Friday 27 September 2024

Harvested Rondo this morning

Big difference in a few days

We decided to harvest the Rondo regardless of the sugar content. I was pleasantly surprised that the Brix reading was 20.6 or SG 1.086. Our yield from the 5 vines was about 2 1/2 bushels, close to what we got from all the Solaris. We were lucky as it started raining after we finished and brought the gear up to the shed. 

Two vines had lots of very nice grapes and three had mediocre bunches -- small and/or shriveled. The weight of the grapes was 41.2 lb or 18.7 kg, not far off the 2023 take of 20 kg. After destemming, we 31.6 lb (14.3 kg) of grapes. But there was little juice even after crushing more of the grapes by hand. The Brix of the must was encouraging at 22 and SG 1.090. The pH was 3.0. 

We discussed what to do and decided to mix sugar water to an equivalent SG or slightly higher. I mixed 1 kg of regular granulated sugar in 4 litres of boiled water. The SG was 1.095 which would result in a potential ABV 14%. 

We had to wait for it to cool then added in the yeast mixture. After a short while of letting the yeast get going in the sugar water, Alex added the mixture to the must. We sealed the lid and will now await fermentation. Wait and see. 

Ghost was with us the whole time, supervising as usual, and the donkeys came down to keep us company as we worked. 
















Solaris bubbling has slowed down a lot.


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