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Showing posts from 2013

Primary Fermentation Complete and First Racking Of 2013 Riesling

I racked the FlexTank and WinePod this past Sunday.  Since the WinePod is used only for primary fermentation, I transferred the wine to four 5-gallon carboys.  The FlexTank is capable of handling secondary fermentation, so I transferred that wine to a clean FlexTank.  After 22 days, the Brix measured 0 degrees (SG = 1.0) in the FlexTank and 5.5 degrees (SG 1.022) in the WinePod.  The WinePod sugar sensor was out of calibration, and showed a reading of 3 degrees Brix.    I'm not sure what caused the error, whether it be from the accumulation of yeast at the bottom of the tank or just a faulty sensor.  No matter how it is measured, the wine fermented slower in the WinePod than the FlexTank.  It will be interesting to see whether this results in any differences in the final product.  I assume the wine that was in the WinePod will continue to dry down (maybe to zero) now that it is transferred to the carboys.  The ambient secondary fermentation temperature has held constant at 62 deg

Return of the Winepod

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Greg Snell recently brought the Winepod back to market after a four year absence.  http://www.winepod.net/winepod/winepod-details.aspx I decided to bring my Winepod back to life for use in commercial production.  After four years of producing pre-commercial batches of Finger Lakes Riesling in the Winepod, I set the Winepod aside in 2011.  Thin lines of rust began to appear on the surface of the stainless steel tank.  The Winepod can only be used to conduct primary fermentation on just under 20 gallons of wine.  My initial commercial run was 320 gallons.  So I performed primary and secondary fermentations in four 80 gallon FlexTanks.  But I've been saving bottles from those past Winepod productions, and when I open one to share with friends, I'm surprised how beautifully they have aged.  So the question comes to mind: "Is the quality of wine produced in a FlexTank different from that produced in a Winepod?" I cleaned away the rust from the exterior and loaded just

Fall at Shier Winery...The Adventure Begins Again

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It is still warm, but the leaves are turning at the Shier Winery.  Almost time to start the winemaking process all over again.  In order to clear space in the tanks for this year's Riesling, I had to bottle 35 cases this past weekend.   For those out there that have never used a hand corker or lifted and carried 5 gallon carboys, it is a little bit of a workout.  But the worst part is breathing all of the sulfur dioxide that keeps the whole operation sanitary.  Luckily the exhaust fan that I installed to pull out the carbon dioxide also earns its capital investment by clearing the SO2 cloud. 17 of these carboys filled 35 cases of 2012 Riesling.  99 cases of bottles.

Presenting 2012 wines at Olanafest 2013

The Shier Winery will be showing off 2012 Rieslings at Olanafest 2013 this coming weekend (September 21) in Hudson, New York.  Below is a link to the event: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e7whvx0gc8dcc9e1&llr=wu8xszbab

Three Year Old Riesling Vines

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I spent some hours cleaning up the vines this past weekend.  I mowed the grass in between the rows, pulled the weeds peeking through around the vine trunks, and tied down dangling branches.  With heavy attack by the Japanese beetles and leaves browned by the effects of various fungi, I am surprised at how well the vines have held up.  In three years, only 2 have died.  At this stage, fruit production is still minimal, but I can say that all surviving fruit is truly organic.

Bottling The First Commercial Production

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With slow and steady progress, some of the wine is bottled.  About 200 bottles of sparkling and 144 bottles of the traditional Riesling variety. A shot of some organic grapes growing in the vineyard despite heavy attack by the Japanese beetle.

Cold Stabilization

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The 2012 Riesling has been fermenting and clearing for six months.  To lower the total acidity (tartaric) a bit and stabilize the wine, I need to ideally drop the temperature of the wine to 32 degrees for two weeks.  There are a few ways this can be done.  The first, a large freezer room, is out of the question for my small winery.  The second option is to place a cooling line in the tanks that runs also through a chiller unit.  Eventually I may build a chiller coil setup, but it would require modification to my tank lids.  The chiller units and coils are also somewhat expensive, with the unit running $1500 to $4500 and the coils another $500 to $1000.  The third option that small time winemakers sometimes employ is to put the tank in an ice bath.  I decided to go with the third option. My tanks are large, four feet tall and 24 inches in diameter.  More importantly, when full, they weigh around 750 pounds.  Lowering one of these tanks into a larger drum is not an option.  I can only

Wine Labels

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This past weekend I racked all four tanks for the third time.  This racking followed the addition of french oak chips.  The tanks weigh 50 pounds or so after the wine is removed, but I was able to flip them over to dump the spent oak chips and clean the tanks. The first commercial production is nearing completion.  I also received Certificates of Label Approvals (COLAs) from TTB for the two variations of wine that I will be offering for sale and submitted copies to the NYSLA.  I then ordered commercial labels from YourLabelsNow.com, a short run label maker in Chicago.  YourLabelsNow uses the HP Indigo printing system.  In a past life, I worked for Hewlett Packard at the time they made their initial investment in Indigo.   The regular front and back labels.      The sparkling wine labels.