The Making of Golden Goodness

After being chased around the kitchen and whacked with the mixing spoon, I finally managed to get Kevin to think about moving on this wine making project.

The first thing to remember that cleanliness is the best way to avoid nasty contamination and death… or godliness if you will… so we used the sterilizing agent that came in my kit….

Next in went 1/2 gallon of hot water into the “Primary fermenter” or as Kevin and I finally determined it to be the bucket with the tap… into the hot water when a packet of bentonite. Now, my familiarity with bentonite is from my distant past as an environmental consultant.. (I am like an onion… the more you peel me, the more layers you find..) Anyway, my experience with bentonite is that is used to back fill wells used to sample runoff from hazmat sites. Imagine my surprise that it had an application in wine making? My theory at the moment is that it is used as an early filtration agent? Maybe as something that dead yeast can hook on to… If any one knows and would like to tell me that would be great.. because obviously I am such a dork I will continue to ponder this mystery.

After the bentonite was added and mixed into the water… (word to the wise, don’t pour the powder in and THEN start mixing, bentonite is a form of clay and will seize when it hits water… TRUST ME)

Ok.. after I broke up the glob of clay, Kevin poured our Chilean Chardonnay juice into the fermenter. Naturally the cover would not come off the container… so we improvised. I stabbed the bladder pack with a knife and the juice poured forth. With a beautiful shower of golden goodness…..

Ahhh….

More to come….

This entry was posted on October 25, 2008 at 4:44 pm and is filed under bladder, Chardonnay, Chile, clay, golden, hobo, home winemaking, juice, shower. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.