Crush 2011 (Part 1) Petite Sirah

October 2011

From the Calwine Broker I got (actually picked) Petit Sirah - Knightsen, CA 12 Year Old Vines

Picked on the morning of 1 October 2011, cool and slightly overcast, but I was hot and sweaty at the end, temperature still under 70 degrees, but it felt a lot warmer to me. Picked about 200 pounds, and then was running out of space to hold more, and was running out of me. Grape harvesters do not make near enough money for the work they do.

When doing your own picking, select your row and go as far down the row as you think you will pick, then 30 to 50% farther. Start here and pick towards the start, because that first bucket weighs a whole lot less than the last one will, and it will be a lot fuller too. You will also find that you are lot more selective on the clusters that you pick at the beginning than at the end.

The grapes cost $0.50/pound on the vine, but the cost benefit analysis of $2.00/pound picked, crushed & destemmed looks a lot more attractive now.

Crushed and destemmed on the afternoon of 1 October. Rented a crusher and destemmer from MoreWinemaking, and worked pretty well. I am using a 20 gallon food grade (white) plastic container for my primary fermenter. The 200 pounds produced more than 20 gallons of must so I removed 5 gallons to work as Blanc (rose') at the same time. After crushing (and cleaning) I added SO2 as potassium metabisulfate. The hardest part of the crush (besides moving the crusher destemmer around (two person job)) was cleaning everything.

 

Decided to use the MoreWinemaking Brehm additive packs 4 red for the Petite Sirah, and 1 white for the Blanc

Additive Pack for Brehm Frozen Fruit (Whites) - BF995

• TAN250 — Tannin FT Blanc Soft - 3 g
• AD342 — Go-Ferm (10 g)
• AD345 — Fermaid K (8 g)
• AD356 — Opti-White - (15g)

For yeast I went with:

• DYW78 — Dry Wine Yeast - ICV GRE - (8g)

Additive Pack for Brehm Frozen Fruit — Reds - BF990

• TAN220 — FT Rouge - 10 g
• AD342 — Go-Ferm (10 g)
• AD345 — Fermaid K (8 g)
• AD351 — Lallzyme EX (0.8 g)
• AD355 — Opti-Red - (8 g)

For yeast I went with: DYW70

• DYW70 — Dry Wine Yeast - Syrah - (8g)

Day 1 - added 4 packs of Lallzyme EX (8g) to red must in morning

Early Afternoon to Blanc
Added           • TAN250 — Tannin FT Blanc Soft - 3 g
                       • AD342 — Go-Ferm (10 g)
                       • AD345 — Fermaid K (8 g)
                       • AD356 — Opti-White - (15g)
Yeast            • DYW78 — Dry Wine Yeast - ICV GRE - (8g)

Late afternoon added
Added • AD351 — Lallzyme EX (0.8 g)
6 hrs later • TAN220 — FT Rouge - 10 g
                    • AD342 — Go-Ferm (10 g)
                    • AD345 — Fermaid K (8 g)
                    • AD355 — Opti-Red - (8 g)
Yeast          • DYW70 — Dry Wine Yeast - Syrah - (8g)

Week Later - October 2011

After one week, the red was at an S.G. of 1.005, and to prevent too much tannin extraction I decide to press slightly early.  I rented a 40 Liter bladder press form MoreWine!  I picked it up on the afternoon of the 8th at about 3:45 pm.  I had already laid out my work area and cleaned and sanitized most of my equipment.

I started at about 4:30 pm and was done with the press by a little after 5:00 pm.  I had previously checked and I actually had about 15 gallons of must.  I ended with two buckets of pressed juice (~ 5.25 gallons each).  From the ~200 pounds of grapes, I pulled off 5 gallons for a blush, and now have two 5 gallons of red.

I tested the TA, pH, SO2, and SG.

Readings are: