Ec Plectico
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- Joined
- Dec 6, 2019
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Hi, I'm usually a home brewer of LME ales, but I recently had the unexpected opportunity to pick some Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in a very well tended vineyard of an acre or two on Pleasanton Ridge in Pleasanton, Ca. I picked 70 pounds and had them destemmed and crushed at the vineyard.
I know nothing about winemaking that I didn't learn from brewing and cider making, which is put the yeast in the sterilized sweet liquid. From the time I learned I would be picking to the time I came home with the crushed grapes was only a couple of days, but in that time I learned that, instead of boiling, I had to put sulfites in the juice to kill off the wild yeasts and bacteria, so I did that at the recommended rate, waited the two recommended days, then put in two different kinds of wine yeast I had gotten at the wine/beer making store, because I read something that suggested that might be a good approach. I used MT and RP15. I also put in a pectin enzyme, which I read would increase juice yield.
Since I had around 7 gallons of must and only 6 gallon brewing buckets, I put roughly 3.5 gallons of must in each bucket. When it came time to add the yeast, I sprinkled roughly half of each yeast packet on top, put the bucket lids on and put on the air locks.
When I make beer this is when I leave things alone for a while, so that's what I did. I left it alone for about two weeks, then, because of the apparent lack of juice in the bucket, I decided to stir it both buckets up a bit to break things down a little. Then I left it for another two weeks. The airlocks on both buckets bubbled once in a while for three weeks, then seemed to stop.
I decided that I should get the juice off of the skins, seeds and stem bits, because of something I had read, so I drained off a gallon of free run juice from one bucket and almost a gallon from another, then put the remaining must in my apple mill, inside a brewing bag to hold it together while I squeezed out another couple of gallons, which I kept in a one gallon cider bottle, like the first two free run gallons, and six wine bottles I had saved up for bottling time, but had to use because I ran out of cider bottles. I got more juice than I anticipated, which filled the six wine bottles. I saved the odd amount for my wife and I to taste. I put airlocks on all the newly filled bottles.
We tasted it. My wife, a wine person, said it was unlike any wine she had ever tasted and wasn't so sure it could be called good. I, on the other hand, thought it was one of the best wines I had ever tasted, really fruity and grapey, seemingly sweet, but completely dry at the same time. It left very dry feeling in my mouth after I drank it, like the effect of alum in a small way.
Since it hadn't bubble in a week or two, and the newly racked bottles didn't bubble at all, and it tasted kind of sweet to me, I sort of assumed that I had a stuck fermentation on my hands.
I looked at the wine through my refractometer, which reinforced that feeling a bit, as did the fact that I hadn't punched down my must except that one time, and I read that I was suppose to do it three or four times a day; I hadn't added yeast nutrient because I assumed that the juice was nutritious for yeast by itself, like mash is; I hadn't adjusted my ph or done anything I read that I was supposed to do.
So, I was surprised to find that, when I used my hydrometer, my 25 brix must had gone down to 0 brix and seemed fully fermented.
Now I read that there's some lactose to malic acid fermentation I'm supposed to do and there's probably many more things I haven't read about.
So my question really is, what do I do now?
I know nothing about winemaking that I didn't learn from brewing and cider making, which is put the yeast in the sterilized sweet liquid. From the time I learned I would be picking to the time I came home with the crushed grapes was only a couple of days, but in that time I learned that, instead of boiling, I had to put sulfites in the juice to kill off the wild yeasts and bacteria, so I did that at the recommended rate, waited the two recommended days, then put in two different kinds of wine yeast I had gotten at the wine/beer making store, because I read something that suggested that might be a good approach. I used MT and RP15. I also put in a pectin enzyme, which I read would increase juice yield.
Since I had around 7 gallons of must and only 6 gallon brewing buckets, I put roughly 3.5 gallons of must in each bucket. When it came time to add the yeast, I sprinkled roughly half of each yeast packet on top, put the bucket lids on and put on the air locks.
When I make beer this is when I leave things alone for a while, so that's what I did. I left it alone for about two weeks, then, because of the apparent lack of juice in the bucket, I decided to stir it both buckets up a bit to break things down a little. Then I left it for another two weeks. The airlocks on both buckets bubbled once in a while for three weeks, then seemed to stop.
I decided that I should get the juice off of the skins, seeds and stem bits, because of something I had read, so I drained off a gallon of free run juice from one bucket and almost a gallon from another, then put the remaining must in my apple mill, inside a brewing bag to hold it together while I squeezed out another couple of gallons, which I kept in a one gallon cider bottle, like the first two free run gallons, and six wine bottles I had saved up for bottling time, but had to use because I ran out of cider bottles. I got more juice than I anticipated, which filled the six wine bottles. I saved the odd amount for my wife and I to taste. I put airlocks on all the newly filled bottles.
We tasted it. My wife, a wine person, said it was unlike any wine she had ever tasted and wasn't so sure it could be called good. I, on the other hand, thought it was one of the best wines I had ever tasted, really fruity and grapey, seemingly sweet, but completely dry at the same time. It left very dry feeling in my mouth after I drank it, like the effect of alum in a small way.
Since it hadn't bubble in a week or two, and the newly racked bottles didn't bubble at all, and it tasted kind of sweet to me, I sort of assumed that I had a stuck fermentation on my hands.
I looked at the wine through my refractometer, which reinforced that feeling a bit, as did the fact that I hadn't punched down my must except that one time, and I read that I was suppose to do it three or four times a day; I hadn't added yeast nutrient because I assumed that the juice was nutritious for yeast by itself, like mash is; I hadn't adjusted my ph or done anything I read that I was supposed to do.
So, I was surprised to find that, when I used my hydrometer, my 25 brix must had gone down to 0 brix and seemed fully fermented.
Now I read that there's some lactose to malic acid fermentation I'm supposed to do and there's probably many more things I haven't read about.
So my question really is, what do I do now?
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