What's going on in your winery today..

[Darren]

It was the one in the tutorial (wine no4) the first time i made it the ferment stopped at 1030 it just wouldn't go any further i m not sure what i did wrong so i finished it off from there .But this one fermented all the way out and then i back sweetened it it does tast yummy i will be putting it away for them cold winter nights.

[ms67]

degassed and stabilised the beaverdale shiraz.
topped up the oaked rose.

[ms67]

Blending and bottling orange/citrus wine with various flower wines ... making dessert wines with big noses .... busy busy busy in the run up to bumper sized brews of flower wines soon.

starting a blog too (pics, recipes and all sorts), a job made easy by having backed-up notes all over the place .... can't be too careful, you never know when one copy is gonna disappear.

[fatbloke]

Last night, I finally dug out 3 different types of honey that I've been intending getting going for some months.

From Paynes, Italian Chestnut honey and Mexican Clear honey, plus from Lidl, Marlene Summer Blossom with Wild Blossom (rather poncey sounding blended honey - darkish in colour with a reasonably strong aroma).

The Chestnut and Mexican are both quite dark honeys (probably not as dark as Buckwheat).

All of them had to be warmed gently in a sink full of hot water as there was too much crystalisation to get them out the packing. They're now in the DJ's with water, some strong tea (forgot to go to HBS for tannin) and "Mead Acid" - which is the recommendation from Ashton and Duncans "Making Mead" book - nothing special, just 2 parts Malic to 1 part Tartaric.

I've had to wait till now to check the temp so I can take a gravity reading. I'll be rehydrating the yeast with water and GoFerm though (not necessary but as I've got some, why not). I'm gonna use D21 yeast for the Mexican and the Chestnut, and the Summer Blossom one will have K1V-1116.

I'll be waiting until the end of any lag phase before adding the nutrients - for no other reason than that's what Lallemand/Lalvin say to do with FermaidK.

All 3 honeys, being reasonably dark in colour, mean that I'm hoping that they'll come out as reasonably dark coloured meads. I'm undecided as to whether just to ferment them dry and then back sweeten with the same honeys or whether to feed them a bit and aim to finish them at about the 1010 to 1020 level......

regards

jtfb

{edit}well all 3 different honeys measured up at about 1.100 - so I'm presuming that the slightly higher honey content of the Marlene Summer Blossom batch means that as it's showing about the same SG, that it was a higher % water. Whether that's something that is done during blending is anyones guess....... Anyway, the yeasts are rehydrating at the moment so I'll be ready to pitch them in a little while{/edit}

[ms67]

oooh lots but in short ....

• continued building of the blog
• more stabilising, degassing and topping up
• and some critical sampling ... 2009 tanglefoot; crisp, clean, dry, some citrus, root ginger and zest, hints of earthiness and radish! lingering complimentary flavours .

for me the joy is in sharing, regardless of the result. tonight i have enjoyed ticking all the boxes. 'tis a long weekend like it should be, i hope yours has been the same.

the more i brew the luckier i get!

[goldseal]

Not much yesterday - stabilised my Chocolate Raspberry Port.

[ms67]

Just finished what i started yesterday, fining beaverdale shiraz. Soon to be racked and then put away to be forgotten.

[wisp]

Pulled my hair out because the guava is foaming ... and foaming ... and foaming ... and - well, you get the picture. The water melon is behaving itself quite nicely thank you.

I shouldn't have said that should I? I just know I shouldn't have said that. It'll probably be meeting me at the door of the kitchen in the morning now that I've said that!

[spritzer]

Pulled my hair out because the guava is foaming ... and foaming ... and foaming ... and - well, you get the picture. The water melon is behaving itself quite nicely thank you.

I shouldn't have said that should I? I just know I shouldn't have said that. It'll probably be meeting me at the door of the kitchen in the morning now that I've said that!

The most recent pineapple number one that I have on the go, did that
I started it off, before starting my first of 4 nightshifts....
I came home 2 mornings to find it oozing out of the top of the airlock profusly... luckily it was on a tray, so no need to clean the floor

And the third morning, I came home to find the airlock on the other side of the kitchen, along with the plastic bag that was covering it ....
Luckily, it was in a plastic DJ ...
I dread to think what I would have come home to if it were in glass

[wisp]

egad kid, at least my airlock has not ended up on the other side of the room.

Did you bury the airlock with due empathy and sympathy?

[Acky]

4 wine #1 on go. 2 apple 1 cranberry and raspberry 1 lychee.
all previous #1s turned out great, what a fantastic recipe.

[ukric]

Filtering 5 gallon of lychee

[spritzer]

I had hoped to start some stuff off today...

I went into my shed today for something ( which is only one of those half sheds, made of plastic) to discover that a mouse was nesting in a bag of compost that was in there...

So pulled the whole lot out, cleaned it, binned some, and replaced back in the shed.... therefore, nowt going on in the winery today
And nowt in the shed (I hope) that will attract any future mice

[ms67]

More topping up and stabilising

Over the weekend a couple more bottles went out into the world of partying type vibes, and there discovered that i had played my part in starting someone off on their journey into the world of brewing wine.

[Cellar_Rat]

Just testing a float switch for the new press.