What's going on in your winery today..

[goldseal]

I need to find my wine making mojo again
I have lost it for a few whiles

When that happens, think of this ...

[kampervan]

started 2 gallon rubicon lychee, 1 rubicon watermelon, 1 pomegranate and 1 trpoicana kids strawberry and raspberry

[wisp]

I'm really interested in the watermelon. Will you keep us informed about this. I saw the Rubicon Watermelon on sale in Lidl and I wondered if it would make a nice wine.

[kampervan]

sure was the same as you saw it and thought why not try that. the lychee makes a lovely drink

[wisp]

What will you do, make it as a #1 wine? If so, won't the grape juice drown the delicate watermelon flavour? Or just make it as an out and out watermelon wine? If so, will you give it body by adding wheat or banana juice or something?

[kampervan]

made as wine no1 with the watermelon as extra juice. will wait and see. the lychee worked just fine. so only time will tell

[ukric]

Now that the winery has dried out I've moved all the DJs back in there, nice to be able to see the dining table again

[ms67]

another beaverdale shiraz started up, just a gallon sadly

[wisp]

Have you ever had a couple of days where you just can't get anything done that you want to. I have a couple of wines in primary fermenters that are screaming out to be moved on - so much so, they'll ferment themselves right the way through soon, climb out and bottle themselves!

[goldseal]

I'm SURE I posted yesterday. Maybe I've been Moderated

Anyway, I got my Ltd Ed Trio Blanca kit on yesterday. I was surprised there was oak in the kit. I was also surprised how dark the must went in the fermenter - it looks like 5 gallons of Boddingtons.

Today - chaptalising my Choc Rasp Port, then .... nothing

[benarnold]

Finally tidied up the wine shed yesterday so I can get to things again.

Today I've brought all nine of the wines that I moved house with back in November into the kitchen to have a good look. The outside of every demijohn is covered in mould spots which is slightly worrying, but all the airlocks are intact and I can't see anything wrong with the insides of the glass. Most need racking so going to leave them to settle for a few hours.

Also made up a starter for the gallon of birch sap which is defrosting.

[Richard S]

5 gallons of lager and 2 gallons of peach & pineapple wine bottled. Starting a KenRidge Chardonnay, an Island Mist Peach & Apricot Chardonnay and a couple of wine #1 variants.

[wisp]

I'm SURE I posted yesterday. Maybe I've been Moderated

Anyway, I got my Ltd Ed Trio Blanca kit on yesterday. I was surprised there was oak in the kit. I was also surprised how dark the must went in the fermenter - it looks like 5 gallons of Boddingtons.

Today - chaptalising my Choc Rasp Port, then .... nothing

What does chaptalising mean?

[NorthernWiner]

What does chaptalising mean?

Chaptalizing means adding sugar.

[Rich]

Tidied up in the garage today, and disgorged 2 full bottles of sparkly. As a bit of an experiment I've sweetened them up with very sweet 'dosage' added as a top up. I'll now leave it to make sure it doesn't start fermenting again. The theory is that all the yeast has been shaken down and removed so it shouldn't ferment again.

To aid the process I've made a disgorging key. A normal crown cap remover you lift to remove the cap, this would leave your hand in the way of the ice plug, the 'key' operates the other way round with a downward force removing the crown cap. I use crown caps with a plastic underbung to contain the frozen yeast. (see blurred camera phone pics attached)

Also, being geeky, I weighed my empty champagne bottles to make sure they are all suitable for the next batch. Lucky all weighed in over 800g.

Some sg checks too on a big batch of lychee, small batch of lychee and the choc rasp port.. (which seems to not be moving down from 1.018 so it's had a good stir)