Red Leaves in the Fall » Winemaking

It’s that time of year again…

Dom — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:38:46 +0000

This evening I started two buckets of Merlot and Chardonnay juice. They sat for 24 hrs after picking them up yesterday from Keystone Homebrew. Both must have had some wild yeast in them because when I popped open the lids tonight they were frothing all over the place. I went ahead and took my hydrometer readings (Merlot @ 1.120 and Chardonnay @ 1.090) and added the wine yeast… They both should have a fun time over the next week or so.

Bottled the Chilean Merlot

Dom — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:12:56 +0000

I bottled the Chilean Merlot that I’ve been staring at for almost 10 months. It yielded ten 750 ml and eight 1.5l bottles. I decided to make labels for them too… Well, not labels… more like tags tied to the necks. Putting on actual labels would be too much of a pain to have to take them off again and is definitely not worth it. But at least with this, it gives the wine a nice presentation. They’re still not quite ready to drink yet. I’d like to bottle age them a few more months before popping the first one open.

Fresh Juice and Measuring SO2

Dom — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:47:14 +0000

This past week I picked up my order of fresh juice from California. I’ve got two 6 gallon buckets fermenting right now of Cabernet Sauvignon and a Chardonnay. While I was at the store getting my order I listened in on a conversation one of the staff was having with another customer talking about their SO2 PPM count. They were talking about the varying levels in red and white wines. When I jumped in and asked how to test for them, the guy gave me a testing kit called Titrets® which measures your sulfite. I still have to do a little more reading up on this but it’d be helpful to know this info right before I bottle. From what I understand proper SO2 levels help maintain the shelf life and flavor of your wines.

3rd Racking of the Merlot

Dom — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:28:42 +0000

Finally got around to racking the Merlot again. I think one more racking will do just before I bottle it. At this point it tastes pretty decent, but it definitely needs to mature itself some more.

Chilean Merlot: First Racking

Dom — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:18:56 +0000

This afternoon I racked the Chilean Merlot. I decided to do it in the kitchen this time, instead of my basement – and it worked out much better. Next time though, instead of seating the carboy on the chair like I have here in the photo I think I may just put it on the floor. I had to do this towards the end anyway, as the suction got wonky on me a few times as it got closer to the bottom.

Sugar reading at this point is 1.000. The stuff floating around on top of the wine is about a cup or so of oak chips. I also added about two cups of water once I was finished racking, just to top off the carboy.

Chilean Merlot

Dom — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:58:07 +0000

A while ago I received an email from the folks at Keystome Homebrew saying that they were taking orders for fresh Chilean grapes and juice. Chile has a different growing season over there so around this time of year is when their fresh stuff comes in. I placed an order for a six gallon bucket of Merlot and got a message yesterday saying the shipment arrived. This afternoon I picked up my order along with a few other things and brought this home:

This evening I didn’t waste any time and got things cleaned up and started right away. I have another container that I’ve used as a primary fermenter but the bucket the juice came in will do just fine. My initial hydrometer reading is apx. 1.090 and the temperature in that back room of my basement is about 68 degrees.

Everything sealed back up after adding the yeast: