Wine in the Shower » punch

Problems with Petite Sirah

gisela — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:33:11 +0000

I checked in with the guys yesterday, the petite sirah was due to be pitched. In fact, it looked like it was already bubbling away, like what happened with the merlot this year. But, it looked great — Paul added vinozyme, and the juice was a lovely inky dark purple color.

Then I got a call early this morning (the most shocking part really), apparently the pH on the PS was really high — 3.7 to 3.9 — so instead of pitching the yeast, they added a first addition of tartaric acid, and needed to add a second addition today.

We rechecked the pH, and it was still high, 3.8 -4.0, even after the first tartaric addition. We only had enough tartaric acid on hand to add about 40 grams per bucket, which is probably about half of what we should add. Oh well, it’ll have to do for now. We can add more after we press, which is what I actually did with my primitivo.

Besides the pH problem, most of the buckets were already actively fermenting with wild yeasts. We inoculated 4 buckets with BM4x4 and 5 with NT50, and called it a day.

Cool Masher

gisela — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:51:40 +0000

Since the batch is a bit bigger this year, I investigated getting a better punching tool. The “professional” punching tools start at $80, which seems a bit much. I like my little plastic potato mashers, but they just don’t reach to the bottom of the cans. So, I dug around online for an industrial sized potato masher, and voila! I found a 31” “bean/potato masher” for $40! It arrived today, and it’s PERFECT! I used it for the evening punch, and SO much better than the little 10” masher.

Getting Punchy

gisela — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:36:42 +0000

Definitely getting a distinct cap on both sets today. I have a little lab set next to the trash cans with sanitizer in a spray bottle, the wine thief and hydrometer for monitoring the brix, a floating thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature, the big spoon for stirring, and of course a plastic potato masher.

The potato mashers are for punching down the cap. I got 2 expecting to potentially break one, because that just seems to happen when you really don’t want it to. The cap gets punched down 3 times a day until it is fermented to dryness – meaning all of the sugars are converted to alcohol.

Both sets seem much “juicier” today, the vinozyme must be doing its stuff.