VinOpinions.com needs help from winemakersHello, Over the holidays, a few friends were sitting around talking about how a handful of critics and a few giant companies are homogenizing the wines of the world. We thought that if we could...
My wine's TA is 0.87%. What should I doWell, after replacing my overly concentrated solution of sodium hydroxide from my friends at Carlson, I measured my wine (Cabernet-Merlot) with a standardized solution and I got 0.87%. The wine tasted harsh...
I have been using barrels for a cpl of my annual batches of reds for the last 6-7 years.. I run a normal 20L batch of my local grapes in the usual glbutt carboys, Then in 4 or 5 months rack of then rack again to a 5 gal American Oak barrel, depending upon consumption I then rack to my dispenser Keg (20L Oak barrel) which has a spigot. Usually every evening before dinner I go downstairs and fill the decanter, for dinner. Much to the horror of many here I don't worry about air intake. The amount of oxidation I get is not worth the hbuttle. I just makes for a good oak flavour which I love and an easy system of dispensing at the same time.
A cpl of years back during a family emergency and our absence I had a mess appear in my dispensing keg... Full of slime and yuck. I rinsed several times with boiling water, sloshed a strong solution of meta bisulfate, and rinsed again with boiling water.. Rinsed over and over until there was no detection of odor. I then ran a really cheep kit wine through it just to make sure... and yes all is back in order.. I just won, at our fall fair today, second place in clbutt with a bottle taken from this keg .
cheers the islander
