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Calibrating A pH Meter: Maybe The New Buffer Solution Will Do

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I racked and measured four batches the other day, and it gave me the opportunity to size up my new buffer solution. I recorded TA values for three of those batches while I was still using my old buffer solution to calibrate my pH meter, and they shouldn’t have changed much. Here are the data:

Name Old Buffer New Buffer
Rhubarb Wine 4/22/07: 6 g/L 11/10/07: 7 g/L
Oregano Wine 8/12/07: 6 g/L 11/10/07: 5.5 g/L
Grocery Store Chablis 8/23/07: 7 g/L 11/10/07: 6 g/L

The old and new measurements are all within 1 g/L. Since I’m measuring my liquid volumes with the plastic syringe that came with my cheap acid test kit, not pipettes or burettes, I don’t think I can claim accuracy better than 1 g/L. So I’m not going to say the new buffer is great, but any error its causing is pretty small.



Racking, Topping Up, And That Extra Little Bit

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When I rack a wine or mead, I try to have empty containers of various sizes ready. The idea is to end up with the smallest number of full containers and the least amount of waste. I use 1-gallon jugs, half-gallon jugs, wine bottles (half, standard, and magnum), beer bottles, and even 8 oz (240 ml) coke bottles. That usually works out pretty well, but I was caught short when I racked my mead the other day.


A 1-gallon jug half-filled with mead.


All that headspace is dangerous, and I really could’ve used a half-gallon jug. What can you do when you just don’t have the right sized containers handy? First I reached for the sulfite. I normally go by the rule of thumb of adding a 1-campden-tablet equivalent every other time I rack. If I added sulfite at the first racking, for example, I would skip it the second time. This was one of the times I skipped the sulfite, so the 5-gallon carboy with the oak did not get any. But I sulfited this 1-gallon jug, and at double the normal rate. That doesn’t make it ok, but it might buy me a little time. Part 2 of my plan is to rack other wines and meads in the next day or two and combine this mead with them. I might use it to top some of them up, or combine extras from many different batches, including this one, into one container.

So work with what you have, but then put a “plan B” into action right away.



Apple Wine Recipe

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I got my start in winemaking by fermenting apple juice. I bought 1-gallon glass jugs, filled with juice, for less than homebrew shops were selling them empty. This got me a collection of small secondary fermenters and some nice dry white wine. I still make apple wine, almost every year, from my own apple trees and store bought juice. The apple juice will be low in acid and fermentable sugar, so I’ll have to add both. I’m using honey as my sugar source this year, but ordinary table sugar works too.

Apples on a kitchen scale reading just over 4 lb and Trader Joe's Gravenstein apple juice. The main ingredients of my apple wine.

Ingredients

4 lb 1.5 oz Liberty & Akane apples
1 Gallon Trader Joe’s Graventein Apple Juice
0.5 tsp tanninTannin is optional, but no more than 0.25 tsp/gallon
honey to SG 1.090
acid to 6-7 g/L in the finished wine
sulfite to 50 ppm (equivalent to 1 campden tablet)
1 tsp pectic enzyme
Premier Cuvee yeast from starter

Procedure

Since the Gravenstein juice is pasteurized, there’s no threat from microorganisms. So I’ll chop & juice the apples and add all the sulfite to this juice, where it’s needed most. I’ll add the pectic enzyme to the Gravenstein juice, combine them, and measure the SG, pH, & TA. I’ll raise the SG to 1.090 by adding honey.

Juice from 4 lb of apples fills a plastic measuring cup to the 4-cup line.

Here’s where the juicer that I used making my Produce Department Chablis came in handy. It made short work of the 4 lb of apples I threw at it. It does clog often, but it’s so much better than the other methods I’ve tried (sugar extraction, blender, mill & press without an actual mill or press, chop & toss in the fermenter).

Measure sugar & acid and add the honey

The apples yielded 1 quart (just under 1 liter) of juice. Adding it to the one gallon of Trader Joes juice gave me 1.25 gallons. This combined juice had an SG of 1.050, a pH of 3.52, and a TA of 5.5 g/L. Added a cup of this juice to the 2 cups of starter (Niagra juice with Premier Cuvee yeast that I used to start the Merlot and Chardonnay).

Honey, with 18% water, has an SG of 1.417. Converting my 1.25 gallons to metric measures, I have 4.7312L of 1.050 must. Adding 0.5785L honey will yield 5.31L of SG 1.090 must. I’ll round and call it 0.6L honey.

I’ll wait to add the acid

My 4.7L of juice had 5.5 g/L of titratable acidity, or about 26 grams of acid in total. Adding 0.6L of honey brought the total volume to 5.3L. A typical white wine must would have about 8 g/L, so my 5.3L ought to have about 42 grams of acid. Assuming no contribution from the honey, I would need to add about 16 grams of acid to reach my goal. I think I’ll wait for it to ferment out, take another reading and adjust the acid then. Acidity often drops during fermentation, and I’ll aim for 6-7 g/L, as tartaric, in the finished wine.

Other apple wine recipes

Growing your own apples gives you more control (you pick the varietal, decide when to harvest, and so on). Here’s an apple wine recipe using 100% home grown apples!

On the other hand, making wine from store-bought juice is quicker and easier. Much quicker and easier. So if you’re just starting out or you just want great apple wine with less work and cleanup, try my apple wine recipe from store-bought juice.

Pressing Merlot

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When to press red wine

When making red wine from grapes, you crush the grapes then ferment them. You leave the skins and pulp in the fermenting wine, for a time, then you press it and leave the solids behind. The amount of time will vary according to the style of wine you’re making. Three or four days, will yield a light bodied wine. A few weeks will yield a tannic, full bodied wine. A good full bodied wine requires top notch fruit, and since I don’t have detailed information on how my grapes were grown I decided to make a medium bodied wine, and pressed after a week.


Pressing Merlot in a bladder press on 10/20/07


Here you can see the bladder press I used to press my Merlot.

Using a bladder press

I loaded the fermenting wine, pulp skins and all, into a perforated cylinder. At first, “free run wine” flowed out of the perforations, leaving seeds, pulp and other debris behind. Later, I applied water pressure to inflate a rubber bladder that squeezed the grapes against the sides of the cylinder and “press wine” flowed out. Altogether, I got over eight gallons (30+ liters), which is more than I expected from my 100 lb (45+ kg) of grapes. I was going by the rule of thumb that 100 lb would yield 5 gallons (about 19 liters).


Pressed Merlot in 5-gallon carboys, press wine in the carboy with the orange handle and free run in the carboy on the right. 10/20/07


I kept the free run and press wine separate. The carboy on the left, with the orange handle, contains press wine, while the carboy on the right contains free run. It’s still fermenting, and I expect it to finish in another week. Once it starts to clear, I’ll rack into fresh containers for aging. At that point, I’ll have to decide if I want to keep the press and free run separate or combine them.

Fermenting Chardonnay

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The Chardonnay is fermenting in two carboys, pictured below. The one on the left contains the press juice and the one on the right contains free run.


Two carboys of fermenting Chardonnay, press juice at left and free run on the right, on 10/17/07


The free run juice contained a lot more sediment than the press juice, and the yeast had a quicker start in the free run. I’ll leave the wine in carboys until it has fermented out, then I’ll measure, taste, and rack. Based on the measurements and taste, I’ll decide to keep them separate or combine them. It may not be necessary, but I like to agitate them once a day to keep them well mixed while they are fermenting.

Merlot: Punching Down The Cap

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When making red wine from grapes, you will be fermenting crushed fruit. So the skins, seeds, pulp, probably some stems and other debris are all mixed into your fermenting wine. When the yeast are active, all the carbon dioxide (CO2) they produce is rising to the surface pushing those solids up with it. They collect on the surface, forming a cap. The whole point of putting grape skins in your must is to extract beneficial compounds from them, and this can’t happen while they’re out of contact with the fermenting wine. Also, yeast have no access to these solids and can’t crowd out other microorganisms, leaving the cap open to infection.


Using a long handled spoon to punch down the cap of this fermenting Merlot wine on 10/17/07


You can see the solution in the above photo, where I’m physically submerging these solids with a long handled spoon. I keep doing this until all the solids have been pushed down into the fermenting wine. “Punch down the cap” like this twice a day, while the yeast are active, and you should have no problems with extraction or infection.

Making Wine From Purchased Grapes

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Grapes in the crusher and burgers on the grill

The grapes I ordered arrived on Sunday (10/14/07). I brought home a 24-gallon fermenter with 100 lb (45.4 kg) of crushed Merlot grapes and two 5-gallon (19 liter) carboys, each with about three gallons (11+ liters) of Chardonnay juice. The boxed grapes arrived in a truck, and I participated in crushing and pressing them.


Processing Chardonnay grapes in a manual crusher on 10/14/07


I rolled up my sleeves (note to self, next time wear a short sleeved shirt) and got my hands sticky. I switched out catch buckets, scooped crushed grapes out of the crusher, loaded the press, hand cranked the crusher, and poured juice into the carboys – it was exhilarating! I didn’t have to do all that. They were well staffed and would have crushed, scooped, pressed, and poured for me. I like making wine. If I wanted to pay someone else to do it, I could just go to the store and buy some very nice wine. I wasn’t really all that tired after all that, but I was hungry. So I really appreciated the hamburgers and hot dogs they were grilling up on site. It was a nice lunch that turned the whole thing into an event.

Measuring sugar and acid

After I got the crushed Merlot grapes and the Chardonnay juice home, it was time for measurements. For that, I needed a clear sample. I lowered a clean ladle into the Merlot grapes, so that juice slowly flowed into it over the edges. After a few times, I had about a cup (240 ml), which I let settle for an hour. The Chardonnay was in two carboys, free run juice in one and pressed juice in the other. I drew samples, about a cup, from both with a wine thief and let them settle along with the merlot. This is when I added the pectic enzyme.

Settling for an hour isn’t going to produce perfectly clear juice, but a lot of sediment did fall to the bottom and the juice I poured off was a lot clearer than the what I started with. I think the Merlot and the pressed Chardonnay juice were clear enough to get good measurements from. The free-run Chardonnay was too cloudy, even after settling, so I didn’t use that sample.

There Merlot, as I measured it, was at 25 Brix, pH = 3.63, TA = 7 g/L
The grower reported 24 Brix, pH = 3.56, TA = 5.1 g/L

For the Chardonnay, I got 26 Brix, pH = 3.15, TA = 11 g/L
That compares with the grower’s 24.7 Brix, pH = 3.27, TA = 7.7 g/L

In both cases, I saw slightly more sugar than the grower. I think this is because my samples still had a lot of suspended solids in them and that the actual amount of sugar is probably a little less than what the grower reported. I measured higher pH and higher TA in the Merlot. That may mean a higher proportion of malic acid and therefore slightly under ripe grapes. I recorded a higher TA for the Chardonnay too, but my pH reading was lower. So my juice was more acidic, but there was no divergence as there was with the Merlot.

Pitching the yeast

There was nothing in those measurements that bothered me, so after giving the pectic enzyme three hours to do it’s work I pitched the yeast. I used Red Star’s Premier Cuvee, a neutral reliable yeast. I prepared a starter on Friday (10/12/07) by reconsituting a can of frozen grape concentrate. I could have just used sugar and water, as I described in August. By Sunday afternoon, I had 1.5 quarts (1.4 liters) of fermenting grape juice. I gave it a good shake and added about two cups to the Merlot and one cup to each carboy of Chardonnay.

Those yeast were fermenting up a storm the next day. After they do their work, it’ll be time to rack the Chardonnay and press the Merlot. That will mean a trip back to the homebrew shop, to use their press, in about a week.

Bonsai Vineyard Harvest Update

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Leon Millot Harvest - 9/26/07


I was on the fence about harvesting the Leon Millot. They were ripe or nearly ripe, but I wondered if they could benefit from a little more time. That was before I saw the weather forecast. It calls for a lot of rain, starting tomorrow, so I pulled in the Leon today.

9/21/07 : 3 oz (100 g)
9/26/07 : 2 lb 2 oz (975 g)

2007 Total: 2 lb 5 oz (1075 g)

That compares with 2 lb (just over 900 g) in 2006.

I started taking some Pinot Noir as well, but changed my mind after three clusters. They’re just not ripe yet, so I’ll leave the rest to face the rain. Those three clusters weighed in at 7 oz (210 g), and will be joining the Leon (and Price and Siegerrebe) in the freezer until I complete the harvest.

I Started Harvesting Grapes

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Dark purple grapes, still on stems, set inside a bowl.

The incursion into my bonsai vineyard on Wednesday knocked some grapes to the ground. I gathered these up, ate some, discarded some, and froze the rest. This was the official, if unintentional, start to my grape harvest and it totaled 3 oz (100 g) of Leon Millot. At that point, I decided to bring in the Siegerrebe and the Price. They’re both early ripeners and they seemed ripe when I tasted them. I hand destemmed, lightly washed and froze the grapes. So in addition to my Leon, I’ve got:

11.5 oz (375 g) of Siegerrebe from 1 vine
17 oz (500 g) of Price from 2 vines (I have three, but one didn’t bear this year)

After harvesting three of the eight vines that will bear this year, I have 9.5 oz (290 g) per vine. If that’s the yield I get for the Leon Millot and the Pinot Noir, then I’ll get 4.75 lb (2.3 kg) total this year. Um, that’s a bit less than the 20 lb (9 kg) I wanted!

Critters In The Vineyard!

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Bird netting saved most of the grapes

Marsha was frantic and ran to wake me up this morning. I was still groggy, so it took me a while to figure out that all the grape vines had been knocked down. We didn’t see what happened. Nobody and nothing was about. I think it was an animal, probably a raccoon though. I have bird netting over the vines, and that did two things – one good and one bad. The good thing was protecting most of the grapes. Whatever it was only got two small clusters. The bad thing was binding all the vines to each other, so that when one was knocked down, they all went down.

Pinot Noir cluster on 9/19/07. Black bird netting is clearly visible in front of the grapes.

As you can see in the above photo of a Pinot Noir cluster behind it’s protective bird netting, order was restored. I remember how surprised I was at just how many different kinds of bird netting there is but, as with most things, you can keep the birds out on a budget or opt for a higher end product. I opted for the affordable option.

Planning for the future: Bird netting on a frame and a temporary greenhouse?

One improvement I could make would be to string the netting on some sort of external frame, rather than draping it over the vines an I do now. As birds, raccoons, and other small animals try to get at my grapes, they would jostle the frame instead of the vines. That would make the vines much less likely to tip over. I’ve thought about building such a frame before; I could also hang plastic sheeting on it, turning it into an impromptu greenhouse, in early spring and late fall. That would extend the growing season a bit, and might allow me to experiment with grapes need a warmer climate.

Harvest time is almost here, in fact I may make a point of speeding up the harvest for the earlier varietals, and after that I’ll have all winter to think and plan.