Strawberry chocolate mud

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sjo

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I started a batch of strawberry chocolate about 3 weeks ago. I used 15 lbs of strawberries 4 lbs of strawberry preserves and 20 oz of hersheys cocoa. I had 5 1/2 gallons. I racked out of the secondary tonight because there appeared to be a lot of sediment on the bottom. I was left with about 2 1/2 gallons of mud and 3 gallons of wine which I am sure will stilll settle out quite a bit. The mud still has a lot of chocolate and strawberry flavor. My question is can I make a 2 or 3 gallon batch of sugar water with an sg of 1.085 and dump it into the mud. If so do I need more pectic enzyme and do I need to let it sit while before adding to the mud.
Thanks,
Scott
 
Sounds like you didnt mix in the cocoa properly, Im not sure what you are planning will work out well. I guess it wouldnt hurt to try though.
 
Wade, I processed the cocoa the same as you had done in your Strawberry chocolate Port.
I figured with all the flavor left in the 2.5 gallon of lees I could get another smaller batch out of it. Similar to making a second batch from grapes.
Scott
 
When I did my kit rasp/choc port .. it took ages to ferment and was really muddy. I left it in the primary for a really long time with no problems of off flavours or anything. What was the SG at racking? I'd be inclined to just pour it all back into the same container and let it go a bit longer before worrying about racking it.

The other option would be to rack it through a double layer of muslin so you get all the liquid transferred. Adding sugar water wouldn't be something I'd consider personally.

Allie
 
Allie,
The sg is at .994 it appears to be fermented out. I am sitting here wondering what the alcohol content will be. I started at 1.100. If it is concentrated in the 3 gallons of wine left that is left it could be potent. Would I gain anything by dumping the wine back in with the mud if there is no more sugar left. Would the lees compact down? Would I get off flavors from the dead yeast (They must be in there somewhere) if I left it sit a while? I am going to sleep on it and check back in the morning. I am however leaning towards trying a second smaller batch by adding sugar water to the tasty mud.
Thanks
Scott
 
It sounds like it is done Scott..

If it were mine..I would put it all back into one container.. stabilise and add finings to drop the lees to the bottom. Using finings will get it compacted and you'll be able to rack off in a week ... getting off flavours from lees will take more than a week.

sleep on it anyway.. it'll still be there in the morning.

Allie
 
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