Patience Saves Time

Attended the workshop this morning to inspect the incubator's progress in its 24 hour test. An amazing sight - all 6 thermometers read the same temperature! What is going on? The rewards of patience at work. Had I left the thing alone yesterday instead of fiddling around for 6 hours it would have achieved the same result. The entire interior lining of the well insulated box would have eventually warmed and achieved a constant temperature. All my fiddling had prevented the box from reaching equilibrium. There was no need to relocate the fan at all. Another lesson to note in the database resting on my shoulders.

The new egg incubator has been relocated to the house and after bringing up to temperature 6 eggs were selected for a trial run.

Incubation underway. Note the thermometer probe. An extra temporary addition just until we get this trial to a successful completion.

With some doubt on the accuracy of the humidity measurement a test has been instituted separately with two spare Hygrometers to see if they need calibration. It involves using a salt slurry in a plastic bag. Apparently this after 12-24 hours should show a reading of 75%. We shall see.

Apart from the usual Monday morning of checking expectant mothers of which there were none, putting out silage and feeding another green strip it was a quiet day. The very unpleasant westerly winds kept us indoors to a large extent.

One indoor activity was to take samples of the 6 red wines quietly resting in glass demijohns. Pinot Noir, Merlot, Shiraz, Chambourcin, Tempranillo and Petit Verdot. The Petit Verdot was a little acidic but as it is traditionally used to blend with other reds it will either be used in this way or go through a cold stabilisation process to drop out some of the acid. The Chambourcin was the pick of the bunch. The fruit was picked at 23.5 Brix our best result for these grapes. They are heavy croppers and hard to get to ripen in our rocky outcrop. This year the bunches were heavily pruned after flowering to reduce the crop to half of the normal level with a good increase in sugar. This year we also extended the time on skins to ensure the maximum colour extraction. The Pinot Noir in particular was on skins for 28 days and really shows the benefit with good colour and sugars fully fermented out.

The last event of the day was to open the Provolone trial cheese. This was the second attempt to replicate Provolone. Well it was very tasty but not exactly like the shop bought sample. Still experimentally a good start.

Testing The Egg Incubator, Mandarin Wine

Popped down to the workshop at 8 am to set up the 24 hour test on the incubator and ended up there for 6 hours. The problem was the temperature. The wireless temperature and humidity transmitter didn't have a min/max function which is essential for a full 24 hour test. The solution was simply to insert a probe from one of the many digital thermometers that are stored in the winery (La Cave).

The test rig

There result was a discrepancy between the two thermometers. There was also a big discrepancy between in humidity level in the transmitter and an old hygrometer sitting in the water tray. Attacking the temperature problem first 5 separate probes were inserted into different parts of the incubator. This resulted in 6 different temperatures, some differing by 2 degrees C.

After installing a second fan and moving both fans to different positions and testing the results a final configuration was established that kept the temperature variation to just below one degree. A insulated baffle between the heat source and the egg storage section prevented radiant heat distorting the readings and both fans were mounted in front of and just above the heat source pulling warm air and pumping it across the eggs.  Each test meant dismantling the setup, relocating the fans, reinstalling all the probes and recording temperature variances. What a pain!

There also needed to be confirmation that the temperature was in fact the temperature so the thermostat could be calibrated. With 12 thermometers inside the incubator and some with probes sitting side by side it was established that a bulb thermometer was broken, one transmitter was not transmitting and one digital thermometer was out by one degree. Finally the thermostat was calibrated.

The humidity issue was also resolved when by comparing the results of 3 transmitters and the hygrometer. One transmitter had both the temperature and humidity measurements that worked.

The whole setup was left running after all the min/max settings were reset.

And then some work got done i.e. putting out silage and hay for next doors cows. While I was fiddling with the incubator Jean got some real work done around the garden.

The Mandarin wine had a Brix reading of 17 which was borderline. Yesterday another small batch of Mandarins was juiced with a kitchen juicer and the batch frozen. This morning before embarking on the marathon temperature testing it was taken out of the freezer to defrost. When the defrosted juice reached 21 Brix it was added to the main batch raising the combined batches to 18.4 which is a potential alcohol a little above 10. Well above the minimum 9 recommended for stability. Some NWS Chardonnay yeast was added and an airlock fitted. Lets see what happens.

Mandarin Wine warming above the fireplace

Tannat Wine, Cleaning Wine Bottles, The Project is finished

We opened two bottles of wine yesterday. Both were the 2012 Tannat  (red) which had extended fermentation. T1 had been fermented on skins for 15 days and French Oak Medium toasted chips were added after the main fermentation was complete. It is beautiful. Very drinkable with a dark almost black colour and good fruit nose and palate. T2 had not only been fermented for 21 days but had the pressed skins from T1 added to it at day 15. Same oak addition. The whole idea was to extract as much of the goodness out of the skins as possible. T2 was harsher more tannic but will soften in time.

The conundrum is that T2 is at its peak in goodness and should really be the one to drink now. Our compromise was to mix the two 50/50.

Can't wait to try some of the 2013 reds as they were fermented on skins for an additional week to really push the boundaries of extraction.

One of the podcasts recently listed to was from Cellar Dwellers in the USA. Very entertaining coverage of wine making with the motto "the more you drink the better we sound". Some wrong information occasionally but always some new concepts and ideas to try. What was highlighted in one podcast was the problem a lot of people have with cleaning bottles. Getting the label off seems to be one area they struggle with. Some labels come of easily as the glue is water soluble. Others can be taken off if the bottle is filled with hot water and then soaked in hot water.

What a waste of effort. A sharp kitchen knife (not longer used in the kitchen) will scrape off the labels and the residue scrubbed off with coarse steel wool. This steel wool is kept aside just for this job as it becomes clogged with paper fragments. A few types of labels have a glue which needs to be rubbed off with paint thinners but this type is a reasonably  small percentage.

The final step is putting them through the dishwasher. They come out squeaky clean and sterile ready for wine bottling. The podcast was saying it takes about an hour to do 12-15 bottles and so they were moving away from recycling to purchasing new bottles. What a waste. The method outlined above takes no more than 10-15 minutes for 12-15 bottles.

The Project aka Egg Incubator aka Chickabator is finished. Today the bottom mesh was installed and while a full scale temperature and humidity test was underway a sliding frame was assembled to hold the eggs and allow them to be rolled easily without removing the lid.

Temperature and humidity test underway

Also tested was whether air was circulating. A small tray with smoking sawdust placed inside demonstrated that air was indeed leaving the box.

Humidity device, The cloths stop the slopping when the bator is moved. More trays = more humidity. Notice the protruding handle used to roll the eggs.

The last test will be a 24 hour min max temperature test.

The primitive egg roller installed and the wireless temperature and humidity transmitter secured to the wall.

Progress on The Project

Woke up at 2.30 am and decided to get up now and do a few chores before heading out to pick up Jean at 5 am. The bus was on time. Jean was happy to be home and I was happy she was home. Home Hill Farm never seems complete when she is away.

After breakfast Jean went to bed for a nap after the 9 hour almost sleepless bus trip and I took the opportunity to head over the river and move the irrigator to its next run and put more silage out.

The bulk of the day was spent in the workshop on The Project which is progressing well while Jean checked on the springers next door and pottered around the house getting pots and beds watered.

The electrics fitted and tested, needs a little more protection around some of the exposed wires

Getting to the endgame with The Project. All the electrics are complete, the lining finished and the pull out draw which will hold the evaporation water done. The last few tasks are the mesh platform to support the eggs, the mesh barrier around the electrics, two ventilation holes (one for fresh air in and one for stale air out and last of all will be a mechanism to allow for rolling the eggs without opening the box. Once the mesh is complete the unit can go into test mode to calibrate the thermostat and humidifier.

The humidifier draw. Allows for up to three trays of water to be used. The trays are recycled trays from farmed Salmon fillets.

It is hard to hold back and not rush to the finish. So far the routine has been finish a stage and then think about the next stage for a day or two before returning. This has so far worked well in getting to this stage without any major problems. Is this design and build on the run?

Mandarin Wine, The Project

All quiet on the calving scene but not so quiet on the irrigation scene. The boss rang yesterday to say he had left the irrigator running and it would shut down in two hours and the smaller non-irrigation pump was set to "Auto" and would cut in to maintain supply to the troughs. 19 hours later the following was discovered. The irrigator had not reached the end of its run because one of the propulsion jets was blocked slowing its progress. Because it had not reached the end of the run the automatic water cut off switch had not been triggered before the main pumps timer finished and the small trough pump engaged. The small trough pump is not capable of driving the irrigator but is capable of pumping a large amount of water out of every orifice of the irrigator. One large section of that paddock has now been flood irrigated.

The only reason there has been no attempt to make Mandarin wine is that very few Mandarins are required by any of the recipes found. So a pointless exercise if the objective is to use up a mountain of surplus fruit. On its own the fruit had a Brix of 13.4 which is just under half of the sugar level needed to make a good wine. Hence why all the recipes included all sorts of additives to lift the sugar levels. Until today. While listening to a wine making podcast the solution was delivered. A guy in the USA was explain how he made 3 gallons of Chilli wine by freezing the juice to extract the water and concentrate the sugars.

The downside of Mandarin wine is peeling all the fruit. Fortunately this variety (Imperial) has a loose skin which comes off easily. To make a trial 2 litre batch the target was 4 litres of juice - doable. And so now the freezer is performing the first stage of what will be a trial batch of 100% Mandarin juice wine. 50 ppm of Potassium Metabisulphite was added after pressing to slow oxidation and spoilage. The pH came in at 4.2 which is not acid enough as it will be treated like a white wine. Calculated and added some Tartaric Acid to drop the pH to 3.5. Also kept some juice unadulterated in case a later dilution is required.

Lots of leftovers



Pressing Mandarin with the small screw press

The Project has now reached the point where it can be named even though far from finished. A home made egg incubator. Unless the electrics could be made to work it wouldn't have seen the light of day. The recycled computer fan works perfectly using a charger from a long defunct power tool. Both thermostats retrieved from dumped hot water systems failed to make the grade. One didn't have an adjustable mechanism and the other which did couldn't work below 50 degrees C. Salvation came from the old washing machine which died some years ago. It was dismantled and recycled except some components were kept - in case. One such component was the thermostat and it works perfectly.

The current status is the basic shell is finished and all the electrics have been sourced and tested. Next stage is finishing  the lining and installing the electrics. After that its just the internal mountings which include an access draw to top up the humidifier and a manual egg rolling mechanism accessible from the exterior. If the labour content is calculated at $1 per hour it probably would have been cheaper to buy an incubator off the Web but not as much fun.

Basic Carcase

Lid with Observation Window

The frame is timber from a pallet. The cladding is from recycled Masonite. The insulation is recycled foam and roofing film. As mentioned all the electrics are all recycled. The only purchased items will be the dual low watt light globes for heating and the screws for assembly.