Blueberry 2008 in the carboy

Well, the blueberry fermentation is finally complete. Seems like it took forever to ferment to dryness (it has actually been 34 days). I'm actually not entirely sure if it had completely stopped fermenting. I could see a very slow, but steady evolution of tiny bubbles that led to a bubble in the airlock about every 2-3 minutes. However, the brix level had remained steady over 3 days at Brix = -1.5. I double check with a hydrometer and found that the SG = 0.995, which is considered dry. So I decided to rack last Thursday (3/18/08) and treat with an extra heavy dose of sulfites. Given how long the fermentation took, I'm wondering if I should increase my yeast nutrient dose? I've never had fermentations last this long...

After racking, I filled a 3 gal carboy and a 1.5L bottle (picture to the right). What a lovely, deep, deep, dark purple color! The taste is actually pretty good, as well. Still rather sharp from the dissolved CO2, but some nice dark fruit flavors and good mouthfeel. I think I'm going to need to add some more tartaric acid after it clears, but we'll wait and see.

Let the clearing begin!

Salute,
A Wine Student

Blueberry 2008 prior posts:
Initial Mix
Yeast Addition and Oxi-Clean
Pressing Blues

Cranberry Clearing

It's been a little over a month since I last racked the cranberry wines off the gross lees. On Saturday, I went down to the wine cellar for another reason, but was struck by the different rates at which my Cranberry-Niagra and Cranberry-Banana wines are clearing. During the last racking in February, the Cranberry-Banana had won the prize for the most sediment, so I wasn't overly surprised to see how much clearer it was. However, that wine is almost crystal clear. The picture on the right shows how clear it is (carboy on the right). The Cranberry-Niagra (on the left in the picture) had dropped a lot of sediment in the past month, but still has a long way to go.

I was expecting this difference, as banana wines are known for their fast clearing rates. However I've never seen this in person until these wines.

Salute,
a Wine Student

Prior Cranberry 2008 posts:
Starting the Body Experiment
Fermentation Almost Done
Racked the Cranberry-Grape
Racked the Cranberry-Banana
Racking off the Gross Lees

Introducing the Macchine Enologiche!

I recently received a bonus at work, so I decided to spend it on myself and bought a new crusher/destemmer (I'm doing my economy stimulus part)! I'm proud to introduce my latest baby--the Macchine Enologiche! This recent arrival to these shores sports 100% Italian craftsmanship, stainless steel hopper and working parts, and an electric motor to make short shift of those pesky grapes. No grape can stand up to its awesome crushing power--bwahahaha!

Sorry, I think I was channeling Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor there for a moment!

During the 2006 grape season, I used an antique crusher for my cabernet sauvignon and zinfandel grapes. I had bought it from the same folks that sold me a grape press. They used to run a winemaking store in Colorado and both the crusher and press were the store's equipment. Lots of good karma there. Unfortunately, the crusher did not have a destemmer, so I literally spent 4 hours bent over a bin full of 100 lbs of grape must, hand sifting out as many stems as I could. My back simply can't take that again. During the trip to New York to pick up some grapes, I made use of the vineyard's crusher/destemmer. These lovely devices crush the grapes and then sift out the stems before dropping the grape mush into your collection bin. What took me 4 hrs of back-numbing work before was done in 15 minutes, and the only sweat I worked up was in moving the collection bins into the back of my truck. Ever since then, I've been lusting after one of these beauties. With the upcoming Chilean season, and my recent bonus, I took the plunge! Now that it is in my basement, my first thought was "Wow, that's big!" Oh well, it will certainly make my life easier this spring and fall, and many subsequent years. It will keep my wife from getting bored while we hand destemmed. And it is large enough for a small winery, so let's call it an investment in the possible future!

Say hello to my new baby--the gleaming Macchine Enologiche! She needs a better name--something feminine in Italian. Perhaps Vinia (Latin for wine)? Other suggestions?

Salute,
a Wine Student

Blueberry 2008--A Pressing Issue

The past few weeks have been very busy--computer troubles, a sick guinea pig (now there's an interesting story), and the usual work load, so I've been thankful that the blueberry wine that I started on Feb 12 has been quietly bubbling away in the kitchen corner. However, all good fermentations must come to an end, and indeed, the yeast activity on this batch began to significantly drop in the past few days. On Thursday night, it had reached Brix = 2.6 so I decided to press and transfer to a carboy.

Now some people use a small press for their fruit wines. Not me, I use a hands-on approach. I line a plastic bucket with a nylon mesh bag, pour the must into the bag/bucket, and then lift up the bag to let the wine drain out. Yes, it's a little labor and time intensive, but it's cheap (no wonder I fit into New England well), and easy to clean up. Plus, I get to get my hands dirty!

Disclaimer--I am not and never was a member of any "Athletic Department". Although lifting a 4 gal bag of fermenting mush isn't trivial! And I do seem to have the hairy chest to match!

For those who recall the mess I made when I added the yeast (see post), I am sitting on a layer of plastic. Note the stain free wall and cabinets behind me (Thank you, Oxiclean)! Now, don't freak out--there is no fire hazard in this process, that's just where I keep the extinguisher because I haven't yet hung it on the wall. Trust me, I'm not that dangerous in the kitchen!

After pressing, I poured the liquid into a carboy and topped with an airlock to let the fermentation finish. I'm not worried about the airspace in the carboy at this point because the must is still giving off CO2 that will displace the air in the carboy. I've moved the carboy to the warmest place in the house (the guest bathroom) to finish fermentation, and it is dutifully slowly bubbling away. Will probably be done within a week. At that point, I'll rack into a smaller carboy and top off to protect it from oxidation.

I'm quite pleased with the color extraction that I achieved. Adding the Lallzyme EX during the cold soak really gave a boost of color. Of course, a lot of that color will drop out as the wine clears, but we're starting at a very inky reddish-purple, so the final result should still be very dark.

So far, so good!

Salute,
a Wine Student

Blueberry 2008 prior posts:
Initial Mix
Yeast Addition and Oxi-Clean

Cranberry 2008 #4--First Racking

Oh dear, look at the date. It's been awhile since I've updated you with my efforts. Had a little minor computer hard drive problem--it crashed. A lesson learned about storing your life on a computer, it costs a lot of money to get it back after a hard drive crash! Could of bought a new computer by the time it was over. Oh well, I can at least take comfort in the fact that by fixing the old one, I'm reducing my carbon footprint. Although given that I'm sick of snow, a little global warming sounds like a good idea at the moment!

Anyway, back to the wine...

About 3 weeks after completion of fermentation, both batches had dropped a pretty good layer of lees (these are the solids--yeast cells, fruit solids, seeds, etc--that drop out of the wine as it clears). The cranberry-banana had dropped significantly more and was much clearer than the cranberry-grape. I decided to rack off the lees to avoid any possible off-tastes from autolysis of the dead yeast cells. Each carboy was racked into a new sanitized carboy with 1/8 tsp of k meta and I used the extra bottles of cranberry-banana to top off the carboys.

Some observations:
1) the Cranberry-banana is much clearer (and tastes more like pure cranberry). It is just slightly translucent at this point.
2) Neither wine gave off much CO2 when I tried to degas.
3) The cranberry-grape is very pleasant tasting with a distinctive grape aftertaste. Perhaps a better balance of the cranberry tartness and the grapey flavor--time will tell!
4) Interestingly, within a week of racking, the cranberry-grape had dropped another good layer of lees. The picture below highlights this new lees layer and the difference in clearing rates.


Some lessons learned:
1) Adding bananas to a wine really DOES help a wine clear faster.
2) Niagra grape juice can make a good blending component for fruit wines.
3) Hand pressing really helps degas a wine!

Salute,
a Wine Student

Prior Cranberry 2008 posts:
Starting the Body Experiment
Fermentation Almost Done
Racked the Cranberry-Grape
Racked the Cranberry-Banana