Lab Pics

The other day I checked Brix, pH, and TA (total acidity) for a couple of vineyards.


I set the lab up on the kitchen counter at home – I was doing office work (getting the offer letters printed) while Gerry ran around to all the vineyards pulling samples for me. When he got here, we sat at the dining room table to fold, stuff, and seal all the envelopes. It’s a great time for us to sit for several hours and practice speaking in English and Spanish.

The shot glass has distilled water in it – for rinsing the probe in between calibrating. Above, calibrating the pH meter.


These are the cabernet berries from Crimson Clover. They look just like blueberries to me. The “high tech” method of extracting the juice for testing involves a potato masher.

These are the pinot and merlot berries from Vista Verde, after smashing for juice extraction. The very bright green seeds indicate what the numbers confirmed, they are not ripe yet.
Paul already posted the lab numbers, I promised pictures, so here they are.
Missing are pictures of the hygrometer and refractometer for checking Brix.