Just Can't Stop Picking it!

A) Primary Fermentation
B) Figuring









C) The Sink
We're on the verge of production and I knew I just had to do some figuring to check on what the set up could reasonably handle.
But first The Sink - see pic C - there's been a whole lotta talk 'bout that there sink, but no pics of her, until now, so what'dya think? Shiny. Smooth. Partially plumbed. Oh yes, the epitomy of the whole enchilada and certainly the real McCoy. No word on whether Marty got the stuff for that odd faucet set up. NExt week'll do it I think.
Figuring - picture B - We've has a spreadsheet for some time about how many cases of grape transalte into primary fermentation vessels, secondary fermentation vessels all through to barrels, but sometimes it just helps to try set up the first stage and work from there.
I set up the primary vessels then took paper and pencil and allocated blends among them. That's the easier part - the art is in then working out what you get out of these, how to contain them. It's the end quantity that don't fill a vessel 100% that's the kicker. So, for a blend of three varietals, that's 3 end quantities to deal with.
Now for an extra $100 a pop, I wouldn't even have to think about this because then I could buy floating skins for the secondary vessels and just seal the wine off (with a breather) at whatever level.
Going from Primary to Secondary fermentation is straightforward. Racking during the secondary fermentation presents the fact that you're dealing with waste - so a 100% full vessel could lose 5% on racking. I think this can be managed by pressing out extra juice - as long as we can store it safely... As you can see storage is very important.
Any how - I think we can do this for two blends of up to a total of five varietals and a straight varietal. With the blends - it will be possible to make straight varietals too. I know what I mean.
Inital Setup - pic A) - Just had to set it up. It's was needed to check the length of the piping required. I set it up then measured from the furthest barrel to where the pump will be then from pump's location up and out of the basement to 4ft beyond the basement. This is the maximum length the piping needs to deal with. For other pumping, the pipe can be split into smaller lengths.
Initially the barrels were in two straight lines. Staggering them in a zig-zag saved 2ft. Important when 15ft is the max. head for self priming and we're running at just about that.
Also marked up the barrels for which varietal they'll contain then ran through the transfer after the primary stage is done. I think I'll split one of the hoses to shorten them, get a smaller diameter hose with stick for the in-barrel work - means I'll have to buy a couple more couplings.

And that was it.

By the way - can you spot the Orbs in Picture A?

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