Lodi Gold Grape Juice

[lukie]

Hey folks.

Newbie here.

Greetings,

My father recently purchased a pail of Chardonnay juice from a local dealer. It's called Lodi Gold Grape Juice. He assumed it would be prepared just like any wine in a kit (with the addition of yeast etc). Is this the case for this wine? There is no instructions on the pail or on the website that I can see regarding preparation.


Is this a sterile must and are there are special storage instructions (like keep it refrigerated etc)? The pail feels cold and is "sweating" so I assume it was at least in a cold storage - my father confirms this. Should I keep it on the balcony now instead of in the room? I've attached a picture of the pail in question. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[lukie]

Tumble weeds spinning across my thread it seems. Sorry to be so uninteresting.

 

[WI_Wino]

I think you need to pitch yeast, nutrient, etc. asap. Typically these juice buckets are pressed juice, acid and ph balanced, and minimal sulfites. I had six buckets start fermenting in my basement last week after sitting un-refrigerated for 24 hours.

 

[lukie]

I think you need to pitch yeast, nutrient, etc. asap. Typically these juice buckets are pressed juice, acid and ph balanced, and minimal sulfites. I had six buckets start fermenting in my basement last week after sitting un-refrigerated for 24 hours.

Good to know. I only have two Fastferment vessels as my equipment (condo living) and will need to wait a few more days till one of my kits is ready to be bottled. I put the pail on my balcony, which is currently experiencing 15 to 2 degree Celsius Toronto weather, so hopefully that will halt the self-fermentation. I will put this in my FastFerment in a few days. So bentonite, yeast (which one is good for these), K-meta, K-sorbate, chitosan (these are the additives that usually came with my kits from Costco), am I missing anything?


P.S. How do you know it has began fermentation. My pail has started to make some kind of "pressure" noise coming out of the little black hole/port in the pail, as soon as my father brought it home. Is that a sign of fermentation? Did I halt it by putting it on the balcony. Is this good/bad? What should I do next?

 

[WI_Wino]

You can ferment right in the same bucket. That's what I did. Sounds like it's fermenting already. If you have it ec1118 is a beast of a yeast and will overcome whatever is fermenting already.

 

[lukie]

I've got that ec1118 in an unused kit so I'll borrow that. What about bentonite? My Costco kits usually add this at the beginning, is that necessary for good clarification? Lastly my Costco (both concentrate and 23L ones) kits typically take under 30 days to finish in a conical fermentor like FastFerment. I guess this juice pail will be a slower process?

 

[WI_Wino]

You can add bentonite if you like. I don't with juice buckets but I also let my wine sit for a year before I bottle it.

 

[stella_tigre]

I hope you're not adding sorbates till the end.....

 

[lukie]

I hope you're not adding sorbates till the end.....

What makes you say that I would?

 

[lukie]

You can add bentonite if you like. I don't with juice buckets but I also let my wine sit for a year before I bottle it.

Oh dang, that's a really long time. I usually do my kits for 30 days than age 30-60 days in bottles and I've gotten pretty good results. I can defininitly notice a shift in taste from date of bottling and 2 months after for these Argentia Costco kits which range from 7L concentrates to 23L pure. I basically have these 2 Fastferment vessels and my friends and family are over often so I've go to keep the production going. I have no problem setting aside this batch for a year but in bottles not in the fermentor itself, which has to be freed for later use.

 

[stella_tigre]

What makes you say that I would?

"I will put this in my FastFerment in a few days. So bentonite, yeast (which one is good for these), K-meta, K-sorbate, chitosan (these are the additives that usually came with my kits from Costco), am I missing anything?"
Sounded like the list of ingredients, just wanted to ask that it was your master list and not the stuff you were throwing into the batch at the start.

 

[WI_Wino]

Oh dang, that's a really long time. I usually do my kits for 30 days than age 30-60 days in bottles and I've gotten pretty good results. I can defininitly notice a shift in taste from date of bottling and 2 months after for these Argentia Costco kits which range from 7L concentrates to 23L pure. I basically have these 2 Fastferment vessels and my friends and family are over often so I've go to keep the production going. I have no problem setting aside this batch for a year but in bottles not in the fermentor itself, which has to be freed for later use.

Definitely do whatever works for you. I have 20-30 carboys so lots of aging space.

I use my juice pail buckets as fermenters too. So now you have 3! You can buy grommets that fit air locks. Just drill a hole, insert grommet and air lock.

 

[lukie]

So I opened the bucket up (damn, it's not easy to open these pails) and transferred to my Fastferment. I measured the SG to be at about 18 brix, which is a little on the low side no, but I don't know how accurate this is since there was apparent self-fermentation taking place already, hence the hissing out of the bucket when my father brought it home. What's surprising to me is that the pail spent two days outside on the balcony in roughly 4-12 degree celsius weather and it was still hissing when I took it inside. Anyways, i added the ec1118 yeast once it warmed up to room temps and will wait to see what takes place.

 

[lukie]

"I will put this in my FastFerment in a few days. So bentonite, yeast (which one is good for these), K-meta, K-sorbate, chitosan (these are the additives that usually came with my kits from Costco), am I missing anything?"
Sounded like the list of ingredients, just wanted to ask that it was your master list and not the stuff you were throwing into the batch at the start.

It was the master list, to add gradually on a schedule. Basically all the ones that come with my Costo kits. Should I add anything else to these pail juices?

 

[Tribe Fan]

https://harfordvineyard.com/winemaking-instructions-for-juice/

This was recommended to me at winemakingtalk.com. Good high level instruction set. morewinemaking.com has some good PDF instruction guides that into some depth on all the possible additives and nutrients you can use if you want to. You'll need to decide if you want to do a malo lactic fermentation with the chard. You will need to do that at the end of primary fermentation, and once you introduce those bacteria you cannot add sorbates, unless you love the aroma of dead geraniums in your white wine.

 

[lukie]

https://harfordvineyard.com/winemaking-instructions-for-juice/

This was recommended to me at winemakingtalk.com. Good high level instruction set. morewinemaking.com has some good PDF instruction guides that into some depth on all the possible additives and nutrients you can use if you want to. You'll need to decide if you want to do a malo lactic fermentation with the chard. You will need to do that at the end of primary fermentation, and once you introduce those bacteria you cannot add sorbates, unless you love the aroma of dead geraniums in your white wine.

Thanks.

It's now day 8. My air-lock stopped bubbling on like day 4 or 5. I changed the bottom bulb of the FastFerment. Fast, no mess changes are one of the beauties of a connincal fermenting vessel like this. The trub was so thick and dense, almost solid and rock like. I never got so much and so hard trub from my Argentia Costco kits. I measured the sugar level and it came up to 6 Brix, so that's 1.0237 S.G. Looks pretty good so far.