Costco Chardonnay - Monday, April 12, 2021

This is mine and Marty's wine from Costco. Fermented in carboys and the gravity seemed kind of high. My hydrometer was 1.098 for mine and over that for Marty's. I went up in the carboy as far as I should of for over flow and not too much water. I will top up with boiled and cooled RO water as per instructions. 

O.G. - 1.096 - MINE

O.G. - 1.098 - MARTY

F.G. - 1.000 - Mine - ( Topped up with too much water, tastes like a peach cooler ) 

                                                    WINE NOTES

I bought pails for future batches, so I have to deal with these carboys until the next batch. I am down about 2 L in my carboy thanks to the plugging up in my syphon hose. I did a much better job with Marty's wine which I got most of it. Next time I can do things in the bucket which is a pain in the ass with the carboys.

April 12 - Put together 2 kits in carboys.

April 22 - Checked the gravity - 1.014. Too high, did nothing.

April 25 - 1.000. Racked both to clean carboys and will wait 8 days as instructed.

May 3 - Check gravity. Should be below .0095. If so, rack to carboys, stabilize and degass.

May 4 - Add Chitosan, gently stir and topped up because I don't care how much % I have. It was

              13.3%. I will be happy with 12%. I topped up Marty's carboy, but it didn't need much.

              I will use the oak chips again, but have to be more careful. Clogged up the syphon 3 times, lost 

             a lot of wine. 2 - 3 L. 

        

          

May 5 - Clearing already. Lots of trub on the bottom of both carboys. 

May 8 - Should have no problem filtering both wines.

May 14 - Filter and bottle.

I have noticed my carboy of wine is not clearing as well as Marty's is. I assume it is the amount of water I topped up with. I will rack very carefully for now on. Use #3 filter first and then immediately filter with #2 at least for my wine.

I like mine, but will never top up again for any reason. I assume mine is like 10% to 11%. Okay with that. Marty's should be full strength as it didn't need much to top up. I won't tell him. I definitely will do a much better job of racking that I did with mine, but it is okay by me.

Marty's wine is too sweet. I did them both side by side, waited until all fermentation has ended, even waited 4 extra days to rack and when all activity was done, carried on. It just wouldn't ferment any more. Hate that.

                                       MINE IS SWEET TOO. MUST OF BEEN TOO LOW 

                                       OF FERMENTATION TEMPERATURE, BUT I HAD

                                       THE HEAT ON. MOSTLY AROUND 72 F.