May 2015 Wine of the Month Club

Copy and pasted from previous month, and so on and so forth, yadda yadda yadda...

This is the official thread for our unofficial club, open to anyone who is interested in making a one gallon (or larger) test/experimental batch and sharing the recipe, process, ups and downs with the rest of the club.

We like:
a) full recipes with all ingredients and steps as you go along
b) pictures
c) helpful suggestions on recipe ideas, stumped members
d) thinking outside the box
e) pictures! (did I say that already?)

At the end of the month, we would appreciate a recap of the good, the bad and the ugly of the primary fermentation, as well as periodic updates throughout the year as you go along.

At the one year mark, we will all pop open a bottle of the previous year's wine and take pictures, post comments on how it turned out, and hopefully have a tried and true recipe to post in the recipes section.

Some months we have a lot of people participate, and sometimes life catches up with us and we aren't able to ferment as much as we might like. Feel free to drop in, drop by, drop a comment, whatever.
We welcome questions and suggestions from participants and casual observers alike.

If you aren't participating in this months thread, feel free to share your thoughts and ideas for any WOTM wines you have planned for this year.


May participants:

1. Jericurl.....Black Briar Reserve (AKA Blackberry wine with DME added)

2. JDesCotes.....Pineapple Wine

3. BernardSmith.....Ginger Mead

4. The Rayway.....Grapefruit Wine

5. OhCrap.....Rhubarb Wine

I know what wine I'll be making for this month, though it will be later in the month before I am able to do it.
I was digging around and came across the port wine recipe that @Boatboy24 posted (originally found on the Jack Keller website).

Here is the original recipe for one gallon:
6 lb. blueberries
1/2 pt. red grape concentrate
1/2 c. light dry malt
1-3/4 lb. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
1-1/2 tsp. acid blend
1/2 tsp. yeast energizer
1/2 tsp. wine stabilizer
4 pt. water
crushed Campden tablet
wine yeast
Wash and crush blueberries in nylon straining bag and strain juice into primary fermentation vessel. Tie top of nylon bag and place in primary fermentation vessel. Stir in all other ingredients except stabilizer, yeast and red grape concentrate. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover well, and set aside for 24 hours. Add yeast, cover, and daily stir ingredients and press pulp in nylon bag to extract flavor. When specific gravity is 1.030 (about 5 days), strain juice from bag and siphon liquor off sediments into glass secondary fermentation vessel. Fit fermentation trap. Rack in three weeks and again in two months. When wine is clear and stable, add red grape concentrate, wine stabilizer and crushed Campden tablet, rack again and bottle. Allow a year to mature. [Adapted from Raymond Massaccesi's Winemaker's Recipe Handbook]

Now, I don't want a port and I'll be using blackberries instead of blueberries.
I've also cheated by not using whole berries.
So, I'm just basically roughly following the above recipe for this month. I'll probably toss everything together the weekend of the 16th, so please weigh in if you have suggestions. I've already got all of my ingredients.

Blackberry Wine
(heck, I may just rob another Skyrim idea and call it Blackbriar Reserve)

1 96 oz can of Vintner's blackberry fruit wine base
64 oz Blackberry wine concentrate from Homewinery.com
Water to 5 gallons
sugar to 1.10% SG
2.5 cups light dry malt
2.5 tsp pectic enzyme
2.5 tsp yeast energizer


Once I mix my water and blackberries together, I'll draw off 1 quart to add back in after stabilization.
Then add in sugar, dry malt, pectic enzyme, wait 24 hours, then add in yeast energizer and pitch RC212.
I'm thinking I should wait until it's finished before adding in the acid.

Now...the questions...Should I add in oak powder and maybe some chips in primary?

Do you think it will actually need yeast nutrient with all of the berry juice?

Should I add a minimal amount of acid during primary, then adjust when finished?

Here is what I'm going to be making this month:

23L pineapple juice (Costco has them for $1 per L!! And the ingredient is just pineapple)
Sugar to 1.1 SG
2tsp pectin enzyme
4 banana peels, frozen, thawed & chopped
1/2 tsp tannin.
2tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp yeast energizer.

I am also saving a couple L of pineapple juice for back sweetening once it's cleared and stabilized.

I'm planning on starting this around may 17. Anybody have any thoughts on how to improve my recipe?

@jericurl - recipe looks interesting! I would wait on the acid addition until after, as blackberries can be pretty acidic. I've oaked blackberry and really like the profile it gives to the wine - I say go for it! I like American oak med toast on a blackberry to bring that vanilla profile in.

@jdescoates - you might have a bit of trouble getting pure pineapple to ferment - too acidic. Are you able to test the PH of the pure juice? This may be one of those times where you really need to add a bit of water to balance it out. Basically all of the fruit I can get locally is really acidic (crab apples, apricots, ure pears, rhubarb, etc.) so it's something that I watch for now. You don't want to end up with a wine that you have to waaayyy over sweeten to try and bring back in balance. If you're able to test, I would highly suggest it - IMHO I saw a recipe on another site for Pineapple Habanero mead, and it got me thinking about a Pineapple Chipotle mead. So very interested to see how yours goes!

Looking good peoples! I've been itching to get something going this month, so hopefully further inspiration will strike soon (...or...just a bit more motivation...)

The only thing I've ever tested the PH of is my hot tub. Can I use the ph strips from that to get a general idea of ph in the juice? What would be considered a "safe" ph for wine making? (I'm still pretty new to making non kit non skeeter per wine)

Any good links you could suggest? I've searched this forum but the IOS app is seemingly returning every post except the ones explaining it.

it got me thinking about a Pineapple Chipotle mead. So very interested to see how yours goes!

Click to expand...

LOL @the rayway

I have 3 cans of pineapple in the pantry that I am going to use for Pineapple/chipotle/lime mead. We can't keep chipotle peppers in this house longer than a week though, so I keep backing it up!

Thanks for the input on the blackberry wine. I'm excited about this one. I always say that don't I?
But I'm REALLY excited about this one!

JDesCotes said:

The only thing I've ever tested the PH of is my hot tub. Can I use the ph strips from that to get a general idea of ph in the juice? What would be considered a "safe" ph for wine making? (I'm still pretty new to making non kit non skeeter per wine)

Click to expand...

Your hot tub strips are probably in the range of 6.8-8.0. This is way out of range for wine, which is generally 3.0-3.6. You can get pH strips for testing wine/must but a pH meter is FAR more accurate and easier to use.

You are right. Would this be the meter you are talking about?

https://homebrewsupplies.ca/product/2933-checker-1-ph-tester/

That looks like the Hanna pH meter I bought but I think mine was about half the price of the one in your post. That said, one of the advantages of a pH meter is that you can use it to measure TA (a pH of 8.2 is the pH at which the indicator changes color so if you add Na OH to a sample of wine until it reaches a pH of 8.2 that is exactly the same as measuring the TA
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085WOIMQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I have been following this forum for the past few months. I have seen the wine of the month threads. Where will I find the results from some previous months and have you been doing this for more than a year and have posted results when opening and tasting after aging a year?
Mary Lou

Thanks everyone for jumping in on the PH subject!

@quiltertoo - if you search the older threads, we have several that people have posted results for. Nov 2013, and up from there. Not all threads have 'final' tasting notes yet as some projects are still aging, and others participants haven't gotten around to it yet. Just check the last page or two of the threads and you should see if there has been anything posted.

@jericurl - as usual, you're my sister from another mother!! Lol! Always thinking along the same lines it seems. I want to get some really high-quality pineapple from when it's more in season to do the chipotle deal. Also, I would have to roast my own as I don't want to use canned ones.

Alright, procrastination is turned off. I'm going to do a Grapefruit Wine this month.

Tentative Plan:
- 1L fresh squeezed grapefruit juice (from when they were in season, and frozen in the mean time)
- Sugar or honey to SG 1.100ish
- Additives: nutrient, energizer, pectic enzyme, kmeta.
- Nutrient feeding on the 2/3, 1/3 schedule.
- Dried grapefruit peel - from the original fruit
- water to 1 gallon
- EC1118 yeast

I'm looking to @GreginND's recipe from 2001 to see if I can do something similar. I will get a decent starter going using Go-Ferm because I do worry the acidity might be a little bit high. TBC on sugar or honey - I've got a fair amount of honey left from my last delivery and it is GOOD honey. But I also don't want to muddle the grapefruit flavour too much which is why I'm considering sugar. There will be time to think about it as the grapefruit juice thaws though.

Excited about this!! Also, the thought comes to me that it's time to sneak a bit of my Apricot Port from Dec. 2013. It's still sitting on the American oak cubes, but looks SO inviting right now...

A couple of other thoughts (if I write them down, I won't forget...right?):
1 - someone please remind me that when the rhubarb is ready, I should do Rhubarb Vanilla with Earl Grey recipe I've got kicking around in my head.
2 - Strawberry season this year I want to pick enough to do my canning (obviously), plus enough to get a gallon of pure juice for a wine. Who wouldn't want to drink that?!? Possibly with the addition of some pink peppercorns. Yum!
3 - See if I can scavenge enough wild plums this year for a batch. I've been itching to do plum, and a campground near here has them growing wild everywhere. Need to plan my attack carefully...

Who doesn't love summer!?! I tell you, when you only get hot weather for 2 months out of the year, you really need to plan to enjoy it as much a possible!

Also, I would have to roast my own as I don't want to use canned ones.

Click to expand...

I need more information on this. We roast and freeze green chilis all the time but I've never smoked them. And it would be very easy to get Manthing onboard with roasting/smoking peppers! He's already out in the garden inspecting the pepper plants daily to see where they are on blossoms/immature peppers.

Planning on making a ginger mead this month -
1lb of fresh ginger (chopped )
Boiled for 20 minutes (remove root and allow to cool) in 1 gallon of spring water
2.5 lbs of wild flower honey (all my varietals are in 2 lb containers) whirled with ginger tea to aerate the honey.
Top up volume so that SG = ~ 1.090 (potential ABV = ~ 12%) - 2.25 lbs of honey in 1 gallon has SG 1.090 so there should be a little more to allow for lees and topping up at first racking
Nutrient & energizer
D47
Allow to age 3 months;
Check TA (should be ~ .65%) - consider adding citric if TA is significantly lower.
Stabilize;
Backsweeten to ~ 1.010 with .25 lb of honey dissolved in cup of mead from previous batch
Bottle
Age 3 - 6 months

Jericurl said:

I need more information on this. We roast and freeze green chilis all the time but I've never smoked them. And it would be very easy to get Manthing onboard with roasting/smoking peppers! He's already out in the garden inspecting the pepper plants daily to see where they are on blossoms/immature peppers.

Click to expand...

You know he would totally want to And FYI my pepper plants aren't even able to be planted for another several weeks - never mind having fruit on them yet!!!

First image - boiling 1 lb of ginger (chopped and grated in my food processor). The ginger tea smells quite delicious. I am cooling this to room temperature so pored the tea through a straining bag and removed the ginger root then added 1 Campden tablet to the liquor. Looks like about 1/2 gallon of water boiled down and /or was absorbed by the ginger.

Pitched D47 into the ginger metheglin yesterday and this morning the mead is actively fermenting - and smells quite delicious.

May 2015 WOTM - Grapefruit Wine

Ok, so here's how it actually went down:
- 1L Grapefruit Juice (fresh squeezed in season and frozen) S.G. 1.046
- 1/16tsp kmeta
- 1/4 tsp Pectic Enzyme
- 1 bag President's Choice Peach Ginger Tea
- 2 grams Elderflowers
- 8 halves dried apricots (my own)
- Water to 1 gallon
- Sugar to 1.100
- EC1118 started with GoFerm
- 1/8 tsp Yeast energizer
- 1/8 tsp FermK

I thawed the juice and dosed with Kmeta, then tossed everything into the bucket except the energizer and nutrient. Pitched the yeast starter. By morning she was fermenting just fine, so I tossed in the energizer and nutrient.

The must was sweet and not very tart or acidic, I did not add acid to this point, and will wait it out a little bit to see how it comes along. I added the elderflowers, tea, and apricots because a) turns out I used the grapefruit peels in a body scrub for a friend, and b) to get more complexity out of the wine. I think they will pair nicely together however, and am looking forward to the results.

I will check the SG at bit later this morning to see how it's perking along.

@the_rayway I LOVE the colour of that wine so far, can't wait to see it clear.

JDesCotes said:

@the_rayway I LOVE the colour of that wine so far, can't wait to see it clear.

Click to expand...

Me too! I hope it doesn't lose its tint after it settles out.

I did a really thorough degassing over the lost few days, along with the final nutrient additions as I was starting to get just the slightest sulfur smell. Racked to secondary and airlocked. SG is at 1.010.

A few hours later I heard a clatter in the library, and went to investigate. I had a Wine Eruption Accident: grapefruit barf everywhere and it shot my airlock right off! I've never had an eruption like this. Quite impressive.

Anyhoo, after I cleaned everything up, it appears the it was lots of 'barf' and very little wine that had managed to make a run for it. I re-airlocked and now it's perking along nicely. I'm hoping this one makes it to under 1.000, but I won't be super disappointed it it doesn't. I also picked up some grapefruit concentrate, as well as a fresh grapefruit in case I decide it needs a bit of a perk/top up.