Need help with a Niagara Riesling

[Jordan Aschaber]

So I'm probably in over my head with this but I really need all your help.

I just bought a 5 gallon bucket of Riesling juice from Niagara on Monday I think they just pressed it last weekend. It's suppose to be organic and everything free.

I'd really love for this to turn out great so that's why I need all your help. I imagine I probably just want a dry wine as I want to keep it fairly sulphate free. We would probably prefer it semi-sweet though, but maybe I'll refer to all your good judgements.

So to make sure that the wine turns out well should I use potassium metabisulfite and ec1118? Or will using the wild yeast be a good option or is it too risky?

In a message to me the farmer said said, "They are so beautiful this year! 21 brix, pH 3.4"
I've made some cider now and about 3 wine kits so that's fairly greek to me.

Thanks!

 

[TechFanMD]

You got it Monday and asking this question on Wednesday....it is refrigerated? I would dose with campden (1 tablet per gal) and then wait two days before pitching your yeast. You do not want to ferment that with wild yeast or even leave whatever is already in there stay alive.

You may want to bump up the sugar a little bit as well, but it might be close enough.....you want to be around 22-23 brix so you have enough alcohol at the end. You can backsweeten later but that take a lot of care in the process and of course potassium metabisulfite AND potassium sorbate or you run high risk of bottles blowing corks and wine everywhere.

I made quite a few batches of wine from fresh juice when I lived in Rochester NY and sourced the juice from the Finger Lakes region.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Jordan, You say that what the farmer told you was Greek to you. OK. Brix is a conventional measure of the percentage of sugar in solution of juice pressed from fruit. So a Brix of 21 is 21% sugar and in grape wines you are looking for a Brix of closer to 24% sugar. A Brix of 21 is the equivalent of about 1.087. A pH of 3.4 sounds OK to me but that pH is likely to rise a little as the fermentation proceeds. The importance of pH is not so much about taste but about shelf life of the wine. You need to use more sulfite in a wine to prevent oxidation and spoilage the higher the pH.
The lab cultured yeast you mention is likely to make a trouble-free wine but I would check to see if there are yeasts that the labs select that highlight the flavors and mouthfeel you might want in a white wine such as a Riesling. No expert , but 71B would seem to me to be a good option.

 

[Jordan Aschaber]

Thank you very much guys for your advice.

Crud I'm daft, should this be refrigerated? I have very busy weekdays so I haven't had a chance to think about this...

I have tomorrow off work so I'm going to start with the campden. But should I pack ice around the bucket until I can pitch the yeast?

And I have lots of white sugar, should I use a different type of sugar? Or I can probably look that up here.

And thank you I'll probably go to a home brew store and ask them what yeast they recommend. The farmer said they use wild yeast, but I'm not willing to risk ageing a bunch of wine that could be a crap shoot.

thanks again guys

 

[bernardsmith]

Personally, I like indigenous yeast when I make small batches of mead and other kinds of country wines but I don't know that I would be as happy risking real $$$$ for a significant volume of grape wine. The farmer might have wonderful indigenous yeast after years of crushing and pressing and growing but the yeast that you may find in your home may be 90 lb weaklings that give up the ghost after 20 points of alcohol and after puking out gobs of H2S and all kinds of volatile alcohols, though if he crushed and pressed the grapes and you are buying juice then you may have the the yeast the farmer uses. What you might do is pour off a proportion of the juice (say, 20 -25% ) and allow that to ferment naturally, and pitch lab cultured yeast on the other 75- 80%). That way you don't need to decide ... and if you don't like the way the natural yeast is going you can always blend the two...

 

[Jordan Aschaber]

Thank you Bernard that's a great idea! However I mostly only have a couple 1 gallon carboys, couple 2 gallon pails, 5 gallon pails and carboys.

I guess I could split it 3 ways.

 

[bernardsmith]

You could, but you want to be sure that for aging you are using narrow necked carboys and not wide mouthed buckets or pails. The less surface area exposed to the air after active fermentation has ceased the less opportunity for oxidation.

 

[TechFanMD]

Personally, I like indigenous yeast when I make small batches of mead and other kinds of country wines but I don't know that I would be as happy risking real $$$$ for a significant volume of grape wine. The farmer might have wonderful indigenous yeast after years of crushing and pressing and growing but the yeast that you may find in your home may be 90 lb weaklings that give up the ghost after 20 points of alcohol and after puking out gobs of H2S and all kinds of volatile alcohols, though if he crushed and pressed the grapes and you are buying juice then you may have the the yeast the farmer uses. What you might do is pour off a proportion of the juice (say, 20 -25% ) and allow that to ferment naturally, and pitch lab cultured yeast on the other 75- 80%). That way you don't need to decide ... and if you don't like the way the natural yeast is going you can always blend the two...

I chosen yeast from the area cultured for winemaking is one thing.......buying juice and letting it sit a week untreated and unrefrigerated may end up as vinegar. I have experience in this

 

[Jordan Aschaber]

Shoot well lesson learned. I'll get it on ice as soon as possible. Hopefully it still turns out.

 

[Coffee49]

I picked up a red and a white in sealed buckets with a small pressure relief valve to help keep O2 out. They were ready to pop so I pulled the top off and got 1118 in them asap, just set the top back on to work 2 weeks, your brix could be a little higher maybe mix 1/2 cup granulated sugar into 1 cup room temp distilled water and think about adding yeast nutrient prior to adding 1118. Ensure your temp is 24C in the vessel and room. Should start working in 36 hrs. The less air space with proper airlock is the key through the whole process.

 

[Jordan Aschaber]

Just put it on ice packets/cold water in a large pail and put the 5 gallon pail in that pail and put like 10 towels over it, will try and add more ice as soon as it's frozen.

Also added 5 campden tablets dissolved in ¼-½ cup Toronto tap water that's been brita filtered and boiled then cooled. Then pitched that into the must and stirred well.

Should I pitch the sugar in made into simple syrup, or just white granulated into the must? And should I add it asap before my yeast? Or can I add it minutes before the yeast when I get the right brix?

 

[Coffee49]

Make it into syrup it shouldn't reach saturation so it will blend well,toss it in any time before pitching yeast

 

[Jordan Aschaber]

Unfortunately I went against all good judgement and didn't fortify it and just tossed in 1118 cause the place I went to didn't have 71B and forgot to check for some today. However it was so much fun checking the sugar of the juice, tasting a little bit(was so tasty), seeing how the natural yeast already had the must carbonated. I regret nothing, lol. I just hope I have something to show for all this, at least I'll have the lesson that I need to plan it out more ahead of time.