The David J. Schryver Winemaking Page

The concept of making our own wine has intrigued me for many years. As a math teacher with a science minor in college that I never did anything with, I saw it as a practical application of science. At least, that's how I rationalized it. You also had the benefits of enjoying the "fruits" of your labor. After retiring in 2006, I had some time to look into this and started the hobby with the 2007 grape crop.

I had a close friend, who also happens to be our family dentist, who has made wine for over 20 years. He became my "wine coach" and we still consult often. I made the decision early on to use 3-gallon carboys. Not only are these easier to handle than 5 or 6 gallon jugs, it also gives the flexibility of making a moderate amount of more varieties. If I want to make 6 gallons of something, I just make 2 batches!

The first year, I made 4 batches. The weather in 2007 was considered pretty much ideal for the New York State Finger Lakes grape crop. The TA and pH of the grapes I used were all within desired ranges so the only treatment I needed to apply was to add sugar. In fact, the Foch that year had a starting Brix of 20.5^o, so I didn't even have to add sugar to that. It isn't much of a challenge to calculate the amount of sugar to add, even if you're not mathematically inclined.

In 2008, the weather wasn't quite as favorable, but it was still good. That year, I found myself adding acid to the Niagara because the TA was a bit low. However, the Cayuga and Delaware were a bit high and the Concord was over 1.11% TA. It happened that my wine coach had just left on a business conference and I wouldn't be able to consult with him for over a week. I started to do research on how this should be handled and soon found that Calcium Carbonate was needed to lower the TA. However, using this also raises the pH and in the case of the Concord, I was between a rock and a hard place. The pH was already so high that even attempting to lower the TA .1% would raise my pH to an unacceptable level. More research showed that adding sugar water to the must is another option. Most grapes will tolerate a 15% addition of water but some, like Catawba and Concord can accept up to a 50% increase. I opted for this method for the Cayuga, Delaware and Concord.

2009 was a very rainy and cool year. As a result, the Finger Lakes grape crop was quite acidic. I had to treat almost all of my 12 batches this year with Calcium Carbonate. In some cases, I also had to add sugar water.

Treating with Calcium Carbonate and sugar water leads to quite a bit of mathematical computation. I found myself doing a lot of searching to find out what to do and in some cases, I found the answers, but they were Metric. A number of times, I found myself wondering what people without the math background would do. Unfortunately, in 2008, I didn't really make myself adequate notes. In 2009, I found myself retracing my steps. At that point, I decided to make some on-line notes for my own future use and perhaps to help those who are in the same boat and are looking for help with these calculations.

I have created what I will call a primer page of computations for 1) adding sugar, 2) treating with Calcium Carbonate and 3) adding sugar water.