What's going on in your winery today..

[ms67]

Fruit removed from this years second batch of blackberry wine and the good stuff moved to 2ndry

[ms67]

Racked, degassed, topped-up and stabilised 3 gallons of Blueberry & Cranberry Quickie wine. Also did likewise for 1 gallon of a kit wine.

[grandmawoods]

Degassing my 1st lychee wine. Smells good & tastes good. But it sure is gassy.

[ms67]

there have been times when the gassiness in my wines has been a welcome surprise, a frizz if you like. Personally I don't automatically fall into the school of thought that says "it's not generic so it's a fault". While that may not gain me approval amongst lots of winemakers it certainly means that I enjoy my wines lots where I would otherwise have been disappointed. And it goes further than that 'cos it's not just me who nods with approval at unexpected or unusual results.

am i saying be in the moment perhaps?

[goldseal]

A bit of CO2 in a white can sometimes 'lift' it. I wouldn't have thought it would improve a fuller white, and IMO CO2 in a red is definitely unwelcome (unless it is actually a sparkling red )

[goldseal]

Not much today. I'm gradually clearing the decks for Grapefest, so I have nothing at all fermenting.

We went on an elderberry hunt this morning. Some local ones are ripe, so 34oz have been put in the freezer, to wait for the next steam-juicing session.

[NorthernWiner]

I have to switch some things out of barrels today and do some general tidying up so I'm ready for when the grapes arrive.

[benarnold]

Picked and froze 3kg of damsons from a massive tree near work. It's the first step

(Picked another couple of kilos, but that's not wine related. Damson ketchup!)

[Rich]

A bit of tidying up today in the winery (garage) to get ready for Grapefest and fit my new toy in. Made a stand for the press too so it sits higher than a bucket. Pics later, maybe after GF when it's in use.

[spritzer]

Managed to pick 1.8kg of blackberry, and freeze... to go with the 1.6kg I picked a week ago.
Hopefully will get out and about for an hour or two during this week for another couple of kilos

The elderberries are still not ready up here... but the birds appear to be eating them anyway
Ah well... hopefully I will be able to get a couple of kilos in a week or two of them

[billybuntus]

Picked another 12lb of big juicy blackberrys yesterday.

Chucked some yeast and nutrient in my apple wine last night (trying the medium recipe with 12lb apples). Its happily fizzing away today

Got my eye on some more elderberries too, the local bushes all have very dark plump berries. Although freezer space is at a premium as I have around 35lb blackberries in there at the moment and no spare large fermenting vessels.

I'm sure I find space for them somewhere

[spritzer]

Today, I have made a Cantina kit... because white wine supplies here are at an all time low ... and thats what I want to drink in the summer.
I think my brothers wedding wine, lured my into a false sense of security, in that, there was plenty of white wine about..... but most of that was not for me
Anyway, a Cantina kit and a Soloman Grundy blush (which will be started after the Cantina is finished) will sort out the short term white/rose depeletion

I also made a 5 gallon of lychee, from tinned fruit.
I loved the lychee from juice. Its now my new favourite. So had to finally start off the tinned version - I bought the fruit yonks ago, when it was on offre in Aldi/Lidl (been that long ago, I cant remember which )

And just to take a belt and brace approach that there is enough white wine, in the lead up to xmas, and for the family... I started a 3 gal of the classic wine number one. T'ohter variations of that will follow, as a matter of course, due to the sisters/sister in laws tastes

I bought a Island Mist kit from Karl a while back.... Pomegranet Zinfandel. That will be started tomorrow.

Not much else for now

[ms67]

Bottled 2 gallons of the Blueberry & Cranberry quickie wine. Best of the quickies I've made so far.

[koomber]

Made 5 gallons of an Amarillo/Williamette IPA. Did it yesterday but forgot to post.

[billybuntus]

Got a gallon of citus aperitif on the go and a light bodied apple wine too.

Ernie (my faithful apprentice) informed us earlier that the 4 gallons of blackberry wine was indeed frothing through the airlock and getting near to his felix cat food. He's a good lad.

Picked another 8lb of blackberries this afternoon, looks like there just about finished for the year though. That brings this years picking total to 64lbs.

Must make an effort this week and get more elderberries, only got 6lb so far....