Posts Tagged ‘degassing’

I know of a few fly anglers that also make their own wine. Jack Keller is one, and so is Ernie Kalwa, the Captain of the Fly Fishing team (The Osprey’s) that I used to be a member of. Not sure which one of us ties the better flies, but I know it’s not me! Although I do enjoy doing that. Today and yesterday, I had two good days to combine my two hobbies. And one advantage a home winemaker has if they’ve brought a fish back to eat for dinner is that wine selection is not difficult. Whatever is there! For me, the bottle of Liebfraumilch was a good pairing with the baked trout and rice I made. And on top of that, the fly that I caught the trout on yesterday was made with hair from my Maltese dog named Rudy. You can read about the afternoon fly fishing here.

Winemaking activities included racking and degassing. The maple wine I started on May 5 is expelling lots of co2 gas still, even though the fermentation is complete. The specific gravity was at 0.996 yesterday when I racked it – it’s cleared nicely on it’s own since the last racking on May 28th. It has a very interesting taste – I just had very teeny sip of it, and could taste maple candy – but without the sweetness. I’m looking forward to seeing how this will age a few more months.

I started three wine kits two weeks ago – a Chamblaise and two Vieux De Roi. All are four week kits – I generally use 8 week kits for red wines but I wanted some Vieux De Roi and it was only available at the time in the more economical priced version. I noted that these two kits in the instructions called for 14 days in the primary fermenter. Anyhow, these three kit wines were racked and degassing is on going in all of them before I add the fining agents.

Then there is that potato wine! I’ve had a few interesting questions and comments about that. Like, “what does it taste like?” Yesterday, I racked and checked the specific gravity which was 1.002. It does taste a bit sweet – I’ll have to check my records on that one, but otherwise it is pleasant. I am reluctant to describe its taste just yet as it was only a very small amount and not quite what I expected or can really identify. The demerara sugar certainly has left it’s mark though.

The other day, I was snooping around some “stuff” I had and discovered two more wine kits I had forgotten about! They were purchased about September of 2007, just before I headed off to Grande Prairie, Alberta for the Canadian Fly Fishing Championships. I guess I had meant to start them upon my return, but totally forgot I had them. Both are Cru Select RQ’s: a Montepulciano Cab Merlot, the other Unoaked Chardonnay. I’m hoping and believing the juice will be fine but I will use fresh yeast when I start them, probably in about two weeks from now.

So there’s another connection between fly fishing and winemaking. One can get in the way of the other at times! Actually, it wasn’t the fly fishing that distracted me from these two kits back in 2007…

Today was Opening Day of the trout season where I am. Some readers will know that as well as making wine, I also am an avid fly fisher. I had plans to go out this afternoon. The weather forecast originally said it was going to be warm and sunny all day – I figured an afternoon and then into the evening might offer some nice results. However, the forecast changed. Instead of the sunshine, we had wild thunderstorms with winds gusting to 100 KM/H (60 MPH). I am not too bad at casting in windy conditions – but that is just nuts. And I certainly don’t want to be out on the water with a long piece of graphite while lightning is striking!

So instead of heading out, I thought I would give my wines some attention. I had meant to do this a couple of weeks ago, but decided on a spur of the moment trip to see Colleen for five days. When I returned, I had a lot of catching up to do on work related activities – home winemaking activities needed to be put on hold.

One thing I’m frustrated about – the GSM is still holding carbon dioxide gas. There were two things today I’ve never seen before – the second one I’ll get to in a moment. But the first one – this GSM that I started March 8/09 still has tons of tiny bubbles coming up when it’s agitated. It’s been in a warm spot for a month, and I’ve never seen a wine hold gas like this.

I also racked the Granache I started about a month ago – it’s tasting very good although of course, young. As readers may recall, my plan is to blend the Granache with the GSM. This evening, I added Kieselsol and then Chitosan which came with the kit. The Granache has very little CO2 in it, thankfully. Maybe sitting in the primary for 9 days does help with degassing.

Do you remember the “Mystery Wine?” There was a LOT of sediment on the bottom of the 5 gallon carboy it was in and I decided to rack it off of that. I ended up racking to a 4 gallon carboy and then there was enough left over to two thirds fill a gallon jug. Now, this was the wine that I had fermentation problems with, and was a bit concerned about it. I had a taste of it this evening – all I can say is that it is wonderful! It’s not much like the blackcurrant wine although it does have some notes in the flavor that were similar – I’m wondering if the berries in the freezer were indeed a mixture of black currant and purple gooseberries. I don’t know. But it sure is a “yummy” wine.

Now, the interesting thing – the second thing today I’ve never seen before: I took a specific gravity reading, and this was below the 0.900 mark. So I don’t really know exactly what the SG is. I’ve never seen a wine go below 0.900 when I’ve made it, previously. The beginning SG of this wine before fermenting was 1.104. I thought it might end up a little sweet – but it’s not. And it does not need sweetening – it’s quite good the way it is.

Too finish things off, I racked the Liebfraumilch as well. It has a nice fruity taste to it – I just had a very tiny sample – and it needs some degassing before adding clarifying ingredients. I was hoping to get to the Potato Wine, but time ran out. If I had more room, I could be doing a couple or more things at once, but right now space is limited. Hopefully that will be resolved soon, and I can get some of these winemaking activities done faster and in less time.

Tomorrow, I should give the potato wine some attention, and then if the weather co-operates, I’ll be wetting some flies and catching a few rainbow trout!

It’s April Fool’s Day. Did you have any pranks pulled on you? I didn’t! I’m sure if my older sons were around, I’d have been the subject of some foolish prank or three. I can remember the first time I ever heard about April Fool’s Day. I was about four or five years old, and my mother told me something or other – I can’t remember what, but it was outlandish. She then smiled and shouted, “April Fool’s Day!” Then she explained the best she could to a four year old what it meant. I’ve been known to have pulled a few pranks myself on this day in history. And admittedly, I’ve been the victim of quite a few too. When you’ve spent a lot of your life working shiftwork, it can be easy to not remember what day exactly it is.

Anyhow, I’ve been degassing my Zinfandel. It continues to release lots of carbon dioxide when I vigorously stir it for five minutes, a few times a day. This evening, there was not quite as much foaming so I know I’m getting there. I would use the Fizz-X tool, but the carboy is filled to within an inch and a half of the mouth, and I’d have to siphon out some of the wine each time and then pour it back in. It’s been my experience that the Fizz-X tool does not help to release CO2 as fast as some claim. I should try it more often, perhaps.

Primary Fermentation

I’ve got a RJ Spagnols Cru Select Australian Bush Vine Grenache that I started on March 23. Seven days later, the SG is at 0.096. The wine is still in the primary fermenter. The instructions say to rack from the primary to the secondary on Day 14. That’s the longest I’ve seen a kit say to leave wine in a primary. I am thinking the extra time is to get as much extraction from the grape skins. I read somewhere that this also greatly aids with degassing the wine by leaving it in the primary for 14 days. I’m not sure about that. Part of me does not like the idea of leaving the wine in a primary for so long especially when I’ve been taking the lid off and stirring to get the grape skins below the surface every day. We’ll see how it goes, I guess!

Leonard Cohen

What’s Leonard Cohen got to do with winemaking? Not much exactly – but I have always enjoyed Mr. Cohen, and many a bottle of wine has been enjoyed while his songs have played in the background. This evening, CBC Television broadcast a one hour portion of Leonard Cohen Live In London. If we could have, Colleen and I would have watched it together but circumstances did not permit that (I’m in jail as I write this. Kidding). So, I sent Colleen a bottle of the Zinfandel I had made three years ago, we both opened one, and watched Mr. Cohen together at the same time. I guess you could call it almost a “virtual date.” Sometimes, you just do what you have to do, although I would have preferred to sing to her in person along with Mr. Cohen, “I’m Your Man.” I couldn’t really sing it over the telephone because our televisions sets seemed to have a gap of about 2 seconds. I’m quite uncomfortable as it is with my singing voice – I think in my entire adult and teenage life, the only people who have ever heard me sing before are my sons – and that’s mostly to fun Irish Rovers music. Thankfully, Colleen graciously does not laugh at me when I sing “I’m Your Man” to her.

If I get out of jail in time, we’re hoping we can take in Leonard Cohen live, together. In London. Ontario. I don’t think I’ll be able to sneak in a bottle of Zinfandel though.