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 🙂



A Simple Mead Recipe: More than two weeks

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Photo of a hydrometer, floating in a sample of mead, reading 1.020 - 5/20/07 I had hoped to ferment my mead in about two weeks, but at the thirteen day mark (yesterday) the specific gravity is still 1.020. Bubbly clumps on the surface of the mead told the same story; it’ll take more than two weeks. The mead was fizzy, but less so than last time, and tasted sweet.



Homebrew Organic Fertilizer

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An important part in rejuvenating the rhubarb patch and preparing the tomato vineyard, is to fertilize them. Steve Solomon is my favorite gardening author, and this organic fertilizer recipe is from his Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Natural Gardening:

4 parts (by volume) seed meal (I use cottonseed meal)
1 part kelp meal
1 part lime
1 part rock phosphate or 1/2 part bone meal

I used to buy the ingredients in cute little boxes at a local nursery, but it makes much more sense to buy in quantity.

50 lb sack of cottonseed meal, 50 lb sack kelp meal, 40 lb sack dolomite lime, and a bucket of bone meal - my fertilizer ingredients

I get cottonseed meal and kelp meal by the 50 lb sack at a nearby feed store. The lime is readily available almost anywhere gardening supplies are sold. I follow Mr Solomon’s advice again and use a mix of agricultural lime and dolomite lime for a good balance of calcium and magnesium.

Fertilizer ingredients measured out into the wheelbarrow for mixing

Once I’ve measured the ingredients in the correct proportions, I mix them together until the color and texture is uniform.


Rhubarb Wine: Rhubarb needs love too

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The short thin stalks on this rhubarb plant are from neglect


It’s easy to grow. It’s hardy. You don’t have to do much for it. Well, that’s all true of rhubarb, unless you want to harvest a good crop. My first harvest of the year was pretty good, and better than last year. That made me feel pretty good about how the rhubarb patch was doing, and I neglected it for other things. I didn’t weed, fertilize, or water (it’s easy to grow, after all), and it looks like I won’t be harvesting this month. I didn’t take a “before” picture, because I was too embarrassed. Here’s what it looks like now.

One Step Closer To Tomato Wine

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I’ve been looking at the 10-day forecast for clues on when to transplant my tomatoes. I wrote about the balancing act between trying to get them in the ground as soon as possible, so they can start spreading their roots in the soil right away, and keeping them from cold overnight lows that will hold back their growth. Well this morning’s forecast calls for overnight lows of 50 (10 Celsius) starting on 5/22, dipping to 47 (about 8 Celsius) on the 26th. Historical averages are 49-50 for the rest of the month. I think planting them on the 22nd would be a good balance between getting them in the ground early and keeping them from the cold. I’ll be keeping an eye on the forecast between now and then, but I’ve tentatively marked the 22nd as Transplant Day.

I’m tempted to say something like, “I can almost taste the tomato wine,” but I can’t because I have no idea what it will taste like. I’m still excited though!

Cluster Thinning For Better Wine

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In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that my Pinot Noir clone, ESP374, is not highly regarded. Its biggest problem is that it sets more fruit than it can ripen well. It over-promises and under-delivers, and, ever the optimist, does the same thing year after year. To make good wine from this clone, I pluck out immature grape clusters until there are no more than the vine can ripen. It’s called cluster thinning, and most vines can benefit from it. But how do you know what the right number of clusters is?

There’s the expensive way: you can hire someone else to tell you. There’s the cheap way: you can ask another grower in your area. There are also rules of thumb published in books and on the internet. All of these answers will be for vines, planted in conventional vineyards, that are free to grow their roots as far down as they like. In fact, the answers will usually be in terms of tons/acre (or tonnes/hectare). What about all of us suburbanites growing grape vines in pots? We trim the roots and are left with vines that can produce less than if they were planted in the ground. So even if we could convert tons/acre into pounds/pot, we would still be over cropping. It looks like we’re on our own.

I can’t explain this glaring and puzzling oversight, but here’s how I deal with it. I control the hight of the vine for my convenience; I need to be able to reach the top easily for pruning, harvesting, applying bird netting, and so forth. I look for opportunities to create a spur, and prune each spur so that it’s long enough to push at least one fruitful bud. I suppose I’m relying on the vine to push the right amount of foliage for it’s root system, and managing the buds and clusters so that all the grapes ripen well. I thin to insure that there is only one cluster and at least fourteen leaves per shoot. If I find that some shoots don’t push out enough leaves, I’ll aim for two shoots per cluster next season. To do that I would thin one shoot normally, then remove all clusters from a neighboring shoot. The goal is to make sure that there are enough sugar-producing leaves to ripen all the grapes.

I’m making some changes for my Swenson Red, as I mentioned in this post. As I learn more, my approach will evolve.

Pinot Noir: What’s in a name?

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Pinot Noir Ripening on September 19, 2007


Pinot Noir was one of the first grape vines I acquired. My research indicated that it was the only traditional red wine grape that would ripen in my neck of the woods, and I was right about that. What I missed was how many different kinds of Pinot Noir there are. It’s a very old grape that growers have been propagating for 1000’s of years (really!) by rooting cuttings. Each cutting ought to be, and almost always is, identical to the mother plant because there is no pollination or any other exchange of genetic material involved. Over those 1000’s of years, little variations popped up. Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc, for example, have the same DNA (there must be some difference, but my understanding is that genetic testing can’t tell them apart) as Pinot Noir but are legally different varieties. Many other different kinds of Pinot are legally “Pinot Noir”; these are clones.

One clone that growers here in the Puget Sound are getting excited about is called Pinot Precoce (Fruhburgunder in Germany). It ripens up to three weeks earlier than other clones of Pinot Noir, and that’s huge in a cool climate like ours. I said “other clones,” and one thing local growers are wrestling with is weather they can call wine made from Pinot Precoce “Pinot Noir”. If it’s a clone, then yes, if it’s a “sport” or offshoot, then no. The answer to that question may have as much to do with the commercial success of this … clone, sport, whatever as how good the wine is.

I did some digging and found out that my Pinot Noir is clone ESP374. Never heard of it? It is also called FPS100. Oh never mind – it’s not a very popular clone. I’m hoping to move, in the near future, to a place with enough land to plant a small vineyard in the ground. Maybe then I’ll try this Pinot Precoce or whatever the current fancy might be by then.

Honey Prices: Making sense of colony collapse disorder

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When I buy honey for mead, I do it in 5 gallon (60 lb) buckets. With last year’s dip in US honey production and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) wiping out honeybee colonies, I’m keeping a wary eye on prices. Predicting 2007 production and prices is as dicey as guessing the cause of CCD, so I’ll start with what we know about 2006.

The USDA reports that the number of colonies fell by 1% to 2.39 million, in 2006, and the yield per colony fell by 11% to 64.7 lb of honey. Total production fell by 11% to 155 million lb, and inventories held by producers fell by 3% to 60.5 million lb. We also know that US beekeepers have lost 25% of their colonies, recently, to CCD.

We could start with that 25% loss and forecast a 25% drop in production, on top of last year’s 11% drop, to 116 million lb. I think two things will push that number higher. First of all, beekeepers are trying to rebuild their colonies so even if they can’t fully recoup their losses, the number of producing colonies should be higher than 1.79 million. Last year’s production suffered from unfavorable weather, so if this is a more normal year then yield per colony should be higher. If we just use 2005’s figure of 72.4 lb of honey per colony, and use the 1.79 million colonies then we get almost 130 million lb. That’s more than a 15% drop, but it assumes that beekeepers are unable to rebuild their colonies at all. With researchers hard at work on CCD, I think that’s far too pessimistic. If beekeepers can replace half their losses (I’m just pulling that number out of thin air), then we’d have 2.09 million colonies. Using 2005 yields would give us 151 million lb of honey – just a 2.6% drop from 2006. There are too many variables to rely on the 151 million lb number (I won’t even call it a forecast), but I think it shows that a supply squeeze is not in the cards.

Beekeepers produce honey all over the world and I haven’t forgotten about them, I just know more about the US industry. CCD has struck Europe and South America, as well as 27 US states, but my sense is that the US has been hit harder than the rest of the world. If that’s so, then there will be even less pressure on prices this year.

I still might buy my honey early this year. After all, it’s hard to imagine prices falling much in this environment.

Update 5/16/07
Here’s my source for US honey industry information:

NASS Honey Report 2/28/07

The National Agricultural Statistics Service, part of the USDA, puts out this summery every year.

Update 8/8/07: Honey prices drift upward
Over the following three months, honey prices have risen modestly, so while I don’t have any information on this year’s production I remain confident in my analysis.

Update 3/9/08: US honeybee population rises despite Colony Collapse Disorder
The latest honey report shows producing honeybee colonies rose 2% in 2007, and honey production fell by 4% – not far at all from my -2.6% “unprediction!” Read more here.

Update 10/6/2008: Honey prices surge

I’ve heard many explainations, from poor crops in Brazil to a falling dollar, but whatever the cause, honey prices surged in the fall of 2008.

Update 1/12/2009: Honey prices keep rising

The advance in honey prices, that I first noticed in the fall of 2008, continues into early 2009.

Update 3/9/2009: Honeybees hang in there for another year

The 2008 Honey Report indicated that managed colonies in the US fell by only 6%. Honey production and per colony yield rose. It’s looking more and more like Colony Collapse Disorder is not a catastrophe.

A Simple Mead Recipe: Not yet

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I measured the specific gravity (SG) of my fermenting mead yesterday, and it came to 1.046 @ 64 degrees Fahrenheit. So fermentation is about halfway done.

Temperature affects the measurement, so it’s important to record and adjust for it. Hydrometers are calibrated to work at a particular temperature, 60 degrees Fahrenheit (about 15.5 Celsius) in my case, and come with a table that shows you how much to adjust your measurement for higher or lower temperatures. 64 degrees is close enough that no adjustment is required, but my reading was still off because of the suspended CO2 in my fermenting mead.

The sample I took had some froth on the surface, so I could actually see this CO2. It provided some “lift” to the hydrometer and made it float a little higher than it would have, so the actual SG of my sample was a bit less than 1.046. I could have “degassed” my sample by shaking/stirring until it didn’t bubble anymore or microwaving it until it started to boil then cooling it right away. My measurement would have been more accurate then. I just wanted a rough idea of how far along the fermentation was, so I skipped that step.

This little exercise was all about answering the question, “is it time to rack?” The answer is: Not yet.

A Simple Mead Recipe: When to rack

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My mead is bubbling away in a primary fermenter, a large open topped container. At some point I’ll want to rack it to a secondary fermenter. That is, siphon the mead to a closed container where it’s protected from oxygen. There are two problems with siphoning mead or wine that is still fermenting. First, the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the mead will come out of solution and interrupt the siphon. Second, most of the yeast may have settled to the bottom of the fermenter, and they may be left behind. If there are not enough yeast in the secondary, they won’t complete the job. For these reasons, I like to leave my mead in the primary until it has fermented to dryness. I’ll be checking the specific gravity of my mead, and I’ll rack when it gets down to about 1.000.

Leaving the mead in the primary until it’s done risks oxidation, so it’s important to make sure the mead ferments quickly. Mead has a reputation for being a slow fermenter, and that’s why I use a starter, and stir every day. It’s why my mead recipes always include additives like DAP and cream of tartar. Most of my mead ferments to dryness in about two weeks.