[Dave Burt]

Here are my chemistry numbers on the 2017 Pinot Noir:
Brix 27.3
pH 3.90
TA 3.9
YAN 106

I am curious to see if anyone else gets a TA that low. I will be adding water to bring down the Brix to 24, and acid to raise the TA to about 6.2.

The high Brix is comparable to what we consistently got with our Hill Top Vineyard Pinot Noir (Central Coast, California). Don and I always had to add water to those grapes, usually targeting a Brix of 24. The Hill Top Pinot remains one of the best wines in my cellar.

Update on my Pinot Noir (as of Oct. 17, 2017):
* My targets for must adjustments were a Brix of 24 and a TA of 6 g/L
* To lower the Brix to this target Willem’s spreadsheet indicated an addition of 6 L of water (assuming 42 L of juice)
* For acid I added 2 g/L = 84 g, plus 6 g/L for the water = 36 g, for a total of 121 g
* I dissolved this in the 6 L of water
* I added 3/4 of the acidified water to the must and tested for Brix and pH – this was a precaution in case the pH dropped into the realm of a white wine as it did for Ian above – it didn’t.
* Added the remainder and tested: got a Brix of ~25 (hard to be precise as no definitive line in the refractometer), and a pH of 3.51
* Inoculated with RC212 rehydrated in Go Ferm

Off to the races!

[Dave Burt]

I pressed off my Chardonnay this afternoon and did chemistry on clear juice from the free-run and press-run fractions. Results were as follows:

FREE-RUN
Brix 22.0
pH 3.49
TA 5.3 (done twice – same result)
YAN 28

PRESS-RUN
Brix 21.9
pH 3.75 (tannins in press-run buffering the pH?)
TA 5.9
YAN 28
It basically only took 4 drops of NaOH to reach the end point on the YAN test.
Average YAN from Don, Ian, and myself = 34

This is extremely low. It am thinking of pre-loading the must with some Fermaid-O.

[Dave Burt]

I got the following chemistry on a sample obtained from Bill Greaves:
Brix 20.6
pH 3.04
TA 6.9
YAN 56

Average YAN from Don, Ian, and myself = 65 mg N/L
This is quite low – make sure you add sufficient nutrients. Half of a tablet of vitamin B5 is also a good idea.

[Dave Burt]

Shep is taking care of our Zin so this afternoon I went over and tested some juice settled overnight and got the following pre-adjustment results:
Brix 27
pH 3.81
TA 4.5
YAN 168

My acid seems low compared with Don’s so hopefully others post here is well

[Dave Burt]

Hi Cindy,
Do you have pre-adjustment numbers for TA and pH?

[Dave Burt]

OK folks, here are the YAN results from Ian, Dave, and Don. Other chemistry numbers also included.

Ian: Brix 21.6, pH 3.40, TA 6.3, YAN 149
Dave: Brix 21.9, pH 3.39, TA 6.1, YAN 140
Don: Brix 21.8, pH 3.44, TA 5.9, YAN 168
Mean: Brix 21.8, pH 3.41, TA 6.1, YAN 152

[Dave Burt]

These items by Ed Skotarek have been sold.

[Dave Burt]

These items for sale received from Ed Skotarek via the “Contact Us” on the NW website:
* 4 glass 5 gal primaries
* 2 plastic 5 gal primaries
* several 1 gallon bottles
* one 12 gal primary fermenter

Ed is asking $75 for the lot. Ed lives in North Nanaimo near McGirr Elementary School; if interested email him at eddiebythesea at gmail dot com (email written in words to protect privacy).

[Dave Burt]

Hi Chris,
Not sure when you took your pH and TA readings, but once you have an active ferment going the CO2 being release renders the pH meter unreliable, which in turn affects the TA reading.

[Dave Burt]

Much of the well researched articles in the Nanaimo Winemakers website are owing to the time and efforts of former member Rod Church. Members can find an excellent article on dealing with H2S issues by clicking on WINEMAKING | VINTNERS CORNER | Understanding Sulphur Defects in Wine. There you will find an excellent article by Rod on this topic, and instructions on steps to take if you experience H2S during fermentation or in the finished or near finished wine (the steps taken differ depending on the stage of fermentation).

[Dave Burt]

Much of the well researched articles in the Nanaimo Winemakers website are owing to the time and efforts of former member Rod Church. Members can find an excellent article on dealing with H2S issues by clicking on WINEMAKING | VINTNERS CORNER | Understanding Sulphur Defects in Wine. There you will find an excellent article by Rod on this topic, and instructions on steps to take if you experience H2S during fermentation or in the finished or near finished wine (the steps taken differ depending on the stage of fermentation).

[Dave Burt]

This year I experienced H2S with the Pinot Gris and the Pinot Noir. In the case of the Pinot Gris (PG), it showed up the morning after pitching the yeast. This surprised me because the PG was supposed to have a grape YAN of 178 mg N/L. Should have been plenty of nitrogen to get the ferment going. At any rate, I added my first set up nutrients which included Fermaid K, Fermaid O, and DAP. The H2S cleared up within 2 hrs of this addition and has not come back.

In the case of the Pinot Noir, the H2S showed up on day 3 of the ferment at an SG of just above 1.050. I added my 2nd set of nutrients and aerated with my punch down tool but the smell persists through day 4. So, on day 4 I doubled up on the dosage for my third feeding. Again, within a couple of hours the smell was gone and the must smelled sweet as it should.

In 2014 I had a Gewurtz ferment where the H2S just didn’t clear up. I tried dumping from one primary to another, running the juice through a large funnel with copper mesh in the spout, blowing through a tube into the juice (this technique from Duane), and in the end I was stuck with stinky wine. I ended up treating the wine with copper sulphate, waiting a week, racking off any copper precipitate, then filtering. After all this, the wine turned out pretty good (no hint of H2S)

[Dave Burt]

Hi Peter,
I experienced the same problem with the Pinot Noir and ended up discounting the Labs YAN in favour of a default value of 100 mg N per L. Others are also experiencing H2S issues on other grapes. Similarly for my Syrah, Willems spreadsheet suggests only minor nutrients needed, but again, I am going default to an assumed level of 100 mg N per L in the grapes.

[Dave Burt]

Hi Chris. It would be interesting to see what you get for pH and TA from your refrigerated sample.

I don’t know how long you can hold off the wild yeast ferment. I will be pitching my yeast tomorrow morning as I don’t want the wild yeast to get the upper hand. The cap is already rising on mine.

[Dave Burt]

I put a sample of the must in the fridge to settle. This evening I drew off the clear juice from the top of the sample for testing. Results were:
Brix 25
pH 4.05
TA 6.3
I plan to add water to reduce the Brix to 24.5 and add 0.5 g/L of tartaric acid , mainly to reduce the pH rather than raise the TA. Predicted TA will be 6.8.

Even though the must is outside in the cool, wild yeasts are actively fermenting. I will double up on my planned D254 yeast and hope that it outcompetes the wild yeast.