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| The grapes were pretty sweet, but I didn't want to take any chances. After mashing the grapes I filled a pot with some of the juice and added 5 pounds of sugar -- heating it almost to a boil. I then poured that into the must barrel and that got fermentation off to a bang! | For the next several days the must needs mixing. I do it in the morning, afternoon, and evening. The barrel is covered with a blanket to keep fruit flies out and minimize evaporation (Sep 26). | I push in what used to be the handle of a push lawn mower. It breaks through the dry upper layer and you can see all the yeast bubbles. It smells great. You can stick your finger in and taste the sweetness of the juice! |
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| I think I waited to long to release the juice. The grapes were mashed on Saturday afternoon, and I did not tap the barrel until Wednesday morning. In four days the yeast converted quite a bit of the sugar into alcohol. The juice doesn't taste as sweet (a dryer wine). Sep 28. | NOTE: You can see the receiving tub was
coated zinc -- NOT recommend for contact with wine, get it out of there
quickly! The receiving barrel is ready. I poured out the whiskey that had been used to condition it. A large funnel is used to help get the wine in using buckets. |
Looking into the funnel you can see a piece of screen used to get out any big sediment like skins or stems. |
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| A simple wood yardstick plunged into the barrel allows you to get a measurement and see how you are doing. You don't want to overfill. | Here is the measurer! The barrel is filled mostly with the fermented juice which is taken from the tap on the must barrel. But there is still a lot of juice left in the skins. | This is the wine press. It is a real old timer and stands about five feet tall at the shoulders. |
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| A few days earlier I had taken it apart of cleaning. Here is just the frame. | Here you can see the other main components. The half circles have steel bands and are joined together by giant pins. The slatted board at the left is on the bottom -- the juice runs through that onto the lower catch. It has a small spout. | Besides just turning the screw at the top by hand. It is designed to also be tightened with a board -- you can apply a LOT of pressure! |
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| 4 bushels, 160 pounds of grapes -- all that is left is a flattened cake about 5 inches thick and about 18 inches across. | Here is our measurer. We just filled about a 16 gallon barrel! So...it took about 10 pounds of starting grape/gallon. Considering water weighs about 8.5 pounds/gallon -- we were pretty efficient! |