What's going on in your winery today..

[goldseal]

Cleaning 30 pretty grubby bottles. I just hope they are all dry before Mrs. G gets home, or she'll have a sense-of-humour failure.

Racked some 09 Elderberry/Blackberry off its oak. No idea whether it is sufficiently oaked - still tastes pretty raw, but fingers crossed etc..

[spritzer]

Racked a Beaverdale Cab Sav...
And filtered a Beaverdale Pinot Grigio...
I hope to get some stuff bottled tomorrow

[ms67]

bottled 2 gallons of a quick brewing/drinking elderflower wine. decent too at only 9 weeks old. Plenty of it means that the more traditionally brewed version will get the time it likes.

[goldseal]

An SG check on my WinExpert Petit Verdot.

It seems to have quit at 0.997, whereas it should get down to 0.992 - 6. I have given it a quick stir and a shake, just in case the yeasts need a reminder to finish the job. There is a bit of headspace in the Better Bottle, but I'm working on the theory that shaking will degas it a bit, so I'm replenishing the CO2 layer. I hope

[koomber]

Bottled elderflower wine and blueberry wine.
Bottle 4 gallons of all grain beer. Not sure how it is going to go since I developed the recipe myself.

[kampervan]

started 5 gal blackberry/rasp/strawberry. and bottled some, so much i have run out of bottles. trying to make sure have better bottles free for grapefest. also made blackberry jelly

[billybuntus]

Collected 13 lbs of blackberries this afternoon. Bringing the freezer total upto 22 Lbs :-)

Going back next weekend with another helper to get more....

Started 2 gallons of raspberry wine also.

[ms67]

after a few days away during primary fermentation of blackberries gave it all a good stir. The lid was bulging from CO2 pressure and on popping it there was a great fizz to be heard. Nothing unexpected as i was relying on a trusted yeast that has given me nothing but joy and easy fermenting over the years. So it was a natural choice for an awkward conflict of brewing and short break.

the break was part surfing and part catching up with friends ... which meant lots of wine drinking. Elderflower quickie wine, orange & hawthorn blossom (blend), green tea & ginger (gifted and not opened), and elderberry & blackberry (2nd run on fruit/yeast). Surprisingly the sweet orange wine was the resounding favourite. Elderberry & blackberry was the one chosen to open 1st and was the second favourite, Quickie elderflower was a favourite of one sampler. None were disliked.

and the surfing ... just the business, best surf I have ever had. and the better half got her first long rides on big waves. We had smiles as wide as our faces, and muscles ached after 2 days in the water. All i'm saying is that it was somewhere in south wales.

[modofodo]

Blackberry wine started
Xmas pud wine finally started
Twinings fruit tea wine started

Opened a Beaverdale CDR - very pleasant at 2-3 months, will look forward to another in 3 months or so.

Limbering up to start a 5 gallon Cal Con Shiraz

[ms67]

Bottling Green Tea & Ginger wine. Which'll free up enough DJ's to move the second batch of Blackberry wine to secondary tomorrow. Which means i'll only need to bottle one more gallon to free up the single DJ which'll be needed for lots of rackings. I never thought 30 DJ's would only just be enough.

[ms67]

on a roll, bottling the last of the blackberry wine from last years foraged berries. Was quite acidic some months ago, will soon find out if it's somewhat better now. May even get around to doing some racking and degassing etc tomorrow!

[grandmawoods]

Just bottled last years raspberry. Getting bottles ready for a banana and a kiwi. Love that kiwi.

[NorthernWiner]

I'm prepping entries for the Minnesota State Fair tonight. It's the last competition of the year for me. Strangely, if I do well in other competitions, I tend to do crappy in the fair - and vice versa. So we'll see...

[goldseal]

Racked my grapefest Merlot, after the oak stave fell inwhen the nylon line broke.

Racked a Kenridge Showcase Petit Verdot off the lees.

Bottled some Montego Chardonnay, a DJ of 2009 Ciliegiolo and another one of 2009 Merlot.

[spritzer]

Picked 1.6kg of blackberries, and found another elderberry tree