2003 Summer Wine Supplies and Beverage People News Wine Vinegar Mead Soda Cider 840 PINER ROAD, #14, SANTA ROSA, CA 95403 (707) 544-2520 Step by Step How to Make Red or White Wine See page 2. Winemaking Supplies and Catalog. Winemakers find supplies to fit your needs. See page 15. Begins on page 4. New Items. A review of what is new for winemaking in 2003. See Corks pg. 2. See Angel page 2. Beer CORKS STILL HAVE IT by Byron Burch WHY CARBOYS NEED WINGS, AND WINEMAKERS NEED ANGELS by Nancy Vineyard Looking back over the years, the one item everyone needs to make wine, the glass carboy, has been discussed and pictured in this publi- cation over and over. More accessories have been invented to aid in transporting, filling, emptying, cleaning and storing, than for almost any other hardware. There are carboy handles, racking tubes, rubber hoods, draining stands, auto siphons, rinsers, oakboys and fermometers. It's been a good thing to have all these gadgets and it's still getting better. Pictured here is the latest 'necessity' for cleaning carboys. The wand attaches to a drill and with the carboy partially filled with a good cleaner mixed in water, such as chlorinated TSP or TDC, the wings flutter about, circling to achieve a clean as new glass jug. The new Carboy Scrubber, QE01, retails for $24.95. You may be wondering where angels fit in to this discussion. Well, several years back, on two separate occasions, I had the distinct displeasure to watch Byron fall and roll a full If I hadn’t known the customer, I probably wouldn’t have done it, but sometimes a chance is just too good to pass up. He was looking at the cork display, and called over to me, “What’s the difference between these inch and a half corks and these inch and three quarter corks?” I called back the obvious answer, “Oh, about a quarter of an inch,” and we both laughed. Unfortunately, most wine cork ques- tions require an answer somewhat beyond the level of a simple joke. Corks are one of winemaking’s more mysterious, romantic, and sometimes controversial topics, and for the foreseeable future, at least, are likely to remain so. Perhaps it may be useful then, to discuss various aspects of the cork issue, starting with the most basic. We try to be alert to obvious newcom- ers, but once or twice a year we get a call for help. “I just bought these corks, and they’re too big for my bottles.” We have to explain that using corks that are too big is the way wine bottles are sealed, and a discussion ensues about the need for a corking tool to compress them to fit and insert them. Experienced winemakers may find this idea very self-evident, but it isn’t always so for beginners. Cork Widths Even though all wine corks are oversized, there are differences. A sup- plier must decide whether to sell #8 or #9 corks (8 or 9 mm. in diameter). With a small hand corker (See Figure 1), it may require slightly more effort to get a #9 into the bottle. The seal, however, is more secure for long term storage than with a #8. The larger, free standing, floor corkers (See Figure 2) have enough leverage to put in #9 corks with no difficulty. At The Beverage People, we sell mostly #9 corks, with one exception. Our shortest cork, 1 1/2 inches long, is a #8 because the usual situations in which it will be used are not as de- manding on the seal as would be the case with the longer corks. That leads us directly to the question of why you might select a wine cork of a particular length. Cork Lengths If you are using the customary 750 ml. bottles, 1 3/4 inches is consid- ered the standard cork length for most purposes. There are exceptions, how- ever. If your wine will be in the bottle longer than six or seven years, you should consider using a two inch cork. A good quality #9 two inch cork should last at least ten years under ideal stor- age conditions. There are also a couple of situa- tions in which the shorter, 1 1/2 inch, corks might be used. The first is when you are putting your wine into 375 ml. bottles instead of 750’s. That’s what these corks are designed for. They may also be used with full size bottles if the wine will be consumed within a short time, no more than a year or two. Be aware, though, that using a shorter cork will give you a larger air space between the wine and the cork. That alone will contribute to an oxida- tion problem in a wine that is low in sulfite or has a high pH. The fill height of each bottle should have no more than one third of an inch between the cork and the wine.
Transcript
2003 Summer Wine Supplies and Beverage People News
WineVinegarMead
SodaCider
840 PINER ROAD, #14, SANTA ROSA, CA 95403 (707) 544-2520
Step by StepHow to Make Red
or White Wine
See page 2.
Winemaking Suppliesand Catalog.
Winemakersfind supplies to fit
your needs.
See page 15.
Begins on page 4.
New Items.
A review ofwhat is new for
winemaking in 2003.
See Corks pg. 2.
See Angel page 2.
Beer
CORKS STILL HAVE ITby Byron Burch
WHY CARBOYS NEED WINGS, AND
WINEMAKERS NEED ANGELSby Nancy Vineyard
Looking back over the years, the one item everyone needs to makewine, the glass carboy, has been discussed and pictured in this publi-cation over and over. More accessories have been invented to aid in transporting, filling,emptying, cleaning and storing, than for almost any other hardware. There are carboyhandles, racking tubes, rubber hoods, draining stands, auto siphons, rinsers, oakboys andfermometers.
It's been a good thing to have all these gadgets and it's still getting better. Picturedhere is the latest 'necessity' for cleaning carboys. The wand attaches to a drill and withthe carboy partially filled with a good cleaner mixed in water, such as chlorinated TSP orTDC, the wings flutter about, circling to achieve a clean as new glass jug. The new CarboyScrubber, QE01, retails for $24.95.
You may be wondering where angels fit in to this discussion. Well, several years back,on two separate occasions, I had the distinct displeasure to watch Byron fall and roll a full
If I hadn’t known the customer, I probablywouldn’t have done it, but sometimes achance is just too good to pass up. He waslooking at the cork display, and called overto me, “What’s the difference between theseinch and a half corks and these inch andthree quarter corks?”
I called back the obvious answer, “Oh,about a quarter of an inch,” and we bothlaughed.
Unfortunately, most wine cork ques-tions require an answer somewhat beyondthe level of a simple joke. Corks are one ofwinemaking’s more mysterious, romantic,and sometimes controversial topics, and forthe foreseeable future, at least, are likely toremain so. Perhaps it may be useful then, todiscuss various aspects of the cork issue,starting with the most basic.
We try to be alert to obvious newcom-ers, but once or twice a year we get a call forhelp. “I just bought these corks, and they’retoo big for my bottles.” We have to explainthat using corks that are too big is the waywine bottles are sealed, and a discussionensues about the need for a corking tool to
compress them to fit andinsert them. Experiencedwinemakers may find thisidea very self-evident, but itisn’t always so for beginners.
Cork WidthsEven though all wine corks are
oversized, there are differences. A sup-plier must decide whether to sell #8 or#9 corks (8 or 9 mm. in diameter).With a small hand corker (SeeFigure 1), it may require slightlymore effort to get a #9 into thebottle. The seal, however, is more
secure for long term storagethan with a #8. The larger,free standing, floor corkers(See Figure 2) have enoughleverage to put in #9 corks
with no difficulty.At The Beverage People, we sell
mostly #9 corks, with one exception.Our shortest cork, 1 1/2 inches long, isa #8 because the usual situations inwhich it will be used are not as de-manding on the seal as would be thecase with the longer corks. That leadsus directly to the question of why youmight select a wine cork of a particularlength.
Cork LengthsIf you are using the customary
750 ml. bottles, 1 3/4 inches is consid-ered the standard cork length for mostpurposes. There are exceptions, how-ever. If your wine will be in the bottlelonger than six or seven years, youshould consider using a two inch cork.A good quality #9 two inch cork shouldlast at least ten years under ideal stor-age conditions.
There are also a couple of situa-tions in which the shorter, 1 1/2 inch,corks might be used. The first is whenyou are putting your wine into 375 ml.bottles instead of 750’s. That’s whatthese corks are designed for. They mayalso be used with full size bottles if thewine will be consumed within a shorttime, no more than a year or two.
Be aware, though, that using ashorter cork will give you a larger airspace between the wine and the cork.That alone will contribute to an oxida-tion problem in a wine that is low insulfite or has a high pH. The fill heightof each bottle should have no morethan one third of an inch between thecork and the wine.
Summer 2003 Beverage People News Page 2www.thebeveragepeople.com
New SuppliesAngel cont. from page 1.
Twin Disk CorkVery good quality for grade B cork, that providessolid cork protection against the wine, but fills inthe space in the middle with agglomerated cork.Makes a low cost, quality seal. WC14 $19.95/100
Glass Wine ThiefsVery attractive and functional thiefs, come in anangled 24" shape, or a curved 24" shape (to passbetween stacked barrels.) TE59 and TE89 respec-tively ................................................... $42.95
Accuvin Test KitsGreat new test kits for measuring pH,(TE60, $22.95)the completion of ML fermentation, by tracking thequantity of Malic Acid, (TE67, $30.95) and the ti-tratable acidity (TE61, $24.95) of grapes for har-vest. Each kit, comes with ten tests. Use them forquick checks, takes only a few minutes.
Carboy ScubberDescribed on page 1. QE01 ................ $24.95
carboy out of his arms and luck-ily out of harms way. He wasscraped a bit, both times, but hewasn't massively cut, arteriessevered, etc.
We solved the problem bypurchasing a four wheel trollyfor safely transporting jugs fromone area to another. The pointis, we started thinking aboutsafety in the winemaking pro-cess.
Last harvest was my firstguardian angel experience. Iwas cold soaking 1000 lbs. ofPinot Noir grapes with dry ice,prior to fermentation, for sev-eral days. This had been writ-ten about in last year's newslet-ter and the article is now on ourwebsite.
In 2001 the buckets of mustwere in a large open area of ashed, with lots of air movement,although it is enclosed. In 2002,the must had to be fermentedinside a small storage room,while some construction tookplace in the shed. There wasalso twice as much must as theyear before and the grapes wereharvested on a very hot after-noon. The volume of dry ice wasabout five times greater than Iused in 2001.
When I went out to add thedry ice to the grapes, I first liftedoff the wide covers from thebuckets and then with a scoop,starting adding 10 lbs. of pelletsto each bucket. Billows of CO2
formed immediately filling theroom with gas. I turned and ranfor the outside and stayed there,panting and seeing stars for sev-eral minutes. I realized what Ihad almost done was lose con-sciousness with no one elsearound to find me. Had I not runout, or had I performed this op-eration with any impairment,such as after a beer or two, it'slikely I wouldn't have realizedwhat was happening and Iwouldn't be here today to warnothers about this.
Safety isn't something wething about first as hobby wine-makers, but it should be. Hope-fully these stories keep safety onyour mind this season.
Chamfered or Unchamfered “Chamfering” refers to the beveled
edges some corks have. If you have one ofthe small hand corkers, you will almostcertainly have to use chamfered corks tohelp get them in the bottles. You will alsohave to soak the corks in cold water for anhour or so to help soften them before use.
Note that corks should never be boiledprior to use, even though boiling for sanita-tion is part of the manufacturing process.Additional boiling may begin to damage thecell structure of the corks.
You hear a lot about two alternativetypes of wine cork these days, and to thesewe now turn.
Synthetic CorksPeople frequently ask us whether we
carry synthetic corks. You see them inmany commercial bottles these days, so it’sa natural curiosity, perhaps fueled by thehope that artificial corks might be a lessexpensive alternative to the real thing, or away to retain the sexiness of the cork tradi-tion, while avoiding the occasional “corky”bottle.
Unfortunately, not all is happy onthis front, so the answer must still be ‘No.”First, let’s start with the bad news. Syn-thetic corks aren’t designed to be insertedwith any of the relatively low tech corkersavailable to home winemakers. We getsamples occasionally, and we’ve yet to findany that work well.
The problem is that these “corks”
need to be inserted under vacuum to keeppressure from remaining in the head space ofthe bottle. A normal cork allows some of thatpressure to escape as the cork is inserted.We’ve used floor corkers to try putting syn-thetics in bottles, and the process leaves thecork looking like a small balloon sticking upabove the bottle, or else it simply refuses to goall the way in.
I know one person who claims to havesome success by placing a length of 30 lb. testfishing line down into the bottle neck. Thisappears to prevent forming a complete sealuntil the cork is in place and the fishing linehas been pulled out of the bottle.
Even if this technique works, however,it may only lead to more bad news. I recentlylearned of an ongoing experiment in whichseveral wines were bottled and aged with avariety of closures. This aging has been goingon now, for about two years, and certain pat-terns are emerging.
Wines corked with synthetics seem to befaring worst of all. Sulfite levels dissipatedespecially quickly, and these wines have shownmore browning and other signs of oxidationthan wines bottled with any other closure.This oxidation may be at least partially due tothe synthetic cork’s inability to vent headspace pressure, the same problem that makesinsertion difficult. Problems involving excesshead space pressure tend also to be exacer-bated if the wine is stored or transported attemperatures that are warmer than when thewine was bottled.
Maybe these problems will eventuallybe solved, but I wouldn’t start cutting up your
Corks from page 1
See cork cont. pag 3.
Our New Web SiteWe recently upgraded our web site, with the help ofByron's oldest daughter, Alicia Boyce, (with help fromAllen Boyce, and lots of love and support from Emma,now 7 months old.) We're bringing this to your atten-tion, because, over the nextseveral years, we will be focus-ing our attention on moving ar-ticles of past newsletters intothis forum. Articles, such aslast year's wine equiment dis-cussion, will rotate into the site,to help newcomers and remindus old folks how to get ready for another harvest. Pleasevisit, thebeveragepeople.com. We appreciate your feed-back during this building phase.
New BooksThe Complete Meadmaker, by Ken Schramm A qual-ity effort to bring brewing and winemaking knowledgeto meadmaking. Good information, more thorough thananything to date. BK51 ....................... $19.95Old British Beers and How to Make Them, by Dr. JohnHarrison and The Durden Park Beer Circle. Third Edi-tion with much better layout, modest corrections andnew information. BK33 ...................... $14.95
Page 3 Summer 2003 Beverage People NewsAmerica's Winemaking Supply Store
Corks cont. from pg 2.
Sulfite at bottling time.The progression of oxidation can be ar-rested by properly adjusting the sulfitelevels at bottling time.
Test your wine to find out howmuch free SO2 is still available For di-rections, see page 8. Add enough sulfiteto bring the free SO2 to at least 30 ppmfor red wines and 40 for white wines.
fishing line just yet.
Natural CorkThe traditional, natural cork ap-
pears to be faring quite a bit better interms of extending the life of the wine,which is good news. So why then all thediscussion of alternatives like syntheticsand screw cap bottles in recent years?
Some of the unrest is based oneconomic concerns, but there is anotherissue, long known about, but which be-gan to get a lot of attention a decade or soago. That’s the issue of TCA “cork taint.”
“Corkiness” and “cork taint” areterms used to describe certain mustyaromas that canmake a bottle ofwine less enjoy-able than itshould be. Asthese terms sug-gest, these aro-mas can be attrib-uted to the cork.Several years ago,it began to be sug-gested that theproblem was extremely widespread, per-haps affecting as much as 15% of allcorked wine bottles.
How big the problem remains thesedays is a matter of some controversy.Recognizing the problem, the cork indus-try in Portugal, where most cork bark isgrown, made radical changes to upgradetheir processing and storage of cork. Othercountries have followed suit. Perhapsone of the most significant changes wasto stop washing the raw cork with chlo-rine, a chemical closely associated withproducing TCA.
Precise assessment of the extent ofcork taint at this point is difficult, how-ever, because many of the wines stillbeing evaluated date from the time priorto recent industry reforms. Also, some ofthe various publicized evaluations arewritten with potential vested interests inmind to obtain one result or another.There is also the fact that people’s abilityto detect cork problems in wine is widelyvariable with many people not noticingthe difference.
That having been said, there havebeen some studies done involving largenumbers of bottles, and overall, it lookslike identifiable, cork-related, musty fla-vors in wine bottles can probably be iden-tified less than 1% of the time unlessyou’re a highly trained expert, in whichcase, the percentage will be somewhathigher. In other words, it’s not some-thing most of us are finding on a regular
basis. At the store, from our inventory,we have received less than a half dozencomplaints in the last 5 years, and mostof these were before the cork industryreforms were undertaken.
One advantage that cork has oversynthetics is the cell structure allowspressure to escape at the time of inser-tion, but the gases in the cork cells con-tinue pushing outward for an extendedtime, giving you a seal.
Eventually, over an extended pe-riod, these gases do gradually escape fromthe cells, and the cork adjusts to theshape of the bottleneck. After removinga cork that has reached the end of itslifespan, it won’t expand to the large
diameter necessaryto stopper a bottle.Besides the other is-sues of reusing cork,such as mold, wildyeasts and bacteria,it’s best not to con-sider reusing oldcorks.
Composite CorksIn recent years an-
other type of wine cork, the “composite,”has begun to achieve widespread accep-tance. With these corks, many small corkpieces are adhered together into the shapeof a traditional wine cork. In the oxida-tion study referenced earlier, compositecorks have performed best of all as far assulfur dioxide retention and lower oxida-tion rates were concerned. After somerecent improvements in the adhesivesused to make composite corks, it is ourexperience that these corks are a viablealternative to all natural cork.
TCA problems should be no morecommon with composites than with tra-ditional corks. This may have to do withcomposites having greater structural uni-formity than natural cork, but also withpossible blocking functions of the adhe-sives used. In any case, the cell structureallows headspace pressure to escape inmuch the same way as with natural cork.
Twin Disk CorksAt The Beverage People, we began
carrying a type of composite cork early in2002. Originally we were looking for anew “bargain” cork to replace the“overbranded,” winery reject corks we’dsold for several years. The supply of theoverbranded corks had become irregular.
We decided to carry a refinementon the composite cork theme called “twindisk” corks. These are a good qualitycomposite through most of the cork’slength, but with a 1/4 inch disk of topquality solid cork attached to either end.
Twin disk corks give you the economicadvantages of a composite cork, whilekeeping your wine in contact with a natu-ral material, and away from the adhe-sives.
These corks have performed verywell, and have gained increasing accep-tance. Please note that, again, we don’trecommend boiling wine corks to softenthem because this may break down thecell structure of the cork. That goes doublefor composite corks. Boiling is likely tobreak down the adhesives holding thecomposite together, causing the cork todisintegrate. Also, composite and twindisk corks do not compress easily enoughto use with small hand held corkers.
Screw CapsScrew caps bring another question
to the issue of closures, though this maybe more of an issue years down the roadthan it is now.
In the past few years, ever since thecork taint question began to be widelydiscussed, researchers have been lookingat whether corks should be replaced withscrew caps. Some research does suggestthat screw caps would make a betterclosure, and locally Sonoma Cutrer Win-ery and Bonny Doon Winery have re-leased some premium wine in screw capbottles to test this market.
This idea, however, seems to be along way from any sort of public accep-tance, and perhaps it’s just as well. Thehome winemaking industry is far fromwielding the clout to bring widespreadusage of screw cap bottles to mainstreamwinemaking. We quite simply have towait for acceptance of this practice tospread before the bottles will even beavailable for us to sell.
Technical superiority is only partof the picture. Our society is capable ofdoing a great many things technically.Whether we should do them is a separateissue. Like many areas of life, wine isenriched by its rituals and exists as thecenterpiece of its particular culture.
Even if screw caps are eventuallyproven to be the best closure, their usewould not necessarily enhance the totalwine experience, even for those of us forwhom wine is an aspect of everyday life.
To illustrate, let’s say that the par-ish council at my church decided to illu-minate our worship services with halo-gen bulbs instead of the traditionalcandles and oil lamps because the lightwould be brighter. Brighter it would trulybe, but the overall worship experiencewould not necessarily be enhanced. Per-haps there’s a lesson for wine lovers inthere somewhere. Let’s hope so!
Summer 2003 Beverage People News Page 4www.thebeveragepeople.com
Red Wine ProceduresCrush (break the skins) and de-stem the grapes. For mostgrape varieties, about 90% of the larger stems should beremoved.
Test for total acidity following the instructions in your acidtesting kit. If the acidity is less than .7%, add enough tartaricacid to bring it to that level.
Test for sugar with your hydrometer.Correct any deficiencies by adding enough sugar to bring thereading up to 22% (22 degrees brix).
When these tests and corrections have been completed, themust should be sulfited. Estimating that you will get roughlyone gallon of juice yield for every 16 lbs. of grapes, calculate theanticipated amount of juice. Using this estimate, add enoughsulfite to give you a sulfur dioxide (SO
2) level between 50 and
130 parts per million (ppm).The amount needed will depend on the condition of the
grapes, with moldy grapes getting the most concentrated dose.
Unless you have found it necessary to add more than 65parts per million SO
2 in step 4, yeast should be added
immediately. If using more than 65 parts per million SO2, you
must wait six hours before doing so. Add also 1/4 oz of yeastfood for every 100 lbs. of grapes. Your yeast culture (or drywine yeast) should be spread somewhat evenly across thesurface of the crushed grapes (now called “must”). Stir it inthoroughly after eight to twelve hours.
The must should be stirred twice a day until fermentationbegins. The beginning of fermentation will be obvious, as thegrape skins will be forced to the surface, forming a solid layer(called a “cap”).
Once the cap has formed, it should be pushed or “punched”back down into the fermenting juice twice a day until it is readyto be pressed. You may use your hand or a clean 2x4 to pushdown the cap.
At some point, while fermenting on the skins, the musttemperature should be allowed to reach as high as 90° F., atleast briefly. This will help extract color from the skins. Therest of skin fermentation should take place at 60-75°F.
Add ML starter (optional) to the wine about half to two thirdsthrough fermentation. You may also add this at the end offermentation if you have the Enoferm Alpha strain of bacteria.
When the desired level of color has been achieved (usuallyfrom five to fourteen days of active fermentation) your wineshould be pressed to separate the wine from the skins.Funnel the wine into secondary fermentors, filling them 3/4
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Winemaking Step by StepEQUIPMENT
INGREDIENTS
1. Wine Yeast, (1 gram) per gallonof must or juice.2. Grapes, (16 lbs.) per gallon of wine.3. Tartaric Acid as needed.4. Sulfite as needed.5. Yeast Food (5 grams per 100 lbs.)6. Fining Agent, such as Sparkolloid.7. ML Starter for some wines.
For most beginners, the hardest thing about mak-ing wine is simply figuring out, in advance, whatequipment is going to be needed. This list shouldset most of these fears to rest.
You will need the following:
1. Siphon Hose and Racking Tube2. Hydrometer (Saccharometer)
and Test Jar3. Acid Testing Kit4. Sulfite Test Kit5. Crusher or
Stemmer/Crusher6. Press7. Corker8. Thermometer9. Pressing Bag (optional)
10. Funnel11. Bottle Filler12. Small Bucket
For every 75 lbs. of grapes:
1. 10 Gallon Food grade Bucket and Lid2. One 5 gallon glass carboy (water bottle) witha fermentation lock and a #6 1/2 or #7 drilledrubber stopper.3. Extra glass jugs, each with a fermentationlock and #6 drilled rubber stopper. These could begallon size or smaller.4. Twenty–five wine corks.5. Two cases wine bottles.
Page 5 Summer 2003 Beverage People NewsAmerica's Winemaking Supply Store
11
Crushing and stemming your grapes.
Grapes in the Crusher.
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Pressing the fermented red grapes.
See “Procedure” cont. next page.full. Attach a fermentation lock, and allow the containers to setuntil all visible signs of fermentation have ceased (at least aweek or as long as two weeks.)
At the end of fermentation, when no more bubbles arecoming up through the lock, rack the wine off the gross lees.
Place wine in storage containers (glass, stainless steel, oroak). Top up the containers and let stand for a month.
One month later, rack the wine away from the lees again,add sulfite to about 20 ppm, and keep in topped up containers forfour to six months. You must top up barrels, from respiration,and visible inspect carboys. This is a good time to add oakboysor oak chips. Add sulfite every few months. If you innoculatedfor ML, test the wine to be sure it is complete.
Around May or June of the following year, you might wantto fine the wine for clarity (following the instructions suppliedwith your fining agent.) Optional treatment would be the moreaggressive clarification via filtration. If the ML fermentationhasn't finished, keep the sulfite level below 20 ppm and warmthe storage containers for a month to encourage completion.
By late July or August (just before you need your storagecontainers for the next year’s crush), carefully rack the wineto a sanitary bottling container, then siphon into bottles,cork them, and lay them down for bottle aging.
At bottling time, adjust the sulfite to at least 30 ppm, if youplan to store the wine. If possible store your filled bottles on theirsides. Otherwise, store them with the corks down. Most redwines will benefit from at least one year’s additional aging.
Time Line for Red Wine Fermentation (...➞)
Active YeastFermentation inPrimaryFermentors
Pressed winemoved toSecondaryFermentors,stored 3/4 full
Rack off grosslees and top upcontainers
Rack off lees again andsulfite, test for ML, storein cool place for aging,topping and sulfitingevery couple months.Add Oakboys
Racking offlees, adjustingsulfite, finingor filtering, orjust topping up
Rack to bottlingcontainer, adjustflavor with oakextract, addsulfite, cork andstore. ...Usuallyin time for nextharvest....5 to 14 days ...1 to 2 weeks ...1 month ...4 to 6 months ...1 to 3 months
Summer 2003 Beverage People News Page 6www.thebeveragepeople.com
In late April or early May, before the onset of very hotweather, carefully rack the wine from the lees. Test thewine for free sulfite content with a sulfur dioxide test kitto determine how much SO
2 is needed to bring the level to
30-35 parts per million.Siphon into bottles, cork them, and set them aside for
whatever bottle aging is needed. If you wish to sweetenthe wine, do so with simple syrup (two parts sugar to onepart water, boiled), and add 1/2 tsp. Stabilizer per gallonto kill any remaining yeast.
Light, fruity, white wines may be enjoyed within twomonths after bottling.
White Wine Procedures
Crush the grapes to break the skins. It is not necessary tode-stem them. Keep the grapes as cool as possible.
Test for total acidity. If the acidity is less than .7%, addenough tartaric acid to bring it up to that level.
Test for sugar with your hydrometer. Correct anydeficiencies by adding enough sugar to bring the readingup to 20% (20 ° brix) for most varieties (22% for SauvignonBlanc and Chardonnay.)
When these tests and corrections havebeen completed, the must should be sul-fited. Estimating that you will get roughly agallon of juice from every 16 lbs. of grapes(varies with the variety), add enough sulfiteto give you a sulfur dioxide (SO
2) level be-
tween 50 and 120 parts per million (ppm.).The amount needed will depend on the
condition of the grapes, with moldy grapesgetting the most concentrated dose.
Stir in pectic enzyme at the rate of one ounce to every200 lbs. of grapes. Place the crushed grapes in a coveredcontainer to stand from 2 to 18 hours (longer for the “big,less fruity” varieties. If left to stand longer than 2 hours atthis stage, the crushed grapes should be refrigerated.
The grapes are then pressed to separate the juice fromthe skins. Funnel the juice into topped up containers,cover, and let stand for approximately 24 hours.
Siphon the clear juice away from the layer of settlingsinto a glass, stainless steel, or oak fermentor which isfilled no more than 3/4 full. Yeast should be added, afermentation lock attached to the fermentor, and fermenta-tion allowed to procede. Add also a 1/4 oz. of yeast foodfor every 5 gallons of juice.
When visible signs of fermentation end, the wine mustbe racked off the lees, sulfited, and placed in topped upstorage containers (glass, stainless, or oak). Let stand for amonth.
Rack off the lees and fine. Add sulfite and store stoppedfull in a cool location.
In February or March, rack and sulfite the wine again,placing it back in topped up containers. This is a goodtime to filter the wine if you are going to do so.Add Oakboy or oak extract now.
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Placing the wood blocks and press head into thepress before actually pressing the grapes.
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JuiceFermentationwith Yeast inPrimaryFermentors3/4 full
Rack finishedwine to cleanFermentors,topped full.Settle out lees.Sulfite
Rack off leesand fine orfilter. Addsulfite andkeep cool.Add Oakboy.
Rack tobottlingcontainer,add sulfite,fill and corkbottles.
...1 to 2 weeks ...In the spring ...2 to 4 months...1 month
Time Line for White Wine Fermentation(...➞)
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Page 7 Summer 2003 Beverage People NewsAmerica's Winemaking Supply Store
Barrel Care Procedures
Fresh oak barrels are about as sanitary as it getsbecause the wood has been heated over direct fire inorder to bend the staves to shape and is often addi-tionally toasted for flavor accents such as vanilla andcaramel. When a barrel is new, it must be swelled withwater to check for leaks. Oftentimes, leaks will sealthemselves in only a few hours or days. However, thewater should be refilled until the leaking stops, and itshould be changed every day to prevent staling ormolding and creating an off flavor.
To provide for an acidic environment for receivingthe new wine, we recommend an addition of 2teaspoons of citric acid for every (5) five gallons ofbarrel being treated. Add this as soon as the barrel isfinished soaking. Make sure the barrel is tight andthen drain and fill with wine.
After a barrel is used for wine storage, additionalmeasures of cleaning and sanitation must be fol-lowed. At each racking, rinse out the barrel withwater, to remove debris, and rerinse the barrel withan acid wash. Again make up a solution of water with2 teaspoons of Citric Acid for every 5 gallons. You canjust use a 5 gallon amount to swash around inside thebarrel for 5 or 10 minutes and then drain it and fillwith your wine. The small residual amounts of acidityleft in the wood are not harmful just so long as youdon't overdo it.
Finally, when the time comes to store the barrel,it is best to wash out the inside with a cleaningcompound, instead of only water. You want to remove
the organic material left from the wine that penetratedinto the wood surface. To do this you will make up asolution of ProxyClean®, which is a peroxidebased cleaner. Mix 4 oz. of Proxyclean for every 15gallons. Mix this into a small amount of water andfunnel this into the barrel along with enough water tofill the barrel. Soak for a minimum of 20 minutes, upto a day to remove stains and penetrate the wood forcleaning.
Follow up the cleaner with several flushes of waterand then reacidify the barrel with a soaking of waterand citric acid, again using 2 teaspoons acid to 5gallons water.
For storage, drain this solution and burn 1/2 to1 full sulfur wick, and bung tight to sterilize thebarrel. This wick treatment will need to be repeatedevery two weeks until a flashlight does not reflect offwater left in the barrel. The dry barrel can now bebunged and left in a dry storage area.
An alternative to the wick treatment for sanita-tion, is to keep the barrel filled with a solution of waterand citric acid, to which potassium or sodiummetabisulfite has been added. This solution releasesthe gas sulfur dioxide, the same as burning the sulfurwick. Add 4 teaspoons of sulfite powder with 2 tea-spoons of citric acid for every 15 gallons of water.Bung up and keep full of water until needed. Use thisoption when the barrel will be refilled within a monthor two of draining.
You will have to rinse out the residue of either thewick or the sulfite treatment with plain water.
A Glossary of Wine Nutrients
Yeast FoodUse at the rate of 1 oz. per 32 gallons prior to fer-mentation and prior to ML. Provides a completeand balanced food for yeast. Use in conjunctionwith DAP for additional nitrogen with difficult winessuch as late harvest, stressed grapes or wines togo through malolactic fermentation. Contains am-monia salts, amino acids, sterols, unsaturated fattyacids, yeast hulls, vitamins, magnesium and pan-tothenic acid.
Diammonium Phosphate - DAPUse at the rate of 1 oz. per 32 gallons to raise thelevel of free nitrogen for a healthy fermentation.Use in conjunction with Fermaid K for best results.Contains only ammonium phosphate.
Autolyzed YeastUse at the rate of 1 oz. per 32 gallons of juice ormust. Add to restart sluggish and stuck fermen-tations. Add during fermentation and may be re-peated. Contains pure dried yeast providing aminonitrogen, B vitamins and yeast hulls from auto-lyzed yeast.
Yeast HullsUse this product to help prevent stuck and slug-gish fermentations and with Autolyzed Yeast torestart fermentations. This is the pure cell wallmembrane of whole yeast cells and is more con-centrated than autolyzed yeast. Also use in over-clarified juice and to absorb toxic compounds. (Userate is also 1 oz. per 32 gallons)
Summer 2003 Beverage People News Page 8www.thebeveragepeople.com
Squeeze Here
Sulfite ProceduresSulfur has been burned in wine containers to purify themsince the days of the Roman Empire, and probably muchearlier. The ancients may not have known about theworld of microorganisms, but they recognized that sul-fur helped make their wines last longer. We now knowthat sulfur dioxide gas (SO2) released by burning sulfurwas the effective agent for retarding spoilage, and wehave a more precise way of adding it these days.
By adding minute and carefully measuredamounts of Sodium Bisulfite (or Potassium Metabisulfite)at selected stages during the winemaking process, wine’snatural pattern of progression past the wine stage, andtoward spoilage, can be retarded. An additional benefitis that sulfur dioxide is an effective antioxidant.
When you add sulfite to a wine, not all of it remainsfree to fight the good fight against microbes. Only “free”molecular SO2 does that. Some sulfur dioxide becomes“bound”. In other words, it reacts with compounds inthe wine to form other compounds, and therefore, it’skept on the sidelines, unable to do battle where you needit most. It's important to test for free SO2, so that youmay accurately add sulfite, rather than haphazardlydropping in a few teaspoons.
Our directions that follow explain two simple meth-ods for using the Ripper Method to test the free SO2.
The Titret® Kit takes place inside of a glass am-pule. These vacuum sealed, graduated ampules, comewith an inlet bead-valve that allows you to titrate slowlyby squeezing the valve. You have to keep the inlet tubesubmerged or the vacuum will be broken by air enter-ing. The kit instructions recommend a holder that is no longeravailable, and which made the test more difficult to execute.
New this year is the Acidometer® Kit by Vinoferm,which also uses the Ripper Mehod. Using the graduatedcylinder and a solution that combines starch and iodine,(the Iodic solution),titration is a simple matter of pipetingin the iodic solution until the color end point is achieved.
The Titret Kit Begin the test by inserting the loose plastic inlet
sleeve over the tapered end of the glass ampule. Bendthe plastic sleeve 90 degrees tobreak the tip of the ampule. Asyou do this hold on tightly at thejunction of the sleeve and the am-pule to prevent the sleeve fromsliding off. Next locate the glassbead/valve inside the plastic in-let sleeve. Squeeze this bead toopen the passageway for thevacuum in the ampule to pullwine inside the tube. As yousqueeze, a color change will occurturning the sample inside the
Inlet SleeveSubmergedin Sample
Titret
VacuumAmpule
tube dark blue/black. Continue squeezing until a whitewine turns light pink or clear. In the case of red wines, itwill return to the original sample color. The titration isfinished at this point and the ampule is stood up on itsflat end. Let the contents of the ampule settle and thenread the liquid level at the graduated line of the vial.This is the amount of free SO2 present in the wine.
The Acidometer KitThe Acidometer method uses the graduated cylin-
der to hold the sample wine or juice, while the Iodic so-lution is pipeted in to achieve a color that is blue forwhite wines and a dark bluish red (blood red) for redwines. Once the color change is observed, you multiplythe reading from the graduated cylinder by 10 to get thefree SO2 number. It is as accurate an any winery Ripper.
This kit may be the best method yet for red winetesting at home. But, the color transition is also difficultto see, even winery lab techs need time and experienceto accutately judge the color change. Follow these hintsand practice a few times, till results are consistent. Toreduce the possibility of a false high reading, you mustquickly reach the titration point because the iodine so-lution will react over time with the bound form of SO2 .The light source is also important to accurately observethe color change. Use a bright white background with ahigh intensity lamp. Also use a 10 ml. graduated pipet,to fill the cylinder and stopper the cylinder with a solid#2 rubber stopper, for mixing in the iodic solution. Io-dine will stain your fingers and clothes, so use with cau-tion.
The false high reading from the Ripper method canbe as high as 10 ppm, so be sure to do your test fre-quently enough that the additions of sulfite will alwaysmaintain some free SO2 , thus protecting the wine frombacterial spoilage or oxidation.
Scheduling SO2 AdditionsSulfite additions can vary somewhat depending on
the condition of the fruit and the quality of the storageconditions. Initial sulfite may be added at 65 ppm tograpes or juice that is free of rot or mold. The presenceof a lot of mold, or grapes in otherwise bad condition,
Page 9 Summer 2003 Beverage People NewsAmerica's Winemaking Supply Store
might require twice that amount. Under average to goodconditions the information that follows should keep about20 to 30 ppm of free SO2 available throughout the wine'scycle of production through bottling. Add sulfite for whitewines at every racking and at least two to three timesfor red wines.
Schedule these additions as you rack your wine toremove it from gross lees and possible fining agents, andthen after racking in early spring. The whites may beready for bottling at this time. Red wines may require afourth racking before bottling in the late summer.
At bottling time, you should test your SO2 level,and adjust to 30-35 ppm in the wine. Wines that will beconsumed within three months of bottling will not nor-mally need this sulfite addition at bottling time as longas they are stored in a cool place until served.
pH and SO2It is generally recognized that only a small
amount of molecular SO2 (.5 to .8 ppm.) needs to bepresent to provide bacterial stability in wine, but pH hasan important effect on how much free SO2 is needed inorder to provide that amount, and that’s why both pHand SO2 need to be tested.
Regard the Table of Molecular SO2 to the left.The amount of free SO2 needed, is based on the pH of thewine. A fairly safe amount for protection of the wine iseither .5 ppm for Red Wines or .8 ppm for White Wines.If you know the pH, simply make sure you have the cor-responding level of free SO2, or slightly more, present inthe wine when it is bottled.
Above pH 3.5, you will notice that the amounts offree sulfur dioxide required become quite high. Addingenough to create an appropriate level may raise the to-tal SO2 high enough to have a negative effect on the wine’sflavor. It is best not to approach the problem that way.Instead, the pH should be lowered early in the life of thewine by the addition of Tartaric or Phosphoric Acid.
Sources of SO2SO2 is available as Campden tablets, effervescent,
Efferbaktol tablets, or by powdered sodium or potassiummetabisulfite. A premeasured Campden Tablet equals65 ppm in one gallon (13 ppm in a five gallon jug) and isvery convenient for those making small amounts of wine.You have to crush the tablet to a powder to add it.
New for home winemakers are 2 gram Efferbaktol®tablets that deliver 528 ppm per gallon (9 ppm per 55gallon barrel) and effervesce to disperse evenly in thecontainer. They are perfect for working in barrels, butpricey and hard to divide to accurately dose 5 gallon car-boys. Potassium metabisulfite should be made into a liq-
uid preparation before use, to adequetely disperse it, andbecause it is very potent. This is also the least expensivemethod.
Make a strong solution if your additions are tolarger vessels, and a weak solution for carboys.
Preparing a Strong 10% Stock SolutionUsing a gram scale, weigh out 100 grams of Potassiummetabisulfite and dissolve in 1 Liter of water. Tightlystopper and store labeled: “poison’! For additions ofsulfite in large lots, you will prefer to use the informa-tion provided in the following table. Just make sure thatyour 10% stock solution is fresh and measured carefully.
Preparing a Weak 3% Stock SolutionDissolve four ounces of sodium or potassiummetabisulfite powder, (a package size readily availablein retail stores) in one gallon of warm water. This isweaker than the 10% solution given above, in fact it isabout a 3% solution.
At this concentration, the solution is still quitestrong and should be clearly labeled and kept out of reachof children. This stock solution will remain at relativelyfull strength for up to six months if the jug is kept capped.
Removing Excess SO2If you ever need to lower your SO2 because you
doubled the dosage or made some other wildly uncarefulcalculation, do the following: for every 10 ppm free SO2you want to remove, add 1 ml. of 3% hydrogen peroxideper gallon of wine. This is an oxidative reaction that oc-curs immediately. Us only fresh 3% Hydrogen Peroxide,available at the drugstore. Use this method to removeup to 100 ppm, more than this and the wine will oxidizeand lose its flavor.
Please Note: There could be some confusion by listing both a 3%and a 10% solution here. Be careful to follow the scale that is appropri-ate to the stock strength. If you have a scale that weighs in grams, andhave access to a pH meter, you may wish to use the 10% solution in-structions. Pipettes graduated in .1 ml to .5 ml and 1 ml to 10 mlvolumes are recommended for making accurate additions.
Summer 2003 Beverage People News Page 10www.thebeveragepeople.com
Sparkolloid™ and Bentonite are the two most common all-purpose fining (clarifying) agents used by home winemakers. Either may be used with success in most situations, and in thesomewhat unusual circumstance that the wine doesn’t clear withthe first agent, the other will generally work.
Here’s how they are used.Sparkolloid is used at the rate of 1 to 1.5 grams per gallon, so tofine five gallons of wine, begin by measuring out 5 to 7.5 gramsof dry Sparkolloid. Then take about 1-2 cups of water, stir in theSparkolloid, and heat it on the stove. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, and thoroughly stir the hot mixtureinto the wine. Let stand three weeks and carefully rack awayfrom the lees.
Bentonite requires that a slurry be made up a day inadvance. Measure out 750 ml. of water, and heat it toboiling. Slowly stir in one ounce of Bentonite. Mix itthoroughly for about one minute in a blender, funnel it intoa 750 ml. wine bottle, stopper it up and let it stand for a day. Shake up the slurry, and thoroughly stir roughly 1/4 cupinto each five gallons of wine. Rack away from the lees inabout 10-14 days
To remove oxidation or reduce bitterness, fine withPolyclar. To soften tannins, use either egg whites orgelatin, followed by an all purpose fining agent such asSparkolloid. Add sulphite when adding a fining agent, toprevent excess oxidation during the mechanical stirring orpumping needed to blend in the agent.
Fining Agent Rate of Use Best Used For Preparation When
Sparkolloid 5 - 7 grams/ 5 gallons All wines Heat slurry of 1 - 2 cups Afterwater with Sparkolloid, fermented,simmer 15 minutes and three weeks
add to wine stirring. before aracking.
Bentonite 10-40 grams/ 5 gallons White wines Slurry with juice or water Add toin blender. must prior
to fermentation.
Isinglass 1 Tablespoon/ 5 gallons White wines Soak in 2 Cups water with Prior to athat haven't 1/2 teasp. Citric Acid for racking.clarified with 30 minutes.Sparkolloid.
Gelatin 1/4 oz./ 5 gallons Red wines Dissolve in 10 oz. Afterwith excess tannin. hot water, let sit fermentation up
for 10 minutes. to three weeksStir thoroughly into wine. before bottling.
Egg Whites 1/2 egg white/ 5 gallons Red Wines Whipped to a soft froth In barrel/glasswith excess tannin. with some wine and water at least a
then mixed in thoroughly. monthbefore bottling.
Polyclar 2.5-12.5 grams/ 5 gallons White wines to Thorough mixing Before, during or(Divergan F) remove oxidation after fermentation.
reduce bitterness.
Non-Fat Milk 250 ml/5 gallons White wines to Follow with Bentonite Rack after 4 daysreduce bitterness, Fining A month prioradds sweetness. to bottling.
Page 11 Summer 2003 Beverage People NewsAmerica's Winemaking Supply Store
There are two methods to measure the percentsugar (Brix): hydrometry and refractometry. A hydrom-eter will also be used to track the progress of fermenta-tion which a refractometer cannot do.
You must establish a routine for sampling fruitfrom various parts of the vineyard, due to variations inconditions or microclimates throughout the vineyard. Sobe sure to take grapes from clusters that represent thetrue mix of ripening your vineyard is experiencing. Ifyou have a lot of area, divide it into a quadrant andblock off the areas that you will sample. Then eithersample and record to a notebook, averaging the totalsugar from these results, or pick grapes from all overinto a bucket, bring this back to be crushed together,mixing all the grapes you have collected and then usethis juice to create a test sample.
Ripe grapes will reach a Brix of 21 percent andabove for white wines and 23 percent and above for redwines. Overly ripened grapes are just as troublesomeas underipened grapes, so it is important to monitor thematuring process closely.
Testing with a hydrometer.Crush your collection of grapes and extract by
straining a volume of juice sufficient to float a hydrom-eter in its test jar, or appoximately, 4 oz. of juice. Pourthe juice into the test jar and twirl the hydrometer inthe juice to release any CO2 gases in solution. Thesetiny bubbles can stick to the hydrometer and cause it tolift, increasing the chance of an erroneous reading. Nowyou will let the hydrometer settle into the liquid, read-ing the paper scale where the juice contacts it at its sur-face. (For accuracy, read the level at the liquid level, notthe interface of liquid on the hydrometer, as this pointis actually slightly higher than the surrounding liquidowing to an increase of pressure from the tool againstthe liquid.) Measure from the scale what total of sugaris present. There are usually three scales on a hydrom-eter. Measure fruit and wine juice from the Brix or Ball-ing scale which is equivalent to percent sugar.
Testing with a refractometer.Alternately, and especially for those of you grow-
ing your own grapes, a refractometer will be used tomeasure sugar in the field. From the juice of a singlegrape, a sugar reading can be taken along with the read-ings from other representative grapes in the vineyardto yield the average percent of sugar. The following stan-dardizations are useful when using a refractometer.
First, standardize the refractometer against thezero point on the prism by using a drop of distilled wa-ter and looking through the eyepiece in direct light tosee the sugar scale in the backdrop. There is a set screwon the refractometer that can be adjusted if this read-
ing is not zero. If you can’t find the screw refer to yourinstruction manual.
Next, check the refraction of a standard sugar so-lution. Place a drop of 20° Brix sugar solution on theprism and read the percent sugar against the scale inthe background. If it is not reading 20, then adjust theset screw once again. Now your refractometer is readyto use with fruit. An ATC (for Automatic TemperatureCompensating) Refractometer will compensate for tem-perature changes, but costs more. However, if you havea non-compensating refractometer, there are plenty ofbooks that carry the compensation scale. Otherwise makesure the sample tested is about 60° Farenheit for themost accurate reading.
ACIDITYThe “TA” or total acidity of grapes is as impor-
tant to the flavor balance of wine as the grape sugarcontent. The balance of flavors produced in perfectly rip-ened fruit makes not only the best flavored wine, butthe least troublesome wine to produce. Therefore track-ing changes to the TA in ripening fruit is as importantas monitoring the change in sugar.
Immature fruit is usually excessively acidic,burning and even acrid tasting while overripe fruit tastesflabby and soft, lacking the sparkle of crisp fruit. Fortu-nately, as ripening proceeds, and sugar increases, acidsparticularly, malic are respiring and thus decreasing inintensity. At the point where both sugar and acid arebalanced for the wine style, the harvest can commence.
Ideally, the total acidity of grapes would not ex-ceed .9% and also would not be less than .5%. Excessivlyhigh or low acids can be corrected, but never provide theexact flavor of perfectly ripe fruit.
Using the Country Wines Acid Test KitTo run an acid test with this kit, measure 10 ml. of
Juice or Wine into the sample jar and add 3 or 4 drops ofPhenolphthalein, the indicator solution. Swirl to mix.Rinse out the syringe/pipette with distilled water andrefill with 10 ml. of the Sodium Hydroxide neutralizer.Add a drop to the sample one at a time, swirling the mixas you add it. Continue adding the neutralizer until thesample turns a distinct pink, that holds for longer than15 seconds.To do this test, choose a well lighted locationwith a white background.
Also keep a sample of the untreated juice, of the
Sugar, Acid and pH TestingProcedures
SUGAR
Acidity continued next page.
The refractometer, and sampling tube.
Summer 2003 Beverage People News Page 12www.thebeveragepeople.com
Note: Make your own buffer solution of 3.56 pH bymixing 50 ml of deionized water with one teaspoon ofPotassium Bitartrate. Mix well and then calibrate themeter.
From Acidity previous page. sample uncontaminated. Last, use a bright light, even ahigh intensity desk lamp, to better see the color changein red wines.
pHAlthough Total Acidity is the best measure of a
wine’s flavor balance, pH is really the best measure of awine’s stability. The two scales are not correlative be-cause the acids in grapes are weak acids and also be-cause of the presence of potassium ions. Most wines havean acceptable pH ranging from 3.1 to 3.6 T h eproblems associated with too low pH are usually poorquality fermentations, especially Malolactic fermenta-tion. In addition, high pH indicates a wine susceptable tobacterial spoilage, particularly at a pH above 3.7.
Testing for pHpH can be tested either by strips, or by a pH
meter. A pH meter is more expensive, and more difficultto maintain and use than strips are, but it is absolutelyrequired for accuracy.
Always remember that the lower the pH, thehigher the acidity. Thus, a wine with a pH of 3.2 has morenatural stability against bacterial spoilage than a winewith a pH of 3.4 or 3.5, and much more than a wine witha pH of 3.7 or 3.8.
To test your juice or wine with a pH meter, firstmake sure you are working with a degassed sample. Thepresence of CO2, as is also the case with testing TA,interferes with the test results. Prepare a sample byboiling it briefly and adding deionized water back to theoriginal volume. Or alternatively, stir the wine or juiceand let it stand for an hour, which will work if no activefermentation is taking place.
Next calibrate your meter by following themanufacturer’s directions, or by making up a standardbuffer preparation to pH4 and an-other to pH7. Make a fresh solutionafter several uses to avoid contami-nating and shifting the pH of thestandard. Let the electrode stand inthe pH7 buffer for several minutesand then follow the meter instruc-tions to calibrate that sample. Re-peat for pH4 and then repeat withthe juice or wine. Post your readingsto a log. You may find that it will beuseful later when doing SO2 addi-tions to preserve the wine. Note: ifyou leave your meter unused for sev-eral months, it may not becalibratable. You can avoid this, by routinely soaking theelectrode in buffer pH4. Place a cotton ball soaked inbuffer pH4 inside the cap for storage.
same volume, in a clear cup next to the test sample. Youwill more quickly see the marked color change in thisway. Red wine pigments will alter the pink color to agray tone or even darker. Keep track of how manymillileters of neutralizer are added to the sample. How-ever much you use will be multiplied by a factor thataccounts for the particularstrength of the neutralizerused. The kit we sell uses a neu-tralizer that is .1N SodiumHydroxide, which is multipliedby a factor of .075 to achieve thefinal reading.
You may wish to verifyyour results by using a pHmeter. Full titration will beachieved when the neutralizeradditions raise the pH to 8.2. See the use of pH instruc-tions that follow for how to measure pH.
Using the Vinoferm Acidometer Acid Test KitA “new” kit has re-
turned to the market thatallows home winemakersto accurately and quicklymeasure TA. TheAcidometer, by Vinofermconsists of a graduatedglass cylinder, a 100 ml.bottle of Blue IndicatingSolution and a packet oflitmus paper. This kit isparticularly good at test-ing red wines.
It is easy and simpleto use. Fill the cylinderwith wine or juice to the0 mark. (Note: if using a pipete this is 10 ml. of solu-tion.) Add the indicating solution drop by drop until thesolution turns from green to blue in white wines, or redto purple in red wines. The litmus paper confirms thatall the acid is neutralized. Then the TA is read directlyfrom the fill line of the cylinder. No further calculationis necessay. In our tests, using several wines, the resultscompared favorable with laboratory anaylsis. In threesample, fresh juice, dry white wine, and a dry red winethe results were almost identical. In a dessert wine with10% residual sugar, the kit erred on the low side by .3grams/Liter, 6.2 instead of the 6.5 the Lab returned.
Our friend and former employee, Jeff Sternfeld, whoran these tests at a wine lab for us recommends threeadditional components to make the kit more user friendly.Rather than pouring in the 10 ml. sample, get a 10 ml.pipet to accurately set up the starting point. Use a #2rubber stopper to close the cylinder when dispersing theneutralizer in the cylinder, it's cleaner and keeps the
Page 13 Summer 2003 Beverage People NewsAmerica's Winemaking Supply Store
Yeast RecommendationsLocate your grape variety or style, read about the yeast characteristics for the recommended strain(s). Remember that the option isalways to use what is freshest and available to you, if all of these strains are not in supply. We try to stock all of these duringharvest. See page 17, for instructions on rehydrating dry yeast.
Summer 2003 Beverage People News Page 14www.thebeveragepeople.com
HOMEMADE OAK FLAVORINGHomemade Oak Extract is a sound alternative to barrel storage. The marriage of flavors takes place in glass orstainless steel storage containers instead of barrels and therefore needs to be racked at least as frequently asa barrel to slowly introduce oxygen. Other than maintaining that program, the effects of oak flavor and aromawill very nearly match the tastes imparted from storage in oak cooperage. To make up your extract you will needa few supplies, as well as the oak chips.You will need:
8 oz. Oak Chips, Plain or Toasted25 oz. Vodka (or Everclear)2 Quart Mason Jars with Lids1 yd. CheeseclothSmall Funnel100 ml Graduated Cylinder.5 ml Pipet or Syringe5 Clean Wine Glasses
To make the extract, fill one Mason jar with the oakchips and fill the jar completely with vodka. Cover andlet stand for 24 hours. Line a funnel with severallayers of folded cheesecloth and place over the secondMason jar. Pour in the oak and vodka mixture, standuntil well drained. You will normally collect approxi-mately 10 to 12 oz. of Liquid Oak Extract. You mayfurther clarify this liquid by straining a second timethrough a paper coffee filter. Pour the extract into aclean bottle and store until needed.
Trial additions: measure 100 ml of wineinto the graduated cylinder and add .5 ml liquidoak extract. Pour 1 oz. of this flavored wine into a wineglass and mark .5 ml. Add 1 oz. of wine to the gradu-ated cylinder. Add another .5 ml liquid oak extract.Pour 1 oz. of this second flavored wine into a second
wine glass and mark .85 ml. Add 1 oz. of wine to thegraduated cylinder and repeat this process 3 moretimes to give you five wine glasses marked .5, .85, 1.1,1.28, and 1.41 ml. Now taste and smell these differentwines until you decide which amount is the mostdesirable.
Now, to treat five gallons of wine, multiplyyour favorite amount (in ml) by 188. For example:your favorite sample wine glass holds is the samplewith 1.28 ml added. Multiply 1.28 x 188 = 241 ml. Addthis extract per 5 gallons of wine you are flavoring.Taste it now and again in three weeks. The wine willappear to have lost some of its fruitier flavor andaromatic components, but after several weeks, theextract will “marry” to the wine and the fruit willreappear. We recommend you do the extract additionseveral weeks before bottling, in case you want toincrease the amount of oak by making a second addi-tion.
Sample Dosage Add to 5 gallonsGlass #1 .50 ml x 188 = 94 ml.Glass #2 .85 ml x 188 = 160 ml.Glass #3 1.10 ml x 188 = 207 ml.Glass #4 1.28 ml x 188 = 241 ml.Glass #5 1.41 ml x 188 = 265 ml.
FOR GREAT OAK FLAVOR , TRY
OAKBOY™ OR CHAIN OF OAK™OakBoy™, is a 15" long piece of pure toasted
French or American Oak, planed on all four sides,and grooved longitudinally, for maximum surfaceexposure. The shape and size of this wooden stickallows for easy treatment of wine stored in glass car-boys. It gives a gentle, slow extraction of oak flavorand does an especially good job of accenting oak aro-mas. This treatment very closely duplicates the ac-tivity of wine in a new barrel.
OakBoy flavor choices are: French Medium toast,French Dark toast, American Medium toast andAmerican Dark toast. We are recommending the ad-dition of 1 to 2 pieces of wood per carboy, with a 1 to2 month contact period. The longer contact periodwill increase mouthfeel and heighten aromas. Andbest of all, you can remove the stave from the carboy
or rack away from it. Manufactured by Innerstave,Oakboy is available in a 6 pack, and has a long shelflife. Need only a few staves this year? The rest willbe usable next year. B80, American Medium is$21.95 and B82 American Dark is $22.95. B81,French Medium is $24.95 and B83 French Dark is$25.95.
For use with full size 60 gallon barrels, whichhave lost their oak-i-ness, we are also selling an-other Innerstave innovation, called Chain of Oakwhich as the name implies,are seperate oak stavesthat tie together with nylon ties, which then foldsinto a barrel. The bung opening must be at least 2".These chains are sold in packages of 17 staves, andcan be used in smaller barrels if the bung openingis large enough by using less than all 17 staves. B78Chain of Oak, American Medium is $45.00, B79Chain of Oak, American Dark is $49.00. B74 Chainof Oak French Medium is $49.00 and B75 Chainof Oak French Dark is $54.00.
Page 15 Summer 2003 Beverage People NewsAmerica's Winemaking Supply Store
2003 WinemakingSupplies Catalog
PressesWooden cage with steel base on legs, lets you quickly and smoothly press fermentedred 59grapes or crushed white grapes. (Model shown to right is #30 ratchet head style.)
Basket Basket Capacity RetailModel Number Diameter Height In Gal. PriceWE02 #25 10" 14" 5 $295.00WE03 #30 12" 17" 7 $375.00WE04 #35 14" 19" 12 $450.00WE05 #40 16" 21" 18 $500.00WE06 #45 18" 24" 25 $600.00WE07 #50 20" 26" 34 $750.00Piston Top Basket Press with Hydraulic Ram on frame with wheels. Very easy to use, withtilt frame for draining. Size shown to right is similar to a #50 basket press.WE50 Piston, manual Hydraulic Press on wheels #50 20" x 26" $1600.00WE51 Piston, manual Hydraulic Press on wheels #60 24" x 30" $2095.00Water Bladder Press inflates with regular garden hose pressure, pressing the grapesagainst the stainless steel cage, while a lid retains the grapes. (Not pictured.)WE55 #40 17" 23" 20 $1125.00WE46 #54 with wheels 21" 28" 42 $1895.00WE59 #99 with wheels 79 $3625.00
Crushers and Stemmer/CrushersCrushers: Manual rollers crush the grapes by simply turning the flywheel supplied.The rollers gentle burst the whole grape.Dimensions of Bin: 21" x 25"WE12 Paint finish $275.00WE13 With all stainless hopper (Shown top right.) $325.00Stemmer/Crushers: Manual and electric models are available, both will processaround one ton per hour. Stainless steel models come with a stainless stem grate andstainless hopper.Dimensions of Bin: 18" x 31"WE14 Manual, paint grade stemmer/crusher $500.00WE15 Manual, stainless stemmer/crusher $595.00WE16 Electric 110V, paint grade stemmer/crusher (Shown middle right.) $750.00WE17 Electric 110V, stainless steel stemmer/crusher $850.00WE22 Electric 110V, paint grade stemmer/crusher
with screw feed and extended hopper (Dimensions of Bin: 18" x 35") $825.00WE18 Electric 110V, stainless stemmer/crusher
with screw feed and extended hopper $995.00WE25 Electric 110V, ALL stainless stemmer/crusher
with screw feed and extended hopper (Shown bottom right) $1195.00WE20 Support stand for above stemmer/crushers $275.00
Large Storage TanksVariable Capacity Stainless Wine Tanks, comewith a floating lid, pressure relief valve and drain.WE43 100 Liter Stainless tank ........................................ $325.00WE40 200 Liter Stainless tank ........................................ $450.00WE42 300 Liter Stainless tank ........................................ $500.00WE44 400 Liter Stainless tank ........................................ $700.00WE45 500 Liter Stainless tank ........................................ $800.00WE41 600 Liter Stainless tank ........................................ $875.00
Filter/PumpsLarge capacity filter with pump processes wine through10 pads with 8” square surface. This is 3 times larger thanthe Buon Vino Jet Filter we sell and rent. (85 gal./hr.)WE60 10 Plate Filter/Pump ....................................... $1125.00Large capacity pump with stainles steel body and reverseswitch, 110V., uses 1 1/4” hose.WE61 S/S Large pump ............................................... $1225.00
Equipment is priced for pick up at the store. The basket presses sized #25 to #40 can be broken down for shipping via UPS. All otherequipment should be picked up at the store. Palletizing and shipping other equipment, is subject to labor and shipping charges.
Summer 2003 Beverage People News Page 16www.thebeveragepeople.com
with the addition of a simple syrup just to smooth the flavor andintensify the berry taste. Reminds us of summer even in the deadof winter and tastes great for several years, if you can wait thatlong, but is ready to drink in three months. Ask for our winerecipe handout. FL44 Raspberry Puree, FL45 Blackberry Pu-ree, FL46 Apricot Puree or FL48 Dark Sweet Cherry49 oz. can ................................................................. $12.95 each
Meadmaker's Ingredient Kit9 lbs. of our honey with yeast, nutrients, acid blend, sulfite,priming sugar and instructions, makes 5 gallons of sparklingmead. BD50 .....................................................................$39.95
EQUIPMENTKITS
Wine EquipmentKit
Complete with a ten gallonprimary fermentor and lid, a six-gallon glass secondary, an airlock and stopper, 25 Campdentablets, a siphon assembly, abottle filler, two lever handcorker and 25 corks, Acid
Testing Kit, Hydrometer and Test jar, a bottle brush and the bookWinemaker's Recipe Handbook. BDW01.................. $119.95
Mead Equipment KitIncludes a 7-gallon glass primary and 5-gallon glass secondaryfermentor with stopper and airlock, a siphon assembly, bottlefiller, an Acid Test kit, Hydrometer and Test jar, the “Emily”Capper, caps, a spoon, sanitizer, a bottle brush and the bookMaking Mead by Morse.BD60.............................................................................. $119.95
SUPPLIESAcids
A17 Ascorbic. 1 oz. ................................................. $1.85A05 Citric. 2 oz. ...................................................... $ .95A14 Malic. 2 oz. ....................................................... $ .95A10 Tartaric. 2 oz. .................................................. $1.95
Two cans of concentrate of your choice are included with instruc-tions for 5 gallons of wine. Choose from the list below, and weinclude the yeast, sugar, acid blend, and a pack of wine labels.BDW02 .................................................................... $34.95Choose your flavor or use this list to order individual cans(C002) Chenin Blanc or (C004) Chablis, .............. $10.95(C006) Burgundy or (C005) Ruby Cabernet. ..... $12.95
Boxed ConcentratedWine Kits
Asceptically packaged, not as concentratedas the above cans, these kits are a completepackage of ingredients, boxed for shipping.Excellent flavors and aromas , ready to drinkin less than three months. Each15 liter kitmakes 6 gallons of wine.
C011 Barolo (R) ............................................................. $69.95C022 Pinot Grigio (W) .................................................. $74.95C014 Johannisberg Riesling (W) ................................. $69.95C018 Chilean Merlot (R) ..............................................$69.95C019 Sauvignon Blanc (W) .......................................... $64.95C017 Gewurztraminer (W) .......................................... $74.95C021 French Cabernet Sauvignon (R) ........................ $79.95C020 Pinot Noir (R) ...................................................... $74.95C009 Cabernet/Merlot (R) ........................................... $74.95C012 Chilean Chardonnay (W) ................................... $64.95C015 Aussie Cabernet/Shiraz (R) ................................ $84.95C037 Luna Rossa, big RED (R) .................................... $84.95Each 7.5 liter kit makes 11.5 liters of wine.C013 Port (R) or C023 Dry Sherry (W) .................... $45.00
Pure Italian Juice Wine KitsMosto Italiano® kits are asceptically packaged in plastic pails,that also serve as the primary fermentor. 23 liter kits are a com-plete package of ingredients to make 6 gallons. Ready in threemonths.C030 Cabernet Sauvignon (R) ..................................... $84.95C031 Chardonnay (W) ................................................. $79.95C032 Sangiovese (R) ..................................................... $84.95C033 Gewurztraminer (W) .......................................... $74.95C034 Shiraz (R) ............................................................. $84.95C035 Zinfandel (R) ....................................................... $84.95C036 Sauvignon Blanc (W) .......................................... $79.95
Seedless Fruit PureeEach 49 oz. can of fruit puree from Oregon isseedless, with all the goodness preserved inthe processing, full of aroma and a deep richtaste and color. Use one can in five gallons ofbeer, two cans to flavor a mead or four cansto make wine. The classic wine recipe using four cans ofpuree, will yield 24 wine bottles of superb fruit wine. Finish it
Page 17 Summer 2003 Beverage People NewsAmerica's Winemaking Supply Store
CS16 Campden Tablets Pack of 100. ..................... $2.95CS14 Efferbaktol SO2 Tablets Pack of 3 ............... $2.95
FST03 Hose Clamp for 1/2" hose........................... $1.25
QE17 Bottle Filler for 5/16" hose. ......................... $3.95QE20 Bottle Filler for 1/2" hose. ........................... $5.95
PS26 Transfer Pump, phenolic head, electric ... $139.00
F01 Filter/Strainer for Pumps (use with 1/2" hose).... $16.95FX15 Large Motorized Pump, 4 GPM, 1/4 HP .. $285.00(Shown with example of mounting, not supplied.)
See page 7 for recommendations for these additives.
QR11 Yeast Nutrient (DAP). 2 oz. ........................ $1.50
QR33 Autolysed Yeast, 2 oz. ................................. $1.50QR16 Yeast Hulls, 2 oz. .......................................... $2.95
QR06 Yeast Food, Fermaid K™ 3 oz. .................. $2.95
QR50 Yeast Nutrient for Meads. (Our special blend)
Use 2 oz. per 5 gallons. 2 oz. ..................................... $1.75
Wine Yeast & MalolacticYEASTChoose your yeast from the information given on page 13. Use one gram per gallon.Shelf life is 3 to 4 months, if kept refrigerated much of that time. To make a starter:Boil 4 oz. of distilled water, cool to 100°F, add dry yeast and agitate for 10 minutes.Then spread over juice or grape must. Stir in and stir again in 24 hours.
10 grams ...................................................................$1.00WY27 Pasteur Champagne (all-purpose yeast)WY23 Prise de Mousse (low foam,yeast for whites)
10 grams ...................................................................$1.50WY38 Assmanshausen (Pinot Noir, Zinfandel)WY25 Beaujolais 71B (fruity, aromatic reds)WY45 Brunello BM45 (Sangiovese, Macerations)WY53 CSM (Cab Sauv., Merlot, Cab Franc)WY22 Epernay 2 (fruit wines and blanc de noirs)WY30 French Red (Cabernet, Merlot, Zinfandel)WY24 K-1 (kills competing wild yeast)WY50 M2 (Premium Chardonnay and Cabernet)WY26 Montrachet (all-purpose if no sulfur used)WY29 Steinberger (Riesling and Gewurztraminer)WY35 Rhone #L2226 (Syrah, Rhone)WY55 RC212 (Pinot Noir, other blush wines)WY31 Simi White (French White) (Chardonnay)WY28 Wadenswil 46 (Pinot, Riesling)
MALOLACTICWY32 ML Culture, MCW Strain. 2 gram pack inoculates 5
gallons directly. Can then build up to treat up to 500 gallons.
Comes with instructions. ........................................... $9.95WY51 ML Culture, Enoferm Alpha Strain, 2.6 gram pack
inoculates 60 gallons directly. With instructions .... $19.95
Fining AgentsFN06 Sparkolloid™ 1 oz. ...................................... $ 1.75FN32 Bentonite 2 oz. .............................................. $ .69
Hose Barb for Filter Housing. Need two. Specify: PS02 3/8"Barb. or PS03 1/2" hose. ................................................$1.29
ContainersP01 6.8 Gallon Plastic Bucket with Wire Bale Handle,
Graduation marks in half gallons & Locking lid. ...... $9.50P17 Poly Drum Liner (4 mil, 60 gall.) ..................... $4.25P04M 10 Gallon Heavy-Duty Plastic Bucket with moldedhandles. .................................................................... $19.95P05 10 Gallon Lid .................................................... $5.9520,32 AND 48 GALLON SIZES are available at the store, also with lids.
carrying case ............................................................... $99.95 TE32 20° Brix Solution. Sugar solution used to standardize
the refractometer. 2 oz. ............................................... $2.50
TE13 Vinometer. Measures alcohol content in drywine .............................................................................. $7.95
Test JarsRegular Test Jar for 9" Hydrometer. TE55 Plastic............................................................. $4.95 TE53 Glass............................................................... $8.95
Tall Test Jar for 10 /12" Hydrometer. TE56 Plastic............................................................. $5.95
TE90 Laboratory Thermometer. 0-220°F., Recalibratable, Type 304 Stainless, 2" Dial x 12" Stem,comes with clip for side of kettles ............................... $32.95
TE91 Floating Glass Thermom-eter. 12" (0-220° F. and -15-100°C)......................................... $14.95
TE37 Floating Glass Thermom-eter. 8"(40-210° F. and 0-100°C)........................................... $8.95
TE81 Fermometer. Monitors tem-
perature from 36 to 78°F., glue-backed to read the surface tempera-
ture of carboys. ................. $2.95
MS33 Wine Degasser/Blender. Stainless top attaches to drill,spinning the nylon rod to stir or degass wine .............. $16.95
WINE LABORATORY
Kit for testing Malolactic Fermentation
Page 21 Summer 2003 Beverage People NewsAmerica's Winemaking Supply Store
GrapesBK80 Great Grapes, Proulx ........................ $3.95
MG11 Practical Winery and Vineyard Magazine,current issue. .................................................... $3.95
CiderBK70 Sweet & Hard Cider, Proulx& Nichols ....................................................... $14.95
BK72 Making Cider , Deal ............................ $9.95
BK79 Making the Best Apple Cider............ $3.95
MeadBK77 Making Mead, Morse ....................... $14.95BK51 The Compleat Meadmaker, Schramm
Questions? Retail hours are 10:00 to5:30 Tuesday through Friday and Sat-urday 10:00 to 5:00.
We are also open on Mondays fromAugust through December. We're al-ways ready to answer questions forour customers, or to discuss any prob-lems that come up.Ordering Instructions:For the fastest, most personal service,call our TOLL FREE ORDER LINE,(800) 544-1867, which may be usedwith your Visa, Mastercard, or Ameri-can Express card. Have your catalogand credit card handy for reference. Ifthis is your first order, please tell us,so that we may help you with anyquestions you have.
To place your order by mail, pleasenote the following, if you live in Cali-fornia, add 7.50% sales tax on non-food items. Food items are: concen-trates, sugars, purees, and flavorings.All items shipped to points outsideCalifornia are not taxable.
Fastest Shipping in the Business:We normally ship UPS Ground
service the same day the order isreceived, if received by 2 pm. Groundservice to Zones 2 and 3 receive oneday service. Zones 4 and 5 receive 2 to3 day service. Customers in Zones 6,7 and 8 will normally receive theirmerchandise in 4 to 5 working days.
For faster service to Zones 5-8,and for perishables such as liquidyeast, we recommend UPS Standardovernight Air service, or UPS 2DAYAir service.
Rates are quoted at www.ups.com,or call our toll free 800 number.
Customers in Alaska and Hawaii pleasetake note that priority mail service fromthe Post Office is recommended for pack-ages up to 15 lbs. Heavier packages with-out perishables can be sent more eco-nomically via ground, parcel post.
Shipments to Alaska, Hawaii and outof country will travel by carrier of cus-tomer request. We're sorry, but we mustadd shipping charges to these orders, re-gardless of free shipping offers.
These rates can be quoted by callingour toll free 800 number.
ORDERING
For items totaling less than $50.00, add $5.00 for shipping to Califor-nia, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, all other states, add $6.00.
The Beverage People is a family owned and operated retail and mailordersupply firm with over 25 years experience teaching home wine and beermaking to people like yourself. Our founders, Byron Burch and NancyVineyard broke ground for the good beer movement in the 1970’s bysearching out products for home use and teaching thousands of custom-ers how to make great beer, mead and wine at home.
Our approach to business is reflected in the style of our newslet-ter and catalog. We bring you both products and information, at pricesthat compete with any nationwide mailorder firm. Our retail store is amecca for enthusiasts like yourself, stocked with all the great productsyou need for your next fermentation.
Byron Burch, the owner is also the author of Brewing QualityBeers, the second edition, a textbook for homebrewing that has sold overa quarter million copies.
Our staff wishes you the very best with your new hobby and lookforward to hearing from you. Mention that you are a new customer, sowe may give you a free article from a past newsletter to help answer yourfermentation questions.
To determine time in transit for most shipping, use the first three digits of your zip code and refer to ourshipping information at left.
Page 23 Summer 2003 Beverage People NewsAmerica's Winemaking Supply Store
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The Beverage People840 Piner Rd. #14Santa Rosa, CA 95403
Our Guarantee:All our supplies are quaranteed for one year,except yeast which is perishable and should berefrigerated upon arrival. Best used in 60 to 90days.
Order Form:1. Organize the items by non-food/taxableand food/non-taxable to properly apply salestax. If unsure of tax status, a list is located onpage 22. (California orders only. Out of state areall non-taxable.)2. Print legibly if sending it by fax or mail.3. Add no money for shipping if items totalover $50.00. For items totaling less than$50.00, add $5.00 for shipping to California,Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and all otherstates, add $6.00.4. Orders with 50 lb. sacks of grain malts,Selection or Mosto Italiano Wine Kits, winebarrels larger than 5 gallons, or Beer KegSystems add $10.00 for shipping for each ofthese items.5. Two cases of beer or wine bottles or twocarboys per order, do not incur additionalshipping charges, every additional case orcarboy add $4.00 .6. Bulk items not listed in catalog are subjectto actual shipping costs.7. Wine equipment such as grape presses andstemmer/crushers are shipped via truck,freight collect. We cannot ship tanks withoutcharging for crating.
BOTTLING3-Spout Filler $10.00Wine Corker $10.00Glue Labeller $10.00Rentals are for 24 hrs. from noon to noon,reservations accepted up to 7 days in advance.Call 544-2520 to make your reservation.
Wine Equipment Rentals
Fall Winemaking Class
Phone The Beverage People at 707 544-2520 toreserve a place in our winemaking classes. Thereis a $10.00 fee. You will get your questions an-swered, go over equipment and processes. Spaceis limited, so call today. Class will meet Saturday,August 23 at 3 pm. Bring a bottle of your wine tocritique, class is held outdoors at the retail store.
Visit us at the retail store: Hours:August thru December: Mon. - Fri.10:00 to 5:30, Sat. 10:00 to 5:00.January thru July:, regular hours, except, closed on Monday.
PRSRT STD
U.S. Postage
PAID
NORTHBAY, CA
PERMIT #4
The Beverage PeopleByron Burch, Proprietor840 Piner Rd. #14Santa Rosa, CA 95403
Change Service RequestedSummer 2003
Competitions for WinemakersMarin County Fair, Entries due last week of May or so. ContactMarin County Fairgrounds or call Jay Conner 510 232 5456. Wenormally deliver the entries for you, if you have sent in forms andmoney in advance.
Orange County Fair, Entries due June 1st., Contact Jim Graver,chairman of Orange County Wine Society 714 708 1636. Again, wenormally deliver the entries for a small fee, but you must send inthe forms in advance.
HomeWinemakers Classic, Napa County, contact via the web atwww.homewine.com. This is a limited competition and fills up. Socontact them in April to be included. Event tickets are on sale atthe store, Mark your calendar now for the Classic 2003: Saturday,July 19 2003, 4:30 -7:00, St. Supéry Winery.
California state Fair. Contact fair www.tomatoweb.com/shw. Dead-line for entries is June 30.
Harvest Fair of Sonoma County. Contact fair office at 545-4203,we have forms. Deadline for entries is the last week of August.Opportunity for local winemakers to judge, contact Robert Bennett,433-4574 to be on a panel.
Grape Growers WantedWe keep a book at our shop giving information
provided by grape growers with small lots of grapesfor sale to amateur winemakers. The program haseffectively bridged the gap between the growerneeding to find a home for some excess crop and thewinemaker looking for a supply to harvest.
If you would like to place a listing, please sendus a list of grapes available, with your name,address and phone number. Please also indicate:The estimated Picking Date
Varietals available Minimum/Max avail Price with/or without picking Age of vines, location of vineyard.
