Racking and Degassing

A day in the brewery that feels like an immense amount has been achieved. Well moving 30 bottles of wine one step closer to imminent drinking would do eh!

So this is the 5 gallon batch of Blueberry & Cranberry Rosé, today I racked it and started degassing it by swirling and rocking each DJ. It's a funny thing but it gives me a nice connection to my wine, I always want to call it "burping the baby". Place the DJ in your lap and swirl/rock it while you watch the dissolved gasses (mostly CO2) come out of solution and bubble up through the airlock. This is what the end of 4 degassing sessions, on 5 DJ's, looks like. I love the colour and clarity of this wine and  it's not even 8 weeks since it was started. Tastes fine too! But will need more degassing yet before stabilising and bottling.

and this is what it looks like the moment you stop the burping

You'll get a "head" on your wine each time you do this for some time. But it is worth it, the wine will be still. If you don't it'll have a slight fizz (I think the poncey term is frizz). Personally I quite like it, but if folk are not expecting it then they'll either be suspicious of your abilities, or if they are wine competition types then they'll tell you it's a fault and "mark you down" for it.

 I kinda see what "they" are aiming for. There is nothing bad about wine with this frizz, it's just not fashionable in those circles. But once upon a time new world wine was sneered at too. Fashions change, whether you're in the inner circle or not. But I think I'm a bit of an odd-ball brewer anyway. I choose my yeast to suit my preferences (low foaming and extra esters). And also to suit the conditions; rather than change the conditions (temperature with a heating belt/mat for example) to suit yeast. I avoid all finings if at all possible and prefer to wait. I have never filtered. I haven't failed to clear a bottle of wine for a few hundred bottles but if offered cloudy or hazy homebrew I'll drink it as long as it tastes right. And I won't sneer at it either. Cos I love home-brewing and as long as you keep it a pleasure then you will too.

So if you're starting out, or still pretty new to it all, then take it slow and easy, don't fret about the small stuff, you'll still love drinking what you made. And by the time you know enough to make "improvements" then you will have given your senses something out of the ordinary. So then you can decide whether or not you want to change it. There's nothing wrong with making a generic wine, and it's easy enough to do, there's plenty of step by step recipes for those wines on the web. But making something unique and quality, well that's special.

Was that a rant?