'Ween and Wine

One sure sign that Halloween is only days away is that inevitably, it will start to rain. The rain started yesterday and as of this morning, has not let up. 

That means that tomorrow, I will be raking (not blowing) very wet leaves in preparation for Wednesday night.

We've gotten started on getting Halloween set up but still have a long way to go. This weekend will be busy and I'm taking Wednesday off in order to fine tune everything.

However, I have much to get caught up on prior to discussing Halloween.

The main thing is an update on our 2018 batch of Petite Verdot wine. Last Monday, I went to Jim's Home Brew to rent their fruit press. 

For the past several years I have gone through the long and futile task and squeezing the juice out of my grape pulp by hand. When I realized that Jim's had the press available, I jumped on it. Best $25.00 rental I've spent.

So I set everything up in what appeared to be the most efficient way to move the pulp out of my primary fermenter and into the secondary.

I placed my mesh bag into the barrel of the press in order to make removing the pressed pulp that much easier.

I then began ladling the pulp into the barrel until I had it full. At that point, I began to turn the press and clamp down on the berries as the pressed juice flowed out.

I had an unfortunate accident as I got a little bit too carried away in my pulp transfer. When I was finally able to lift the primary and pour the pulp and remaining juice through the press, I forgot that the catch tray has a very low lip. That caused me a little extra clean up that I had not counted on.

All in all, it took about two hours from start to clean up and I had just over six gallons and pressed juice to ferment.

The must is currently bubbling away in the kitchen. I'll check the gravity tomorrow but I think it still has a way to go.