Jimmy's Cousin Vinny, Lori's Uncle Bob

James Guido, our yearly wine-celebration puttanesca chef extraordinaire, has given us a book by his Cousin Vinny - Vincent J Emilio: Let's Make Wine! - An Anthology of Winemaking Instructions, and it looks great. 

And we were just up around Niagara Falls visiting the old folks at home, and Lori's Uncle Bob on Grand Island (in his mid 80's now) told us of his dandelion wine making adventures of the past.  (Cousin Russ, who lives up on Lake Ontario and has in the recent past been skinning raccoon road kills and curing their pelts, You know, just to see if I can, might come make wine with us next fall so he can bring the method back north.)

Alla famiglia!

Anisette in a spacesuit

Well, it's hard to resist:

Put the first batch into a Galaxy Syrup bottle from the '50's that I picked up last year for just this purpose.  Gonna make it taste even mo' better.

2011 Muscat, 3 weeks in - and a look at Uh Oh No. 1

Three weeks since press, less than two weeks since taking the fermented juice off of the gross lees. 

Color is looking good, starting to clarify.  Racking 2 or more weeks away.


And what about Oh Oh No. 1?  After the bee-sting incident it did not get a lot of love from me.  I'm going to let it ride outdoors until we get just a little cooler at night.  Haven't decided whether to clarify it or not.  The pics below show it in it's T-shirt, and then a closeup of the sediments.  Looks like it will turn our more yellow than the Muscat, but not anywhere near copper.

2011 Barbera, Grapes pressed. 34 gallons in the jar

Laura and I pressed the grapes today. Great yield, sour cherries.

2011 Barbera Redux: Day 9

The must has followed a pretty typical trajectory from the third day, the cake decreasing in thickness each day and the grapes softening. Fairly big bubbles through yesterday. Laura and I took another specific gravity reading. We are at 1.010, brix 2.5, so we press tonight.

2011 Muscat, day 12

Isn't it lovely!

Warrick's trick of refrigerating the lees to get more juice out of them worked perfectly, so now we are 5+5+5+1.  Lost only 1 gallon out of 17 in coming off the gross lees.

Very fine bubbles moving up the glass of the carboys, but not enough to be jostling the airlocks.  Color is already starting to differentiate in the carboys - deep lemonade at the top and yellow custard the rest of the way down. 

That'll be the end of the temperature taking and measurements for a while.  (Though it's a pleasure to just stand there and look at the wine for a little while every day.)  We have weeks to mull over the next racking, fining, and everything else.  And to wonder why we didn't get it together to do a red this year!

2011 Muscat, day 11

5:30

• Room 69, must 69, Brix -0.3.
• Time to rack and add SO2 - either right now or this evening when we can gather the troops.

There's still steady action happening, but it's time.  Will add 1.5 g KSO2 to each 5 gallon carboy when we rack, unless someone wants to do a cb without it for comparison.

OK, more geekiness. 
The last chart shows the percentage change in Brix on each day.  Correlate it with temps and it helps me see is that as soon as the temp of the must went above 72 F (immediately in 2010 and not until day 3 in 2011) sugar % loss was steep.  (The end-game is steep, too, without the heat, but we're talking about just 1 or 2 brix total there.)

(About 70 liters of Muscat must.  This is where the first 8 days of primary fermentation happened.)

(5+5+5+1+1, where the last 3 days of primary fermentation happened.)

19:00

• Room 69, must 70, Brix -0.4.
• Racked the Muscat off the gross lees, adding about 1.5 grams (about 3/4 tsp) KS02 to each 5 gal carboy.
• 5+5+5 plus what I think will be a full gallon - placed two partial gallons in the fridge to settle overnight, then will hopefully combine the must into one clean gallon, for use at the next racking.
• Very smooth racking, not a lot of agitation. 

2011 Muscat, day 10

6:00

• Room 70, must 70, Brix 0.9.
• Slow, steady fermentation.  Mesmerizing to watch through the glass.
• Sharply cooler outside - about 48 F right now.  

19:00

• Room 72, must 69, Brix 0.3.
• Will likely want to rack tomorrow evening.  

Fresh SO2 and acid tests arrived today.
Cool enough outside so that the house fell into the mid 60's.  Heat's been on for the first time this year, and might warm the cellar some.

2011 Muscat, day 9

6:00

• Room 70, must 70, Brix 2.3.
• Steady ferm - it's a chorus of bubbles from the five vessels.

15:00

• Room 72, must 70, Brix 1.7.

2011 Barbera, Day 3

AM
Big cake. 4 inches, and a big pink-purple froth you could surf on. The aroma is deepening though the juice still tastes pretty sweet.

2011 Muscat, day 8

6:00

• Room 72, must 68.5, Brix 4.
• Iced, but this will probably be the last change in the 100 liter poly tank - fermentation is quiet enough and throwing off little enough CO2 that we should move the must to carboys with much less airspace. 

12:00

• Moved the must from the 1-- liter tank to carboys and jugs: 5+5+5+1+1.  Made the transfer with less air-mixing than last year.  Next year, if we put the 100 liter tank on the workbench before filling it, I'll have the method nailed.
• Same off custard color as the last two years
• Fermentation very active, even at this low sugar level.

21:00

• Room 71, must 70, Brix 3.3.
• Must temp is approximate - need to switch to a different thermometer that will let me take temp more easily in carboys.
• Close to zero head-space in the carboys and jugs - just enough to keep the foam out of the bubblers - and even then I've had to clean them out a few times already.