Show Us Your Wine

[drsmurto]

Wow that's a lot of wine! You'd almost have enough for a barrique there...

Love the basket press. Looks like it has seen a few vintages.

First batch so keeping it small...

If it turns out good (and tastes to date have been very promising) then may go larger.

Planning on filling a keg, carbing and bottling in champers bottle via a CPBF for some sparkling - will keep this to only 10L or so i reckon.

 

[reVoxAHB]

From two weekends ago, my first effort:

25 boxes of shiraz, 5 boxes of cab


Messier than I thought! Good thing I wore my gummies that day.


Max, the helper:


Bottom Shiraz/Cab w/red wine yeast. Top left Shiraz /Cab but going for Rose w/all rounder EC1118 yeast. Back right, APA ready for kegging (or secondary).


Potassium Metabisulphite used in both to recommended amount.
Wyeast yeast nutrient in both.
Tartic acid adjusted as per G&G's recommendation after grapes examined in lab.
Will age the Shiraz/Cab on french oak in secondary.

Fun day, all around. Great experience... and I believe I can now use the term, "I've gone to the darkside" eg wine over beer (even tho it's typically used here in reference to going AG). Wine is the real-darkside to any self-respecting brewer .

Cheers,
reVox

 

[reVoxAHB]

Well, figured there had to be another in the "Show Us Your" series! Show us your wine seemed better than show us your plumbers crack! (Apologies to any plumbers out there!)

The picture below is this years harvest of Shiraz, being turned into a Rose. We had such a terrible harvest and only got 20 odd litres of juice from 80 vines!!! Heat, powdery mildew and rain meant we had a very low yield and too many stems to make a decent dry red out of. Have chatted with Kirem and HoppinMad and think I might have a track on improving yield. Better luck next year with a lot more work.

27 brix and ph of 3.7 at harvest. Added 1gm/10 litres of tartaric acid and some red wine yeast. Smells good so far!

Not sure this thread will attract much attention, but its worth a try!

I was told it's imperitive to have your ferm vessel topped as high as it will go to prevent oxidation of the wine. I realise you were only able to get 20 odd litres, but are you not supposed to top up with spring water (dropping % of alcohol) or finished wine in the style you are going for? Or is it only essential to top up after primary fermentation (eg in conditioning/secondary 6mo. vessel)?

Great thread, btw. I can see myself taking a crack at this next year. After all, wine season is only once a year.. won't set back my production of beer too much and it's great having most of the gear required from brewing.

Cheers,
reVox

 

[warrenlw63]

Messier than I thought! Good thing I wore my gummies that day.

Some pants would have helped too.

Looks good reVox unlike yer legs. :lol:

Warren -

 

[white.grant]

Great pictures guys. I'm wine making curious and this a fascinating thread.

cheers

grant

 

[fraser_john]

I was told it's imperitive to have your ferm vessel topped as high as it will go to prevent oxidation of the wine. I realise you were only able to get 20 odd litres, but are you not supposed to top up with spring water (dropping % of alcohol) or finished wine in the style you are going for? Or is it only essential to top up after primary fermentation (eg in conditioning/secondary 6mo. vessel)?

Great thread, btw. I can see myself taking a crack at this next year. After all, wine season is only once a year.. won't set back my production of beer too much and it's great having most of the gear required from brewing.

Cheers,
reVox

Good question, and I don't know the answer! I suspect that during fermentation, its probably OK with the CO2 pushing out any oxygen, subsequent rackings may cause issues and I will probably go buy several 5 litre glass jars to store it in longer term. Course, I could always purge a 20 litre carboy with CO2 before racking!

John

 

[reVoxAHB]

Some pants would have helped too.

Looks good reVox unlike yer legs. :lol:

Warren -

Hehe. That second shot does look like a leg and foot! Actually its the back of my arm.. half the fun was digging out the crushed grapes from 300L bins. Practically had to crawl into them and dig the bottom bits out.

All in a days fun.

reVox

 

[warrenlw63]

Hehe. That second shot does look like a leg and foot! Actually its the back of my arm.. half the fun was digging out the crushed grapes from 300L bins. Practically had to crawl into them and dig the bottom bits out.

All in a days fun.

reVox

And here was me thinking you were squashing them the good old Italian way with yer feet.

Warren -

 

[hoppinmad]

Good question, and I don't know the answer! I suspect that during fermentation, its probably OK with the CO2 pushing out any oxygen, subsequent rackings may cause issues and I will probably go buy several 5 litre glass jars to store it in longer term. Course, I could always purge a 20 litre carboy with CO2 before racking!

John

Hey John, I've got three 5 litre demijons and a 3 litre coming your way. I won't need them for a while so don't mind you using them til bottling... which given it's a rose should only be about 6 months. I have lost the bungs for them though... but Kevin from the Geelong HBS has plenty.

As far as the rackings go, you should really only need to do two. The sulfites are oxygen scavengers so with a good addition after fermentation you should be right.

How's the wine looking?

 

[fraser_john]

Hey John, I've got three 5 litre demijons and a 3 litre coming your way. I won't need them for a while so don't mind you using them til bottling... which given it's a rose should only be about 6 months. I have lost the bungs for them though... but Kevin from the Geelong HBS has plenty.

As far as the rackings go, you should really only need to do two. The sulfites are oxygen scavengers so with a good addition after fermentation you should be right.

How's the wine looking?

Wine is looking great, when I went in the brewery today I thought I could smell a little sulphur. I smelled the air lock and could not perceive anything bad, regardless, I added an extra gram of DAP to be sure. Took a sample and its still quite sweet but has a real raspberry flavor! Could turn out a real nice wine at this rate.

Cool, I guess I'll rack into another large carboy when fermentation is done and into your smaller ones on a second/final racking. I have CO2 can purge the larger carboy no drama.

How much milligrams/litre of pot-sulphite should I add at racking? another 100mg/litre or back to 50mg/litre?

John

 

[hoppinmad]

Cool, I guess I'll rack into another large carboy when fermentation is done and into your smaller ones on a second/final racking. I have CO2 can purge the larger carboy no drama.

How much milligrams/litre of pot-sulphite should I add at racking? another 100mg/litre or back to 50mg/litre?

My recommendation would be to rack into the small carboys a couple of days after fermentation is complete. This will allow yeast and other crud to settle whilst still under a blanket of CO2 from the ferment. I don't really recommend that you use a large carboy after fermentation. It's too risky even with the CO2 purging.

I'd add another 100mg/L PMS at the first racking and in a couple of months give me a small sample and I'll test it to see if you need more. Probably another racking in 4 months time will be fine.

Also, another thing, I would check your pH after ferment. I think you'll find you may need to add some more acid

 

[pdilley]

In primary fermentation O2 is actually a yeast nutrient. Its when after primary fermentation and you are doing your rackings and bulk aging that you want to make sure you rack to smaller vessels you can top up and put the overflow into bottles or other smaller vessels for use of topping up subsequent rackings. Thats if you want to preserve the fermented ABV in the final wine. If you are not worried about the final ABV or you want to lower the ABV of the final wine then you can top up with water after racking to a new vessel.

 

[hoppinmad]

Its when after primary fermentation and you are doing your rackings and bulk aging that you want to make sure you rack to smaller vessels you can top up and put the overflow into bottles or other smaller vessels for use of topping up subsequent rackings.

That's right. Hence John needs to wait til fermentation is complete in the large carboy before racking into the smaller carboys. After that, in the case of a ros wine, O2 is his enemy.

 

[reVoxAHB]

Great pictures guys. I'm wine making curious and this a fascinating thread.

cheers

grant

Hi Grant,

I did a quick cram a few days before pressing my grapes as I wanted to understand the process and get an idea of what to expect in terms of additives, fermentation and so on. I pressed with an old Greek winemaker, who has been making wine for 20+ years, so I knew I was in good hands.

The wikipedia entry for winemaking really got me up to speed, in a no-nonsense sort of way.
I then stumbled on a 75 page Guide to Winemaking in .pdf which goes into significantly more detail but is geared toward the first time winemaker. Really great, and it will probably push you over the edge from wine making curious, to wine maker .

And finally, after digesting the above, I coincidentally ran into two winemakers from Woodend while knocking back a beer at Holgate. Sure, they chuckled when I told them I'd read the wiki entry for winemaking, but were happy to discuss techniques, offer tips, etc. They more or less confirmed my approach in the two wines was correct, or at least I was OK in leaving my shiraz/cab on the skins for 3 or 4 days before pressing, press directly for rose, etc. More a confidence booster than anything else.

Have fun,
reVox

 

[Airgead]

Bay Leaf wine

Come on... do tell...

I'm sitting here looking at the big bay tree out the back and giving this some serious thought.

Cheers
Dave

 

[fraser_john]

Well, here is my first bottles of wine from my own grapes made by me. Its wine, yes, but it is pretty ordinary, I have a lot to learn, but fortunately think I have some good resources to ask questions of!

The rose from this year is leaps and bounds ahead of this one already!

This one was just exposed to too much oxygen and has a nose akin to a vintage port! Tastes ok though, not as big and fruity as a good shiraz, but hey, its my first!

 

[kirem]

well done

 

[white.grant]

Hi Grant,

I did a quick cram a few days before pressing my grapes as I wanted to understand the process and get an idea of what to expect in terms of additives, fermentation and so on. I pressed with an old Greek winemaker, who has been making wine for 20+ years, so I knew I was in good hands.

The wikipedia entry for winemaking really got me up to speed, in a no-nonsense sort of way.
I then stumbled on a 75 page Guide to Winemaking in .pdf which goes into significantly more detail but is geared toward the first time winemaker. Really great, and it will probably push you over the edge from wine making curious, to wine maker .

And finally, after digesting the above, I coincidentally ran into two winemakers from Woodend while knocking back a beer at Holgate. Sure, they chuckled when I told them I'd read the wiki entry for winemaking, but were happy to discuss techniques, offer tips, etc. They more or less confirmed my approach in the two wines was correct, or at least I was OK in leaving my shiraz/cab on the skins for 3 or 4 days before pressing, press directly for rose, etc. More a confidence booster than anything else.

Have fun,
reVox

Thanks Revox, That's helpful stuff.

Cheers

grant

 

[drsmurto]

Just having a glass of my (Boston and myself) wine now.

A nice, fresh and fruity sangiovese.

Not over oaked so we achieved our goal.

I'm impressed.

Now to bottle it.... thats a whole lot of bottle cleaning <_<

 

[kirem]

Just having a glass of my (Boston and myself) wine now.

A nice, fresh and fruity sangiovese.

Not over oaked so we achieved our goal.

I'm impressed.

Now to bottle it.... thats a whole lot of bottle cleaning <_<

you made wine with a bloody viticulturalist???

what on earth were you thinking?