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A bit of a curious question: I recently acquired a very small oak barrel. Being small with the volume to oak ratio I have already aged all my wine in the barrel. Now I know the best way to keep an oak barrel conditioned is to keep it filled with wine, but I don't have enough of that. I also would rather not use a sulfer stick for such a small barrel. So I'm considering just buying some inexpensive vodka and filling the barrel. I figured that the vodka is quite sterile and, therefore, should… Continue

Well, I missed harvest. But I did decide to pick up two pails of White Salmon Chardonnay from Brehm Vineyards. I've got them fermenting in a couple of 6-gallon plastic buckets, and both are about halfway through fermentation. I'm getting nervous about them, because neither is fermenting very actively. Both bubbled moderately well for about six days, but there's little to no movement now on day 8. However, both are still foaming at the surface. I'm reading 6 degrees Balling on one tank and 10… Continue

I just pressed on on Saturday night. Brix was at -1 1/2 Ph at 3.7. I put into my stainless vat for 24 hrs, then transfered to (2) 60 Barrels. I put the airlock on them but no bubbels? I amnot temp controlled but the temp in my garage is around 50-60 right now(even colder this morning). I still have not added SO2. My questions...

Is the Malo-lactic done or even started?

If its not started can I still inoculate?

Welcome to my new Video Blog about making wine from Brehm Vineyards Frozen Must. You've probably seen all the hubub on our site about the Brehm must and how much we love it - I wanted to take that a step further and chronicle the process of working with Brehm must from start to finish. Really, its about the same as working from fresh fruit except for the very beginning - since there's no crushing involved.



This fruit is Brehm's 2009 State Lane Cabernet Sauvignon from the valley floor… Continue

Ordering a pair of barrels. Delivery to Chelan/Manson. Anyone want to piggy back and share freight.Four barrels per pallet, so two more and freight probably$75. Buying refurbed/rebuilt/toasted red barrels. Barrels are $150 or so plus freight.
Let me know.
Anyone barrel fermenting reds? Can you walk me through the process a bit? Treat it just like placing it in stainless with a air lok bung?
How about racking and lees?

The cab and merlot mix in ready for the press. I'm requesting Cab Franc from any of my friends in Livermore. I have secured the "second" pick of Merlot and if I help harvest, I can have some Zin grapes from a grower for Wente. I'm really excited about this year as it all seems to be coming together.

This is my first year with a real harvest from my grapes. I've been making wine from kits and then from must. This is very exciting.

I scored on some beautiful heavy glass wine bottles recently and used them to bottle my '08 syrah/grenache blend yesterday. Of course, the standard home winemaking shrink capsules are too small to fit the bottle. Anyone know where I could find larger capsules for a home winemaker? The only ones I could find are designed for professional wineries with a corking/foil machine.

I know I can use bottling wax, but just trying to see if I can find nice capsules that fit. Any ideas would be… Continue

I live in Southern Califirnia and I'm planning to bottle some red this weekend. However, it's hot as heck right now and the wine has expanded quite a bit in the carboys. My garage is not temp controlled. So my question is, if I bottle now will the wine be too expanded and then retract in the bottles creating to much ullage in the neck? Anyone?

So my home beer making experience has slowly crept into my winemaking passion... After all the years of spiced ales and fruit flavored wheat beers and Chambord spiked dunkles to honey-oatmeal imperial bocks, I'll be producing a Chocolate Raspberry Merlot this week! I can't say the concept is unique because Selection wine kits makes a chocolate raspberry port. I'm just taking the idea a step further by creating my own blend.



I'll use a Selection International 'Chilean Merlot' wine kit… Continue