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2008 Zinfandel Lab Results

Here are the results of the latest lab test for the 2008 Zinfandel:

2007 Zin Post ML

Malic Acid 83 mg/100mL

pH 4.16 

Titratable Acidity 0.605 g/100mL

Free SO2 None detected 

Total SO2 3 mg/L 

I fear ML is stuck as it needs to get down to 15-30 mg/100ml. I am going to try adding some fresh cultures. Also the pH is too [...]

2008 Pressing Day

It started Saturday night with some steaks, sausages and bottles of Road31 Pinot and Arns Syrah. Overall a very good way to start things. Events lead Joe and I down the street to a wine tasting party held by the owner of a wine storage company. It was a school auction item party, but we were [...]

0 ºB

Hydrometer reads 0 on the 2008 Zinfandel. Ready [...]

2008 Zinfandel Juice Lab Results

AC24581

08 ZINJUICE

pH 3.84

Titratable Acidity 0.555 g/100mL

We will need to add acid at some point, probably Tartaric. I am researching how much and when [...]

Pressing Sunday, 9/28/2008

This Sunday we will be pressing the Zin/Petite. TO DO:

Swell Hungarian barrel
Rack Syrah into Hungarian barrel
Clean kegs
Clean [...]

<<<<< Check out the graph!

I am updating a graph of the sugar level of the Zinfandel. It is on the left sidebar and I will try to keep it up-to-date. I can only post one variable, but I am tracking temperature as well and it is a classic inverse curve relative to the Brix. We have a vigorous fermentation going [...]

Conflicting Brix

A day after pitching the yeast I check the temp and gravity.  There is activity already, temperature was up 3ºF even though it was a cold night (46ºF outside).  The weird thing is that I am getting a higher reading of 26ºB as compared to the the two other readings both coming out at 24.5ºB. I [...]

Estate Grapes

We picked, crushed and pressed 11 lbs. of the Estate grapes all by hand. ended with a low Brix, only 21.5. I pressed it into a rose, the last one was awful, this can’t [...]

2008 Crush

Crush was  great success!

Chuck’s timing was perfect, he arrived at the vineyard just after we transfered all 1,365 lbs of grapes from one bin to the other, by hand. After a brief stop at the tasting room we trundled off to Palo Alto. We had one brief stop for a reconfiguration of the straps and used [...]

Tentative Crush 9/14/08

Looks like we will be crushing Dry Creek Zin/Petite a week from today. Phoebe and I will probably pick the “estate” grapes this week after school sometime and crush/press it into the house Rose Magnum. Last years sucked, but I will pay more attention to [...]