2022 Chardonnay: day 7

 0500:

• Brix 5
• Juice temp 74 F, room temp 72 F, outdoors 55 F & cloudy

OK, still not quite 5 on the short scale, but closer.  

No visible bubbler activity, but I've made this sound recording of the sizzling inside the tank (after turning off the noisy exhaust fan).  Plenty of action.

Fiddling with the numbers while the juice burns: even though the brix numbers are getting small, the % of remaining sugar that's being converted daily is remaining large.  On day 6, when the brix budged from the prior evening's 7.5 to that evening's 5.25, 32.5% of the available sugar was converted, making it the third most productive day of fermentation.  (Why, really Why, do I feel like I need to say these things.)  

17:30

• Brix 4.2 (short scale hydrometer)
• Juice temp 74 F, room temp 72 F, outside 62 F and cloudy

OK, we're really under 5 brix, per the short scale hydrometer.  Juice looks and sounds much the same as this morning.  141 hours in since pitching yeast and about 84% of the sugar has been converted.  The current ABV is theoretically as high as 12.2%, with plenty more to go.  We'll see where we are tomorrow morning, but it feels a little less likely today that we'll be racking on day 9 than it felt a couple of days ago.

2022 Chardonnay: day 6

 07:00

• Brix 6
• Juice temp 76 F; room 72 F; outside 54 and clear.

Flat surface, little or no foam, some sizzle and circulation.  Bubbler is popping once every 5 seconds.  Alcohol possibly above 11% now, and a little more than 22% of the sugar still present.  Will add the chart tonight.

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18:00

• Brix 5.25.  Well, not really.  But the hydrometer said 5, so I switched to the short scale hydrometer, which said more than 5 (it only really mesures 5 and lower), so I'm saying five and a quarter and living with it.  Poo.  Not unusual for hydrometer readings to vary.
• Juice temp 74, room 72, outside 65

118 hours since inoculation.  Bubbler is popping about once every 38 seconds.  CO2 production way down, juice is cooling, a hell of a lot less sugar for the yeast to eat, but still enough CO2 to protect the juice.  

Here's what the firm looks like now.  Excuse the sound, which is fans and fridges.

2022 Chardonnay: day 5

 06:00

• Brix 9.5
• Juice temp 78 F, room 72 F, outdoors 54 and clear.

82 hours since adding yeast.  CO2 is popping the bubbler once every 2 seconds.  Foam is flat, sparkly.  About 1/3 of the sugars are left.  

The lines for brix and likely current alcohol content are kissing now (9.5 Brix and 9.35 ABV), and will likely be crossed at this evening's reading.  

For comparison, 

• the 2019 Muscat C, which started at about 24 brix and had a very slow start to fermentation, crossed at about the same brix and ABV, but at closer to 120 hours.  
• The 2018 Suav. Blanc, which started at about the same sugar level as this year's Chardonnay, crossed during the evening between day 5 and 6.

So this year looks to be faster to this point than the last two outings.  

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So maybe we should start projecting out to when we might rack off the gross lees?  Here's some white grape history.

• 2019, day 9
• 2018, day 9
• 2016, day 9 (and this was Lanza Chardonnay)
• 2015, day 8

Sunday, Oct. 2 looks most likely.

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23:00

• Brix 7.5
• Juice temp 76 F; outside 63 F and cloudy.

Little foam, if any.  Sparkly.  Still popping just under 1 every 2 seconds.

All is well.  ight switch to the short scale hydrometer in the morning, or certainly by tomorrow evening.

2022 Chardonnay: day 4

 4:30

• Brix: 15
• Juice temp 80; room temp 74; outside 61 & cloudy

Much flatter foam, did not foul overnight.  Still popping the bubbler 1 per second.  2 degrees F hotter.  About 57% of the sugar is left to ferment.  Alcohol level probably now 6%.  

19:00

• Bix: 12
• Juice 79 F; Room 74 F; Outside 65 F, partly cloudy.

Still pumping once per second, but foam is now flat and sizzly.  Slight decrease to temp.  All is well.  Tomorrow will compare it to other years.

2022 Chardonnay: day 3

 05:30

• Brix 22 (hydrometer)
• Juice temp 74 F; room temp 73.5 F; outdoor temp 59 F and clear

Big, lazy shag, 5:30 AM

Big, lazy, shaggy foam.  We've dropped just a smidge over 10% of the sugar in the juice over the +35 hours since we added the yeast (43 hours since we started sorting and everything else).  Yes, we have a spreadsheet going and will be able to compare things to prior fermentations.

13:30

Mayhem!  Thought I'd come home to work from there this afternoon, opened the cellar door and was nearly blown backwards by the smell.  It's official - we don't have to worry that the fermentation will be week because we did not add any yeast food.  

Bubbler was blown out and yeast scum had flowed down all four sides of the tank.  Cleaned it up as best I could, put the lid and bubbler back with less water in the trap (so it would burp less violently), but it was burping every couple of seconds and nearly throwing itself out.  So for the next hour or two I'm letting the ferm go without the bubbler: no worries about oxygen while the juice is throwing off so much CO2.

15:20

Bubbler back in.  12 burps every 10 seconds.  That's a lot of gas. Can feel the heat through the poly.

18:30

• Brix 18
• Juice temp 78 F; room temp 73 F; outdoor temp 71 F & cloudy

Pretty awesome.  steady bubbler popping but no overflow.  Given how active everything was I'm relieved we're still as high as 18 brix.  Hot as the juice is, we're still a long way off from it's max survivable temp of 86 F.  

13:30 megaspew

... under the hood

2022 Chardonnay: day 2

 07:45

• Brix 26 (hydrometer)
• Juice temp 68 F; room temp 73; outdoor temp 62

Yeast action starting.  7:45 AM.

A little yeast action already happening - happy to see that.  The juice is still very cool from the grapes being stored at Musto and then worked yesterday when the temps ranged from 56 F to 70 F.  Will keep an exhaust fan on in the cellar and maybe a cooling fan pointed at the tank.  Don't know whether I'll use any ice-packs inside the juice: might tape some to the tank once fermentation gets going in earnest.  

Can see that lots of sediment is already drifting down and, if not piling all the way across the bottom, is at least piling along the edges of the tank.  We did use a coarser sieve when adding juice to the tank this year: could add to the goop.  

13:00

Put your ear against the wall of the fermenter.  Sizzle.

21:00

• Brix 24.5 (by hydrometer)
• Juice temp 72 F; room 74 F; outdoor 66 F and pouring rain.

Notable lack of foam, but a constant fine bubbling.  Listen to the sizzle (and try to ignore the hum of fridges and fan).

And thank MH, StVH, for the awesome caches of photos: will get some posted soon.

2022 Chardonnay: day 1

 7:50 AM: KVH has the grapes (12x36#), yeast (R2 - enough for 30 gallons of wine), and replacement gasket for our 100 poly tank.  ETA in Brooklyn is a very optimistic 10:30 AM.  

10:15 AM: Holy mackerel.  The grapes are here and are beautiful.  Refractometer readings vary but are just about all between 25 and 27 brix.  

The middle hours: We set up a bit differently this year, deciding to do all of the sorting, destemming and stomping before any of the pressing.  And then, because the grapes were all in the stomping barrels out on the sidewalk, we set the press up out there.  Before pressing, though, much of the other equipment was washed and stowed.  

Only so many of us can be involved in the pressing at one time.  If you're doing it, you're very involved.  If you're watching, it's boring and, gee, why does it go so slow?    But the slowness paid off - the juice yield equaled what we had in 2019, just about 100 liters.  

Really not sure what time we started pressing (someone fill me in) but the video of Ron adding the last of the juice to the primary fermenter was taken at just about 3 PM.  

The latter hours:  Press washed & stowed, barrels washed & stowed, sorting tables washed and stowed.  Front yard made again to look like people live here, and not like an industrial site.  LUNCH! which lasted until 9 PM for some of us, with James's puttanesca as the main meal.  

Brix reading by hydrometer at 6 PM was 26.5.

Pitched 30 grams of R2 yeast shortly after.

Winemakers, thank you!

So many of you took charge of chores.  Will shout out when the pics get collected my memory gets jogged.

Hello, winemakers, we're back

 After a pandemic hiatus of a couple of years, it looks like we're back.  Targeting September 24 for the crush.  Targeting grapes from the Lanza vinyard.  No real details yet beyond that.  Stay tuned.