What's going on in your winery today..

[mark g]

started 1 gallon of Tea wine & 1 gallon of orange&carrot juice wine. they are both fermenting very well.

[goldseal]

Racked some Elderberry/Blackberry off its oak, degassed the Duoro Tinto and deacidified 10 gals of Phoenix.

[RTPFUN]

Put on a Raspberry blush one of those that was fabulous once you decided that it could be drunk after 6 months sitting in the naughty corner as a bit of a mistake. So off we go to copy the recipe as best you can and include all the errors and copy what you know was correct. Well it's in the warm cupboard starting SG 1100 lalvin E1118 with some 9 pounds of sugar. (looks as if I put exactly two extra pounds in it when I first made it as the Sg is spot on) and only 3 tea spoons of citric acid must have been short at the time and I never added any later. And the other error was one of the apple juices wasn't I'd picked up an apple and elderflower by mistake.

[robwrx]

Racked some Elderberry/Blackberry off its oak, degassed the Duoro Tinto and deacidified 10 gals of Phoenix.

Hi Pete

Could I trouble you for some specifics please (what type of oak, how much per gallon and for how long) as I am oaking some Elderberry and Blackberry myself and am after some pointers. I'm new to oaking and other than blending I understand there is nothing you can do if you over oak.

Rob

[RTPFUN]

Went to IKEA and got a new shelving unit. Put some slats on the edge of each shelf and it's now full of bottles in the "cellar" Nice to have all those boxes off the floor. Did a stock take 490 bottles of which over 100 are ready to drink. Maybe I am brewing it faster than we're drinking it.......Naaaaaaa it's just the weather no BBQ's.

[goldseal]

Hi Pete

Could I trouble you for some specifics please (what type of oak, how much per gallon and for how long) as I am oaking some Elderberry and Blackberry myself and am after some pointers. I'm new to oaking and other than blending I understand there is nothing you can do if you over oak.

Rob

Well, I added 'a handful' of Brupaks French Medium Toast oak chips per gallon to the last batch. I don't think there is much advantage in leaving it in there for more than a few weeks. I'd use about 25g per DJ.

I suppose it is personal taste though - I dodn't want to make this too oaky, and French seemed to be the best choice IMO.

[robwrx]

Well, I added 'a handful' of Brupaks French Medium Toast oak chips per gallon to the last batch. I don't think there is much advantage in leaving it in there for more than a few weeks. I'd use about 25g per DJ.

I suppose it is personal taste though - I dodn't want to make this too oaky, and French seemed to be the best choice IMO.

Hmmmm... So my 15g per gallon of Karls finest American oak could need a bit more than a couple of weeks.

Thanks for the reply as I have plenty more wine to oak and was unsure as to what
I should be doing.

Regards
Rob

[mark g]

2 gallons of Del monte super fruits juice, red wine.
it's fermenting very well already

[Cellar_Rat]

It sounds like I will be starting some Ancient Orange Mead (by Joe Mattioli) when the honey man cometh tomorrow.

[lockwood1956]

Steady on Brian....there are oranges (and peel) in there you know

(no tea bags though)

[goldseal]

Currently watching a couple of gallons of rhubarb (will be rhubarb + elderflower) bubble slowly towards conclusion. Planning a bottling session (not with much enthusiasm, as usual).

[Big Dave]

Tonight Matthew, I will be filtering 8 DJs of various wines, racking 18 litres of Cider and adding raspberry juice to raspberry Merlot

And planning bottling session at weekend (with my new toy.....)

[RTPFUN]

Made up a Pak lab kit one or the chardonnays bought from Amazon can’t go wrong for the price £21. Started a wine number one. Sent off a keg of Woodfords Werry from the warm cupboard up to the cellar to clear and racked off and strained the Raspberry blush which has been a little slow to ferment so added a teaspoon of nutrient to get it going again as the SG is still 1.005

[goldseal]

Nothing.

I WAS planning to bottle 10 gallons of Phoenix today, but a tremendous hangover has put paid to that. I just can't face it

Maybe tomorrow.

[goldseal]

... or maybe not tomorrow.

Instead, I got a Wine No.1 variant going, made with Morrison's cherry drink instead of apple.

Disgorged a few remaining bottles of sparkling elderflower from last year. I did a couple a while back and found them well short on acidity, so I mixed up an acid solution which enabled me to squirt a measured dose of acid (and a bit of sulphite for good measure) into each bottle before fitting the champagne stopper.