Crushed and Destemmed

Today's the day! I received an email earlier this week saying the grapes will be ready Saturday Morning. After giving my Rubbermaid Brutes a good cleaning (with a little sanitizer), I packed them into the HHR and drove out to Fabbioli Cellars.

I am going to be completely honest and say that it felt pretty cool walking into a tasting room and saying, "I'm here to pick up grapes. I reserved 200 pounds of Chambourcin?" It's kind of like going from just enjoying the sound of music, to starting your own band. Only much messier.

Doug came down and turned on his big crusher/destemmer. I foolishly forgot to bring a camera, but it essentially looks like the photo to the left. The grapes get poured into the top and the grape stems shoot out one end, while the gently crushed grapes come out the other. After all that worry about what to use for a primary fermenter, the Brute buckets worked perfectly...although I needed a little help getting them into the car. I also only needed two 20 gallon buckets, rather than three. Before I left, Doug gave me some critical notes. My grapes have a PH of 3.31 and a Brix of 22.8. He said the grapes are essentially perfect, so I don't need to make any adjustments for acidity or sugar.

Now that I'm home, the only question is whether or not I will cold macerate. This is the process of keeping cooling the grapes for a little while before throwing in the yeast. The only problem is that I'm not sure how to cool down the grapes in time. I might just pitch the yeast tomorrow morning. In case you haven't guessed, I'm pretty much figuring this out as I go along.