Posts Tagged ‘home winemaking’

The sun is shining brightly outside, and the other day I heard geese flying north. Although it’s still below freezing, warmer weather is sure to arrive. We’ve already had a number of days where the temperature rises to above freezing during the day, but drops below at night. Perfect weather for collecting sap from the Maple trees.

I’ve been thinking of purchasing some maple syrup to try making wine from that, but the price of the stuff is getting out of hand! One litre sells for $29.99 retail. When I was a young boy living in what is now industrial and residential but then was maple trees and farms, we had gallons of the stuff from our neighbours. Those were the days! It was fun to see the sap boiling outdoors in big cast iron cauldrons over an open fire that would be kept going 24 hours a day.

My potato wine has the appearance right now of a medium maple syrup. Not very appetizing as far as wines go. But it will clear eventually. I racked it into a 3 gallon carboy yesterday – it had been 7 days since I started it, and the specific gravity was 1.020.

The “Mystery” wine is showing much better fermentation signs now, although I did forget to take an SG reading. I’ll have to do that later today, and crossing fingers that it will be showing a considerably greater fermentation rate that previously.

Ah, the adventures of home winemaking!

I’ve been monitoring closely my “Mystery” wine that I suspect the the majority of the berries were dark gooseberries, but possibly something else mixed in. It was started on March 11: Ten days ago. At the time, it had a starting Specific Gravity of 1.104. I used Lalvin EC-1118 yeast.

Several days later, I started the Potato Wine. Again, I used Lalvin EC-1118 yeast. It had a starting SG of 1.128. Yet within six days, it was down to 1.026.

After ten days, the “Mystery Wine” SG is 1.042. The fermentation seems sluggish to me. I think it should have been down to this SG several days ago, at least. So I added a 1/2 teaspoon of yeast nutrient, dissolved in about an 1/8 cup of water, to the five gallons of fermenting wine. About four hours later, there is obvious improved activity going on with significant more Carbon Dioxide being created. Was it the yeast nutrient?

There is always debate about whether wines should be fined and/or filtered before bottling. It can be confusing to those who enjoy the hobby of home winemaking to know what to do. There is even disagreement among professional winemakers and wine tasters. Most would probably agree that fining and filtering have much to do with the appearance of wine, but what about taste and aroma?

There are some who claim that using Bentonite and other fining agents, and then filtering a wine strips away some of the flavors and aromas, while others say any such reduction is imperceptible to most.

In Forbes Magazine, there was an interesting discussion about this along with a list of ten commercially available unfiltered/unfined wines that wine enthusiasts can try for themselves. Article is here.

My “wee man,” Data, The Who, and an interesting read. What does it have to do with home winemaking? Well, just read on!

It’s about 3AM. Normally, I’d be falling asleep by now, or soon to be sleeping – but it’s an atypical night. We’ll get back to typical tomorrow, I’m sure.

For those who have read this blog for any length of time, they will know that I have a “wee man” (who is a real good looking boy!) that I adore, and from time to time, he sometimes expresses adoration toward me. Lately, his adoration has been more about Lego sets that he wants, and has already written down on Christmas and Birthday lists – events that won’t occur for 5 and 10 months from now. But he knows I enjoy making wine and has been a companion on more than one trip to pick up juice or fruit so the “auld man” can experiment and do some home winemaking.

This evening, he decided he needed to help me with some home winemaking. During that time, he wondered what he would be when he “grew up.” A magician? Maybe on stage with The Who? (He loves The Who – he’s probably got the record for being the youngest to take in a The Who concert). Perhaps a fireman. And then, when we started using the Hydrometer, he thought maybe he should be a “Detective.”

“Detectives are good at writing things out and figuring out stuff, right Dad? And I’m good at that.”

I took him into the wine making area, with a piece of paper and a pen. He was to write out the specific gravity readings for the wines I was testing. “How do you spell ‘Zinfandel’, Dad?” I spelled it for him. “Do you want the number beside or below?”

“Beside will do fine, son!”

I spelled out Z-I-N-F-A-N-D-E-L for him. Put the wine thief into the carboy, pulled out a sample, and said, “David, write this down – 0.996.”

He did. And went through it all in the same way. I’d take the sample, read it, call it out after he’d written down which wine batch it was.

Zinfandel: 0.996
GSM: 1.000
Mystery: 1.046
Potato: 1.032

And I’m keeping his piece of paper with his recordings on it, in my winemaking log book. Maybe someday, he’ll decide to be a winemaker!

So that was the Data part of the evening.

Other thoughts:

As mentioned above, The Who is one of my wee man’s favorite artists. He comes by it well! His “auld man” has been a fan of the hard rocking, often libertarian, sometimes about heart wrenching, other times about personal integrity, and always awesome music of The Who. And I’ve been reading Jack Keller’s list of music (on his blog) that has something to do with “wine” in the title. And of course, there is “Old Red Wine” by The Who. I’m listening. Has something to do with Keith Entwistle, apparently. Very good song to listen to, as are all The Who songs.

I’ve also been reading a book. I thought I knew a good amount about home winemaking. Wow.. I have learned so much this past evening, reading this book! I think I might become a mad scientist… although winemaking is not just about science. Or is it? Maybe there’s just not enough data, observations to go with the data, and other situations that seem uncontrollable to making wine that is awesome for any occasion (including to listing to The Who).

I’ll have more about this incredibly interesting book I’m reading shortly. I wonder if many people realize just what goes into that wonderful flavour on their tongue when they put a wonderful wine to their lips and take it into their mouths. Most don’t care about formulas for acids, alcohol accuracy, or learning about the tiny vermin that make wine what it is… yet, it is fascinating to learn about in detail.

And those are enough thoughts to write about, for now. But I’m looking forward to soon pulling out another bottle of Zinfandel that has been aging down in the basement, to be shared and enjoyed. Very soon! While I make more that in years to come, will be enjoyed and shared and perhaps memories of the times while that wine was fermenting can be laughed about, sung about, written about, and even made into poetry.

And with all of that.. it’s the data that is still important!

I’ve added a new link to my sidebar – a new blog just recently started by Daniel Pambianchi.

Daniel took time out of his day to comment on my post, “A Bulk Aging Disagreement” and provided some of his thoughts. I’m looking forward to watching Daniel’s blog grow and I’m sure many of us will learn a thing or three from him.

Daniel is the President of Cadenza Wines, Inc. and the General Manager of the Maleta Winery in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario. One of their wines, a Riesling, won Silver at a major competition last week.

As well as being the Technical Editor for WineMaker Magazine, Daniel has written “Techniques in Home Winemaking: The Comprehensive Guide to Making Chateau-Style Wines” and another book that should be of interest to home winemakers wanting to improve their skills with making wine from kits, “Kit Winemaking: The Illustrated Beginner’s Guide to Making Wines from Concentrate”

Welcome to world of home winemaking blogging, Daniel!

Daniel’s blog is here.