Massachusetts group grape buy

[paulthenurse]

And not to sound like your mother nagging you but... So far we have Vermiscious, Cranky and Melana/BigJohn saying they are coming. What about the rest of you guys? Could you let me know? If I need to call in extra hands I can do that if I know.

BTW, if anyone wants to swing by and participate in the punchdowns just to get a feel for it, PM me and let me know when you can be in the area and I'll schedule the punchdowns for then. We still have a few days before Sunday and it is an important part of the process. Just a thought.

I'll probably throw some ribs on the smoker in the morning. I don't want to get into the hassle of a full blown BBQ, I'm going to be pretty busy running around on Sunday but we all need to eat so I'll do that at least. If you want to bring something to chow on that will be great.


PTN

 

[beergears]

Cheese-making equipment suppliers...?

Local restaurant..?

Could you sew smaller parts together to make a large enough piece?

Food-grade nylon mesh, if there is such a thing?

I just posted a question about where to get cheescloth / yard on the Food forum on CL - maybe someone there will chime in, and I will relay.

BTW, may not make it Sunday, MIL is not doing well, staying put to support SWMBO, who has a hard time dealing with it (and her lame brothers...).

 

[paulthenurse]

Thoughts and prayers are with you, JL. Good luck.

PTN

 

[Melana]

Sorry to be the bearer of sad news but John won't be with me on Sunday. I will be solo... and in my dad's '70 Buick... can someone please leave me some space to park in the driveway? If something happens to that beast i'm never going to forgive myself!

JL my thoughts are with you as well.

I will see waht i can come up with for cheesecloth...

 

[Bulls Beers]

Hey Paul, I think I'm swinging by..Call me if you need me to bring anything..

 

[Cape Brewing]

I might swing through for no other reason than to heckle Paul over the 'stache.

If I do though I'll have my boys with me... in case PTN wants to rumble.

 

[paulthenurse]

Sorry to be the bearer of sad news but John won't be with me on Sunday. I will be solo... and in my dad's '70 Buick... can someone please leave me some space to park in the driveway? If something happens to that beast i'm never going to forgive myself!

JL my thoughts are with you as well.

I will see waht i can come up with for cheesecloth...

Melana, just pull down the side street and park it on the grass over by the vineyard, it will be safe there.

And you most definately WON'T be alone.

Oh, Alice found cheesecloth, she's picking it up on her way home tonight.
PTN

 

[Melana]

Have i mentioned lately that Alice is AWESOME? Well, she is!

 

[paulthenurse]

Have i mentioned lately that Alice is AWESOME? Well, she is!

You are SO right!

 

[CrankyOldLibrarian]

I'll be there a little after 12:30. I think that my gf is going to join so we can put her to work too.

 

[Melana]

I'll be there a little after 12:30. I think that my gf is going to join so we can put her to work too.

YAY another female at Paul's sausage fest! WOOHOO!

 

[paulthenurse]

Don't call it that, Babalu might decide to show up

 

[Melana]

well, isn't it?

 

[JustMrWill]

Sorry to miss this...sitting in Vegas, looking out my window at the strip as the sun sets and all the lights come on...boy..I wish I was making wine instead... .

Let me know when you will need me next (after Tuesday).

-Will

 

[Melana]

What hotel are you at Will???

 

[JustMrWill]

Excalibur. Average rooms...good price....great location.

 

[Bulls Beers]

Well. I just got home a little bit ago....Half in the bag and drank more wine today than I've have in my life....I had a blast today..I have to thank Paul and Alice for inviting me into there home. Every time I go there I have more fun..( and more drinks).....I also have to thank cranky old librarian for bring the anchor for today's wine making, His girlfriend KIM!! If it wasn't for her, I'm not sure anything would have been done. She was a trooper..Much thanks for Vermicous for coming from so far away..He was great...

We HAVE to do this again...The grapes tasted great and I bet will taste amazing in a year or so...Again, thanks to Paul and his amazing bride for hosting a great day..

Congrat's to Melana....She looked fabulous...2 months and counting...hang in there.

 

[Melana]

I second that... it was a great time. Many thanks go to Paul and Alice for hosting yet another great event.

 

[CrankyOldLibrarian]

Kim and I had so much fun. It was great to meet everyone, bottle almost 200 bottles, press the malbec, BBQ, get attacked by a giant lobster claw, and sample so many great wines from Paul & Alice's cellar (the only exception being that banana/berry wine that Paul brought as an example to teach me a not very tasty lesson).

I took way too many pictures and a few videos. Check them out here:

Winemaking June 2009 pictures by crankyoldlibrarian - Photobucket

Thanks again for such a great afternoon!!!

 

[paulthenurse]

Ok so to try to give some sense of what went on yesterday for those who couldn't make it, I'll try to provide a bit of commentary with the pics.

Here we have the first barrel out on the porch, set up on sawhorses so we had vertical distance for a siphon down to the 5 bottle filler. We're in teh process of setting up teh siphon to fill the bottler in this picture.

The bottler fills up, in theory the ballcock shuts off the flow when the level of wine gets too high. In practice someone would have to hold the ball up to shut off the flow. Still, once we got cooking we were bottling a case in around 5 minutes.

Cranky's girlfriend Kim was the definate WorkDog. She managed to get her hands on every single piece of equipment before teh day was done. Here she is driving the corker.

PTN

 

[paulthenurse]

Once the bottling was complete it was time to press the Malbec. Here we have about 1/2 the must over by the press. We lined the press with chesecloth to keep out as much of the pulp as possible.

The juice and the pulp gets ladled into the press. A lot of teh juice flows out of teh press basket without having to apply pressure. The must/pulp acts as a sort of filter along with the cheesecloth.

PTN

 

[paulthenurse]

Fill that baby up!

The juice really pours out! You can see in this picture that there is still a LOT of yeast suspended in the wine. That will mostly all settle out over the next few days. It is what we call The Gross Lees.

Here we see that we got a TON of wine out without having to squeeze at all. That is over 30 gallons in the barrel behind. and we're just getting ready to press.

Who said that Cranky sat back and watched Kim do all the work? We have PROOF he broke a sweat.

 

[paulthenurse]

Vermiscious taking a break from pumping the press.

Three rules about press day.
1. Wear clothes you don't care about getting sticky and stained.
2. Sandles - Good, Barefoot - Better, Shoes and socks - Bad Idea. As you can see, my legs are purple from the frequent squirts out the side of the press as pressure is applied.
3. Old Balding guys need to put a hat on earlier in teh day so that the baldspot on teh back of their head doesn't get so badly sunburned.

The pommace presses down into a pretty solid block. We didn't squeeze it too dry, it adds a lot of harsh tannins that would take a long time to soften. Plus, I know a guy who wanted the pommace/marc to make another wine based adult beverage.

PTN

 

[paulthenurse]

Cranky has some videos loaded up too, but I couldn't figure out how to link to them so that they would embed.

I hope everyone had fun, learned a little something and enjoyed the wine we made. The Malbec is pretty darned good at this stage and it's only going to get better. And I hope everyone enjoyed the wines we broke out from the cellar. I know Alice and I had fun and I KNOW Brian enjoyed the Bordeaux. Sorry Brian, I needed to say sober since I was the only one who knew what to do next. Maybe NEXT time you can get me hammered and I'll sell you a case of the Bordeaux for a dollar. Probably not, but you never know.

I added the MLB this afternoon, I want to take advantage of the warm weather and get that off to a good start. We're still planning to rack it off the gross lees on Friday, unless I detect any off smells before then. In that case it happens immediately.

PTN

 

[Melana]

Thank the stars that there's no proof that i was there...
how's the wine doing today Paul?

 

[paulthenurse]

Snap, crackle, pop. All is well in the world.

 

[JustMrWill]

Looks like a fun time! Now what is next?

-Will

 

[Bulls Beers]

More drinking at Paul and Alice's!!!!!!

 

[Melana]

More drinking at Paul and Alice's!!!!!!

I'm all for this!

 

[Cape Brewing]

It takes a brave man to post pics of himself in a pink shirt when I can get at 'em.