Sudbury Hill wine vintage 2008

[edit1now]

...was declared yesterday because it wasn't raining, and some of the grape looked a bit past-it already:



The grapes were picked off the bunches so as to exclude really mouldy or unripe ones, tiny little hard green pre-grapes which don't add to the flavour, and excess protein (creepy-crawlies). Here are the grapes post-sort:



I have a huge blister on the palm of my hand because I didn't go to the garage for a pair of gloves in time:



I'm wondering about buying or making a crusher, but £150-upwards for something I'll only use once a year is extravagant even for me.

Juice from the bucket of mashed grapes:



...tasted both sweet and acidic, so I didn't bother doing anything to it. About 1080 at 18C. I made a starter with two dsp of gran in 300ml of boiled, cooled, water using Young's Dessert/High Alcohol Wine Yeast, which took off quite well. Pitched that into the crushed grapes, and aerated for half an hour through the HEPA filter and stainless stone. The pump does about 27 litres/hour for water but I haven't measured it for air.



Apologies for that picture - I don't know what the Pentax thought it was focusing on!

Got bored with aerating when the foam started to climb over the top of the brewing bin. The bin is in my shed with a non-fitting lid and two bin liners over its head. In a couple of days we'll press the grapes - a little pink colour is OK, half-way to red like last year and you get the taste of nasty red wine as well. The grapes and the brewer aren't up to making posh red wine and keeping it for ten years...

[edit1now]

Pressed and racked it into a fermenter (= pressure barrel) today.

Home-made wine press:



The grape skins and stuff are floating on the must (most of the green froth has got ladled into the press already):



into the grain bag (surely not - multi-use brewing stuff?)



and squidged with the plunger:



so it trickles out and is caught by the tray:



The original binful of grapes (see above) fitted in just two batches through the wine press (three days fermenting, and the grapes have mostly fallen apart), and I got about 18 litres of wine:



and two lumps of stuff for the compost heap:



The gravity hasn't moved more than a couple of points since pitching on Wednesday:



Put the barrel in the shed (spilled a litre or two on the way ):



and put two bin liners over its head:



I'll have a look at it in about April 2009...

[lockwood1956]

I would think seriously about racking off the gross lees in around a week or so, the gross lees present will taint the wine, also for next year I would leave the grape skins in there until you reach SG of around 1.010, it will give you better phenol extraction. You don't mention punching the cap of skins, (keeping them submerged and wet by pushing them into the juice at least twice a day)so I'm not sure if you did or not.

hope this helps
regards
Bob

[edit1now]

for next year I would leave the grape skins in there until you reach SG of around 1.010, it will give you better phenol extraction

No thanks.

a little pink colour is OK, half-way to red like last year and you get the taste of nasty red wine as well. The grapes and the brewer aren't up to making posh red wine and keeping it for ten years...

I might take up your suggestion of racking again in a week or so - thankyou for that.

[edit1now]

Just racked it, following Bob's suggestion, into a brand-new Young's fermenter from Wilco's:



Got about 17 litres at 1018, so if the HMRC fudge factors work for wine then it's about 8.2% ABV at the moment:



Quite acidic...

Lots of pink stuff left on the sides of the first fermenter, which I think is a tartaric precipitate.

Hope it improves...

[Duffbeer]

If you racked at 1.018 the chances are it's still fermenting, you need to now reduce the airspace and get under airlock. If you leave it in the Youngs fermenter with such a large airspace it will oxidize for sure.
Also the pink residue is more likely to be fine lees rather than a tartaric fallout at this early stage, rack every few months to keep off the dead yeast hulls which may cause off flavours and aromas. Once the wine has cleared you may find the acidity reduces as tartaric acid drops out as crystals.

[edit1now]

Racking every so often sounds good. Surely the fermentation produces CO2, which is heavier than air, so will cover the surface of the wine in the vessel?

[Duffbeer]

Yes it will, whilst still fermenting, but once ferment has ceased which could be a week or a month depending on temperature, the wine is then suseptable to oxidation.
By the time your wine has cleared and you have racked off the lees you are more than likely going to have 16 rather than 17 litres that leaves a massive airspace in a 23ltr contaner, try if you can to get some 1 gal demi johns and split the batch topping up to just 1 inch below the bung, also add 1 crushed campden tablet per gallon at this time, this will also help in preventing oxidation and enzymic browning, then storage for a long period should be quite safe.

[edit1now]

Ta