Srimmey
Well-Known Member
I finally went all out with a proper wine. I’ve made wine from box kits, other fruit wines and a ton of mead but this is my first proper wine…
Last Sunday my wife and I went to a local U-pick vineyard (Oregon costal mountains, near Corvallis). We harvested 135 pounds of Pinot Noir, enough to make a batch of classic red wine and a rose’.
After picking the grapes, the u-pick farm crushed them and de-stemmed. I had them poor the crush into brew bags inside 6 gallon fermenting buckets. Before leaving I pitched some meta K and pectic enzymes into each bucket.
Last night we pressed all the grapes. The grape skins for the rose’ went into the compost and the skins for the red went back into the brew bag and bucket. For the red wine we used premier rouge and the rose got 71B yeast. Juice weighed in at 1.082 FG.
Tonight I saw the first signs of fermentation! Krousen bubbles were spotted in both buckets. The red had deepened in color nicely as well.
Looking ahead…
I plan to run the red through MLF, then give it some oak. The rose will just get some nice long bulk aging. Always open to advice or suggestions too! One thing I wasn’t sure about is if I should have added table sugar to the must to bring it up to 1.090. Right now it will only ferment out to about 11% if it goes down to 1.000.
Last Sunday my wife and I went to a local U-pick vineyard (Oregon costal mountains, near Corvallis). We harvested 135 pounds of Pinot Noir, enough to make a batch of classic red wine and a rose’.
After picking the grapes, the u-pick farm crushed them and de-stemmed. I had them poor the crush into brew bags inside 6 gallon fermenting buckets. Before leaving I pitched some meta K and pectic enzymes into each bucket.
Last night we pressed all the grapes. The grape skins for the rose’ went into the compost and the skins for the red went back into the brew bag and bucket. For the red wine we used premier rouge and the rose got 71B yeast. Juice weighed in at 1.082 FG.
Tonight I saw the first signs of fermentation! Krousen bubbles were spotted in both buckets. The red had deepened in color nicely as well.
Looking ahead…
I plan to run the red through MLF, then give it some oak. The rose will just get some nice long bulk aging. Always open to advice or suggestions too! One thing I wasn’t sure about is if I should have added table sugar to the must to bring it up to 1.090. Right now it will only ferment out to about 11% if it goes down to 1.000.
