Re: what's fermenting?

Well Dar, lets take a peek.

5 gallons of Pinot from 02 harvest that needs to be bottled 5 gallons of Peach 5 gallons of Strawberry 11 gallons of Pinot from 03 harvest 9 gallons of Gewurtz from 03 harvest 5 gallons Brew Kings Verdichicci (sic) kit 3 gallons Niagra 2 gallons mystery blue seedless grape from a friend.

I'm going to need some more bottles.....sigh.... What a wonderful hobby!

Tom

Tom, did you get the numbers on your Niagara? I'm wondering what I can eek out this year in NE Ohio. Ken A.

I'll have to check when I get home, but it'll be a far cry from Portland, OR. Harvest condition were fabulous for the last two weeks. My Pinot came in huge as did the Gewurtz.

Only problem is the Reisling isn't ready and we had HUGE storms in the last

72 hours, rained buckets for hours. Thats gonna set the Brix back a bit. Hopefully we'll get a shot of that Indian Summer soon. But right now its cool and cloudy.

I'll see if I can't get those numbers up tonight.

Ken, Fallbrights Niagara was at 8.5 brix this year! Definitely not a great year for the Niagara there. I think it was 17 Brix last year at the same time. Untimely rain and unusually cold conditions in the New York Fingerlakes region this year.

Just Chardonnay so far, but that's my specialty. I have to rack a barrel to kegs for topping wine tomorrow. It's dry, but ML is probably still perking so I'll airlock it for now.

I might do a barrel of Sangiovese in a week or two. We'll see...

Tom S

I just moved 9 U.S. gallons of Crabapple to secondary... Same with leftover rhubarb and peaches (I never tried that combo before).... I have 7 gal of Blueberry in secondary and 5 gal of mixed dark berry in primary... I have been invited to pick chokecherries and mountain ash this weekend.. I'll let you know what I get.

Later, A.J. Rawls Anchorage, Alaska, USA

Well, let's see --- Here's my list of stuff still in progress from this year . .

Rhubarb Elderberry/blueberry Elderberry/blueberry/raisin second wine Mixed citrus (grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange) Peach Pear Beta grape Beta grape second wine Raspberry Mead Bilberry melomel chokecherry Chokecherry second wine

See my web page below for batches that have already been bottled.

Just wondering,

Should I be heading on down to the local grocery store to stock up on Welch's frozen White Niagara concentrate. Sounds like there may be a shortage by this time next year!

I presume that Welch's vineyards are in the New York State area.

22 brix

On the "ready for bottling" side of the bench is about 5.5l of cranberry and 16.5l crabapple. The cranberry looks crystal clear now so I'll probably serve some tomorrow (it's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada) and bottle the rest. There's also about 6l of Cabranillo (CabSauv/Tempranillo blend) that was started a couple months ago from frozen leftovers of the 2002 crush.

In secondaries from this year's crush, all from CA central valley grapes:

30l Ruby Cabernet 20l Grenache 28l Zinfandel 20l Merlot 21l CabSauv/Alicante blend 31l Syrah and there's also about 4l worth of Syrah doing a very extended maceration in a very high proportion of skins -- juice I drew off as saignee and then added back to a bunch of the pressed skins from the main batch, as an experiment. Hopefully it's still OK and I'll press this today.

I'm a bit surprised that some of these (Zin, Grenache, Ruby Cab) are almost crystal clear already after only 3 or 4 weeks in the secondary and 1 or two rackings.

So far the Zin seems to be the class of the field. It had a 2-day cold soak, 4 day fermentation with K1V, and an additional 9 day extended maceration. But all seem at least decent, with the only real disappointment being the Cab/Alicante blend as developed a bad case of H2S while I was too busy to be checking it. I'm treating that batch now and am fairly confident I can save it.

Richard

Oops - I forgot about my strawberry wine that is just nearing the end of fermentation.

I've had a big winemaking session in the last three days and just started:

Coffee Gooseberry Rose (blossom)

Wines clarifying/maturing are numerous: raspberry, blackcurrant, elderflower blends, red/black berry blend, hawthorn blossom, cranberry, elderberries.

Ben

Improved Winemaking

I have;

6 gallons Strawberry [from fruit] 6 gallons Blueberry " 7 gallons Peach " 6 gallons Syrah [juice] 6 gallons Pinot Noir [juice] Tom

I thought Welches got a lot of their juice from Argentina now?

I thought Welches got a lot of their juice from Argentina now?

5 gallons peach 5 gallons plum 4 gallons strawberry 4 gallons cider from last year (cleared, about 12 percent) 3 gallons blueberry 5 gallons riesling from ontario juice 5 gallons Niagara from the juice I processed from several bushels of grapes.

I have 2 bushels of concords I have to crush.... I also have 15 lbs of raspberries in the freezer as well as several quarts of rhubarb, and blackberries. And, someone is going to get me a bunch of jalapenos..... will try the Spicy wine! Yes, what a hobby!

Rick Ferment...oops, i mean, Fremont...Michigan

Welches is all over the top of PA and western NY, I have not heard of them getting product from Argentina (not that they don't, they are growing when we are freezing...) Regards, Joe