Posts Tagged ‘GSM’

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!

Ever had one of those days where things went really well, you were very productive, and not only that, some hard work over the past several weeks was starting to pay off? Those who own their own businesses will probably know what I mean – sometimes, you can work very hard at a project or an idea, and nothing much comes of it – other times, it can be very exciting to see that an idea and then implementing that idea shows a heck of a lot of promise!

That was my day today, and another reason why we should always be optimists no matter what. Examine what things don’t work, change them, adapt, and try again when you believe in something. Sort of like home winemaking!

A couple of things – I took another specific gravity reading today of the “Mystery” Berry wine that seemed to have a very sluggish fermentation. Two days ago it was at 1.042, today it is 1.030. It’s probably a bit lower in reality as there is still bits and pieces of the berries in the juice, which will affect the reading. I had a thought – not sure if it was a good thought or not – but I decided to make up a bentonite slurry – just under a 1/4 cup of boiling hot water and 3 teaspoons of bentonite stirred in, and added that. Perhaps it will help some of the pulpy bits to settle over the next few days, when I hope to rack it.

The other thing I did was start the second part of the “Special Wine” that I wrote of previously. As I mentioned, I’m planning on blending a KenRidge GSM with a Cru Select Australian Bush Vine Grenache.

This evening, I started the Grenache kit. Interesting kit – lots and lots of oak! A little bit different than the KenRidge GSM – and here’s my review of the Cru Select Premium Australian Bush Vine Grenache.

You’ll note there are a couple of minor issues with the instructions that come with the kit, but overall, a good kit – and at $110.00 retail, here’s hoping it will turn out superb!

Happy Home Winemaking to you!

Some data that may or may not be of interest to anyone. The KenRidge GSM Kit that I started on March 8th has been showing some very vigorous fermentation. I decided to stir and press down the grape skin pack and noticed immediately the warmth coming off the pail.

Not a full two days, probably about 18 hours since I started the wine:

Specific Gravity: 1.049
Wine Temperature: 82F
Air Temperature: about 70F

The yeast is generating a lot of heat.