750ml Swing Top bottles

[owlwithoutfeathers]

Hi Guys,

Apologies if this is in the wrong thread!

I've got 1 gallon of AOM thats been in a demi since November 2009 that i havent touched yet. I've been trying to be patient and take JTFB's advice to see if it will really be "somehting special"!

Anyway, i need to free up the demi now and i was wondering if anyone uses 750ml swing top bottles to store stuff? Yes, most people will groan and say "why not normal wine bottles, with corks in!". Answer is, i dunno - i just feel like putting it in swing tops. Cant remember if i actually "stopped" the fermentation or not. I used bread yeast (followed the recipe to the letter), so perhaps my thinking is that i may get a very slight frizz out of it (similar to an Alborino, perhaps?). I'm not that keen on medium/sweet wines, so any frizz and then a good chilling in the fridge might smooth it out for me. Hence, i suppose, not storing it in normal wine bottles and wathcing it cork-op all over the shop!

I digress. . . .Does anyone know where i can get hold of cheap 750ml swing top bottles? The cheepest i've seen online were £1.96 each, with postage at about £7.95 for the lot . . . Any ideas peeps?

Owl.

[fatbloke]

Hi Guys,

Apologies if this is in the wrong thread!

I've got 1 gallon of AOM thats been in a demi since November 2009 that i havent touched yet. I've been trying to be patient and take JTFB's advice to see if it will really be "somehting special"!

Anyway, i need to free up the demi now and i was wondering if anyone uses 750ml swing top bottles to store stuff? Yes, most people will groan and say "why not normal wine bottles, with corks in!". Answer is, i dunno - i just feel like putting it in swing tops. Cant remember if i actually "stopped" the fermentation or not. I used bread yeast (followed the recipe to the letter), so perhaps my thinking is that i may get a very slight frizz out of it (similar to an Alborino, perhaps?). I'm not that keen on medium/sweet wines, so any frizz and then a good chilling in the fridge might smooth it out for me. Hence, i suppose, not storing it in normal wine bottles and wathcing it cork-op all over the shop!

I digress. . . .Does anyone know where i can get hold of cheap 750ml swing top bottles? The cheepest i've seen online were £1.96 each, with postage at about £7.95 for the lot . . . Any ideas peeps?

Owl.

Yes. 750ml Bordeaux style wine bottles. Doesn't matter if they're "cork type" and you haven't got a corker. You can get plastic push in type stoppers that do the job.

Or failing that, maybe 375ml Bordeaux type and the same push in stoppers.

Or what the hell, if you've got a "crown capper" then you can use beer bottles.....

Swing top bottles are nice, but they do tend to be rather pricey compared to other types..... Oh and they're more often than not, 500mls.

You could, of course, just keep an eye open on ebay as sometimes you see batches of Grolsch bottles for sale quite cheaply.....

regards

jtfb

p.s. Oh and there's no guarantee of "something spectacular" with aged JAO, but compared to what it's like normally, ageing improves it considerably - and it's worth remembering to get it off the yeast once it's cleared as you can never tell whether the yeast might cause "autolysis" or not... some wine yeasts are known for it, while others are fine with the "sur lie" method....

[goldseal]

I have about a dozen 750ml swingtops, bought from my local HBS.

£1.96 seems like a decent price. Mine were around that, a year ago.

[lockwood1956]

For £1.90 you can get them full of lemonade!

http://www.eyespygifts.com/looking-for/lorina%20traditional%20pink%20lemonade%20%20750ml_Drinks/Lorina%20pomegranate%20lemonade%20%20750ml%20%20on%20offer.aspx

[goldseal]

Well, you could in Oct 2010. Looks like £2.44 from Waitrose now. Not bad though - 44p for the lemonade, £2 for the bottle

[owlwithoutfeathers]

p.s. Oh and there's no guarantee of "something spectacular" with aged JAO, but compared to what it's like normally, ageing improves it considerably - and it's worth remembering to get it off the yeast once it's cleared as you can never tell whether the yeast might cause "autolysis" or not... some wine yeasts are known for it, while others are fine with the "sur lie" method....[/QUOTE]

Thanks guys. Think i'll go with the 750ml swing tops - they look nice enough. I did rack it twice i think, so its off the lees now. Been off them for about 10-12 nonths at least i think.

Talking of sur lie, and completely unrelated to this (once again, apologies for the wanding thread . . ), i had a cracking bottle of muscadet sur lie the other night. Think i might venture forth and try a beaverdale 1 gallon kit. Any ideas for yeast replacement, if at all?

Thanks.

[goldseal]

The obvious candidate would be Lalvin D47 (aka Vintners Harvest CY17 and Gervin 'F').

This yeast is good for sur lie, and should work better than the yeast Beaverdale supply. Having said that, I haven't tried this combination (although I am starting a Beaverdale Californian White + D47 this weekend).

[fatbloke]

Erm, just a quick tuppence worth.

A lot of the chaps and chapesses, across the pond, seem to like using D47, but a "weather eye" needs to be kept on the fermentation temp as D47 has quite a narrow range and it would seem that its best to keep it below 70F 21C, as it likes to make fusels above that.

Their efforts have been best rewarded at about 65F 16/17C.

That's with mead/honey musts though, but it might still be better (safer ?) with grape musts too (others will have better info/knowledge for grapes)........

[goldseal]

Can't say I have ever had a problem with D47, bit that is all wine, not mead.

Useful info though, John

[lockwood1956]

Any ideas for yeast replacement, if at all?

Lalvin D47 or Gervin No5

White wines are better fermented on the cooler side. I know you likely know this, but if doing Sur lie, it will be on the sediment after racking, so its the very fine stuff and not the big lumpy stuff in there before the first racking.

regards
Bob

[fatbloke]

Lalvin D47 or Gervin No5

White wines are better fermented on the cooler side. I know you likely know this, but if doing Sur lie, it will be on the sediment after racking, so its the very fine stuff and not the big lumpy stuff in there before the first racking.

regards
Bob

So while my point isn't directly connected with "Sur Lie" Bob, it would appear that the mead nutters have discovered, probably by accident (of their specific locations) that D47 is a goody for lower temp ferments.

It seems that the bit I was alluding to, came about from some of the mead makers locations in the US, tending toward the rather warm, especially in the summer and finding that D47 could be a little unpredictable in warmer temps.

IMV, that sits nicely in with your approach of fermenting "whites" lower, rather than higher if possible, for best results - Hum ? I wonder if the same applies to yeasts with a considerably wider temp range, like K1V-1116 (Gervin Varietal "E") as well ?

I mean, irrespective of the actual ingredient make up of the must, is it becoming a sort of "rule of thumb" to keep the temps lower generally with whites (presuming that meads, specifically traditionals etc would compete either separately, or as "non-grape whites" or just as country wines) ???

regards

jtfb

[owlwithoutfeathers]

Interesting divergence of thread! But who am i to complain!!

I do mostly white Beaverdale kits and to be honest ive never really worried about temperature. I bung the kit in a fermentor, in the kitchen, and just let it do its thing. I do have a thermostatically controlled immersion heater that i havent yet used in my new house - used to use it at Owl Seniors during the winter months and ive got a brew snug for a 1 gallon demi (yet to be used); but a the moment ive just been letting my wines do their thing. If it takes 7-14 days or 3 weeks, hey, thats that.

Im really interested to see how much difference the addition of other yeast will make in a beaverdale kit, so will definately go for the D-47.