My Winemaking

The story of my journey through home wine making.

In this section I will be posting the story of my wine making experience with links to the whole story by Crush years (when the grapes are harvested).

I am proud to say that I have gotten several recognitions of my wine.  For more information see my Awards & Recognition.

For my past years see: Previous Crushes

CRUSH 2024 is here!

2024 is a Chardonnay year, and I got my wine must from Delta Packing again!  Easy and simple.

23 September 2024

I began on 23 September when I picked up six 6 gallon pails (36 gallons) of Chardonnay mustfrom Delta Packing in Lodi. I have had very good luck with them on grape quality.

 

Delta Packing sends grapes all over the country as a commercial supplier, and will sell small lots to home winemakers.  Since it is only about an hour from my house (depending on traffic) it is easy to just drive over. I got there about 10:30 am on Monay morning and was home by 12:45, including a stop on the way home at Arby's for my wife's and I's lunch.

Their personnel are friendly and helpful and even loaded for me.

The pails were well sealed. And the Juice looks good.

  

Even though the temperature was fairly warm (mid 80's on drive home).  The must was still cold, so I let it sit overnight to warm up.

24 September 2024

Got started about 8:15 am, stirred thoroughly before measuring.

Took inital readings at 8:45 am.

Pail	1	2	3	4	5	6
Temp	66	66	66	66	66	66
SG	1.094	1.094	1.094	1.094	1.094	1.094
Brix	23.6	23.6	23.6	23.6	23.6	23.6
pH	3.25	3.25	3.25	3.25	3.25	3.25

Plan is to make 2 of the pails into wine, distill 3 into brandy, and make a fortified wine (port or sherry style) from the last.

For the wine and fortified wine used MoreWine BF 995 -Brehm White additive pack. Have had very good luck using the More Wine Brehm packs in the past.

At 8:55 am added TAN250 — Tannin FT Blanc Soft (3g) and AD356 — Opti-White (15g) to pails 4, 5, and 6. They were the closest to work area, also pail 1 seemed a little different from others by observation.  Measurements were the same.

At 10:15 am pitched the yeast.

For pail 6 added  AD343 — Go-Ferm Protect (10 g) and DYW58 Dry Wine Yeast - RC 212 (5 g).

For pail 5 added AD343 — Go-Ferm Protect (10 g) and DYW56. — Dry Wine Yeast - ICV-D47 - (5g).

For pail 4 added AD343 — Go-Ferm Protect (10 g) and DYW54 Dry Wine Yeast - EC-1118 (5 g).

For pails 1, 2, & 3 only added DYW54 Dry Wine Yeast - EC-1118 (5 g).

26 September 2024

On the 25th, stirred each twice, morning and night.  Frementation going strongly, all have a significant foam head on them.  In pst crushes, i just pitched the yeast on to the top of the must.  This year I rehydrated the yeast before hand for at least 15 minutes (did not time, but by clock at least that long passed).  For pails 4, 5, & 6 hydrated with Go-Ferm.  Fermentation took off very quickly, even though the must was till cool.  Used a small amount of must from each pail to re-hydrate.

On the 26th fermentation is still active, but the foam was way down.  So took SG readings.

 

Pail	1	2	3	4	5	6
SG	1.052	1.052	1.052	1.052	1.049	1.048
Brix	14.2	14.2	14.2	14.2	13.5	13.2

Added AD345-Fermaid K (8g) to pails 4, 5, & 6 and stirred in.  Then also stirred pails 1, 2, & 3.

 

9 October 2024

Started the processin following primary fermentation.  From the 6 pails, took 3 that were not given the addartive packs (see: 2024 Crussh here) and distilled them.  From the 18 gallons of about 13.4% ABV got just less then 4 gallons of 54% ABV alcohol.

10 October 2024

Finished first run/potstill of the wine.  Also racked pails 4, 5, & 6 to clean carboys and added 3.6 grams pf SO2 to eacj.

 

25 October 2024

2 weeks earlier added Super Kleer Finings (Kieselsol/Chitosan) to each at 65 ml each.  The Kieselsol went in firs and 2 hours later added the cgitosan,

3 days later added Cristaline Plus  (a blend of isinglass (fish-derived protein) and citric acid stabilized with SO2) to each,

10 days later checked and wine appeared clear.  Tasted and is going well.  Took some readings and all looks good, so racked to clear carboys.

Pail	4	5	6
pH	3.9	3.9	3.9
TA	9	9	9
SO2 ppm	50	50	50

Took approximately 2.5 gallons of #4 and added aproximately 0.5 gallons of 50% ABV brandy produced from 3 of the original pails.  Added 9 oz/aa6 g of corn sugar for sweetness, and added 2 oz/56g of medium toast American oak chips.  Plan to age this for about 2 months and then check.

To the rest racked about 1/3 of each to 3 crbouys to give about 5 gallons each.  this allows some mixing of each.

Added about 2 oz of medium toast American oak cubes to each, and then topped up with glass ablls and 250 ml of 2020 Carnerous Chardonnay (see 2020 Crush).

Left is fortfied, other 3 are 2024 Lodi Chardonnay.

10 March 2025

In early February I bottled the tawney Port Style at 20% ABV.

On 19 February I racked to clean carboys and removed the oak and glass balls.  Had a large amount of tartaric crystals in the bottom of each carboy.

Checked the chemistry and got yhe following:

Carboy	1	2	3
pH	4.4	4.3	4.3
SO2 ppm	10	10	10

To each added:

Tartaric Acid     4 tablespoons
K2S2O5             0.5 teaspoons
K-sorbate         3.4 grams

On 20 February noticed a large amount pf solids on the bottom, so racked to clean carboys again.

On 10 March I bottled 5.5 cases at 13.1% ABV.  Samoled a partial bottle that night, and think that this is going to be a good vintage.

 

 

 

 

 

Or my excursion into winemaking

My first effort at making my own wine was in the late 1960’s (I was a teenager about 17 years old) in Florida trying to make orange wine.  Not knowing anything about, it was less than successful (miserable failure is a good description).   Fast forward 40 years, and here I go again, but this time I spent more time and effort learning what to do.  Where possible I will place worthwhile references under the links heading.

o    E-mail: info@smartdogwinery.com