What's going on in your winery today..

[fatbloke]

Last night, it was a case of finishing off picking over just under 5lb of ripe sloes and defrosting just over 4lb from last year to get them into 5 ltrs of gin (no sugar yet - will get that later this week @ 36oz i.e. 4oz per pint).

Plus, after watering down my elderberry melomel must, I made the starter of Red Star Montrachet, with water, sugar and GoFerm. Pitched it after I'd taken about a pint out and blitzed it in the liquidiser to aerate it. The dilution has brought it down to a more managable 1.130

regards

jtfb

[ms67]

Pressed the grapes from the neighbours vine, variety and flavour reminded me of years spent in Andalucia where the village folk were keen brewers. And then added all the usual bits and pieces to get it on the go.

[koomber]

Gumball head IPA made. No problems what so ever with the gear this time!

Real stress test this time. A 1.054 SG wheat beer. And going for 22.7L rather than 19: I usually do. Managed to get it on the numbers though this time.

I suspect it has something to do with Rich giving me a Stainless stell rod that I hang in my brew kettle with volumes marked on it. Big help this time!

Now the yeast it pitched it is time to try and make some slants for harvesting yeast from those oh so expensive lquid yeast packs. Here's hoping I don't blow my pressure cooker up!

[NorthernWiner]

Spent most of the afternoon pressing 500 lbs Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and got a yield of just over 30 US gallons (20 Merlot and 10 Franc).

Not quite as dark as I had hoped, but seems to have good flavor and aroma. Tannins are quite puckering on the Cab Franc.

[waggoner]

Just started a beetroot and carrot wine from a recipe i found on the internet,,should be fun to see how it turns out???

[ms67]

racked 3 gallons of elderflower wine, traditionally brewed rather than quickie or late additions. Looking forward to comparing it with those made in other ways.

[ms67]

racked 2 gallons of oaked rosé. formulated the recipe myself, split the batch in 2 to try different acids. boy did i nail it, delicious. not the best wines i ever made, but equal to them, preference simply comes down to mood and/or setting. The comparative acid experiment very informative too.

[ms67]

Bottled 3 gallons of various rosés and moved the grape wine to secondary and removed the skins, i do like muslin bags.

[mark g]

Just racked a gallon of 2009 Elderberry wine
it's ready to drink tomorrow

[ms67]

thought the grape wine had stalled or got stuck, spent a few days carefully considering my options (never had a stuck ferment in 20+ years of brewing). Racked it off the thick sediment that was accumulating quickly and found it had actually finished fermenting! Glad i didn't dive in with trouble-shooting measures. It was simply an unexpectedly (very) fast ferment in chilly conditions, which bodes well for the resulting wine.

[mark g]

Today i have just started 2 gallons of Elderberry wine
as well as racking 1 gallon of 2009 Blackberry wine to clear

[Former Canuk]

Stabilized & filtered out the fruit from a BelVino Red kit using an old t-shirt as I didn't have any sort of strainer . Thanks to Gold Seal for degassing tip in other forum post, I realize I was making foam, not just getting rid of the gas.

Started a Wherry beer, I just know that’s going to be good. Bought 48 Coppers Ox Bar PET bottles for it when it's done, see how they work.

Still sad over the Cantina Montepulciano Red that has the weirdest not very good taste to it.

[goldseal]

Nothing, apart from making mmmwwwwwaaaaaahhhhhhhaaaaahhhhhhaaaa noises when I look at my newly arrived Blackberry Port kit

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=77737&postcount=79

[mrdexter]

Racked 5 gall cider off the lees into secondary fermenter (this was made using a supposed specialist apple wine/cider yeast).
Started 5 gall cider off using K1-V116.

Tested 5 gall Wine 1 made with fresh apple juice rather than cartoned, reading at .996, will check again Monday when I get home from weekend away.

To do after this evenings committee meeting, start the Wine Expert Int Edition French Merlot kit which arrived yesterday from Karl.

[modofodo]

Some catching up over the last few days. A crawling/climbing baby leaves precious little time for vinification. Does he really need another bath?!

Racked Blackberry and tested SG to ensure I had sweetened (really, yes I forgot I had done it). Bit of degassing.

Racked Elderberry and did a bit of degassing.

Racked the Welsh Grape and syphoned back into the newly sanitised container - need to think about acid levels on this one.

Looked at the Sloe and Xmas pud wines and sighed and walked away - racking and sweetening will have to wait a little longer.