2022 Chardonnay: day 37

1600

Well, we did rack yesterday, and only lost a couple of liters of volume.  We're cloudy now.  Free SO2 barely dropped according to today's reading (a surprise), but the pH still shows wildly high (as disappointment).  Have written Musto to see if they know what the pH was at the start - haven't heard back yet.  And i've just ordered some tartaric acid, which should be delivered tomorrow.  

The sample I've tested from has good color and tastes medium acidic, so I'm still puzzled by the pH.  

This article has a formula for raising pH - but using it suggests I'd need a pretty massive dose of tartaric for each carboy.  No way.  So I just gave up and ordered a new pH meter - this time with calibration and storage solutions.  Won't be here until Wednesday.

Meanwhile, I'll make some 10% meta solution and bump the free SO2 to 30 ppm.

2022 Chardonnay: day 36

 0900:

Ready for racking, today or tomorrow.

• Malic acid: ~ 75 g/L, which is not quite complete, but no visible action.  That raises the question of whether to raise the SO2 after racking or hold off.  Or just not raise it too much.
• pH: ~4.4, which is really high and I'm hoping this is a bad reading.  It would mean we seriously need to add tartaric acid and a really walloping dose of meta.  Used a test strip color chart rather than the probe we bought years back.  (That machine needs new parts that we're not going to buy this year, or maybe ever.)  Will test again before using the pH to calculate how much meta to add to raise the free SO2.  But will maybe pick up some tartaric acid just in case.  Maybe also call Musto to see if they did any testing of pH when the grapes came in.
• Free SO2: 18 ppm.

Accuvin malic acid test strips, Bartovation pH test strips, & Chemetrics Titrets free SO2 test.

2022 Chardonnay: Day 31

 1600

Back from a few days away.  Juice looks great, approaching clear.  Will rack this weekend, if not sooner.

Pretty near dead-still, so am thinking about the SO2 level.    Titrets test from carboy A indicated between 20 and 25 ppm free SO2 (20 to 25 mg/L).  So I feel OK for a couple of days.  But what level to boost it to when we rack?  My inclination is to use a bigger boost on this racking than I have in the past, especially I get lazy about the timing of the next rack.  Research!

MoreWine's sulfite guide.

Winemaker Magazine's sulfite calculator.

2022 Chardonnay: day 28

 0700

More MLF testing and general observations.

The Accuvin chromatography test reads (to my not completely trustworthy eye) somewhere between 75  mg/L and the 110 mg/L from four days ago.  Tough to pin down, because while the color looks right to me, it's much more opaque on the test strip than on the dot-printed color key.  (If winemaker Fabricant were  here he wouldn't be fooled.)

For a tad more detail, this Accuvin doc suggests that we're not complete, but are approaching the empty range between not complete (>75 mg/L) and complete (<35 ml/L).  I guess that what lies between the two numbers is opinion.

Closer to still, fewer rising bubbles of gas.  Not clear but the color continues to shift that way.  Took some pics and will try to put together some comparisons for posting later in the day.

2022 Chardonnay: day 24

 18:00

Woo hoo!  Just tasted the juice again, and did an Accuvin MLF color test.

Taste: very different already than it was five of days ago.  Less tart.  Less weird.  

And the test: I read it as 110 mg malic acid per liter (110 mg/L).  Now I really wish I had tested last week so I would have the comparison.  Sigh.  

2022 Chardonnay: day 22

 

Airlocks popping about once every minute and a half.  

Many fewer pinprick bubbles still rising, but still constant.  

Color lightening, but, for comparison, a picture above of the 22 day old juice next to a years-old clear carboy (of muscat?  not labeled.  2018 Sauv. Blanc?  2016 Chard? 2015 Muscat A?  By color I'd guess the Muscat).

2022 Chardonnay: day 19

 Brix is -1.7, measured from carboy A.

The juice is becoming more translucent, very noticeable in the hydrometer tube.  Still far from transparent.  

Purchased AimTab Reducing Substance Tablets, which seem to be the popular replacement for Clinitest.  Have never used these before, but I wanted to see what an approximate chemical test would say in relation to the negative Brix readings.  After futzing around a bit and realizing, no, I should not simply substitute wine for urine in the standard diabetics test...  I found the relevant instruction sheet from the folks at Presque Isle.  I assumed we are in dry range, so:  

• 0.5 ml (5 drops) wine into the test tube, 
• add the AimTab and don't burn yourself (Warning! Contains sodium hydroxide...), 
• wait for the sort of violent, hot, boiling reaction, and 
• measure the resulting color in the test tube against the "2 drop" color chart.  

The result, to my eye, is 0.1% residual sugar in the wine.  Does that translate to 10 grams per liter?  Anyone?  If it does, we're at the upper edge of "dry" (1 to 10 g/L RS), and well below the standard definition of off-dry (17 to 35 g/L RS).

All of which is another way of saying, Uh huh, going pretty well.

Also, I tasted the juice.  Strange goings on at this point. Tart, apple-ish.  Really living in the middle ground between wine and juice.  Nothing bad, but maybe a taste that only a winemaker could love.  

2022 Chardonnay: day 16

 0600

• Brix -1.2 (carboy A)
• ~70F, pretty much ambient room temp.  45 F outdoors.

Hard to see any color shift in the full carboys, but in the hydrometer tube the lightening and thinning of the juice is a little more apparent.  

Seems like we'll just let MLF happen if & when it chooses.  Won't feed it, but with the cellar staying at 70 F, it would be hard to stop it, even with a big dose of meta at the next racking.  (Would be interesting to take one of carboys up to Doyle's garage and let it over-winter there...)

Futzed some more about caps versus stoppers.  One of the carboys was bubbling much more slowly than the others.  Changed the cap to a drilled #7, et voila.  

Looked through some prior years for when whites had clarified enough for racking after getting them out of the primary tank: about a month.  That would mean likely racking some time around November 2.

2022 Chardonnay: day 14

 0400

• Brix -0.6 (that's minus, from carboy D)
• ~70 F (juice is pretty much at ambient temp)

The juice seems a bit thinner to me, more in the unfiltered apple juice range than in the thick cider/nectar range.  Fermentation still clearly happening.  All the airlocks look good, clean.  No gunk, seeds, etc. floating up to the collar.  

Did not taste the juice but will the next time we take any measurements.

2022 Chardonnay: day 12

 1500

• Brix 0.1 measured from carboy C.

No foam in the hydrometer cylinder (filled with a wine thief).  Pin pricks up the glass walls, etc.  

Again, small numbers, but the surviving yeast are being voracious: almost 82% of the measurable sugars from 22 hours ago have been eaten and converted.  

2022 Chardonnay: day 11

 1700

235 hours since inoculation and Brix is just a smidge above 0.5 (measured from carboy B).  Steady as it goes.  Very clean.  Still waiting on a magical MLF decision (or non-decision, seeming ever more likely).  And here's a pic of the lees settling in carboy A.

2022 Chardonnay: day 10

 0630

Not taking any direct readings this morning.  

Everything looking exactly as you would hope.  Super-clean.  Each vessel's airlock popping every few seconds.  All those mesmerizing pinprick bubbles sliding upward along the surface of the carboys.  

Now the big question to consider:  malolactic fermentation?  What do we want to do?  Promote it?  Inhibit it?  Just let the juice do what it wants to do and hope that MLF doesn't start or continue after we've bottled the wine for the party?  We know we are not using oak: does that dictate anything re MLF for Chardonnay?  The little reading we've done is not conclusive on the last point.  We'll need to decide in the next few days.  Green apples, or golden apples?

Here's a typically unhelpful (to me) article in Wine Industry Advisor.  Something judgemental from Wine Folly.  Maybe there's something helpful in this Wine Enthusiast article - 

An unoaked version could also have buttery flavors, because the wine can still undergo malolactic fermentation in any type of container. Toad Hollow Vineyards has a perfect example of this in their Francine’s Selection Unoaked Chardonnay from Mendocino, which brings the butter without the oak.

So, quick, let's go get a bottle and taste it. 

And, for what it's worth, when we made Chardonnay in 2016 we did not prevent or promote MLF, and we kept the free SO2 low - lower than I'd be comfortable doing this year.  And in December MLF started up on it's own.  

2100

• Brix = 1.0

Juice is at ambient room temperature.  Measured brix from a single carboy.  Will rotate going forward.

2022 Chardonnay: day 9

 0730

• Brix 2.1
• Juice temp 72, room temp 74, outside 59 windy and about to drizzle

Another 20% drop in the last 10 hours.  No foam to speak of, lazy bubbles, and if you put your ear to the side of the tank there's still crackle.  If today's like yesterday we can expect something like 1.6 or 1.7 this evening and maybe 1.2 on the morning of day 10.  Maybe rack this afternoon and let ferm finish ina more airtight place.

---

14:30

• Brix 1.5
• Juice 72 F, room 71.5 F, outside 58 and rainy

Boom!  Done.  Lori and I moved the juice from the primary fermenter to 5+5+5+5+1+1 carboys and jugs, leaving behind maybe close to a gallon of watery sludge: maybe we could have used it to get to a 3-gallon CB, but we didn't.

Transfer was as easy as pie and very neat - no spillage.  Took the extra paranoid step of wrapping the carboy caps and drilled stoppers with cling wrap.  Washed the primary fermentation tank out in the street, and if it ever stops raining we'll get it meta'd and stowed.  (Did this now because tomorrow looks just too busy and I didn't want to let the juice go below zero in the primary if we weren't around.)  Took lots of pics & videos.  Using caps on the carboys, drilled stoppers on the jugs, and 3-piece airlocks all around.  

A couple of videos.  What the xfer looks like - long and sort of boring, but, hey, it takes a year to get to where we're going, so relax.  And a look at the sludge at the bottom of the fermenter.  Much more liquid than I expected and, repeating what I wrote above,  I wonder if we should have simply saved it in a 3-gallon CB along with the 2 gallons that went into jusgs.  Too late.

The darlings,

2022 Chardonnay: day 8

 0800

• Brix 3.5
• Juice temp 72, room temp 71, outdoors 54 and raining

Small as the numbers are, 16% of the sugar that was there at last night's reading have been converted.  

Sound and sight are the same as last evening.

The juice temp is within a degree of the ambient room temp.  At the hottest point in the fermentation it was 6 degrees warmer than the room.

Probably today's the day to clean the carboys.  The last time we had this quantity of white juice (Muscat C) we went into 4 5-gallon carboys, and one 3-gallon.  Will prepare five 5's, a 3, and a jug or two.

---

Interlude:  Cleaned five 5-gallon carboys and one 3-gal.  Will clean them again with meta when rack into them.

Also sorted through stoppers and bubblers, and whatnot, gave them a little scrub, and set them into meta to soak.  It's a little goofy to see all the types of stoppers we've used through the years.  I'm not a fan of the two bubble airlock any more and much prefer the three piece.  I always worry about rubber stoppers popping our, so I've wound up with a few theoretically breathable silicon thingies, and lots of those orange two-spout carboy caps (which I don't trust, either).  It's a hard life.

20:00

• Brix 2.6
• Juice 72 F, room 73 F, outside 60 F and overcast.

42% of the available sugars were eaten by the surviving yeast since last evening.  Only day 5 really compared.  Still, it doesn't seem like we'll get to zero tomorrow.  Maybe Monday (day 10).  Or maybe we just go a little early into the smaller vessels.  Same considerations every year.

Tasted the juice: would have more quickly guessed it was hard cider than that it was becoming wine.  Color may have influenced taste - it's that custardy thick yellow the whites always have at this point in the process.  Whatever the reason, it tasted good.