The experiment we conducted with this small amount of juice was to see how three yeasts, X16, D47 and CH9 affected the aroma and flavor profiles of the resultant wine. We inoculated the kegs on October 3, 2019 and the fermentation took over three weeks to come to completion. While the X16 and D47 inoculated wines were in a temperature controlled fermentation chamber, the CH9 was fermented outside of the chamber since we didn't have enough space for it.
I blogged about the properties of these three yeasts on January 11, 2020 in a blogpost called Chardonnay Fermentation Experiments. In May, we checked the sulfur dioxide levels of the three kegs and added some potassium metabisulfite where necessary. The wines sat on the lees until November 18, when we took the numbers for the finished wine:
Chardonnay/Yeast | pH | TA | SO2 |
Chardonnay/CH9 | 3.11 | 6.0 g/L | 27 ppm |
Chardonnay/D47 | 3.00 | 7.9 g/L | 11 ppm |
Chardonnay/X16 | 3.07 | 7.3 g/L | 41 ppm |
We bottled our Chardonnay on December 12, 2020. Here is the setup of our bottling line. In the above photo, we used argon gas to push the wine that was in the keg. The keg coupler when open allowed the argon into the keg to push the wine into the tubing which went to the 1 micron filter. The pressure gauge was there to ensure that the appropriate amount of pressure was going to the filter. If the filter got clogged, the rising pressure on the gauge will indicate that problem. Next, my husband opened up the top of the filter to allow the first of the wine to flow out and ensured that there were no bubbles trapped in the filter. Prior to bottling, we blew compressed air into the bottles to get rid of any particles if they were there. Once everything checked out we were ready to bottle. We could fill 6 bottles at a time. I filled the bottles and my husband corked the bottles. It was a smooth 2 person operation. When all the Chardonnay was bottled, we had the following:
Chardonnay/Yeast | Number of 750 mL bottles | Number of 375 ml bottles |
Chardonnay/CH9 | 21 bottles | 0 |
Chardonnay/D47 | 20 bottles | 0 |
Chardonnay/X16 | 3 cases | 2 cases |
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