Hi all,
I am new to making wine. I appreciate all input and suggestions about my winemaking plan. I have read the book "From Vines to Wines" by Jeff Cox and whatever I can find on the internet and advice from a winemaker I know.
I got 7 gal of Cab Sauv must from a winery in an 8 gal. bucket fermenter. Today is Saturday and I got the grapes this afternoon. The grapes were crushed Friday and had 30ppm SO2 added by the winery.
The winemaker measured the Brix to be 27 deg. I asked him if he adjusted anything, he said no but he is going to add some water because some of the grapes on the bunches were raisined and he expects the Brix to go higher. At least I think that is what he meant. He calculated that at his planned water ratio that I need to add 0.5 gal. So I plan to do that soon.
I do not know the pH of these grapes but I measured the TA at 0.4. I guess you would say these are ripe Livermore, CA grapes. The juice did not taste tart. I figured to get the must up to 0.6 TA would take 252g of tartaric acid.
I have Lalvin ICV-D254 yeast, that is what the winery plans to use on this must. It's MLF compatible and I bought frozen Viniflora Oenos to go with it but since these grapes seem ripe, now I am questioning if there is enough malic acid to make the MLF necessary. How could I tell? Any opinions on skipping the MLF?
I also plan to do a concurrent yeast and malolactic fermentation. The store owner where I bought the yeast said it is fine to start MLF about 5 hours after the yeast begin to work. I had never heard of this before but I am willing to try. I have the yeast nutrients, DAP and the leuco nutrients also. I am going to divide these additions into three batches over three days.
One last hitch, I am going to pitch the yeast on Monday because that is when my new hydrometer and a second bucket fermenter is coming in the mail. Maybe I should just buy a hydrometer tomorrow at the store but then I will end up with two of them and what good is that?
I am new to making wine. I appreciate all input and suggestions about my winemaking plan. I have read the book "From Vines to Wines" by Jeff Cox and whatever I can find on the internet and advice from a winemaker I know.
I got 7 gal of Cab Sauv must from a winery in an 8 gal. bucket fermenter. Today is Saturday and I got the grapes this afternoon. The grapes were crushed Friday and had 30ppm SO2 added by the winery.
The winemaker measured the Brix to be 27 deg. I asked him if he adjusted anything, he said no but he is going to add some water because some of the grapes on the bunches were raisined and he expects the Brix to go higher. At least I think that is what he meant. He calculated that at his planned water ratio that I need to add 0.5 gal. So I plan to do that soon.
I do not know the pH of these grapes but I measured the TA at 0.4. I guess you would say these are ripe Livermore, CA grapes. The juice did not taste tart. I figured to get the must up to 0.6 TA would take 252g of tartaric acid.
I have Lalvin ICV-D254 yeast, that is what the winery plans to use on this must. It's MLF compatible and I bought frozen Viniflora Oenos to go with it but since these grapes seem ripe, now I am questioning if there is enough malic acid to make the MLF necessary. How could I tell? Any opinions on skipping the MLF?
I also plan to do a concurrent yeast and malolactic fermentation. The store owner where I bought the yeast said it is fine to start MLF about 5 hours after the yeast begin to work. I had never heard of this before but I am willing to try. I have the yeast nutrients, DAP and the leuco nutrients also. I am going to divide these additions into three batches over three days.
One last hitch, I am going to pitch the yeast on Monday because that is when my new hydrometer and a second bucket fermenter is coming in the mail. Maybe I should just buy a hydrometer tomorrow at the store but then I will end up with two of them and what good is that?
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