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Batch ID No.1Date Started9/29/2025Quantity100lbsFree-runPotential % alc./vol.
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Vintage2025Grape VarietySyrahPricePress-run
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TargetsBrixTA (g/L)pHFree SO2 (ppm)YAN10% SO2 Solution Additions per 1 Gallon
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Red20.5 - 24.5.4 - .93.4 - 3.630250 - 30030ppm = 2.00 ml
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Whites/Rosè18 - 24.7 - 12.9 - 3.330250 - 30050ppm = 3.33 ml
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DateType of OperationIngredient AddedQuantity AddedTemp.BrixTA (g/L)pHFree SO2 (ppm)YANRemarks & ObservationsAttachments
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9/29/2025Picked and Crushed GrapesPicked grapes and took to custom crush facility to crush. Took home ~100lbs and left rest with them so as to not overfill fermentation bin.
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9/30/2025SO2 Addition & MeasurementsKMBH100ml254250Accidently added too much SO2 using a 10% solution. Will continue to aerate to try and bring down free SO2 before pitching yeast.
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10/1/2025Measurements24.53.53:57pm
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10/1/2025Acid/pH ajustmentTartaric Acid56g in 250mL H2O23.9c (b)3.4 intially
3.2 after 2 min		Step 1: Bring down pH to 3.5
You need to add 1g/L of Tartaric Acid to bring pH down by .1 point. Your target pH should be 3.5. To accomplish this you need to add 5g/L of Tartaric Acid. You have ~22.7L of finished wine with 100lbs of grapes. This will give you 5*22.7=113.5g of Tartaric Acid to add. You will also be adding .5ml of water in the water dilution step below. To this you will need to add 3.5g of Tartaric Acid.

The acid will be added in small batches, we never add all acid all at once. I recommend adding 1/2 (113.5+3.5)/2=58.5g to 250ml of H20, mix well, add to must, and mix well into must. Test pH in 1 hour. If not down to 3.5pH, add 1/4 more (58.5/2=29.25g) and follow same steps, mix, mix, wait, test. If still not down, add 1/4 more (29.25g) and test. Keep adding 29.25g until you reach 3.5pH.
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10/1/2025Water DillutionH2O250mL from tartaric acid addition22Step 2: Bring down Brix to 24.5
Working with ~22.7L (6gal) of finished wine and using the water dilution calculator on Winebusiness.com (https://www.winebusiness.com/calculator/winemaking/calc/5/) adding .5 liters of water should bring Brix down to 24.5. All of the water additions in the Acid addition step above should have brought down Brix. If not, continue to add 250ml of water + 2g of Tartaric acid at a time until desired Brix is reached.
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10/2/2025Notes from KeithFermentation has started. You went from 25 Brix to 22 Brix in about 24 hours. Start doing punch downs at least 3x per day. At this point it will be hard to get an accurate pH reading with all the CO₂ gas and carbonic acid being produced. As such, we will wait until fermentation is over to adjust the pH/TA. No need to rush to the store today. Just pick up the Tartaric Acid prior to Fermentation completing. Don’t worry about the OptiRed addition.

Go ahead and make a yeast starter with GoFerm and pitch your yeast. This will be insurance just in case the yeast currently fermenting the wine is not Saccharomyces. With that said, I’m pretty convinced you picked some Sacch. up at the Custom Crush facility when they crushed your wine.

You should start checking Brix everyday and recording it in the log. When you get 15 Brix you need to add your second yeast nutrient addition, FermaidO. Keep recording Brix after so we can start to get a record of how long Fermentation lasts. Also, keep recording temp. This is good info for future vintages.

At this rate I expect your fermentation to last about 1 to 2 weeks. Probably more on the longer side considering current forecasted temps of high 70s to low 80s. Great that you got your fruit in before this rain.
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10/2/2025Measurements24.2c (b)213.69:23am

punch down showed lots of bubbles! it's actively noisy if you get close

punched at 9:20am, 2:30pm, 8pm
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10/2/2025Pitched yeast7.5 mg GoFerm
5 g D80 yeast		heated water to 110F
poured 50 mL into container
added 7.5 mg GoFerm, stirred in
added 5 g D80 yeast, let sit for 15 min
added 10 mL must, 27.2c (yeast) vs 24.2c (must)
waited 15 in, added 10 mL more must, temp matched
added yeast and stirred

done at 11am
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10/3/2025Measurements23.2c (t)189am

punched at 9am, 2:15pm, 8:30pm
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10/4/2025Measurements22.9c (t)159:20am

punched at 9:20am, 12:30pm, 9:15pm
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10/4/2025Add Fermaid O9 mg12:30pm

Rehydrated 9 mg (1.5 mg per 1 G, for 6 G) Fermaid O in 50 mL distilled water (took 45 minutes!) and mixed in with the punch down tool
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10/5/2025Measurements23.4c (t)
22.4c (b)		12.59:30am.

Punched at 9:30am, 1:30pm, 8:27pm
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10/6/2025Measurements23.3c (t)
22.8c (b)		109am

Punched at 9:05am, 2:10pm, 8:30pm
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10/7/2025Measurements24.5c (t)
24.2c (b)		7.57:30am.

Punched at 7:30am, 1:15pm, 7pm
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10/8/2025Measurements24.4c (t)
23.8c (b)		58:10am.

Punched at 8:10am, 1:30pm
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10/9/2025Measurements23.4 (t)
22.7 (b)		3.58:15am

Punched at 8:15am, 8:45pm
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10/10/2025Measurements21.5c (t)
21.2c (b)		29:30am. Punched at 9:30am, 2:30pm
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10/11/2025Measurements20.9c (t)1.51:30pm. Punched at 1:30pm
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10/12/2025Measurements19.9c (t)
19.4c (b)		0.59:30am. Punched at 9:30am, 4pm
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10/13/2025Measurements19.5c (t) 19.2c (b)0.2510am. Punched at 10am. Planned to press, but a heavy rain started around 2pm and went through the night.
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10/14/2025Measurements17.5c (t)
17.3 (b)		012pm
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10/14/2025Pressed and into the carboys3.812-1:30pm, mid-50s and a little rainy outside. Pressed out at the edge of the garage to avoid the rain. Filled a 5 gallon carboy (~95% run off) and 1 gallon carboy (100% pressed).

Wine tasted decent, even better after letting it settle for an hour in a glass.

pH measured at 3.8.
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10/14/2025SO2 addedKMBSadd about 30ppm (2ml/gal of 10% solution). 10mL went into 5G carboy and 2mL into 1G carboy

“10% solution” = 10 g KMBS / 100 mL final volume.
1 mL = 57 mg SO₂.
To add 30 ppm SO₂ to 6 gallons → add about 12 mL of the 10% solution.
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10/15/2025ML addedActi-ML
Enoferm BETA		10g Acti-ML
2.5g Enoferm BETA

adjusted into 50% solution		** NOTE TO FUTURE SELF: BUY 50G ACTI-ML **

This was so stressful because I was worried about making a mistake!

A simple 10% solution would have been 1 bag Enoferm BETA (2.5g), 10 bags Acti-ML (5g), and 250 mL water.

I only had 2 bags Acti-ML (10g), I had to recalculate a 50% solution: 0.5g Enoferm BETA, 10g Acti-ML, 50 mL water. Turns out that 50 mL water is too litte, so I increased to 100 mL water, so instead of doing 25 mL of solution I would add 50 mL solution across the two carboys. 50 mL is for 6 gallon of wine, so I added 8.3 mL to the 1 gallon carboy and 41.7 mL to the 5 gallon carboy.

Scale would only go down to 1g level, so I had to measure out 2g of Enoferm BETA and assume the rest would be 0.5g. The scale doesn't seem to be too reliable (didn't increase when I added the powder, but went -2g when I removed the powder. I went down/up until it teetered between 1g and 2g.

I had to thief some wine out of both carboys since the wine level had increased up the neck and I would be adding more liquid. left about 4" in the 5 gallon and 3" in the 1 gallon. Will keep watching.
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10/17/2025notes from call with Keithtime for 1st racking, remove most of the groslees, replace water with alcohol, order oak staves, check in 2 weeks (and once a week), ML should be done in 3-4 weeks

add 2g/L SO2 after ML
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10/18/2025First racking** NOTE TO FUTURE SELF: COMMIT TO THE SYPHON, DON'T LET AIR GET MIXED IN **

Noticeable amount of gross lees in the 5G, not so much in the 1G.

Racked 5G into fresh 5G, mostly filled. 1G added to 5G as well as 3 other mason jars (2 large, 1 small). Will save 1 large mason jar for the next racking and will enjoy the small jar.
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10/20/2025Observationfirst time noticing small bubbles at the top of the wine from the ML conversion
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10/24/2025Observationhouse cleaners moved the carboy causing some of the alcohol to go into the wine
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10/27/2025Added oak stickadded Medium Toast French Oak Carboy WineStix from MoreWine. attached a string to make it easy to pull out but since it's wood it floats at the top so easy access regardless.
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11/5/2025notes from call with Keithcheck ML activity by putting a closed bung and putting my ear up against it.

swish around the carboy to get any activity going, do this every ~4 days

plan to do testing in a few weeks (maybe Thanksgiving week, maybe early December)
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11/22/2025Mid-year Tests6.54.240Running malo test as well. Will post results tomorrow. Wine tastes a bit hot. Reading 9.2 brix on refractometer. thenickberry@gmail.com If you can get me a SPG reading with your hydrometer when you rack we can use that reading with Brix reading to calculate ~abv. Dark fruit, cassis, black pepper, trace amounts of oak on nose. Blueberry, Mineral notes. Good tannic structure. Long finish. More pronounced oak after letting it sit. thenickberry@gmail.com how many oak stix did you put in there?

keycrow@gmail.com I completely missed your updates here! 😬 I added one oak stick. I don't know what I was thinking not checking the log first, but I racked back in February and did not add SO2 or TA!
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11/24/2025Results of Malo testMalo is clearly complete. I would rack, add 10ppm SO2, and 2g/liter of Tartaric Acid to bring pH down to 4.
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2/20/2026Rack & bulk agingThin layer of fine lees caked on the bottom, otherwise transferred just fine.

Tasted nice is as descriptive as I get 😄
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