Shier Winery

On Tuesday morning I awoke at 7:30am to a call from Rest Assured Alarm Systems. The power was out again the Shier as of 5:30am. Considering our apartment building was swaying in the high winds, it was not all that unexpected. The power stayed off until 9:30am, knocking the server out. I researched the power restore features of office servers and it turns out that many newer computers have a BIOS power management option that allows the computer to restore the computer to an on state following power restoration. When I return to the Shier, I will check to see if my computer offers this option. In the meantime, I am hoping that everything is okay because I cannot access the Winepod remotely. Based on the fermentation progress chart, I project the primary fermentation to conclude on Sunday with a brix reading of zero. I will rack to carboys at that time. Meanwhile, I received my juice analysis from the Cornell Wine Lab. Even though I was careful to freeze the sample and send it by Federal ...

The controller on the Winepod is probably the most important feature, even more important than the brix meter (since brix can be measured with the hydrometer). Fermentation at a steady temperature is critical to winemaking because it reduces the variation in fermentation byproducts (no banana odors please!!). The Winepod has an automatic temperature controller. It requires the user to enter lower and upper set point temperatures. The controller turns on the heater when the must drops more than 1 degree below the lower set point and turns on the cooler if it reaches 1 degree above the upper set point. I keep the Winepod in the basement where the temperature is between 54 and 57 degrees F. I originally set the set points at 62 and 63F. Bad idea. This caused the Winepod to constantly switch between running the heater and cooler. The heater would raise the temperature at the sensor so rapidly that it would overshoot 64F and the cooler would turn on. The cooler would overshoot in its coolin...

Last night New York had its first significant rainfall in nearly a month. The rain brought strong winds and lightning. Around 8:30PM, I logged into the server at the Shier. The Winepod software showed no connection to the controller. I quickly switched to the camera. Pitch black. I realized that the power was out and the server was running on the battery backup surge protector. The battery keeps the laptop, router, and cable modem alive for about 30 minutes once power is gone. Past 30 minutes, the laptop stays on with its internal battery, but I cannot access it because the internet is down. If the power failure lasts more than 3 hours, then the internal laptop battery is exhausted. Unfortunately, the laptop, like most computers these days, does not have a rocker switch that can be left in the on position. With no way to turn the laptop on from a complete shutdown, a trip to the Shier is the only option. After 4 hours I realized that I needed to make the trip to check the wine and rest...

A few pictures of the winemaking process.... Above is a picture of the Fall Bright vineyard in Dundee, New York from which our Riesling grapes were picked. The Riesling grapes were harvested, crushed and delivered through a hose on the panel shown above. The Riesling now in juice form loaded into carboys before loading into Winepod. Pouring the juice into the Winepod. Adding the yeast to the juice. Using the wine thief and hydrometer to measure the specific gravity of the juice.

After exchanging emails with Greg Snell, CEO of Provina, I was able to correct the problem with the brix meter on the Winepod. I removed my shirt, and washed my hands and arms thoroughly with dish soap and water. Then after a rinsing, I sprayed a bit of sulfite solution on my arms and waved them to dry. Next I opened the Winepod and noticed that the juice was fizzing. A good sign. I plunged my arm to the bottom of the juice to find the brix meter. It was at the 10 o'oclock position. I confirmed that the magnet was face down and then turned the pomace basket so that the meter and basket locked at a 2 o'clock position. I then pulled the meter to the surface and performed a calibration set point at 37. Then I placed the meter back at the bottom of the juice. I took a SG measurement using the hydrometer, which read 1081. Fermentation is underway. No need to add the Go-ferm or additional yeast. At 7:20pm the brix meter reads 20.07, temperature 63.4.

Alicia and I made a trip to the Finger Lakes on Friday to pick up the Riesling juice. We spent the night at a B&B called the Trimmer House in Penn Yan, New York. http://www.trimmerhouse.com/ Our room was comfortable, decorated with faux-antique items and little bowls of chocolates. We were welcomed by our host, Yang, who was courteous and provided us with a list of local restaurants. We choose a place named Sarrasins on Keuka Lake. The food was decent and the drink menu featured local Finger Lakes wine. We had the Riesling, of course. On Saturday we drove to Fall Bright. The staff at Fall Bright were friendly and helpful. They walked us through the supplies and loaded 16 gallons of Riesling juice into three 5 gallon botter bottle carboys and a gallon jug. After loading the juice into the car and configuring the GPS, we made our way back to the Shier in about 5 hours. The temperature of the juice rose to 46-48 degrees by the time we arrived at our destination. We sanitized ...

The Winepod unit arrived on July 15, 2008. It weighs more than 200 pounds, but I managed to get it down to the basement. I cut up the cardboard packing materials. I then rolled the Winepod over the cardboard panels across the lawn, moving a piece of cardboard forward as I progressed towards the bilco doors. I slid it down the stairs over the cardboard panels and rolled it into position in the basement. My computer terminal is located upstairs in the office. I tested the USB wireless dongle. Even though the Winepod was only 15 feet away, the intervening floor caused intermittent signal failure. So I moved the Winepod closer to the office and ran the 15 foot USB cable through a hole next to the radiator and up to my computer. I might have trusted the wireless dongle if I was going to be on site more often to trouble check, but since part of my goal is to monitor the wine fermentation using remote access over the internet, I needed a reliable connection. After a straw vote of myself, ...