Posted on 11/14/202011/12/2020 by Rob Porton-Jones — Leave a comment

Making Wine: Reflections From a Homebrewer’s 2nd Wine Season – Part 1

Part 1: What to Do with 7 Gallons of Cabernet Franc?

Hello.

I’m Rob. You may have met me if you’ve wandered back to the Draft counter for CO2 refills or for help with your setting up, upgrading, or troubleshooting your draft system. I was a cook and a chef for 20 years before I switched over to working in the world of beer. I started working at Steinbart’s in June of 2019 after my position at a commercial brewery was downsized/eliminated for budget reasons. So 2019 was my first wine season at Steinbart’s

I’ve enjoyed drinking wine much longer than I have enjoyed drinking beer, which is funny, since beer became my career after I retired as a chef for physical and family reasons. I hated beer in college. It turns out that what I really didn’t like at the time was domestic lagers. I found that malty craft ales, preferably on the higher ABV scale, were much more my style and my entry into beer exploration. I’ve been homebrewing for seven years now, with a year and half or work in a professional brewery and going on a year and a half now as a Steinbart Draft Technician.

I started off drinking mostly white wine: Rieslings and and other sweeter varieties. I eventually transitioned into mostly drinking reds, with their added layers of complexity and body once I developed a pallet for their more tannic aspect. After meeting my wife, I was introduced to the weekly wine group she had been a part of for years. The kind of group where people would show up at the wine shop and order some food and the week’s flight of wines, and then line up several bottles brought from people’s wine cellars as “the extras” for everyone to taste. Between that opportunity to sample so many different wines each week (and ones that were a bit out of my own more limited price range), and nine years of working at an Italian inspired restaurant where I would run down the wine lists with the bartenders, owners, and the executive chef, my pallet and wine knowledge increased greatly.

But only from a consumer’s standpoint. I really didn’t know all that much from a vintner’s perspective on how the wine was actually made. I mean, I understood on a very general sense, but only very general. I had a wonderful French chef at culinary college, who was a Sommelier at one of the big downtown hotels in Denver, cover a lot of the background of grape varietals, wine regions, etc., but I didn’t really know much about the mechanics and the chemistry involved in the process.

Which meant that last wine season, when someone forfeited their deposit on 100 pounds of Cabernet Franc grapes, I jumped at the opportunity to switch from a more theoretical/book knowledge of how to make wine to try and actually go from grapes to bottle. I had some help from some other staff members that had plenty of wine experience. I ended up with over eight and a half gallons of juice after pressing, which I fermented with two packets of Vintner’s Harvest R56 – Full Bodied Red yeast. That turned into a 6 gallon carboy, two 1 gallon jugs, and a 1/2 gallon jug for secondary fermentation. There were some learning experiences along the way, like the fact that filling the carboys all the way up to the neck was great for limiting the surface area susceptible to air exposure, but not so great when you realize that you didn’t leave enough room to get two packs of malolactic yeast in with the wine before you got that far up the neck (if you didn’t add malolactic while the grapes were still on the skins). After racking off of the sediment, I now have a 6 gallon carboy full up to the vent bung, which means probably six and a half to seven gallons of wine ready to bottle. Most people bottled back in the spring or summer, but I have a one-and-a-half year old toddler, so my free time for fermentation projects is much more limited than I would ideally prefer. At last taste, it was quite enjoyable as a young, not yet fully ready, medium bodied wine.

Enter the wine season of 2020. We’ll just skip over the rest of 2020. Seriously. Can we move on already? What a year this has been.

Anyway. In talking to Tom earlier in the year, he told me that Cabernet Franc, which is typically a blending grape (this I knew), was usually served as a table wine if bottled as a single varietal, and typically is best within the first two or three years of being bottled (this I didn’t know). It just doesn’t have as much body and acidity as some of the other big red grapes to give it an extended shelf life. So I decided that to give myself more time to enjoy that seven or so gallons of wine (so I’m not drinking the same thing every week when I’m not drinking beer), I would try making another batch of wine this year, with more full-bodied grapes, and I would blend some of the 2020 grapes with my 2019 Cab Franc to be able to store it for a longer period.

Cabernet Franc is often one of the grapes used in French Bordeaux wines, although usually as a smaller percentage of the wine, so I thought I would get other grapes that were typically in Bordeaux blends, ferment everything separately, bottle about a third to half of each grape as a single varietal, and then blend the rest to taste. After doing some research, and seeing which grapes our growers were going to have available, I decided I would get one 34 pound box of Petite Verdot, two 34 pound boxes of Merlot, and two 34 pound boxes of Cabernet Sauvignon. Petite Verdot is sometimes as little as only 2% of a Bordeaux blend, but I was limited to the preset quantities, and I wasn’t going to try and buy several hundred pounds of grapes to get the percentage of the blend lower.

It was a nice plan, while it lasted…

Join me next weekend for Part 2 in this series: Time to Get the Grapes and Start ~~Fermenting~~ Doing Math…

Posted on 09/30/202009/30/2020 by Natasha — Leave a comment

Wine with Natasha – The Plan(s)

Once I’d decided on Sauvignon Blanc, and mysteriously convinced Chip (pictured below) to join me in this quest, it was time to figure out what the heck to do.

First, I had to commit to the juice before it sold out. From working here last season and paying attention when Tom, John, Mark, and other wine-makers talk wine, I knew I had to commit to six or seven gallons of juice if I wanted to end up five gallons of wine. I decided on six gallons. Juice is expensive, and I was willing to bet six was enough. So, like everyone else who wants/wanted grapes or juice, I put a pre-order in online. I probably could have, since I work here, just let my bosses know I wanted an order, but I really didn’t want to risk it being forgotten. Especially after both my previous disappointment over the Lemberger grapes and having committed to making wine publicly.

My coworkers saw my order come in online and thought I was a little weird. But only a little; we’ve been funneling all orders online to the absolute best of our ability for exactly this sort of thing. It keeps everything organized.

Once my order was in, I pretty much immediately reread Tom’s Tips for Techniques, only to realize that since I was getting juice and not grapes, none of that applied to me. Thus I went off to his post on choosing the right yeast for your wine. I also started reading anything I could find in Wine Maker Magazine that seemed relevant to my future undertaking. Then, I made my plan.

My Original Plan

Here’s what I thought I was going to do: decide on yeast (with Chip) before the juice came in. When the juice arrived, I would take my six gallons of Sauvignon Blanc juice, treat it with potassium metabisulfite, pectic enzyme, and tartaric acid as needed, then separate out a gallon and freeze it. Only then would I pitch my yeast and ferment the other five gallons. My wine would spend two weeks in primary, then I’d move the five gallons of “green” wine to a five gallon glass carboy to think about what it needs to do for several months. If I needed to top up the carboy to make sure the juice was in the neck of the carboy, I’d add enough of the previously frozen juice to do so.

I’d rack to other carboys basically as often as Tom told me I should, topping up with juice as needed. And, based on a recent Wine Maker Magazine article, I would age all of my wine together and (hopefully) bottle in spring. I’d be drinking my own wine on my own patio come International Sauvignon Blanc Day!

What I Actually Did

First, Chip and I did not manage to collaborate on the yeast plan before the juice arrived. In part because, as I mentioned in the previous post in this series, the grapes ripened far faster than I realized they would and the juice appeared at F.H. Steinbart what felt like the day after the decision. (Time really has been extra fuzzy this year.)

Then, as Chip and I talked to Tom (both together and individually), we realized I’d been correct to buy (and advise him to buy) six gallons of juice, I’d been completely wrong about how to handle that juice. My expectation of freezing a gallon of unfermented juice for top ups was completely wrong. Apparently we need to ferment all the wine at the same time, and top up with the “extra” gallon of wine as we go. I knew adding unfermented juice would rev the yeast back up, but I thought that was the goal. Apparently not.

Phew! Newbie mistake avoided!

After that, we discussed fermentation temperature. Tom said we wanted to keep it fermenting fairly cool and slowly. Too warm a ferment will, apparently, strip the delightful fruity notes I love in Sauvignon Blanc. I’m not sure the biochemical ways the yeasts strip such things out when reproducing more aggressively, but I don’t doubt Mr. Thompson in this. Chip said his plan was to keep his primary fermentor surrounded by ice packs. I said my plan was to hope room temperature in my house was enough. We were aiming, it seems, for 65F-70F.

The acid levels in the juice were a bit low, so we needed to add tartaric acid in addition to our pectic enzyme and potassium metabisulfite. I have since lost the calculations, unfortunately, of how much acid we needed to add. So that’s fun. I mean, I added the right amount because Tom and I did it before I left that day, but I still don’t recall how much.

Bummer! Newbie mistake activated!

Chip selected our yeast, Vintner’s Harvest BV7. I don’t know what drove him to settle there, but I am sure it’s gonna result in a tasty wine. Why did I not help select the yeast? Well, for the same reason I’m writing this post up. I work at F.H. Steinbart! I got called in to help with other customers when Chip and Tom started discussing yeasts. It’s cool, though, because I have complete faith in those two. (Chip, please comment and explain why we’re using this yeast. I trust you, but I’d love to know what we’re optimizing for.)

Anyway, I was able to add my tartaric acid, pectic enzyme, and potassium metabisulfite about the same time Chip did, I suspect. There was a short break in customers at the shop not too long after Chip left, and Tom and I were able to measure out my juice and add the appropriate chemicals.

I pitched my yeast the next day, and considered changing my plan to be more like Chip (have ice packs around my fermentor), but after consulting with Tom* I concluded that the weather had changed enough that my home’s temp was probably just fine.

Later, when I no longer had the ability to gather the items to chill the fermentor, the weather changed dramatically AND due to the fires I was unable to keep my window A/C unit in, so we’ll see. I may have ended up with a bummer of a wine due to an overly-warm ferment. I’ll let you all know.

I’m going to rack it out of primary in the next few days (probably Sunday). I’ll let you know what the vital stats are, and how it tastes once that’s done. I’ll also already have some “lessons learned” to share in the next post, and I’ll be able to give you an update on last year’s red wine.

Please keep your fingers crossed that my wine is still tasty after the unfortunate spike in heat!

Finally, please don’t forget that October 1st (TOMORROW) is the last day to convince me to ferment wine with you too! If that sounds fun, comment on this post or on our social media links by the first, and reserve your Barbera grapes or Reisling juice ASAP.

*I told y’all I’d be asking Tom a lot of questions.

Posted on 09/23/202009/23/2020 by Natasha — 2 Comments

Wine with Natasha – The Choice

Wine juice delivery. Four men stand on or near a trailer loaded down with 55 gallon drums of wine grape juice and lug boxes containing wine grapes. The foreground is buckets and scales and things to divide the juice among a number of people.

I’m really feeling the maxim, “if you snooze, you lose” right now. I had been a little hesitant to launch this project, and when I finally decided to just commit…

The grapes I wanted were sold out.

I had to scramble to decide what to go with, as I didn’t really have a second choice lined up. I had been thinking an easy, fruity red for the project and Tom had suggested Lemberger for such a wine. Unfortunately, the Lemberger sold out while I was debating myself. None of the other grapes we had available seemed quite so approachable for a near-total beginner.

So, I went a totally different direction. I looked at our grape juices, and contemplated the possible white wines I could make. I have seriously enjoyed Gewürztraminer since I was introduced to it last year, and there’s nothing more delightful than a rosé* on the patio on a hot summer day. But Riesling can be delicious and is one of the latest grapes to ripen, which would give me more time to dive in and learn tons before I ever have to get sticky.

The Choice

In the end the crisp fruity notes of Sauvignon Blanc won out. It’s absolutely one of my favorite white wines; I’ve loved it from just about every region it’s grown. So why NOT try my hand at it?

I have to admit, I am a bit nervous. I don’t want to totally screw up something I like. But, unlike the Lemberger, I have had Sauvignon Blanc before, so the upside is that I’ll have a much better sense of how well I managed to make my wine.

Thus, it’s decided. I’m making Sauvignon Blanc and I’ll post about it here. Chip, who commented on the last post, is joining me.

Now, given agriculture (and my lack of wine grape knowledge), the Sauvignon Blanc grapes ripened and the juice arrived far before I expected. And due to a variety of other factors, I’m just now getting to share this announcement.

So, two things. First, within the next week, I’ll write up what is up with my Sauvignon Blanc and what yeast Chip and I used, and such like.

Second, since part of the goal here was to invite folks to ferment along with me, I thought I’d ask if anyone else would like to join in with different juice or grapes? I am considering making some of that Riesling, since I do enjoy it and it IS a late ripener. I’m *also* considering making Barbera, which I have never had before but will likely hit the same notes I was looking for when considering the Lemberger.

Both grapes should ripen in early October, so we have a little bit of time to decide. If you are interested in joining me, comment on this post, or on one of our social media channels, by October 1st 2020. But, since this is agriculture and the grapes dictate everything, please know that sooner is better for such a commitment. I could get unlucky again and have the grapes ripen faster than expected.

If someone does wish to make Riesling and/or Barbera with me, I’ll absolutely do some of the wine they are interested in fermenting. If not, I may or may not make more wine, but I won’t write up anything beyond the Sauvignon Blanc if I do decide to make something else.

No matter what, it’s bound to be interesting.

*Ok, technically not a white wine, but we’re selling it as juice, so that’s where it’s categorized.

Posted on 09/02/202009/02/2020 by Natasha — 4 Comments

Wine with Natasha – Prologue

A bright & sunny vineyard with ripe red wine grapes. Under the grapes there is text saying "Learning Wine Season 2020."

Introduction

It’s wine time and I work in one of the world’s most amazing wine supply shops in one of the world’s most amazing wine regions. I enjoy wine. So, reasonably, people think I have extensive knowledge of making wine. They assume I make great wine. And they are, sadly, not totally correct. I’ve only attempted to make wine once so far, and I am not confident that wine will be good, much less great.

I don’t really know how to make wine. Yet.

Last Year

My only experience making wine came last year, when I lucked into enough grapes to make about three gallons of a Malbec and Cabernet Franc blend. I carefully punched down the skins twice a day for ten days, then racked it into a three-gallon glass carboy, and then sat back to wait for the next step. I was pretty sure the next step was malolactic fermentation (“MLF”), but I didn’t know for sure and I didn’t know when to start it if that was the next step.

Then my life got rather topsy-turvy, and in all honesty I didn’t think about that wine again until about January of this year. And our expert, Tom, told me to rack it into a new carboy, sulfite it and not expect too much. I followed his directions, and (as one always should) I sampled the wine as I moved it.

It isn’t vinegar*. I think that’s the best thing I can say about what I made. I currently have not quite three gallons of flabby, insipid, alcoholic grape juice. Some of this, undoubtedly, is that Cabernet blends require a substantial amount of aging**. But no doubt some is the result of my forgetting the wine for months. (I still haven’t managed the MLF.) Finally, I also think some of that is that I didn’t so much choose a yeast basically because the person who gave me a few grapes shrugged and said, “Use this one,” handed it to me, and wandered off. (I used Red Star Premier Classique.)

This Year

This year, I’m going to do it differently. This year, I’m going to do it intentionally. This year, I’m doing some research (mostly picking Tom’s brain and reading the things he writes and our copies, new and old, of Wine Maker Magazine) before I buy grapes or juice. Then more research as I work and things ferment. (Tom will be fielding questions from me for months, and I’ll be reading Wine Maker Magazine or the various books we carry) And this year, I’ll document the technique(s) here on the F.H.S. blog. Hopefully this year will be a great deal better.

But I’ll be learning publicly, and so any successes or trip-ups will be documented here.

Socially Distant Together?

I’ll announce the grapes I’m buying next week. I’ll post If anyone wants to do a ferment-a-long, comment here. Anyone who wants to do so is welcome, newbies and experts alike. And it’d be fun, I think, to hear how others’ fermenting is going. Maybe we can build a little wine community and stay safely socially distant. (Thanks 2020.)

Join or not, I hope you’ll follow along. If you have comments, feel free to share them. Or let us know your thoughts on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

*This is of extra concern for me because my favorite thing to make is actually vinegar.

**I did not know this when I started this project.

Posted on 09/02/2020 by Natasha — Leave a comment

Drop Acid? Raise Acid? Only Testing Can Tell You.

Acid Test Kit, including sodium hydroxide, for testing acidity of wine

Tom is all over this blog right now, as it is absolutely time to talk wine all the time. In this piece, he gives the best tips on how to use an acid test kit and why you absolutely should use one.

The first time I made wine was in 1970 when our very old plum tree put out 12 bushels of ripe fruit. The previous year had been just as productive and everyone in the family was tired of canned plums and jam. Dad suggested I make wine, as I was the only one in the family who liked wine much. Figuring I might as well, I hit a store called WineArt Oregon on Broadway Blvd. Ann McCullum, the proprietor, insisted I get a hydrometer, air lock, carboy, yeast, acid blend and (importantly) an acid testing kit. She instructed me this kit was the best way to make sure the acidity in my wine was balanced and flavor enhancing.

I have used an acid test kit regularly since.

Why Acid Matters

Acidity is what gives wine the wonderful, refreshing flavor that makes us desire another glass. Without acid wine is flat and insipid. Furthermore, without acidity, wine will not keep as well. The acid level that is required is about 0.5% or higher. You will need at least 0.6% and above for a good crisp white wine and even more about 0.75% for sweetened dessert wines. All wines run a high risk of spoilage from bacterial contamination. Acidity is key to reducing contamination risk. Finally, if you are considering malolactic fermentation (“MLF”) for your wine, you will need to know the total acidity (“TA”) of your wine. Otherwise you might have too much acid for the malolactic cultures to survive, or so little acid that the cultures strip away the very acid you need.

How do we know just how high or low our wine’s acid is? By testing it. Remember, sugar masks acid very well so just tasting the fruit, juice, or must we have will fool us, because they will be at least 20% sugar.

Tips for Acid Testing

The acid test kit we carry is a color change titration type test. A titration test works roughly in the same way as the iconic “science fair project” volcano; it uses the reaction that ensues when combining acidic and alkaline ingredients, but for decision making instead of volcanic activity. So, when the sodium hydroxide (“NaOH”) from the kit is carefully added to wine, juice, or must in specified amounts a color change happens. When the color becomes either magenta or green (depending on wine type) we are done. The kit itself has very good instructions so I will not go into any further detail. However, there are a few tips for best practices I would like to pass along, based on my years of experience.

First, make sure your base is fresh for the season. Replace it with the like kind solution that came with the kit. (Our kits use a .01N NaOH solution.) If the solution is stale, your reading will be way off. The results aren’t pretty. I made a wine once that had over 1.5% acid when I thought it had 0.72% acid. I didn’t catch myself as I kept adding acid blend until I thought, “this just can’t be right” then it was too late. There was no way for me to save it. I had to dump it.

Even when you’ve got totally fresh reagents for your kit, bear in mind that it’s very easy to overshoot the color changes you’re looking for to get proper acidity. To test, you will be adding NaOH in 1 milliliter increments of reagent with a syringe. Swirl and mix in well each addition.

The color change for all white or very light colored musts (including red grape musts that haven’t been on the skins for any time yet) will be a pale pink shade.

For red-colored musts dilute the must with an equal amount of water. Then look for a change into a grayish purple tint as you add the NaOH. Once there you are done.

Here is an easy way to keep track of color changes in any must: when you make up your beaker of must for testing, make a duplicate in a similar sized glass. Then you can compare the musts as the color changes. By comparing them you will see the color change more accurately. Small tasting cups or 100 mL beakers are perfect. You need to be able to swirl them vigorously. When you’re pretty sure what the acid level is? Test it once more to be sure.

When you’re absolutely sure of your wine’s TA, it’s time to decide what acid adjustments you need to make and how you want to make them. For brevity’s sake, I am not going into much in the way of details in this piece. I will save that for another piece. What I will say is that many ways of adjusting TA in wine require a small scale that can do fractions of a gram. The adjustments will be all grams per liter, so you need accuracy (and possibly to brush up on metric units!) for the best possible results. An acid test kit is a valuable tool you should use.

Remember:

It is impossible for your grapes to become the best possible wine they can become without you knowing their acid levels from day one. Ann McCullum did not steer me wrong 50 years ago, and now I strive to do the same for you. Use an acid test kit for all your future wines, whether they are grape wines, fruit wines, or honey wines.

Posted on 09/01/202009/01/2020 by Natasha — Leave a comment

Tom’s Tips for Techniques

Tom wrote a couple handouts for the 2020 wine season and beyond. As useful as handouts are, we know it’s also incredibly helpful to have the information easily accessible online. So, with slight editing, we are putting this information up as resources for everyone. They go in order of when to use them.

Wine Production Techniques Guide

The Cold Soak and the Skin Soak

The cold soak is used on a lot of red grape varieties, as it allows the stubborn skin pigments to become dissolved in the juice and thus provide a richer color. Here in the Pacific Northwest, Pinot Noir is the most prominent grape it’s used for. The skin soak is, in effect, the same technique as the cold soak but is is much shorter, as is appropriate for white wines. Soaking on the skins before pressing is a technique that provides a lot of fruity character, and the must will acquire more tannin. Bonus? The grapes will also give up more juice when pressed.

The grapes must be perfect. Broken skins, mold, bunch rot, or dirt cannot be allowed for a cold or skin soak. Infections will raise their ugly heads. Always use pectic enzyme and sulfite (SO2) your must to at least 30 parts per million (ppm) to avoid any wild fermentation.

For white grapes, once they are crushed and have had the pectic enzyme and SO2 added, simply allow them to sit on their skins for 2 – 12 hours. You can chill this must, but it is not required. However, chilling red must to about 50℉ is vital. Once chilled, allow the must to soak for about three days at 50F or lower.

The easiest way for small-batch winemakers to cold soak is to freeze water in a couple of plastic gallon milk jugs. (Make sure the jugs don’t split, so you don’t dilute the must.) Alternate jugs between the freezer and the must as needed to keep the temperature low. Remember to also punch down the grape skins once or twice a day, as this will not only release CO2 but also help keep the temperature of the must even. Keep your fermentor covered to prevent the escape of the SO2.

If any signs of wild fermentation show up in either soak, immediately cease the cold soak. Pitch your yeast and warm everything up to fermentation temperature.

After the cold soak, slowly raise the temperature to fermentation temperature and proceed.

Warming Up Must

Even though it’s 100℉ as I type this, I know we will receive our grapes in colder weather. (It might be downright icy at times.) Use the method I detailed above to raise the temperature in your fermentor, but use hot tap water instead of frozen jugs. Keep changing the warm jugs until you reach your fermentation temperature. Then wrap the fermentor with a FermWrap or an electric blanket and place it in a warmer room.

Note: If you have more than 100 pounds of must in a single fermentor, it will start to generate noticable heat on its own. Keep an eye on the wine so it does not get over 80℉ and thus ferment too fast. This will reduce the quality of the final wine.

Tips for Pressing Off Juice/Wine

A red #20 yoke-style fruit press with stainless steel basket. — A heavy fruit press in iron and stainless steel. Presses come in many sizes and styles.

Advice abounds on how to avoid excessive tannin when pressing grapes for wine. However when you make small batches of wine at home using the typical basket press, you will not have problems pressing off too much tannin. That said, there are other things to consider.

For example, you may decide to ferment the free flow wine separately from the pressed wine. (“Free flow” is the what flows out of the press before any pressure is applied.) The pressed wine will mature faster than the free flow wine and be much lighter in body and flavor. I don’t think it’s worth the effort unless you can get more than fifteen gallons of free-flow wine. Then you will get about three gallons of pressed wine.

Make sure you have a good-sized sieve that can fit into a one-gallon or two-gallon bucket and will together fit under the press spout. You’ll also want a funnel that will be big enough to handle the flow from the bucket into the carboy. Don’t skimp on funnel size! If you do, there will substantial slop and spills and wine loss.

Related, remember that pressing off is sloppy work no matter your funnel size. So make sure the press and the fermentor are in an area you can clean up easily by hosing it down.

Malolactic Fermentation

Many of the world’s best red wines go through malolactic fermentation (“MLF”). This is not a yeast fermentation but a bacterial one, and little alcohol is produced. MLF occurs when malolactic bacteria convert malic acid to lactic acid. Malic acid is a harsh acid of unripe fruit like green apples, and lactic acid is that softer “tang” found in cheese or yogurt. You will typically want MLF in any red where a finished softness of acidity and an ability to age well is desired.

However if your grapes are overripe and thus have a low acid level to begin with, MLF can make a flaccid and dull tasting wine that ages less well than you desire. What fruitiness was in the wine before MLF will be gone and the stabilizing acidity will be dramatically lowered. At this point, avoid MLF and increase the acidity of the must.

Most red wines will benefit from MLF, but it’s considered an infection in some wines. It’s particularly undesirable if you want a fruit-forward wine like Lemberger, Riesling, Muscat or most Chardonnays. (Big, buttery Chards can, and often do, undergo MLF but grapes appropriate for that style rarely come from the PNW.)

For MLF to occur the must should have the following characteristics:

Total acidity (TA) no less than 0.070 but no more than 1.00
pH no less than 3.3 but no more than 3.7
a specific gravity (SG) of 1.05 or below
SO2 of less than 30ppm

Typically, all of this information should be given to you when you receive your grapes or juice. Sometimes, though, all you get is the TA and pH. In that case, use your hydrometer to get the SG. The SO2 is what you add. Measure carefully.

If you need to adjust your acid up or down, please see our must adjustment handout. If you need to add acid be sure it’s tartaric acid. This is the acid of balanced wines. If your grape juice or must is over 1.00 TA, you got very under ripe grapes that are sour. Even with careful measurement, your TA and SG will be off (at that point, the acid content can mask sugar content). Unless it is or has been a horrifically cold and wet fall, don’t repurchase those grapes. Find a different grower.

Malolactic cultures come in a variety of forms, and you can add them at different times depending on your desires and schedule. You can add them at the tail end of primary fermentation or after the wine is in the carboy for secondary fermentation. Be aware, though, that the longer you delay adding the malolactic bacteria, the harder it will be for MLF to complete. This is because once primary fermentation ends, you will be adding SO2 regularly (up to 50 ppm), and typically your fermentation temperatures will be dropping. MLF occurs best in warm, low oxygen environments. And SO2 is added in large part to prevent bacterial growth, so MLF is caught in that. In a cooler environment with more SO2, MLF will be slow and may take months to finish. This is why if you want to prevent MLF, or any other bacterial invasion, you add SO2 to your wine regularly after every racking and before bottling.

Posted on 09/01/202009/02/2020 by Natasha — Leave a comment

How to Choose the Right Wine Yeast

It’s not always obvious, but the yeast choice a person makes to ferment a beverage is extremely vital to the flavor of the final beverage. Some yeasts are “clean”, meaning they do not contribute much (if anything) to the flavor of the wine. Others produce a number of phenolics and esters, the type of which can elevate your fermentation or clash mightily with it. Tom’s put together a guide to help you select the best yeast for your circumstances.

Choosing a yeast

This will be the most important choice the home winemaker will make.

You will be able to pick the grape variety but you cannot control its picking date, sugar level, TA, or pH. Yet, these are the things you need to take into consideration when choosing a yeast. Furthermore, you’ll need to consider if you wish to (or are capable of) a cold or warm fermentation.

Once you have those things set in your plan, consider the grape. What styles of wine does this grape often show up in? Think about the grape by winemaking region, e.g. Bordeaux, the Rhone Valley, Mosel, California, or Italy. With the grapes you have, what most appeals to you? Do you want a fruit-forward wine or not? Once you’ve taken into account all of these things, you’ll be able to decide on a yeast with ease.

Have a great time making wine!

Red Wines

The Cabernet family (and blends)

F.H. Steinbart will be getting Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Petite Verdot, and Carménère. All of these can be used to make wines similar in style to western and southwestern French wines, as well as Californian and Australian wines. These are big, bold, and very vinous wines; they are high in alcohol and not particularly fruity by style. For these wines, the best yeast choices we carry are Wyeast 4267 Summation Red, Wyeast 4946 Bold Red, and Wyeast 4028 Red. All of these will create a dry, rich, hearty red wine. Ferment them warm and for as long as possible. The next level of yeast is the Vintners Harvest brand. These yeasts are dry and of excellent quality. Read their characteristics to make a choice, though I feel R56 is the best choice for this group of grapes. Red Star makes Premier Classique and Premier Rouge. Both yeasts work well, just avoid fermenting either one in the high 70s to 80s. At high temperatures, they tend to produce hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg) aromas that can be hard to get rid of. You will want to do malolactic fermentation (“MLF”) with these grapes to produce a soft-finished and aging-stable wine.

The Fruity Reds

Pinot Noir and Lemberger are the two stars in this group, but it can also include Cabernet Franc. Want to make Oregon Pinot Noir with a big fruit nose of raspberries and a soft spiciness? Assmannshausen is the premier yeast for that result. It’s good for soft reds and fruity whites. Use a cold soak to make fruity reds, if you can, to get as much color and juice from your grapes as possible. Use Assmannshausen yeast and at the end of primary fermentation use MLF for the best results. Vintners Harvest R56 and CR51 are also good choices, or you can use Red Star Premier Cuvee. Rhone river area yeasts Lalvin RC212 and D47 can help with color extraction and are helpful when paired with MLF.

Southern European Reds

We will be carrying Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Grenache, and Syrah. Here in the Northwest, where we don’t have as many long and hot days as in Southern Europe, these grapes may not reach their full potential in body and sugar. Therefore, I recommend yeasts and techniques that will extract the most color and tannins as well produce a fruity and easily drinkable wine. Try to do a cold soak if you can, especially for the first three. Then use a yeast from the Pinot Noir suggestions above. Or, if you’d prefer, Wyeast has an Italian Red (4244), which I have not tried but like the sound of. Try it for Sangiovese and Grenache blends. If you can swing their purchase at the same time, add 20% to 30% Syrah to any of the other Southern European reds. This grape will boost the wine’s color and soften the tannins and acidity of the other three. Be aware you may have to adjust the must acidity even with the Syrah addition.

Grenache deserves a little extra attention here. It is the best of our reds for a rosé, if you want to make one yourself from grapes. (Otherwise, we do offer rosé juice.) For a good rosé, one to three days of skin contact is best. With a longer soak, you will get a light red wine rather than a rosé. If you are making a red Grenache, plan on MLF only if you plan to make a big, bold red wine with lots of Syrah blended in. If you’re planning a fruity red Grenache, sulfite your wine well to prevent it.

If you purchase enough Grenache (say 150 pounds) try a one to two-day skin soak with half of your grapes, then press off the wine and put those skins in with the rest of the red wine batch that is also on skins. This doubles up the fruit intensity of the red and gives you a lovely rosé to boot. Red Star Côte des Blancs is an excellent yeast for the resulting rosé.

White Wine

Excepting Muscat, all of the white grapes F.H.S. is selling will be in juice form. So, I will forgo going into pressing and crushing techniques here. If you plan on getting whole white grapes elsewhere, you can use the Muscat procedure detailed below.

You will probably need to adjust must acidity for the whites. Use chemicals first, then fermentation and cold stabilization (storing the wine below 40 degrees for a month). Never use MLF on white wines. The only exception is Chardonnay and even then only if it’s big, very ripe grapes that’s going to become a big, bold, buttery wine. (Grapes appropriate for that style rarely come from the PNW.)

Yeast choice is essential for a red, but it’s more so for white wine. You will want a yeast that ferments in cooler temperatures (which will take longer) and falls out completely when it’s done. (This is known as “flocculation”.) Finally, given that fruit forward is the name of the game, you’ll want yeast that supports or even enhances those fruit notes, rather than something that competes or suppresses them.

For German whites such as Riesling, Grüner Veltliner, and/or Gewürztraminer Wyeast 4783 is excellent. Vintners Harvest AW4 (Germanic White) is also a great choice. If you cannot get ahold of either of those, Vintners Harvest BV7 and SN9 do a lovely job, as does Red Star Côte des Blancs The absolute best yeast for grapes from Germany or Austria is Rudesheimer, also known as “Sweet White” from Wyeast (4783).

Then there’s the French whites and the Rosés, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, and Pinot Gris. Most of these wines will be light to medium-bodied when done. There’s an extensive variety of yeasts available for these, but I particularly like Vintners Harvest CY17, BV7, and Wyeast 4242.

That said, whites and rosé are good grapes to be adventurous with! For example, many wineries use the same yeast they use on their red wines for their whites, and it works incredibly well. Assmannshausen (normally used for the reds of northern France and Germany) promotes a big fruity nose, so it should be just as good in a Chardonnay or a Sauvignon Blanc. As you’re considering yeasts, read label descriptions and if something sounds delicious, go for it! Red Star yeasts do well in experiments and adventures for the most part. The exception being the German whites I mentioned above, as they do not accentuate the fruity notes as well as other yeasts do.

Albariño is the new kid on the block for us. Originating in northern Spain and Portugal, it should be fermented with a yeast that both accentuates fruitiness and helps control acidity. Try any of the German white yeasts I mentioned previously or Lalvin DV10 or 71B Both of these are sold as reducing malic acid without having to undergo MLF.

Finally, we will have Muscat grapes. Many of the delightful fruity white wines of Europe from Spain to Hungry are made from the many various varieties of Muscat If you have had a pitcher of cold white wine with your scampi overlooking the Amalfi Coast, it was a Muscat. One of the largest and oldest wine grape families, all Muscat varieties are rich in fruit flavors and aromas, and can produce wines high in alcohol as well. They also make some of the world’s best dessert wines, should you want to try your hand at that.

When you get your Muscat grapes, you will be given a choice to crush and press them at our shop or take them home and do it there. If the grapes are good and clean without much skin breakage or bug bites, I strongly suggest a skin soak. Take the grapes home, crush them as best as you can. Use stems and all. Use your fist, feet, or a length of 2×4. It won’t matter. Soak the grapes on the skins for at least 2 hours and no more than 8 hours. As soon as the grapes are crushed, dose with SO2 and pectic enzyme. Press, stems and all. This will help to get more juice and a little tannin. If you do not own a press, we rent them out and we sell them. Ferment the juice as cool as possible, using any of the “French White” yeasts I mentioned above if you’d like a dry Muscat. If you want residual sweetness, try a German white yeast.

Posted on 07/15/202007/14/2020 by Natasha — Leave a comment

Pyment-Making Advice – Tom Talks Wine

Pyment is made from grapes (left) and honey (right).

Last month, Tom answered a direct question about cork staining. This month, instead of drawing on a specific question, we asked Tom to tell us about how to make a pyment (mead/wine hybrid).

Tom’s Pyment

Recently, I was asked if I have ever made a pyment. A pyment is a type of mead where grapes or grape juice has been added. This means it’s also a type of melomel, as those are meads with fruit added. Yes, I have made one.

Mine was made with leftover Gewürztraminer juice and some pulp. I had enough must to make seven gallons of wine, but only a six-gallon carboy. With the extra gallon’s worth of wine must, I made three gallons of pyment.

I believe the same rules for making both drinks really apply here. The first thing makers have to decide is if they want a honey mead with hints of grapes and the complexity that can result or a grape wine with hints of honey, leading to more alcohol because you’re adding honey instead of sugar. The latter would not really be a mead, because honey should be the first aroma and flavor.

What Do Grapes Contribute to the Pyment?

What should you expect to gain from using grapes? First, acidity. Remember that mead is honey wine, and most good wines have acidity as part of the balance within their flavor. If you typically add acid blend or some other form of acid to balance your mead, be aware grapes can go a long way bringing about this balance about. Acidity really perks up the flavor components of a mead. Second tannins will also be there. These give a back of the tongue bitterness that is perceived as a clean and sharp flavor. A great addition to many meads. Tannins also aid in clarification. Finally, nutrients from the grapes aid the fermentation so that it comes to completion without taking forever to do so.

Which Grapes for Pyments?

Now let’s talk about the varieties of grapes you can use. For a mead just about anything that is ripe will work. Ripeness is key, though. Remember that alcohol accentuates all flavors so if the grapes are green or overripe this will come through in the finished mead.

Backyard Grapes:

If you are going to make mead from backyard grapes keep this in mind. Most wines or meads made from backyard grapes suffer from being underripe (vs overripe), as most backyard grape-growers haven’t learned how to properly gauge ripeness. More bitterness and sourness will result. How can you tell if they are truly ripe (without doing endless testing like a winery would)? Wait for the grapes to start falling off the vine. They will be very sweet. Far sweeter than, say, a grocery store table grape. Indeed, sweetness to taste is not a good test. Grapes good enough to eat can still be underripe. To get truly ripe grapes for your pyment, you will have to share a lot of the grapes with birds and squirrels.

One the most common backyard grape varietals is the Concord. If you love this flavor use them. The flavor will not change much. Grocery store canned juices and concentrates are also usable and will add the expected flavors. Canned juices from the grocery store are usually in the concord family.

Wine Grapes:

Any grape can be used. If you are buying wine grapes, then by all means save a few pounds and make a pyment. Wine grape concentrates also exist but can be quite expensive.

In my opinion white grapes and juices make wonderful meads. After all, some white wines are often described as having honey overtones. They are mild yet fruity, acidic, and nutrient rich. Grapes like Riesling, Muscat, and Sauvignon Blanc are complex and the honey comes through beautifully.

Red wine grapes, however, tend to overpower the honey flavor of the mead and yet fall flat because not enough were used to give the expected result. They tend to seem weak because we were expecting fuller grape varietal flavors. To use red grapes, the maker should know that they are making a honey-flavored wine and will end up with a full or light-bodied rose (depending on the grape).

How Much Fruit or Juice to Use?

How much fruit you use is really open here. I would think about four to seven pounds of fruit per gallon of mead. If you purchase grape juice, you’ll want about a gallon of juice to two of water and then enough honey to give you your 10% + alcohol. Rely on the honey to give you your fermentable gravity. With canned concentrates dilute them as instructed and again make enough to be about one third of your volume.

Remember by using grapes you are making a pyment; a mead more like a grape wine, so expect the issues of clarification, fermentation, and aging to be those of wines.

Have a great time this summer fermenting your first pyment!

Posted on 05/19/202005/23/2020 by Natasha — Leave a comment

The Seasons of Wine

A simple infographic to explain the gist of what wine makers should do each season.

While anything one can ferment into a beverage is an agricultural product, only a few fermentations are truly seasonal. Wine is particularly seasonal because of both the length of time between picking fruit to drinking a glass, and the wide array of possible bases. Seasoned wine-makers know the rhythm, but what about a reference for the rest of us? What is the current “wine season”?

Thus much like we leaned on Tom to explain cork stains, we asked him for a quick run down of the wine year. Then our guy Bruce turned it into an incredibly simple visual. Now anyone can tell at a glance what to be doing now and planning for the future.

Summer

Since it’s summer (or nearly so) already, our planning starts here. In short, this is fruit wine season and bottling season.

Start new fruit wines. Anything from dandelion to blackberry.
Bottle last year’s wines and clean up your carboys.
Build up your inventory of necessary additives: yeast nutrient, acids, etc.
Place your pre-order for grapes.

Autumn

Grapes, grapes, grapes. Did we mention grapes?

Remember to breathe.
If your supplies aren’t all in one spot, get them together before the grapes arrive.
Double check that you have everything you need. If not, get it.
Renting equipment? Reserve it now, or at least as soon as you can.
Start your grape wines!

Winter

This is the time to relax. Maybe have a glass of a previous year’s wine.

Rack wines as needed.
Start malolactic fermentation if necessary.
Keep your fermentations warm.
Ponder what wines, grape or fruit, you might want to make next year.
Research wine types and wine making, if you’d like.

Spring

We typically think of spring as for beginnings, but for wine it’s time to finish.

Clarify wines as needed
Continue racking wines
Doing dandelion wine? That’s a fairly early crop – keep an eye out.
Prepare for summer.

Posted on 05/19/202005/23/2020 by Natasha — Leave a comment

Commercial Customer Spotlight: Coopers Hall

Coopers Hall is about wine. Coopers Hall is about sustainability. Ergo, Coopers Hall is about the best ways to combine the two.

Like many hospitality spots that focus on sustainability, Coopers Hall has relationships with local farmers, bakers, and other sources. Beyond that, though, they focus on almost entirely on wine on tap. Kegs are more environmentally friendly than bottles, more easily reused, and the production cost of draft wine can be much lower than bottled wine, making wine more affordable for everyone. Coopers Hall also (usually) fills growlers from their taps, which means a single container can have many lifetimes.

This belief in allowing a bottle to be repeatedly refilled explains why the only bottles Coopers Hall uses are the Oregon BottleDrop Refillable bottles. This is a relatively recent addition to their winery, and they pay the $0.10 deposit on the bottle, not the purchaser (because wine is excluded from deposits). Customers who return the bottles get the deposit back, though. These choices are based in the idea that “recycle” is good but “reuse” is even better. These wine bottles are 500 mL and are sold in their online store and at a variety of shops around town.

Back Up. You Said Kegs?

Yes. Clearly, you’re thinking, “Never go in for a 500 mL bottle when KEGS are on the line!” Which, of course, is completely reasonable. And we can confirm that having wine on tap is fabulous. However, depending on the wine, it can require a bit more than just throwing a sixtel in your kegerator and hooking it up. What you need for draft wine depends on if you are looking to pour red, white, or rosè. Luckily, we have any supplies you might need and Coopers Hall is happy to give tips and advice for the particular wine(s) you want.

Coopers Hall During Covid-19

During the current weird times sitting down at Coopers Hall isn’t an option. So how to acquire their delicious food and beverage? Is food even an option?

Yes. Cooper’s Hall has maintained their aforementioned partnerships with local producers and is offering food. But with a twist. It’s butter or it’s produce or it’s a meal that’s yours to prepare. But not without guidance; they offer spices and recipes with their chef-curated CSA box. You’ll have to cook, but cooking with wine is a delight.

As for wine, you can buy a number of their wines in 500 mL bottle on their online site, and soon you’ll be able to order growler fills as well. They also offer a mystery wine box, called Joel Thinks You Should Drink This. An adaptation of one of the most interesting parts of their menu to the current times, this is three bottles of excellent wine from local producers without storefronts. For kegs email them (info@coopershall.com) for pricing and availability.

For more on Coopers Hall and any updates, please visit their site.

Details:

Coopers Hall Taproom

404 SE 6th Ave, Portland Oregon 97214

503-719-7000

info@coopershall.com