for Marechal Foch

Regent home grown organic - same comments as Marechal Foch.

I'd use 71B with RC212 for any high acid red.

71B gave a really nice result on Raspberry and Wild Blackberry-Wild Cherry wines by dropping acid and giving a good smell with moderate tannin.

V-13 gave a fantastic smell on homegrown Reichensteiner

D-47 gave a rich Sheridan Chardonnay.

I'm getting Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot to hand destem with my daughter on October 21 to ferment with RC-212 only to maximize the intensity and not mess up the acidity. RC-212 with nutrient produces first class inky, smooth, rich and spicy reds

I added 1 bottle of French Chambord liqueur to my raspberry wine (25 bottles) fermented with 71B and next week I'll add another one.


After that I'm done for awhile. Next job balance Chardonnay 2nd runs i.e. drop the tannin and raise the acid.

 

[Neb Farmer]

Today is harvest day for my Sangiovese and my Nebbiolo. I am anticipating the sangiovese to yield around 7 gallons with a Brix average of only 22... 23 if I'm lucky.
The nebbiolo yield will be less due to smaller clusters and not as prolific as the sangio. Brix , however, is just about there at 24...so this is a good year for them.
Blue skies, moderate temps and no wind...another perfect Pacific Northwest day!

 

[David Violante]

Put this together for the niece and nephew…

 

[crushday]

Is there any doubt?

 

[ChuckD]

Today my son-in-law helped me raise the walls up on the “mother-in-law”apartment.

On Wednesday I built a 32-foot wall in one piece then realized there was no way two people could lift it! We ended up using a gin pole and chain hoist to lift it up. Next weekend we put a roof on it.

 

[Hazelemere]

My wife, daughter and I finished hand destemming 360 lbs Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon at 24.5% brix and 300 lbs Dineen Petit Verdot at 24.5% brix. The grapes were in nice condition. Destemming 29 boxes took the 3 of us 1.5 days. Now seeded with RC212 yeast with nutrient. I'll probably make Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon, Dineen Petit Verdot and a blend of Cabernet and Petit Verdot. Alcohol isn't sky high which is how I like my red table wines. We'll try to ferment in primaries for at least 3 weeks.

 

[ibglowin]

We came. We tasted. We toured. We joined! What a wonderful tasting experience yesterday. Thanks to our tasting host Matt and Scott Hawley the winery owner for a truly amazing afternoon. Does not suk to be retired this week. (or last week for that matter!) In Paso Robles, CA.

 

[ibglowin]

 

[ceeaton]

Finally have a mostly free (schedule wise) Saturday. Wifey home to study and take care of the doggie, daughter to work at 7:30 am, wifey will pick up at 3:30. Small pork butt on the kettle grill, batch of beer for my oldest's visit in December (he requested a knock-off of a Blonde Eagle Ale from 49th State Brewing Co). Turning out to be a gorgeous day for early November. Life is good!

 

[Hazelemere]

We double pressed our hand destemmed uncrushed Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon on Thursday at ~SG 1.010 (must 1.000 berries 1.015) from an RC 212 + nutrient ferment. This smells incredible and is tasty and soft. We'll probably spike it with Dineen Petit Verdot/Mettle Petite Sirah to make it more ballsy ie. increase the tannin and body. Having said that, this could be sensational. One can only hope!

 

[vinny]

I've canned tomatoes in November before, but never the whole shebang. They were late to ripen and a lot ended up on the plate. On a good year I do three canning days, the first round in August.

They were so ripe a few had started sprouting inside!

Almost nine jars of well reduced sauce. A good year is 30+, I think the record is around 60... The pressure is on for next year.

 

[vinny]

Today my son-in-law helped me raise the walls up on the “mother-in-law”apartment.
View attachment 106569
On Wednesday I built a 32-foot wall in one piece then realized there was no way two people could lift it! We ended up using a gin pole and chain hoist to lift it up. Next weekend we put a roof on it.

I can't help but wonder what that upstairs window is going to be looking into.

 

[ChuckD]

I can't help but wonder what that upstairs window is going to be looking into.

Funny story that! I did my best with the math and a 5 pitch would not get me above the existing roof. a 6 pitch does but it would be close with the window. Close enough that I didn’t know until the trusses were installed. Turns out the truss was 1/4” below the window and I had to notch the roof sheathing to make it fit. I’ll waterproof it with copious sticky window weather stripping tape this year and put in a shorter window when they all get replaced next year.

 

[vinny]

Funny story that! I did my best with the math and a 5 pitch would not get me above the existing roof. a 6 pitch does but it would be close with the window. Close enough that I didn’t know until the trusses were installed. Turns out the truss was 1/4” below the window and I had to notch the roof sheathing to make it fit. I’ll waterproof it with copious sticky window weather stripping tape this year and put in a shorter window when they all get replaced next year.

You gotta love it when a plan comes together... Just.

 

[Jovimaple]

Finally closing up the cabin in NW Wisconsin this weekend. We took the dock out of the water in September, so this weekend is mostly about putting deck furniture and other outside stuff into the shed, and turning off the water.

Life has been crazy busy lately so my wines have been doing their aging without much interaction from me. I have several to bottle, 2 to backsweeten, and a bunch of fruit in the freezer ready to be fermented! Maybe next week I can get some of that done.

 

[winemaker81]

I purchased a leaf blower in 1995, which came with an attachment for cleaning gutters. The attachment went on a high shelf and I've not used it (or even touched it) until yesterday. Gutters are full of new leaves and I didn't want to get out the ladder. So I got the attachment down and attached it to the leaf blower.



The items is light, so lifting it isn't a problem, although the length makes it a bit unwieldy.

Upon turning it on, it was nearly ripped from my hands by the sideways force. Whoa! I had the same problem using a 90 degree bend on a power washer extension for cleaning vinyl siding.

The good news is the attachment works as expected! The gutters I could reach are clean!

The bad news? Mrs. WM81 had to massage my back last night, as controlling the sideways torque is not easy.