2018 Wines - Chapter 6 - Sauvignon Blanc

The Sauvignon Blanc had to sit at the brew shop with the California grapes for a few days until I had time to drive over on a Saturday. Using the two $20 gift certificates won at the Kansas City Cellarmasters Wine Classic last year, I picked up a nice 10 gallon fermenter and some odds and ends. The SB came in at pH 2.97 and SG 1.088. I added the usual: 1T pectic, 12g Opti White, 0.7g Lallzyme EX (probably not needed), and inoculated with 5g of QA 23. It got 9g bentonite day 3 and step fed with Fermaid K. I fermented it in the chiller at 57F. Around day 5, at 1.040, I wondered about an off odor so I added a bit of Fermaid O. The next day it was clearly smelling a little reductive. I hit it with KMS at 1.020 and vigorously racked it off to carboy. A couple of days later the SG was 0.998 and the off odor was gone. This wine might have become formulaic. May try grapes next year.

2016 Wines - Chapter 6 - Pinot Grigio

I bought two things from St. Louis Wine and Beermaking, Syrah grapes and a juice pail of Pinot Grigio.

I hope the wine is as awesome as the label on the bucket

This wine started with some crazy numbers. I rechecked twice, and repeatedly got pH 3.01, SG 1.088, TA 0.4%. I didn't tweak the juice, but added K-meta, OptiWhite, and some pectic, then pitched QA 23. My plan was to ferment this as cool as possible, under 20C. However, I pushed the temp down before the yeast really got rolling. So two days later it was still puttering along around 1.078. I let it come up to 23C to get the yeast going, then put it back in the ice pack bath, keeping it down around 21-22C. With that help it steadily dropped to 1.006 on day 8, when it got racked to a 6.5 gallon carboy.

I don't know yet if I'm a fan of juice pails. There was relatively little interaction with this wine - it was a little too easy.

2016 Wines - Chapter 5 - Syrah

We got swept up in the moment 2 weeks ago at St. Louis Wine and Beermaking and bought a juice bucket of Pinot Grigio and 3 lugs of Syrah. Doing so further violates our "locally grown" winemaking precedent, but extending our winemaking boundaries requires sacrifices.

We crushed and destemmed at the shop. The volume would have required splitting the batch, so I picked up a larger fermenter. Once home, we added a small dose of Kmeta and took some measurements. SG was 1.102, pH 3.65, and TA 0.5%. We added 30g of tartaric acid, 6g Opti Red, and 12t pectic enzyme and let it macerate overnight.

The following day we pitched RC 212. This yeast is supposed to have higher nutrient requirements, but usual step feeding with Fermaid K resulted in an uneventful, steady fermentation. Temperature peaked at 29.4C. By day 6 it was down to SG of 0.998. On day 8 Jake helped me press.

We got just under 9 gallons. After racking off the gross lees I expect about 8 gallons. We'll MLF with CH16, give it some oak, and age this for a year.