Post date: Jun 01, 2013 1:51:11 AM
If this works, I'm really going to relax about wine making...
So I bit the bullet and ordered fresh Chilean grape juice from Beer and Wine Hobby. Toro Negro brand Carmenere juice, $67.50 for 6 gallons. Ordered in April for delivery in early May. Got an email that the grape harvest would be delayed a bit, then didn't hear anything. On Thursday night (5/23/13) I got an email saying the juice had arrived Wednesday morning, had come out of the fridge, and had started fermenting. It turns out I had given them the wrong phone number and hadn't gotten the three calls they had made to try to get me to pick up the juice on time (whoops!). So I was in a bit of a pickle.
On Friday morning, 5/23/13, I went down to pick it up, and talked with them about what to do. Basically, the juice comes unsulfited but very cold, so it won't start fermenting. Usually you pick it up cold, sulfite it, let it sit, balance sugar and acid, and then add your yeast. Unfortunately, it was already in full swing of fermenting on the wild yeast, so they advised me to just go for it - it would probably be fine. So I've been trying to adapt on the fly.
Recipe (so far)
6g Toro Negro Carmenere juice (SG 1.075 after two days of fermentation).
2Tbsp Fermax yeast nutrient
1Tbsp DAP yeast nutrient
12 oz sugar.
5/23/13 10AM
Picked up bucket of juice in full ferment. Had to reach back and vent the container several times on the ride home (there is a little airlock valve on the bucket that keeps it from getting too pressurized, but I didn't want to risk blowing the top off the bucket if I hit a bump and got a lot of CO2 coming out of solution.)
5/23/13 11:30AM
Poured into 7-1/2g primary fermenter, aerating as much as possible (splashing while pouring, stirring vigorously), put on airlock. SG is 1.075 at this point. I don't know where it started. There was a noticable H2S smell, so I added the nutrients (hydrogen sulfide can be produced when yeast are starved for nitrogen). Put fermenter in the shower with the blinds closed and the shower curtain closed, since I was going away for the long weekend.
5/26/13 4PM
Bubbling away happily, H2S smell is much reduced. Moved to the closet.
5/30/13 4PM
Measured gravity at 1.002.
5/31/13 4:30PM
Racked into Better Bottle. Wine actually tastes quite nice, but thin. No sulphur smell or taste. Still a bit fizzy. I am worried that the initial sugar content was low, so I added 12oz of white sugar to the secondary and stirred while racking. This should bring the alcohol by about 0.83%. Let's do some fuzzy math. When I picked up the juice, it had been fermenting for about 2 days (ignoring the time it took the yeast to multiply, etc.) In 7.5 days, the gravity went from 1.075 to 1.002, or 0.0195/day (assuming a constant rate of sugar consumption, which is not a terrible approximation if the yeast had reached its highest density, and assuming that the fermentation hadn't finished before I measured it, which is probably not a great assumption). So extrapolating back, the actual starting gravity may have been as high as 1.094 (just shy of 12.7% potential alcohol). So the sugar addition would make it 13.5% ABV. Lacking any better information, lets say that... Oh yeah, and the temps have been all over the place, and I didn't correct for it. So somewhere between 11 and 15% is probably more honest.
6/2/13 5PM
Added 1pkg lalvin Bacchus malolactic bacteria directly to wine (which is what the package says). Then 1 package opti-malo mlf
Nutrient. And then it went kind of crazy foaming - had to put it in the bathtub for a half hour until it settled down. Then topped up with carmenere wine.
7/20/13 2PM
Racked and stabilized with 5 Campden tablets. It tastes really good, with only a small off flavor that I think is from the fact it hasn't been degassed yet.
8/24/13 12PM
Racked. I think it's ready to bottle - it threw very little sediment, more like a film. It tastes good, but a little thin. Not a lot of character, but very smooth. I'm hoping something develops over time.
10/5/13 4PM
Bottled. Got 29 750ml's and 2.5 375's. Tastes very nice - got good reviews at the first outing. It definitely benefits from a little breathing time. There is a little residual CO2, and a somewhat vegetal aroma that goes away after a little time in the glass.
Had a bottle at thanksgiving - breathed in carafe for an hour. Was very popular.