Category Archives: enology

My Smallest Batch: A 500 ml Leon Millot – Pinot Noir blend

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500 ml Grolsch bottle in front of my hand, to show scale, contains my smallest batch, a blend of Pinot Noir and Leon MillotLast year, my bonsai vineyard offered up a disappointing 4 lb (1.8 kg) of grapes, 2 lb Pinot Noir and 2 lb Leon Millot. I was so looking forward to making wine from my own grapes, but what was I to do with 4 lb? Make wine anyway! I mashed up the grapes by hand, added pectic enzyme, cold soaked for eight hours, then pitched the yeast. I “pressed” seven days later in a cheesecloth lined colander. A month later, I decanted into this 500 ml Grolsch bottle. Today, seven months later, it’s still in the Grolsch bottle. With an ordinary batch of wine, I might start opening bottles every so often to see how it was coming along. Once I thought it was hitting it’s stride, I’d start serving it regularly. With this batch, I’m thinking about giving it two years. That means opening my Puget Sound grown “2006 Leon Pinot” in late fall 2008. I think I’ll keep the guest list short 🙂



Sur Lie In A Bottle?

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I wrote about sur lie and batonnage, aging on fine lees and lees stirring, recently. After six months of weekly stirring, this process can benefit the wine (or mead?) by making it seem sweeter and less harsh. Scientists have studied this process and isolated the compounds responsible for this effect. One example of a product you can buy is Laffort’s Oenolees (formerly “Biolees”).

I don’t know how well these products work. In fact, I’ve only just begun looking into this aspect of winemaking. I’m trying it out on a batch of rhubarb wine and a portion of my recent batch of mead. Once I can answer the question, “How does sur lie and batonnage affect rhubarb wine? or mead?” then I can try some of these products and make direct comparisons.



Sur Lie and Batonnage

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Winemakers can spend a fair amount of time racking. They do this to separate clear wine from it’s sediment (called “lees”). It’s more than just clear wine that motivates them; decaying grape, or other fruit, solids can encourage spoilage organisms and extended contact with decaying yeast can cause off flavors. So, an important rule in winemaking is avoid extended lees contact.

Except that extended contact with decaying yeast can be beneficial, providing enhanced body and mouth feel. That just goes to show you how simple, clear cut, and consistent winemaking can be 🙂 It’s really not the contradiction it seems; this is just a case of too much of a good thing can be bad for you (or your wine). Contact with “fine lees” – just yeast, none of those nasty decaying fruit solids – can be a good thing for up to six months. During that time, you’re trying to capture the benefits of Sur Lie while minimizing its adverse effects. Stirring the lees, “batonnage”, helps you do this. I give my carboys or jugs several sharp twists every week. After two or three months of this, you can cut back a little and stir monthly.

I first read about Sur Lie and Batonnage in Techniques In Home Winemaking (rev). It’s a complete book on making wine from grapes at home. From the grapes (or juice or concentrate) to bottling, with special sections on port, sparkling wine, and trouble shooting, it’s all there.

A Simple Mead Recipe: Fining with bentonite

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When I rack the mead from it’s primary fermenter to a 5-gallon carboy, it will throw off a deposit of mostly dormant yeast. To separate the mead from this sediment, or lees as it’s called, I’ll have to rack again in a month or so. Since I’m going to have to rack again anyway, I’ve decided to fine the mead at this step. Fining clarifies the mead by adding something that combines with suspended or dissolved solids then quickly falls to the bottom of the container. The “something” I’m going to add is called bentonite, a type of clay that’s very good at removing protein from mead. I’ve waited as long as three years for some mead to clear on its own, and still not been satisfied. Bentonite has worked for me every time.

Ready to measure bentonite with 150 ml water in a measuring cup, bentonite powder in a jar, and measuring spoons.

Bentonite is usually sold in powdered form, and you need to sort-of-dissolve (hydrate) it in water first. It doesn’t dissolve, but if you mix it into hot water and let it sit overnight, it will form a usable slurry. The way to do this is to measure the right amount, in grams, and use 10-20X that amount of water, in milliliters, to hydrate it. What’s the right amount? I’ve found that advice varies a lot. I use 0.5 g/L. Since I’m racking to a 5-gallon carboy and 1 gallon is about 3.785 liters, I need enough for about 19 liters – just under 10 grams. My problem is that I haven’t got a scale that’s accurate for such small quantities, so I use rules of thumb that say 1 tablespoon of bentonite weighs 11-12 grams. A tablespoon in 5-gallons works out to about 0.6 g/L, which is what I’ll use. I could try to get closer to my target of 0.5 g/L using a combination of teaspoons, quarter teaspoons, and so on, but the measuring errors would add up quickly.

So I boiled about 150 ml water in the microwave (about 2.5 minutes), added 1 tablespoon of the bentonite powder, and stirred.

It takes a good 20 minutes of stirring and scraping to turn clumpy wet bentonite clay into a smooth slurry.

And stirred, and stirred, and stirred. It got gooey and clumped. I scraped (with a knife- don’t use your fingers!) and stirred some more. It was thick. I added more water. When you do this, you will start to think that it will never work. But after 20 minutes of constant stirring (don’t stop). You will get a reasonably smooth slurry.

Pouring the thick but smooth bentonite slurry from a measuring cup into a jar.

After pouring it into a jar, I’ll let it sit overnight. I’ll give the jar a forceful twist, whenever I pass, just for good measure. Tomorrow, I’ll pour it into my sanitized carboy, along with a dose of sulfite, and rack the mead into it.

A Simple Mead Recipe: Time to rack!

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It took three weeks instead of two, but the mead has fermented out.

Hydrometer reads 1.003, indicating the mead has fermented out

In the photo above, a hydrometer floating in a sample of mead indicates a specific gravity of about 1.003, and that’s close enough to 1.000 for me to call it done. It looks closer to 1.004 because the camera was a little high and is looking slightly down. When I looked at it, placing my eye exactly at the surface level, it was 1.003.

Temperature reads almost 70 Fahrenheit, indicating that the specific gravity of the mead sample should be adjusted upward by 0.001 It turns out the the specific gravity needs to be adjusted upward by 0.001 because the temperature of the sample is almost 70 Fahrenheit (21 Celsius), and my hydrometer is calibrated for 60F. Coincidentally, the SG really is 1.004, as it appears in the photo.

I’ve been pretty impatient to rack, and now that I can … it turns out that I ran into an old friend the other day. I haven’t seen her or her husband in years, but there I was out on my morning walk and well, there she was! Marsha and I had arranged to have dinner with them tonight, so the mead is going to have to wait just a little bit longer.

A pH of 3.6ish: Why I’d like a pH meter

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When I checked on my mead two days ago, I measured the pH as well as the specific gravity. I use pH papers, little test strips treated with indicators that change color at a known pH. After dipping it into the mead, I compare the strip’s color to a chart.

A pH paper dipped in the mead has changed color. A comparison with the chart next to it in the photo indicates a pH of 3.6 - 5/20/07

It’s rare that the test strip’s precise color appears on the chart. Here it looks to me like there is some purple and some yellow, indicating that the pH is within the test strip’s range. I think 3.6 is the best fit. These test strips are cheap and easy to use, but they have a considerable margin of error.

So it’s important to use them correctly and not make them any less accurate than they already are. Since they depend on seeing a color change and accurately matching it to a chart, it’s important to read them in good light. Indoors, during the day, with lots of light from a window is best. I once tried to use pH papers under florescent lighting, and the test strip turned green – not even close to anything on the chart. Moving to a well lit room cleared it right up. Trying to measure something with an intense color, a red wine for example, won’t work very well because the color of the sample will affect the color of the test strip.

I did mention that they’re cheap and easy, didn’t I? After a while a high maintenance pH meter with expensive tastes starts to look pretty alluring 🙂

Measuring Sulfite

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The Right Way

Potassium metabisulfite and sodium metabisulfite, both are often just referred to as “sulfite”, can protect wine against oxidation and unwanted microorganisms. Like many topics in winemaking, determining the correct dosage of sulfite for a given wine or must can get complicated. The fastidious winemaker will first determine how much free sulfer dioxide (SO2) is already present. Next, because sulfite is more effective at low pH and less effective at high pH, he will measure the pH to determine how much free SO2 is needed. Finally, he will carefully measure this amount and add it to his wine or must.

The Easy Way

This can be overwhelming to home winemakers, and they have long used rules of thumb and premeasured doses to get a handle on sulfite. The practice of adding sulfite to 50 ppm initially and then at every other racking can be good enough. This eliminates the task of measuring free SO2 and determining the correct dosage of SO2. A quarter teaspoon of potassium metabisulfite powder added to 5 gallons is about right for this procedure, but measuring out the small quantities required for a 1-gallon batch is tedious and requires an accurate gram scale.

Campden tablets are premeasured doses that solve this problem. For one gallon batches, the rule becomes one campden tablet initially and then one at every other racking. Campden tablets have always frustrated me, though, because they never completely dissolve. So I dissolve a quarter teaspoon of sulfite powder into five teaspoons of warm water. I have no trouble getting the powdered form to dissolve and whenever I need sulfite for one gallon, I measure out one teaspoon of this sulfite solution. Obviously this isn’t precise, it’s sufficient and it takes some of the tedium out.

Sanitizing with Sulfite

You can sanitize your winemaking equipment with sulfite, but it takes a different approach. To be effecitve, the sulfite must have a higher concentration and be combined with acid. Have a look at this article for details on making a DIY Sanitizer from sulfite and citric acid.