Tasting again!

I opened a bottle today to give my wine a taste before I hand it out as a Christmas gift. It tastes much better than it did at bottling, so I think it's aging great. The sulfite levels should be high enough for it to last for at least a year. Hopefully the gift recipients don't save their wines for longer than that!

1st batch... bottled!

Everything was tasting OK as of today, so the Malbec is now bottled! That gives it about 1-and-a-half months of bulk aging. It's drinkable now, but should be better after Christmastime.

Degassing, tasting and gravity measurement.

The vacuum pump and new bung arrived on Monday, so I've been degassing for the last two days. There is a significant difference in taste, so I think I'm on the right track. I'm gonna give it another day or so to degas and give it another taste. From there, I'll decide if it's time to bottle.

I took a gravity reading today too. The final reading is 0.993. The starting reading was 1.089. That makes alcohol content is roughly 13%.

Tasting and degassing

I gave my Malbec another taste today and there's still a little tingle on the tongue. That can only mean there is still CO2 suspended in the wine. I recently saw a video on YouTube on how to degas wine with a simple wine preserver pump. You can check it out here.

It's $10 for the pump and $1 for the new bung, which is comparable to the $23 drill-mounted stirring spoons. Plus, the pump works an a lot better as there is no chance of introducing unwanted oxygen into the wine, causing additional oxidation. I went ahead and ordered the pump and the bung, so I can degas for 2 days then go ahead and bottle. They should arrive later this week.

Viognier coming up next.

I went to my local retailer to pick up a couple really cheap ingredients so I can make a cheap fruit wine eventually, or at least a small batch of grape wine from frozen concentrate (yes it can be done, and it's not too bad).

The lady that co-owns the store offered me a great deal on another wine kit. Close to half off because a customer special ordered it but refused to pick it up. This time I got a Viognier; my first attempt at a white wine.

I'm gonna wait at least a month or so before I start this kit as it's too hot here for fermentation to happen without creating any off flavors.

Racking yet again...

Since their was quite a bit of lees still in the bottom, I racked the wine into my other carboy. But since I want to be able to keep a better eye on the sediment, I cleaned out my glass carboy and racked it back into there. I also degassed it, then topped it off and put the airlock back on. So far so good. Oh, and I gave it a taste... it's getting there!

Amador County tasting.

I went tasting in Amador County yesterday, up near Sacramento/Folsom. We hit three wineries, none of which had tasting fees. That's nice, but I'd almost rather pay the $5.00 and not feel like I have to buy a bottle. We went to:

(1) Youngs Vineyard (www.youngsvineyards.com). There were some pretty good wines here. My friend noted that their wines are on the more expensive side in Amador, the least expensive being $26. The highlight: 2007 Petite Sirah. Oh and the really cool wine labels...

(2) Montevina (www.montevina.com). They had a ton of wines to taste; probably 20-30 different wines. They have two different labels here, one being Montevina and the other Terra d'Oro. The highlight: Zinfandel Port. Also, getting to taste about 8 wines for free was cool.

(3) Dobra Zemlja (www.dobraz.com, pronounced "DO-bra ZEM-ya". It means "the good earth" in Croatian). They had a cool tasting room crankin' some pretty good tunes. They offer a cool 1L, refillable, screw-top jug wine, which they call Milan Ruž (pronounced almost like Moulin Rouge). The highlight: 2007 Kikas Zinfandel, which they call a dobra-style port. The story behind this wine is that the grapes were harvested so late, that they had basically become raisins on the vine. They obviously yielded very little juice. But they distilled this juice twice and fortified it with grappa (Italian liquor distilled from pomace, which is the leftover skins, stems and seeds from winemaking). Traditionally, ports are fortified with brandy (liquor distilled from wine). And the wine is pronounced "kick ass", but they had to alter the spelling to put it on the label.

Overall a great time. If it wasn't so far away, I would frequent Amador County more often.

Oh... and don't forget my grapevines!

Chardonnay, if you must know. And they're growing like weeds...

After it settled...

I noticed a bit too much sediment in the bottom of my glass carboy. My racking cane didn't work like I expected. No worries though. My good friends at WineMakingTalk.com had some solutions, so we should be bottling here in a couple weeks.

The second racking.

The wine is pretty clear so far. I've put a sample into a wine glass and checked it out. It doesn't look cloudy at all. So far so good. But since the sample is already in a glass, I figure I'll have a taste. It still smells a bit young and it tastes kinda like a Charles Shaw wine. That's good I guess, because after it ages for a while, it should taste way better than $2BC.

Anyhoo, today is the second racking. I cleaned and sanitized my equipment, and siphoned all of the wine into a second carboy; glass this time, so I can see it. I think I took too much sediment during my first racking, so I'm going to try to leave more behind. My siphoning cane has a stopper on the bottom, so that it sits up an inch or so from the bottom. That should help.



Once this step is done, its another 2 weeks before bottling.

Almost wine now.

Secondary fermentation has gone on for about 30 days. As I mentioned before, the kit instructions suggested 10 days, but I was assured that 30 days should not be a problem. Well, now its time to stabilize and begin clarifying.

The stabilizing additives essentially stop fermentation. Potassium metabisulfite is added to create a hostile environment for the yeast (anyone who has been sexually harassed knows about a hostile environment). Potassium sorbate is added to disrupt the reproductive cycle of the yeast. While neither additive actually kills the yeast, they have little sugar to consume and can't reproduce. Attrition anyone?

Clarifying is pretty self explanatory. Chitosan or isinglass is added to make the wine is crystal clear. I think of it as turning a Hefeweizen into a Coors Light.



I added the stabilizers and used my handy drill-mounted stirring whip to mix them in and drive off excess CO2. I poured in the chitosan and fired up my drill for another couple of minutes.



Up to this point, there has been a significant amount of headspace in the carboy; a couple of inches. But since the fermentation is coming to a halt, there won't be any CO2 produced to protect the wine from oxygen in the air. So I have to top up the wine almost to the top of the carboy. I reattached the cork and airlock, and guess what? We wait more. In about 8 weeks, we rack it again. Oh and I got a new airlock. Super sweet:

Still waiting (notice a pattern here?)

I am back from a long week of camping. Not that I needed a vacation (I haven't worked since May 22nd) but I went anyways. I'm actually going to let the secondary fermentation go on longer while I wait for a piece of equipment to arrive from grapestompers.com. I'm going to get this fancy stirrin' stick that attaches to my drill. There is going to be a lot of stirring in the next couple steps and the carboy opening is a couple inches, making vigorous stirring rather difficult. This should save my arms some trouble.

Timing is everything.

I'm right smack in the midst of the secondary fermentation process. Fermentation slows, but still occurs enough keep a layer of CO2 on top of the wine to protect it from oxygen. I'm supposed to check the specific gravity after 10 days (on July 6th), but I realized that I'm going to be out of town until July 12th. Thankfully, I found some friends to ask.

I posted a thread at the Wine Making Discussion Forums regarding my timing situation. I was reassured that letting secondary fermentation go longer is not only fine, but usually preferred. I also was told that the kits are designed on the assumption that the wine maker wants to bottle ASAP. No worries here anymore. I'll check when I get back from camping.

It's been 5 days... now what?

So it's been five days now, and its time to check the progress of the fermentation. The wine kit suggests that the specific gravity (sg) should be below 1.010. So I clean and sanitize my test jar, wine thief (a fancy name for a tube to get wine out of the bucket), and hydrometer (measures specific gravity).

I withdraw enough samples into the test jar so that the hydrometer has room to float, plop it in there and take a reading... 0.998! That’s far lower than the suggested 1.010. After a bit of thought, it makes sense that fermentation is moving faster than expected. The suggested temperature for fermentation is between 65°F and 75°F. My apartment has been in the 80s for the last several days. This additional heat can become a problem and kill the yeast, depending on the strain used. But it seems that mine are still alive and kickin'!

So its time to move to the next step: racking. This wine making jargon for "transferring from one vessel to another." Since wine can oxidize (the reason why a bottle of red goes bad after 2 or 3 days), racking generally involves siphoning carefully, not pouring.

I lift the fermentation bucket to the counter: move the carboy (think arrowhead bottle, but better) to the floor below, start a siphon and just sit back. After a couple minutes, I have to stick my one of my accounting textbooks under one side, to minimize the amount of sediment that comes with. I knew I kept those books for a reason!




I attach the cork and airlock, and wait 10 more days...

Oooh that smell! Can't you smell that smell?

It smells like fermentation in my apartment. Very yeasty. That's good news. I'll be checking on the progress in 4 or 5 more days...

So we begin...

Yesterday was the start of the big adventure. Well, the adventure isn't that big. We are simply following the instructions in the grape concentrate kit I purchased earlier this week. Anyhoo, we started the first fermentation of the wine phase yesterday. Technically, it started this morning at 12:40 AM, since the temperature wasn't quite right to throw the yeast in. A little more on that later...


We cleaned our equipment, sanitized it with a water/sodium metabisulfite solution, and let it dry. Although watching the equipment dry was quite riveting, the fun steps came next:

(1) We dissolved the bentonite in the fermentation bucket. Bentonite helps the wine clear, so it doesn't end up being cloudy (think the difference between a Coors Light and Pyramid Hefeweizen). In a commercial operation, bentonite is usually added towards the end of the fermentation process. However, the fermentation causes a churning action, which works the bentonite through the must (aka the grape juice).

(2) We emptied the grape concentrate (henceforth called the "must" until it becomes wine) into the bucket.

(3) Next, topped off the bucket to the 23 liter mark with water and stirred (we are working with concentrate after all).

(4) We took a specific gravity reading (to measure the density of the liquid, specifically trying to measure the sugar content). We were at 1.089, meaning that the must is more dense than water (1.000).

(5) The kit came with oak powder, which is nice because I don't own nor do I have space for, an oak barrel.

(6) We were supposed to toss the yeast in, but fermentation starts between 65-75°F. At that point in the day, it was around 79°F. We went out that night, so at about 12:40 AM it was cool enough to pitch the yeast. I popped the lid on and we were on our way.

Hooray for fermentation! And now we wait...

Step one: where do I start?

I can't quite remember why I decided to pursue wine making. I guess it must have been one of my trips to Livermore Valley, or better yet, my trip to Sonoma that inspired me. Regardless, I ventured to my local retailer today in Campbell, CA: Fermentation Solutions (not much of a website, but the store is great).

There was only one person working the store today. It happened to be the store owner's son. He seemed very knowledgeable, so I decided to follow his guidance. I figured he was a good source, since his dad is a brewer and wine maker. He had to at least know the basics.

He suggested I start off with a basic wine making kit and a box of grape concentrate. At first, I thought that would be a bit too amateur-ish: the kit was mostly plastic and I pictured the grape concentrate having a "Welch's" label. I didn't want to look too douche-ey, so I was a bit hesitant.

However the grape concentrate was from the Malbec varietal grown in Argentina. The brand was "WinExpert" and the clerk assured me that it was reputable. I said "what the hell," and threw down my debit card.

In hindsight, the equipment kit is not only where most people start, but it contains the equipment that most people prefer (plastic is quite common for amateurs). Not only did I research the equipment today, but I also looked up the brand "WinExpert." It turns out that their wine kits have won tasting medals (my kit won a gold award at the 2008 Winemaker mag international amateur competition). I guess I didn't need to be so hesitant about purchasing this stuff.

I have since brought it home and thrown it in the guest room. I want Cassie (my ol' GF) to help me out so that it will be a team effort. We'll have fun and have 30 bottles of wine (~23L) when we're done. Wish us luck.