Winemaking Journal

If you are going to start making wine, a good idea is to keep a wine journal. One very important part of producing wine is to be consistent. Keeping a wine journal will allow you to get that consistency, and also keep track of your progress as you advance your skills. When you start, your notes may not seem that important; however, as you continue making wine, this information becomes very valuable. You may be thinking that you can rely on your own memory; however, this can prove to be quite disastrous if you want to develop consistently good wines. After making a few batches, there is a good chance that you will forget exact details, such as what worked best, and what to avoid.
The type of information that you should record in your journal lncludes any information that could possibly have an impact on the final outcome of the wine. Although it is not necessary to include trivial information, you will want to record information such as brand of yeast, and temperature levels of your wine must.
Some other information that you should record in your winemaking journal:

• How much fruit

• Type and amount of sugar used

• Type and amount of yeast

• Type and amount of nutrients

• Primary fermentation

• Secondary fermentation

• Taste, characteristics, etc

Another important piece of information to record is dates. You should make a note of when you put the yeast into the must, as well as the dates the rackings are performed on. Any time you add ingredients is also a good thing to keep track of. Be sure to note when you bottle the wine, including how it looks and tastes when you do a sample taste.

One of the critical tests for any batch of wine is the hydrometer readings. Recording the readings and dates taken is very important. As you make more and more wine, hydrometer readings will give you more and more insight into the wine you make. Hydrometer readings should be taken when the fermentation process begins and ends. Should you add fruit or sugar to the must during fermentation, you should also take a hydrometer reading before and after as well.

Just about anything that you feel comfortable with can be added to your journal. You can keep it simple, using even a spiral notebook. Or you can keep more complicated information by developing your own wine journal, and logging down all the information you want to keep, and categorize it. This can easily be done on a computer, with a word processor or spreadsheet to make several pages, then print them and put them in a three ring binder. With this method, every page will be identical, and easier for you to compare to previous entries. With the three ring binder, you can add more pages as you need. And of course, you can always buy a winemaking journal at wine brewing stores, or on the internet.