Heritage Estates Chardonnay - Thursday, July 9, 2020

Decided to use the keezer to ferment this as it is quite hot outside and in the basement. Using the 27 L pail along with my short thermowell. Either this or leave it until Sept. Nope, bought it so ferment it. Leaving it for 14 days as per instructions inside.

O.G. - 1.090 - Temp is around 23 C. 

F.G. -  .0994 - Day 14 or so.

% -      13

Took about an hour or so. Quite hot ( 84 F ) in the laundry room now. Used Spring water up to the 23 L mark. This is easier to brew than the Costco wine as you just leave it for 14 days, check the gravity, rack to another pail, add everything in their proper order and transfer to a carboy and wait another 14 days and then bottle.

                                                                 FERMENTATION NOTES

Next day - Going good, star san foam coming up through the air lock. Turned down temp. 21.5 C.

Sat July 11 - Same but foam is gone.

Sun July 12 - Same. Smells though, along with the usual high temp in the laundry room. Low humidity

                      but brings the temp up. 86 F yesterday. Big rain yesterday helped but the humidity is 

                      100% again. Hate the humidity.

Tues July 14 - Same, very steady.

Friday July 17 - Done for now. Letting it sit until day 14 which is next Wed. Taking it out of the

                          keezer the night before and then add everything else that came with it in order.

Sun July 19 - Nothing going on. Racking on Wed.

Wed July 22 - Forgot to lift it out of the keezer. Will do it today and if it rains, rack to a carboy after

                       letting it sit for a few hours. This is very light but when it is hazy, it seems lighter. I am

                       not going to make wine again in the summer as it takes too long to make. Ties up my 

                       keezer for too long. I can and will take it out after a week or so because I want to make

                       more beer and I need the keezer.

Thurs July 23 - Starting to clear.

Sat July 25 - Clearing well, bottle sometime in early Aug. You can put on bench early if you need the

                     keezer to brew beer.

Tues July 28 - Clearing well.

August 5 -    Can filter and bottle if you want to. Need to buy Citric Acid. I did.

                                            FINALLY BOTTLED ON AUGUST 24

Taste was the same as the Costco wine kit. Next one will be in November sometime. Way too hot now, over 30 C every day. Hope to catch a Costco sale usually around Oct - Nov. I sampled a bottle and am getting a wet cardboard taste. I added citric acid and the sodium metabisulphate to them before I filtered. I rinsed well with RO water. I did leave them in the solution longer than normal as I was busy setting up. I will sample another bottle a week from now to see if it is going to go away, most likely not. Toss them in the corner of the basement until I need the bottles for new wine. That will be later on in the fall or maybe after the New Year.

                                                     ANOTHER TASTE ON SEPT. 9

Either it is starting to go away, or it was just a few bottles of wet cardboard. I can still taste is, but not as strong as a few days ago. I googled it and didn't get a lot of answers. I can go to the wine forum, but what is done is done. I waited too long to bottle, should of like 3 weeks before I finally did bottle.