What's going on in your winery today..

[goldseal]

I've been supergluing bits of my Enolmatic back together. A small plastic part is going to cost me around £25, so I'll try this budget option first

[Rich]

Done some degassing/finning today, along with filtering a few others.

All whilst waiting for DHL to not bother turning up to collect the vwc bottles, 2 days running. Parcel2go seems ok, just the final couriers that let them down.

[lockwood1956]

Apple and Pear crushing day today....

Karl is arriving later in the day with his defrosted pears, and I removed the apples harvested last year from my freezer....

will probably freeze the resulting juice, as I don't have time to process it as I'm preparing my bottles for Scarborough!

so lots of racking and bottling happening today too!

[NorthernWiner]

Cabernet Sauvignon is now at -1.1° Brix. It's been on the skins for 11 days and is ready to press, but, since guests are coming over today, it will have to wait until tomorrow. The cap is still somewhat buoyant, so it should be ok to leave it.

[goldseal]

The superglued bits of my Enolmatic disintegrated immediately

I think the Italians who built this contraption must have either made the parts from cornflakes, or recycled plastic from 1980s Alfa Romeos

Looks like I'll have to spend some money after all.

I got my Pacific Quartet into secondary. I need to pull my finger out if I'm going to have enoough fermenters ready for Grapefest. I now have sufficient storage capacity for bottles (of which more later), but insufficient empty bottles!

[NorthernWiner]

Pressed the Cabernet on Monday, but got a very low yield... about 14.5 US gallons from 250 lbs fruit. And it's not like I went light on the press. The pomace cake was completely dry.

Just had some thick skinned grapes, I guess. Oh well.

The wine itself smells fabulous.

[ms67]

24 hours wasted on computer problems (serves me right for running an iron age mac for so many years cos it's more robust and reliable than a wheel but is bound to give up sometime. but with two in the house its a delight how you can make em work together!)

so winemaking .... so much to do, so much bottling, racking, starting brews (cos the elderflowers are blooming and smelling good) etc that the most sensible thing to do was make a big list and peer through glass checking for clarity.

which means, it's all systems go for some comparative elderflower brews. which makes me very happy. tho all the sterilising tomorrow isn't inspiring. but all the wine is!

[lockwood1956]

Yesterday was a bottling and labelling day......

today I have 25 gallons tropical fruit Riesling to rack

[ms67]

just finished bottling for the night, one gallon each of;

* Pineapple WN1
* Pomegranate WN1
* Tanglefoot
* Green Tea & Ginger

[lockwood1956]

I now have sufficient storage capacity for bottles (of which more later), but insufficient empty bottles!

Party at Pete's then?

which bit of your enolmatic broke?

[goldseal]

Party at Pete's then?

which bit of your enolmatic broke?

Sounds like a plan

The white plastic outer tube which forms part of the filler head assembly - the tip broke off.

[solly]

Washed out a small 1/2 d/j only to found that bottom broke off the demijhon (luckly in the sink) But for my Blackberry Must I needed 1 & 1/2 d/j so made one out of a milk bottle......works fine and it has a air tight seal with no drilling as the top of the plastic milk bottle is just the right size for a bung

[ms67]

found a pristine rumtopf in oxfam for a few quid.... snaffled it up in a shot

went elderflower sniffing, first available sunny day i know where to go!

labelled etc a heap of bottles.

no energy left for racking .... manana

[ms67]

racking and degassing etc

2 gallons of Oaked Rosé
2 gallons of Cheapskate Rosé
1 gallon of Beaverdale Shiraz

Oaked Rosés were identical except for acid adjustments, one with tartaric acid, other with citric. Result is noticeable, future all grape juice rosés will likely be tartaric acid only. Gervin B yeast was messy, which i don't like, but the wine is pleasant already. Good result for both wines, good result for the experiment.

Cheapskate Rosé was the inspiration behind oaked rosés. Very pleased with my formulation. A closer approximation would come from less oak addition, dunno if I want that tho, they are all good, just different. Again pleased with result of experimenting and comparing side by side brews.

Also got the Rumtopf on the go with strawberries.

[ms67]

Taking piccies useful for wine-making newbies and then updating the blog with them. Along with recipes and general chatter.

Enjoying the fruits of my labour, green tea & ginger wine, and pomegranate WN1 (just a glass of each).