First Pressing

The first thing that awaited me this morning was a overly active fermentation going on with the Barbera from last weekend with the ambient yeast. I guess I under estimated how much head room I might need. Well it managed to push it's way out of the airlock.

I then decided to try out the new press and go ahead and put the Syrah/Chenin Blanc #2 into a carboy. It was in a 5 gallon bucket and not completely full so a 3 gallon carboy should do the trick. This was also a perfect time to  try out my nifty carboy cleaning device that attaches to my hand held drill and gives the carboy a nice cleaning.

Then on to the press. Since I've been using the press in the WinePod in prior years this was my first time with a traditional basket press. I'm not overly impressed. It did the job but it doesn't handle small batches very well as you need to stack up wooden blocks between the ratchet and the semi-circle press blocks. If you have a small amount (like one in a 5 gallon bucket) you end up with some Jenga looking stack of wood blocks that don't want to stay in one place and you're lucky if you can get a good pressing. I'm sure there's a better way than using these silly wooden blocks like the ones supplied with the press but I didn't have time to devise something.


Anyway, I managed to get my 3 gallon carboy filled and so the first pressing of 2010 is now complete.