2015 Muscat, day 12

0600:  74 F cellar, a very wet 72 F outdoors.  249 hours since yeast.

-0.3 Brix in the carboy I've been measuring from most often, and 20 burps per minute.  (22 in the CB I measured from last night that had the higher than expected Brix.).  Time to fully top up and raise the SO2.

Calculator at vinoenology.com

So, added 5.7 ml 10% metabisulfite solution to each 5 gallon carboy.  Topped up with finished Muscat, using about a quart total over the 15 gallons.

Bonus: was finally able to get the drowned black wasp out of the soup!

2015 Muscat, day 11

0600:  69F outside, 74 in the cellar.  225 hours since yeast.

0.9 Brix, still 28 bpm.  Down 0.6 (40%) in the last 11 hours.  Will need to know this evening how we should top up the carboys - one of our wines from the last few years, commercial wine, or water.  Will do the topping & SO2 addition tonight or , maybe more likely, tomorrow morning

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After charting this morning's numbers I went to look at the Brix to alcohol chart that we've pointed to for years on the sidebar - 404,it's gone.  But I found a handful of calculators at WineBussiness.com, and some helpful explanatory information.  Their Brix / alcohol calculator expects for you to know the conversion factor of the yeast you are using.  It's somewhere between 0.55 and 0.64: each gram of sugar will get converted into somewhere between .55 and .64 grams of alcohol.  So far so good.  But Lallemand's spec sheet for EC-1118 doesn't point me to a value I should use.  Which officially indicates, I think, that I shouldn't care about what I can't measure.  But it does make a big potential difference to the alcohol content of the finished wine.

The calculators at WineBusiness are a subset of the calculators at Vinoenology.  Geek heaven!

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2100:  75 F cellar, 73 F outside, 240 hours since yeast.

0.8 Brix from a different carboy, 26 burps per minute.  Hmmm.  15 hours, 0.1 Brix delta (11%).  In the morning I'll go back to the previous CB to see if there's a significant difference.  Used juice from the test CB to level out the three we have cooking.  When we get to less than zero I'll top everything up and add 30 ppm SO2.

2015 Muscat, day 10

0700: Cellar 73 F, 64 F outside.  202 hours since yeast.

2.3 Brix.  Bubblers going strong in all carboys.  Still the priest's collar of foam.  Small absolute numbers but big percentage - down 1.2 Brix (34%) in the last 13 hours.

1900:  Cellar 74.  214 hours since yeastadooddle.

1.5 Brix, 28 burps per minute.  0.8 absolute drop, 34%.

2015 Muscat, day 9

0700:  72 in the cellar, 57 outside.  178 hours since yeast.

3.9 Brix.  Each CB has a priest's collar of white foam, bubbling steadily.  Down 0.8 Brix (17%) in the last 15 hours.

In 2014 I didn't take many readings after coming out of the primary on day 7, at which point the juice was 6 Brix versus 4.7 this year, but I did note that in the evening of day 9 we were at 0.6.

1800:  189 hours since yeast
3.5 Brix.  Samples from different CB, so might get some inconsistency.  Down 0.4 (11.4%) in the last 11 hours.

2015 Grenache Rosé, day 8

1500:  162 hours since yeast.

Brix -0.2 (that's minus, not dash)
Made up a 10% meta solution and raised all of the vessels by 30 ppm SO2.  Counting on this being enough to halt any malolactic fermentation.  Am also thinking about surrounding the cbs and jugs with water & an ice paddle for the next few days.

2015 Muscat, day 8

0800:  155 hours since yeast

63 F outside, 72 F in the cellar.  Wine is 76 F, and the brix is somewhere between 5 and 6 - the long scale hydrometer says 5, the short scale says no-way and probably 6.  So that's a drop of somewhere between 1.0 (15.4%) and 0.5 (7.2%) in the last 11 hours,

Fine white, thin foam.  Today should be the day to transfer the wine into topped off vessels.  Shooting for 15 or 16 gallons.

Quick chart of Brix levels since adding yeast.  At 33 hours switched from refractometer to hydrometer.  A lull in the readings between 48 hours and 73 hours, though the ferment was obviously strong at that point.


1600:  163 hours since yeast.
Alright, I did it.  Brix at about 4.7.  Moved the wine into 3 5 gallon CBs, each a liter or less shy of full.  Will let things bubble for a while, and then either condense or top off the vessels with wine from last year or the year before.

Lots of yeast mud went in - very little left in the primary fermenter.  And the black wasp is floating at the top of the last of the 3 carboys...

2015 wines, day 7

0600: 64F outside, 74F cellar.  129 hours since yeast.

• Muscat:

8 Brix.  2.5 drop (24%) over the last 10 hours.
For comparison, last year was 7.5 B at 114 hours and that was also a 2.5 drop from the prior reading.  Gone is the 60's shag, in is the 80's indoor/outdoor short nap nylon loop: about 1/4 to 1/2 inch very active, tight-bubbled foam.  I did not take the temp and I did not add an ice paddle - after last night's reading and seeing the deep foam disappear I was OK with things warming up and staying active.  Still OK with that?

• Grenache Rosé

No measurements.
Lots of C02 visible rising.  Had one of those orange caps on the CB and saw that the bubbler wasn't giving any action, while the rubber stopper / bubbler combos on the smaller vessels were doing there thing.  Squeezed my hand around the neck of the cap and bubbler started going.  Sigh - I like them but I don't trust them so well and this is why.  Switched to a bored stopper.

2100:  Cellar 74 F.  144 hours since yeast.

• Muscat:

76.2 F, 3.57 pH, 6.5 Brix.  Drop 1.5 B (18%) in the last 15 hours.  Wine is the warmest it's been but I'm fine with that now.  Foam is uniform and thin and white.

2015 wines, day 6

0600:  It's 60 F outside and 73 in the cellar.  105 hours since yeast.

• Muscat

73.3 F, 3.59 pH, 11.5 Brix.  

Down 1.5 B in the last 10 hours (11.5%).  Foam is thinner, easier to poke a hole in the shag.  Swapped the paddle and noticed that the paddle I was taking out showed itself full a good measure above the max line: it's very unlikely that's the way I filled it.  I'm washing the paddles and refreezing them between uses, but not emptying and refilling them: I'll start fresh from here on out.

• Grenache 

Bubbling 27 burps per minute (I counted).  New measurement standard - bpm.  With that, seeing that there's enough gas developing to protect the wine, I decided not to pop it open and take measurements.  Buying time to get it into the next set of containers this evening.

2000:  74 F in cellar.  119 hours since yeast.

• Muscat

72.9 F, 3.57 pH, 10.5 Brix.  1 Brix (8.6%) drop in 14 hours, foam very thin but gassing very constant.  Am I worried?  Did not put in a fresh paddle.

• Grenache 

Ahhh.  1.6 Brix and I decided to move things into fully topped containers.  3 gal+1 gal+1 liter.

2015 wines, day 5

0600:  60F outside, 74 F in the cellar.  81 hours since yeast.

• Muscat: 74.5 F, 3,52 pH, 14.5 Brix.

Down 2 Brix , about 10%, in the last 8 hours.  Almost at the half-way mark.  The look of the foam and juice is unchanged from last measurement.  Put in a fresh ice paddle, but pretty much every time I get to the wine it's near ambient room temp.

• Grenache: 4.6 Brix!

Bubbler's ticking just a little more slowly than once per second, surface is very prickly with gas, but no foam.  I'm a little surprised by how low we are - needed to switch to the short scale hydrometer to confirm it.

Will need to to move the juice into fully topped containers now or this evening.

2000:  95 hours since yeast.

• Muscat: 74 F, 3.56 pH, 13 Brix.  

So that's another 10% drop in the last 14 hours.  For comparison, last year we at 91 hours there were 13 Brix and at 102 hours there were 10 Brix.
Still plenty of foam (I should hope so, there's a long way to go), a little less wavy and psychedelic than the last day or so. Swapped paddles.

• Grenache: 3.5 Brix

That's nearly a quarter reduction from this morning.  Still generating lots and lots of gas - not in immediate need of topping off.

2015 Muscat, day 4

0600: Outdoors 61 F, cellar 74 F.  Wine 73.1 F, 3.51 pH.  Brix reading, in retrospect, was off by a crazy amount and I need to remeasure.

Thick big-balloon-bubble shag, bubbler pushed up.  Swapped the ice paddle, but just before I did... death in the fermenter!

There's been a black wasp in the cellar since crush day.  I had the lid off the poly tank with the muscat in it, and saw the wasp circle the light just above the tank - and then fly into it!  I rushed over to it in time to see the wasp clinging to the side of the tank above the wine and then, not 5 seconds later, suffocating from the CO2, fall backwards into the foam.  I grabbed the hydrometer tube hoping to fish him out but on my first poke his body was swallowed up in the foam.  Begorah!

2200:  76.4 F, 3.54 pH, 16.5 Brix.  Pushing up the big bubbler.  Deep waffle rainbow yeast.  Warmest the Muscat has been - changed the paddle.  72 hours in I'm happy with the speed of the ferment.

2015 Grenache rosé, day 4

Separating out the posts for the two wines.
Made the decision last night to end the skin contact on the rosé.

0600: Started prepping for the press.

0730: Jonboy arrives and after a judicious amount of coffee we punched down the cap, then opened the bottom valve on the stainless steel tank and got more than 2 gallons of free run rasberry sherbert colored juice.  That lightened the tank enough so that we could carry it out to the patio where the press was set up.  Hot, semi dessicated grapes into the bladder press - everything fit in one load.  Brought the pressure up to 3 bars and left it there for 5 to 10 minutes, bled the bladder and shoved the skins around and reinflated the bladder: 2 more gallons of juice to add to the free run.  Added these to the same 5 gal. carboy.

Very happy with the yield - +4 gallons from 84# of grapes.

1900:  No measurements yet.  Bubbler is popping but I'm surprised not to see any foam - there was some this morning immediately after pressing.

2200:  cellar 75 F, wine 75F, 3.71 pH, and only 5 Brix!  Burn, baby, burn.  Took a video of the C)2 prickling the surface of the wine, bubbler popping.  Since there's no foam it might already be time to go to topped up smaller bottles.

2015 wines, day 3

0600:  Outdoors 58F, cellar 74.5F

Grenache: 22.5 Brix (refractometer), 79 F, 3.63 pH.  Solid cake is forming, punched it down and lots of pink foamy fizz below.








Muscat: 25 Brix (hydrometer), 71.7 F, 3.7 pH.  Deep fluff.  No popping of the bubbler.  Stately at about 36 hours in.  Used the hydrometer because I was getting fooled by alcohol on the refractometer - nope.  Put in a fresh ice paddle.

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Woof!  Got home from work this evening and the air n the cellar said full-on winemaking.

2100: Outdoors 68 F, cellar 75 F.

Muscat: 73 F, 3.65 pH, 16.5 Brix (hydrometer).  Before disturbing the juice you could hear snap crackle pop putting your ear to the tank.  Super-shag inside.  Lori changed the ice paddle.

Grenache: 84.3 F, 3.6 pH, 18.5 Brix (refractometer).  Heat and prickle rising up the stainless steel tank.  Punched it down, looked at the color, and am thinking that tomorrow morning, at maybe 60 hours post-yeast, it will be time to press.  If not then, the next opportunity will be at 72 hours.

For both wines we've blown off roughly a third of the sugar at 48 hours.

2015 wines, day 2

0800: Outdoors 70 F, cellar 77 F.  Muscat 75 F and I added a single San Jamar ice paddle.  Grenache 74 F, 3.69 pH.

The surface of the muscat is already covered with the clingy, leathery stage of yeast.  No audible or visible popping yet, but there's a prickly tang of CO2 to the nose.  Off to a fast start in a very warm cellar.  Going to approach 80 outdoors today, so not much chance of keeping things cool.  We'll ice it as best we can.

Less developed yeast on the Grenache, but it's starting, too.  We haven't set out our pressing plan for it yet.  Watch the color?  Take it at a specific Brix level?

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Have added a chart of measurements and also a side panel to track key dates for the 2015 wines.

1730:
Muscat 72.4F, 3.7pH, 23 Brix by a questionable refractometer reading - too lazy and too early to be hauling the juice into the hydrometer tube.  Exchanged ice paddles.

Grenache 74.9F, 3.7x pH, 22.5 Brix by refractometer.  Punched down the grapes, fizz throughout but not yet ripping.

2130:
Grenache is pumping!  Didn't take measurements but did punch it down and looked at the color of the juice - don't think I want to go longer than tomorrow night for pressing.

2015 Muscat, Day 1

0700: Awfully warm for winemaking.  68F outside, 77F in the cellar.  Next few days will be a little cooler, but not much.  Crew is due at 10.

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OK, sports fans, here's a recap of day 1, written the next morning:

With the grapes already here, and all of the heavy gear already up from the cellar, it was a very relaxed start to the day.  We set up with a single sorting table and the bladder press rather than the basket press.  Focaccia before the first grape got sorted.

As we did last year we decided again to do all of the pressing after all of the sorting, destemming and washing up of the other equipment.  We collected the grapes pre-pressing in a 50 gal. drum and gave them something of a mashing in there to help free up the juice (undoing as much of the extra spend we made to get a destemmer rather than a destemmer-crusher.  Hmmm.)  Crates were also getting broken down while the sorting was happening.  We destemmed the grenache for rose after the muscats, and they went directly into a steel tank for primary fermentation.

Pressing went at a stately pace and left a loft of grapes relatively & frustratingly intact.  Note for next year: more mashing.  Also more filling and emptying the bladder to get a bit more yield?  Probably only worth going beyond a second filling if the lid comes off and the grapes are redistributed.

The muscat were in much better shape than last year.  The grenache were picture-book beautiful.

Who made the wine?  In more or less order of appearance: Mihai, Colleen, Savino, Phil Englander, Danny Levy, Michael Hearst, Doyle, Marcelo de Oliviera, Judy Lieff.

Who else helped make the day?  Peter, Kellie & Nathan, Noemie & Asher & Jeremiah, Danny K and Lieff, Becky MacDonald, Emily Miller, Ella & friend.  Many thanks to Rich & Ellen's tomatoes and Paola's as-yet-undone laundry.  And the Syrian lady who stopped her car and got out to talk to us.

It was pretty dark out when the winemakers' lunch wound down.

What did we make:

• 60 liters Muscat Alexandria, 26.5 Brix, 3.765 pH, .5 tartaric.  Pitched 15 grams of Lalvin EC-1118 at about 9 PM.  Also 1 oz weight tartaric acid with a view toward making a modest rise.
• 84# Grenache, 26 Brix.  Pitched 5 grams of Lalvin RC-212.  
• No nutrients added to either grape or juice. 

2015 day zero (or 00?)

M&M is teasing us with a possible Malvasia Bianca delivery Sunday morning.  We'd have to alert the troops.  Meanwhile, PE & RC are on their way to help haul the equipment from the cellar.  Tick tick tick tick...

... and resolved.

Couldn't work out the delivery of Malvasia Bianca from M&M so we've gone with the Muscat Alexandria from Pagano.   RC & PE and Steve hauled everything out of the cellar, then grabbed DW and all four of us headed to Brooklyn Terminal Market.  Pagano's Muscat came in just yesterday and we bought 10 42# lugs ($45 each), plus 2 lugs of Grenache ($42 each) to make a little bit of rose.  All stowed at home & waiting for Day 1.  Also picked up some Lalvin RC 212 and Lalvin EC 1118, which are Pagano's default red and white yeasts: tried to get ICV D47 from Brooklyn Homebrew, but they were mysteriously closed, phone unanswered, web page down... uh oh.

2015: day -1, everything still in the air

We've been talking to M&M about Muscat Canelli, Pinot Gris, and Malvasia Bianca, but as early as we've tried we're still a tad too late.  We'll know for sure in the morning, but the likelihood is that even if M&M still has ani of these grapes tomorrow, we won't be able to arrange for the trucking.

And so we're likely looking at our old friend, Muscat Alexandria, from one of the two families at Brooklyn Terminal Market.  Lapide has MA in the cooler (and have they gotten in any fresher grapes during the week?).  Tony Pagano seems to be getting the grapes from a little further north and, though they already hit their sugar content, he's been holding off bringing them in until this week and should have them tomorrow.

(As a side thing, I keep saying that we can make a rose from whatever is freshest in the market, but no one is interested in the idea but me.)

Comparisons?

• 2014: Purchased MA from Pagano on Oct 5, 12x42#, 28 Brix, 47F outdoor temp, ICV D47.
• 2013: Purchased MA from Lapide on Sep 21, 12x42#, 23 Brix, 64F outdoor temp, ICV D47.
• 2012: Purchased MA from Lapide on Sep 29, 12x42#, 25 Brix, 70F outdoor temp, Montrachet Red Star.
• 2011: Purchased MA from Lapide on Sep 24, 10x42#, 23 Brix, Montrachet Red Star.
• 2010: Purchased MA from Lapide on Sep 25, 8x42#, 21 Brix, Montrachet Red Star .
• 2009: Purchased MA from Lapide on Sep 26, 21 Brix, Montrachet Red Star. 

The best MA we've made was in 2013.  The grapes this year will likely have the sugar content of 2013, and we'll be purchasing, storing overnight, and working in warmer weather than the years I've recorded.  Maybe I'll make up a proper comparison spreadsheet with ph, etc.