Gotcha! No, this isn't a prophetic post on the end times. I'll leave that up to what ever your personal belief system predicts. However, construction at Aaronap Cellars is rapidly coming to a close! The contractors installed the doors and trim earlier this week, including the massively heavy 2 hour fire door that the town required. Have to say that I'm impressed that the door is weighted & hung to gently close on its own without being pushed. The electricians came on Friday morning and completed the outlet, switches, lights, and fire/CO detector wiring. Friday afternoon, the floor was sealed. I selected a good old garage epoxy sealer with gravel grit on top to give some traction in case a little water or wine gets spilled. The guys went to it with gusto and in fact, didn't give the electricians time to finish the last wiring of the internet/phone outlet! There will have to be one last quick for the electricians next week to finish that.
Unfortunately, the floor is still curing so pictures will have to wait...until the plumbing is done and construction is finished! We're anticipating the plumbers to arrive Monday or Tuesday to install the sinks. A quick Board of Health in-construction inspection, and then it's up to me to move all the equipment back into the winery, hang the signage, fill the soap & towel dispensers, and we're ready for the final Board of Health inspection!
It's hard to believe, but I'm anticipating that we can start fermenting our first wines in early May. Our unique dessert wine, Forest Gold, will be first up, followed by a Sparkling Cranberry. Stay tuned for details!
Cheers,
Noel
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013
Wall Paneling & Ceiling Paint as Construction Continues
Loyal readers will notice that I skipped a week or two of recapping the winery construction work. Not that no progress was being made, but the focus of the basement project shifted briefly from the winery room to the rest of the basement as wallboard and plaster veneer work was being completed. Once that was done, the guys could get started on installing the FRP wall panels in the winery. We chose FRP panels to provide a durable, nonabsorbent, and washable surface to please the local Board of Health officials, but they do have the advantage of reducing the scope of the painting project! The FRP panel installation was largely completed by last Friday. Since the plaster ceiling had cured and the floor area was completely bare, I decided to leap in and paint the winery room ceiling this weekend. This was a task that I haven't exactly been eagerly anticipating because it's been awhile since I've painted a ceiling and the last ceiling paint project left mental scars that still give me nightmares (trust me--a long story best left for recollections over several beers). However, I was very pleased to find this situation was a complete charm. I started on Saturday with a final sanding touch up and dust removal, taping off the new wall panels, and then priming the ceiling. As in all of my home improvement projects, that took about twice as long as expected and left me very tired and muscle worn by early evening. Staring up at a ceiling and pushing a paint roller around uses some interesting muscles that apparently don't get used very often in normal life. But I must give credit to the plaster guys from Custom Contracting--they know how to properly plaster a ceiling and leave it ready for paint!
Sunday morning dawned, and after popping some ibuprofen, I headed back to the basement to start the ceiling paint. Four hours later, my neck muscles were sore but the ceiling was completed. And this morning, I'm pleased to share some pictures that show the dramatic change in the winery room.
We're getting really close to finishing the project as all that remains is floor sealing, installation of the 3-bay and handwash sinks and ejector sump pump, and finish electrical work. I still need to paint the window trim, but that won't take that long (knock on wood).
Cheers,
Noel
Sunday morning dawned, and after popping some ibuprofen, I headed back to the basement to start the ceiling paint. Four hours later, my neck muscles were sore but the ceiling was completed. And this morning, I'm pleased to share some pictures that show the dramatic change in the winery room.
We're getting really close to finishing the project as all that remains is floor sealing, installation of the 3-bay and handwash sinks and ejector sump pump, and finish electrical work. I still need to paint the window trim, but that won't take that long (knock on wood).
Cheers,
Noel
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
A Day at the MA State House: Ag Day 2013
Today turned out to be a rare treat. It was Ag Day 2013 at the Massachusetts State House and I decided to attend and support my fellow MA farm wineries in our quest for continued political recognition and support. My lovely wife Shawna even volunteered to join me and lend her years of politicking to the cause as well.
We left early anticipating some ugly Boston traffic, but actually arrived a little early. The scene was a little chaotic--as probably expected from trying to corral such a large and diverse group of agriculture-related associations and businesses. We finally located the Mass Winery exhibit table and our fellow winery owners and established our plan of action. Shawna and I took off to meet with our local state House/Senate representatives and (after getting a little lost in the rabbit warren that is the MA State House) ran into 2 very different receptions. I have to give credit to Senator Eileen Donoghue and her office staff. Not only had I received a prompt response from my email of last week asking for a brief appointment, but Deputy Chief of Staff Kirsten Centrella welcomed us with open arms by name and sat down for a brief discussion. She's got my vote next election! As for my local House representative, let's just say they weren't quite as cordial to meet a voter from their district.
The fun really began during the Grand Reception in the Great Hall. Each ag association and business exhibitor had tables full of food, plants, flowers, fruit samples, etc and the attendees, legislators, and staff members descended on them like vultures! By state law, we could not bring alcoholic beverages into the State House so we were forced to fall back on "pre-fermented" raw materials, i.e. Concord grape juice. Brought a smile to many faces and provided the only beverage in the entire reception. There were also an awful lot of underage FFA and 4H members attending so trying to check IDs would have been a nightmare. Shawna and I spent the reception glad handing with state representatives and staff members, as well as other folks interested in wine. Hopefully, we upped the attendance to our planned 2013 MA Wine Festivals!
The day culminated with a visit from Governor Deval Patrick. Word quickly spread when he appeared at the reception and he slowly made his way down the line of tables. His face really lit up when he came to the Mass Winery table and then fell when he realized the tasting cups were only grape juice. We joked with him that we were playing by his rules and only he had the power to change them! We had a robust and friendly conversation with him, got to shake his hand, and personally invited him to attend our 2013 MA Wine Festivals. Hope to see you there Governor!
I'm sure that everyone's visit to their respective State House ends with shaking the Governor's hand....nah, didn't think so! You'll understand why I got a little geeked to have the opportunity. A very good day.
Cheers,
Noel
We left early anticipating some ugly Boston traffic, but actually arrived a little early. The scene was a little chaotic--as probably expected from trying to corral such a large and diverse group of agriculture-related associations and businesses. We finally located the Mass Winery exhibit table and our fellow winery owners and established our plan of action. Shawna and I took off to meet with our local state House/Senate representatives and (after getting a little lost in the rabbit warren that is the MA State House) ran into 2 very different receptions. I have to give credit to Senator Eileen Donoghue and her office staff. Not only had I received a prompt response from my email of last week asking for a brief appointment, but Deputy Chief of Staff Kirsten Centrella welcomed us with open arms by name and sat down for a brief discussion. She's got my vote next election! As for my local House representative, let's just say they weren't quite as cordial to meet a voter from their district.
The fun really began during the Grand Reception in the Great Hall. Each ag association and business exhibitor had tables full of food, plants, flowers, fruit samples, etc and the attendees, legislators, and staff members descended on them like vultures! By state law, we could not bring alcoholic beverages into the State House so we were forced to fall back on "pre-fermented" raw materials, i.e. Concord grape juice. Brought a smile to many faces and provided the only beverage in the entire reception. There were also an awful lot of underage FFA and 4H members attending so trying to check IDs would have been a nightmare. Shawna and I spent the reception glad handing with state representatives and staff members, as well as other folks interested in wine. Hopefully, we upped the attendance to our planned 2013 MA Wine Festivals!
The day culminated with a visit from Governor Deval Patrick. Word quickly spread when he appeared at the reception and he slowly made his way down the line of tables. His face really lit up when he came to the Mass Winery table and then fell when he realized the tasting cups were only grape juice. We joked with him that we were playing by his rules and only he had the power to change them! We had a robust and friendly conversation with him, got to shake his hand, and personally invited him to attend our 2013 MA Wine Festivals. Hope to see you there Governor!
I'm sure that everyone's visit to their respective State House ends with shaking the Governor's hand....nah, didn't think so! You'll understand why I got a little geeked to have the opportunity. A very good day.
Cheers,
Noel
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Fire Barriers
I have usually been posted construction updates on the weekends, but was so excited today that I had to share ahead of time, especially since the evidence will be concealed by this weekend. Loyal readers will recall that Aaronap Cellars will be operating out of a portion of the basement of our residential home. One of the requirements of the Westford Building Department to approve the building permit was that we had to install a 2 hour fire barrier between the winery and the rest of the house. Even though the fire danger from vats of wine is pretty darn miniscule (try igniting a pan of wine with an open flame), I wasn't going to try to appeal this requirement since a fire barrier could be constructed fairly easily with minimal cost increase.
After we heard of that requirement, we (meaning my Custom Contracting experts) trooped off to determine what a constitutes a 2 hour fire barrier. We got a little luck since the portion of the basement where the winery will reside is bordered on 3 walls by concrete foundation and a single layer of Type X drywall over the studs will suffice for those walls. The 4th wall is the separation between the winery and residential spaces and this is where the fun starts. To build a 2 hr fire barrier along this wall requires a double layer of Type X drywall on each side of the framed wall studs with a layer of R15 fiberglass insulation. Not that bad...just doubled the amount of drywall panels needed for that wall, but still not bad.
Discerning minds might spot a gap above--we've covered the walls, but not the ceiling. Yep, a 2 hour fire barrier had to extend across the ceiling as well. We can't exactly rip off the top floor of the house to lay down a double layer of drywall on top of the floor studs, so it has to be hung from the ceiling of the basement. Layers again come to the rescue, but this time a 1-inch metal spacer is installed in between the 2 layers of drywall.
The drywall guys got started early this morning and by this evening have enclosed the winery space. The pictures below show the dramatic change and also illustrate the ceiling fire barrier as we've got one layer installed along with the metal spacers. Tomorrow will see the final ceiling layer installed and then they'll start plastering!
It actually looks like a winery room!
Cheers,
Noel
After we heard of that requirement, we (meaning my Custom Contracting experts) trooped off to determine what a constitutes a 2 hour fire barrier. We got a little luck since the portion of the basement where the winery will reside is bordered on 3 walls by concrete foundation and a single layer of Type X drywall over the studs will suffice for those walls. The 4th wall is the separation between the winery and residential spaces and this is where the fun starts. To build a 2 hr fire barrier along this wall requires a double layer of Type X drywall on each side of the framed wall studs with a layer of R15 fiberglass insulation. Not that bad...just doubled the amount of drywall panels needed for that wall, but still not bad.
Discerning minds might spot a gap above--we've covered the walls, but not the ceiling. Yep, a 2 hour fire barrier had to extend across the ceiling as well. We can't exactly rip off the top floor of the house to lay down a double layer of drywall on top of the floor studs, so it has to be hung from the ceiling of the basement. Layers again come to the rescue, but this time a 1-inch metal spacer is installed in between the 2 layers of drywall.
The drywall guys got started early this morning and by this evening have enclosed the winery space. The pictures below show the dramatic change and also illustrate the ceiling fire barrier as we've got one layer installed along with the metal spacers. Tomorrow will see the final ceiling layer installed and then they'll start plastering!
It actually looks like a winery room!
Cheers,
Noel
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Winery Construction Recap--Week 4. It's insulation time!
Another week of banging & sawing in the basement and we're several big steps closer to the finish line. All of the framing has been completed, along with rough plumbing and electrical work. There were a slew of building inspectors coming through to check on the work and we passed each inspection with flying colors! Friday was the most dramatic day of change since this was the day for insulation.
The perimeter concrete walls received a 2-inch coating of closed cell spray foam insulation by folks from The Green Cocoon out of Salisbury, MA, who did an excellent job of spray installation and clean up. There's a reason why that insulation is colored light green. My Iowa farm roots beat loud and proud when I learned that the spray foam insulation was made from soybeans! Not only is the insulation made from sustainable materials, but it contains no VOCs, HFCs, or CFCs. I will admit that it was still a smelly process while they were working (we abandoned ship for the local shopping mall), but a quick airing out of the house for about 30 minutes and the odor was gone.
The bottle wine storage closet received a layer of conventional R15 fiberglass insulation and moisture barrier.
The basement is finally starting to look like separate rooms with the walls insulated. Quite the dramatic change from a forest of studs! Next week will be even more dramatic as we start to hang sheet rock panels. Beginning to feel like it's all down hill from here!
Cheers,
Noel
The perimeter concrete walls received a 2-inch coating of closed cell spray foam insulation by folks from The Green Cocoon out of Salisbury, MA, who did an excellent job of spray installation and clean up. There's a reason why that insulation is colored light green. My Iowa farm roots beat loud and proud when I learned that the spray foam insulation was made from soybeans! Not only is the insulation made from sustainable materials, but it contains no VOCs, HFCs, or CFCs. I will admit that it was still a smelly process while they were working (we abandoned ship for the local shopping mall), but a quick airing out of the house for about 30 minutes and the odor was gone.
Cheers,
Noel
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Winery Construction-Week 3 Recap
Another week has passed, along with a lot more banging in the basement. This week saw several major steps forward, although visually the progress isn't spectacularly visual. We had a little bit of excitement on Thursday night when the new furnace burners stopped functioning. A tiny gas return valve had failed so the burner unit shut down. My HVAC expert says this is the first time in 8 years that he's seen that valve fail. But it was quickly fixed and we're rolling ahead.
Week 3 Big Steps:
1) All framing complete and soffit work begun
2) Rough electrical work completed.
3) Rough plumbing work in progress
4) Passed our electrical inspection with flying colors!!!!!
The 2 photos below show the completely framed bottled wine storage room from the southeast exterior corner and a close up of the room. Nothing fancy since this is just for storage of bottle case goods. The walls will be insulated with the sealed floor serving as a passive heat sink to cool the room.
This outlet is thrilling to me because I'm finally getting a 220V outlet in the basement to power some of the larger equipment that I'm purchasing! Not that impressive looking at a glance, but just had to share. :)
Now that the winery room walls are framed, I'm going to stop showing progress on the residential side of the basement after this one last shot of the adjacent bathroom. Plumbing is in full swing with the installation of the shower unit in progress.
Rough plumbing should be completed on Monday with the plumbing inspection set for Tuesday or Thursday. Once that's done we can start spray insulation on the walls, which is tentatively set for next Thursday-ish. Lots of work done, but still lots to go!
Cheers,
Noel
Week 3 Big Steps:
1) All framing complete and soffit work begun
2) Rough electrical work completed.
3) Rough plumbing work in progress
4) Passed our electrical inspection with flying colors!!!!!
The 2 photos below show the completely framed bottled wine storage room from the southeast exterior corner and a close up of the room. Nothing fancy since this is just for storage of bottle case goods. The walls will be insulated with the sealed floor serving as a passive heat sink to cool the room.
This is the view of the sink area from the northeast exterior corner (where all the tanks will sit). If you squint hard enough, you can see the roughed plumbing for the 3-bay sink and handwash sink.
This outlet is thrilling to me because I'm finally getting a 220V outlet in the basement to power some of the larger equipment that I'm purchasing! Not that impressive looking at a glance, but just had to share. :)
Now that the winery room walls are framed, I'm going to stop showing progress on the residential side of the basement after this one last shot of the adjacent bathroom. Plumbing is in full swing with the installation of the shower unit in progress.
Rough plumbing should be completed on Monday with the plumbing inspection set for Tuesday or Thursday. Once that's done we can start spray insulation on the walls, which is tentatively set for next Thursday-ish. Lots of work done, but still lots to go!
Cheers,
Noel
Monday, March 11, 2013
Buying Equipment--The Money Drain Really Begins!
You know the old maxim "It takes money, to make money"? Well, it's certainly true for winemaking! As you can probably guess from the preceding posts about the winery construction, finishing a basement (let alone custom outfitting a room as a winery) is not an inexpensive proposition. I'm certainly capable of tackling small home improvement projects by myself, but I'm very glad to enlist the services of Custom Contracting Inc to handle the complexity of a basement finishing project. As constructions hurtles towards completion, I'm also faced with the rapidly approaching need to upgrade my equipment to handle an ~5x increase in production volume....by myself. Going from 100 gallons/year to 500 gallons/year doesn't sound like that big of an increase, but when you're doing all the work by hand and by yourself there are technical challenges in moving 1/2 or 1 ton lots of grapes through the fermentation and aging process. Anything that can take a little of the muscle work and backstrain out of the process would be quite helpful.
I mentioned in the last post that I spent last week at the Eastern Winery Expo in Lancaster, PA. One of my primary reasons for going this year was to wander around the trade expo and visit the equipment manufacturers/retailers. Often times, they bring equipment with them as display items and since they are traveling, they usually bring the smaller scale equipment that they sell. Perhaps not what the big boys are looking for, but right up my alley! The chance to actually touch and poke a machine rather than looking at online or catalog photos is invaluable. I went with the goal of making decisions on 3 key pieces of equipment to make my life easier: 1) destemmer with a must pump, 2) transfer pump, and 3) bladder press.
I'd been looking at a destemmer from a source in CA, but was curious if I could find one closer to home to save on shipping. I've been using a motorized crusher/destemmer that has served me well, but it's a basic home winemaker's unit that really crushes the grapes to smithereens and makes a rather good-sized mess. Transferring the crushed must from the tubs that I usually set underneath the machine to the fermentation bins also requires a fair bit of back muscle work. My goals for a new unit included gentler fruit handling, a must pump that will take care of transferring the must into the fermenter, and ease in cleaning. Turns out that I found everything that I needed in a Zambelli Gamma 25 destemmer from M&M in Hartford, CT! They don't just do grapes & juice, but also equipment! An almost exact copy of the destemmer from CA for a comparable price but without the shipping costs. The picture below was provided by Napa Fermentation Supply who also sell the Zambelli line of crushers & destemmers but more for the West Coast crowd. The fun part will be getting it from M&M to Westford, and out of the truck once it's home, but I've got some ideas to accomplish that task.
The next big ticket item was a bladder press. I've been using a 120L ratchet press that was manufactured in 1939 by a Chicago ironworks company. That venerable piece of history used to inhabit a home winemaking shop in Boulder, CO but made it's way to Ann Arbor, MI after the shop closed when the owners retired. I used it for 2 years in Ann Arbor and then lugged it to MA where it's served my purposes nobly with few complaints. But I wanted to upgrade to a faster press with less likelihood of bacterial contamination. Imagine my delight when I walked into the Expo Trade Show to find the first booth inside the entrance was Oesco Inc, suppliers of orchard and vineyard management products from right here in MA, and they had a 120L Lancman stainless steel bladder press on display! You'll probably be wondering why I'm not looking for something larger than 120L. Truth is that I'd love to get a bigger unit, but I'm a little constrained by what will fit through the residential-size door of the winery room. The 120L bladder press should need only 2 pressings to process my 60 gal batches, so it should fit my needs for the next 4-5 years at least. If I really need additional throughput, I can always get a second press and have 2 running side-by-side. The nice folks from Oesco were quite happy to wheel and deal a little, especially if I would take it home with me from the show so they didn't have to lug it back to MA. And that's exactly what I did--right through the teeth of Winter Storm Saturn! The amusing part of the drive home was the double take looks from drivers as they passed me wondering what was this R2D2 looking thing in the back of the truck. The picture of my new toy below is from the Oesco website.
So the final item was a transfer pump to move wine around. I was really wanting a flexible impeller pump with a variable speed drive that would be large enough to handle some must gunk (not the just crushed berries, but fermentation sludge). Oh..and could I find one that ran on 110V single phase power?? I'll duck so that the electrical engineers don't hit me all at once. I've been poking around several suppliers but the only pumps I was finding that operated on 110V single phase were single speed. In theory they would work, but 9 gpm output speeds meant that I'd have quite a stream of wine roaring from tank to barrel with very little control. I was really quite pleased to find that The Vintner Vault has realized that I'm not the only guy with those technical requirements and manufacturers a Vigor Mini pump for us small guys in mind. They aren't cheap, but offer everything that I was wanting, along with a remote control! I chuckle that running the Mini at its rated full power speed of 25 gpm, I'd be able to transfer an entire barrel of wine in 2.4 minutes! Won't need that kind of speed, but there's certainly room to grow with this pump. I was told that they can't keep these things in stock and are awaiting a shipment of pump heads from Europe to arrive before they'll have any for sale. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring one home with me, but my name is on the waiting list.
So it was a very good trip to PA. Spent quite a bit of money but met all 3 equipment decision goals. Also chatted with grape growers, yeast providers, label printers, cork sellers, bottle sellers, etc, etc, etc. Came home with about a ton of pamphlets from just about everybody at the show. Lots of material to read in the future when I need to make more decisions.
Cheers,
Noel
I mentioned in the last post that I spent last week at the Eastern Winery Expo in Lancaster, PA. One of my primary reasons for going this year was to wander around the trade expo and visit the equipment manufacturers/retailers. Often times, they bring equipment with them as display items and since they are traveling, they usually bring the smaller scale equipment that they sell. Perhaps not what the big boys are looking for, but right up my alley! The chance to actually touch and poke a machine rather than looking at online or catalog photos is invaluable. I went with the goal of making decisions on 3 key pieces of equipment to make my life easier: 1) destemmer with a must pump, 2) transfer pump, and 3) bladder press.
I'd been looking at a destemmer from a source in CA, but was curious if I could find one closer to home to save on shipping. I've been using a motorized crusher/destemmer that has served me well, but it's a basic home winemaker's unit that really crushes the grapes to smithereens and makes a rather good-sized mess. Transferring the crushed must from the tubs that I usually set underneath the machine to the fermentation bins also requires a fair bit of back muscle work. My goals for a new unit included gentler fruit handling, a must pump that will take care of transferring the must into the fermenter, and ease in cleaning. Turns out that I found everything that I needed in a Zambelli Gamma 25 destemmer from M&M in Hartford, CT! They don't just do grapes & juice, but also equipment! An almost exact copy of the destemmer from CA for a comparable price but without the shipping costs. The picture below was provided by Napa Fermentation Supply who also sell the Zambelli line of crushers & destemmers but more for the West Coast crowd. The fun part will be getting it from M&M to Westford, and out of the truck once it's home, but I've got some ideas to accomplish that task.
So the final item was a transfer pump to move wine around. I was really wanting a flexible impeller pump with a variable speed drive that would be large enough to handle some must gunk (not the just crushed berries, but fermentation sludge). Oh..and could I find one that ran on 110V single phase power?? I'll duck so that the electrical engineers don't hit me all at once. I've been poking around several suppliers but the only pumps I was finding that operated on 110V single phase were single speed. In theory they would work, but 9 gpm output speeds meant that I'd have quite a stream of wine roaring from tank to barrel with very little control. I was really quite pleased to find that The Vintner Vault has realized that I'm not the only guy with those technical requirements and manufacturers a Vigor Mini pump for us small guys in mind. They aren't cheap, but offer everything that I was wanting, along with a remote control! I chuckle that running the Mini at its rated full power speed of 25 gpm, I'd be able to transfer an entire barrel of wine in 2.4 minutes! Won't need that kind of speed, but there's certainly room to grow with this pump. I was told that they can't keep these things in stock and are awaiting a shipment of pump heads from Europe to arrive before they'll have any for sale. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring one home with me, but my name is on the waiting list.
So it was a very good trip to PA. Spent quite a bit of money but met all 3 equipment decision goals. Also chatted with grape growers, yeast providers, label printers, cork sellers, bottle sellers, etc, etc, etc. Came home with about a ton of pamphlets from just about everybody at the show. Lots of material to read in the future when I need to make more decisions.
Cheers,
Noel
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