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Waldo

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My recipe for this 5 gallonbatch was:


22.7 Lbs Muscadines (Frozen) Thesewere a hybrid variety of Muscadine called Black Beauty


12 Lbs. Sugar


5 Tsp. Yeast Nutrient


5 Campden Tablets


3 TSp Pectic Enzyme


Water to 5 Gallon


Lalvin 71B 1122 Yeast


2oz Medium Toast French Oak chips


Began by processing my Muscadines ( good double handful per bag) in gallon size zip loc bags, extracting all them good juices with a rolling pin.


2006-01-25_030241_frozen_muscadines.jpg



2006-01-25_030333_processing_muscadines.jpg



They produced almost 1 gallon of pure Muscadine nectar.


2006-01-25_030430_muscadine_juice.jpg



Boiled water and dissolved sugar in it, letting it cool while the Muscadines were being processed.


2006-01-25_030456_sugar_water.jpg



Put Muscadines in strainer bag. Placed in primary fermenter


2006-01-25_030543_muscadines_in_fermenter.jpg
and added dissolved campden tablets and yeast nutrient to extracted juice from muscadines and added this to primary along with sugar water. Stirred well, added oak chipsand let it set for 18 hours. I then added the Pectc Enzyme. Stirred well again and let set for another 12 hours.


2006-01-25_030649_campden_dissolved.jpg



Made a starter by rehydrating yeast in 1/2 cup warm water and pitched to primaryat an SG of 1.094 and a must temperature of 74 degrees.


2006-01-25_030730_yeast_starter.jpg



Fermentation going good 6 hours after yeast pitched


2006-01-25_030808_muscadine_fermenting.jpg



Stirred must twice daily, massaging strainer bag to extract them good juices.


I am getting close to being ready to transfer to secondary at SG of 1.016 when I had an "oops". I was squeezing the juices from strainer bag when it split open on me. I am now finishing off my primary fermentation the old fashioned way.


2006-01-25_030908_muscadines_loose_in_fermenter.jpg



Continued to punch down must twice daily and transferred wine to secondary at an SG of 1.010. The wine has taken on a pinkish hue and was a challenge getting it to secondary as the wine was full of pulp. Ended up pouring it from primary to secondary through funnel with strainer.


2006-01-25_030956_muscadine_racked.jpg



Will update as progress continuesEdited by: Waldo
 
Whew! It was the gentle kind of oops. Now you have a chance to hone
your old fashioned skills.
smiley2.gif


TA tested? The recipe includes no tartaric acid, so are the berries plenty
acidic naturally? Boy, that's a pretty color to start with. This is your
second batch isn't it?
 
Well Waldo looks like you found it.....I will be adding this one and others that have not been done yet to the read only post soon.
 
I'll add the recipe in the website for ya, since i have tasted the previous muscadine of yours!! Mmmmm MMmmmm good. Will be a 1st place winner, I'm sure!
 
Bilbo....did not test TA other than with my taste buds. i have a Vinometer kit but have not figured out how to use it correctly yet. I added none on my first batch either.


Masta. thsi is not the recipe i was looking for but it is pretty close


Martina...Thanks, hope this batch will be as good
 
Looks good Waldo, So will this be a dry or a sweet Muscadine Wine? A gal at work gave me a bottle her Dad made a while back, it was way way sweet, even sweeter than my Mead I had made. It would of killed a diabetic. Was funny, I gave them a bottle of White Zin I had made and he didn't like it, said it was way too dry a wine for him to drink LOL. It is too sweet for me, the wife likes it though.


I am thinking of planting some Muscadines as they are pretty well the only grape that will grow around here that is disease resistant. Really want to plant some Norton/Cynthiana's as well. I have heard good things about them growing around here and they make some very fine dry wine.


I am gonna see if I can scrounge up some Muscadines though and try this recipe of yours.


Smurfe
smiley1.gif
 
Thanks Smurfe, I am fermenting my Muscadine to dry and then sweeting just a tad before bottling.
 
Looks good Waldo. It is sure throwing off the sediment! What will you top up with when you rack?


Pat
smiley17.gif
 
2006-02-09_174511_muscadine_ready_to_rack.jpg



On Feb. 3rd. I racked the Muscadine and stabalized it at SG 0f .990 which should give me a PA of around 13.6%


2006-02-09_174857_muscadine_clearing_2806_2.jpg






This picture was taken yesterday and it is clearing nicely. I drew a sample for taste testing and
smiley32.gif
. Its going to be another good one.


May be just a tad shy on the acidity but the muscadine flavor has actually gotten better since the last racking. I would anticipate this one being ready to bottle about the time of the get together if we have it in April.
 
Waldo,


I find that the color of the wine is as appealing as the wine itself. That is such a beautiful color.


How much wine do you have bottled by now.......must be quite alot.


Ramona
 
I think somewhere around 140 bottles that I have left Ramona. Have given away several cases though. I seem to be getting a lot of repeat customers too
smiley36.gif
 
WELL, WALDO,


REPEAT CUSTOMERS SAY ALOT!!!!!! YOU HAVE DONE REALLY WELL!!!


RAMONA
 
Thanks Ramona......My success is indebted to all the great people on this forum
 
How did your Muscadine turn out, Waldo? Thinking about planting some Muscadine vines in my side yard next spring. Our local winery makes an excellent Muscadine wine.
 
It turned out great Danny. Has some aging to do to be at its best. I can hardly wait for the Muscadines to ripen this year.


So who is your local Winery?
 
Hi Waldo,


I am new to the forum and reading everything I can find. Just read this posting about your Muscadine wine. I love Muscadines and it's wine would love to make a batch. I would like to ask you acouple of questions. During the primary phase did you leave the lid off the entire time, cover it with a cloth or justplaced the lid on and off every timeyou stirred it? #2 how long before bottling, it seems like this took about 4 months? #3 how longafter bottling until it was ready?Why does it seem to take so long?
Thanks,
Don
 
Hey Don.......Lets take these in succession:
During primary fermentation I just place the lid on the fermenter loosely. I punch down the strainer bag and stir the must gently twice daily.
Each batch is different in the amount of time it takes to clear enough to bottle but a good rule of thumb would be around 3 months. The wine is usually very drinkable at bottling but as with other wines it will improve tremendously with age. Sadly I haveyet to be able to age any of my Muscadine past about 6 months. Its all gone by then. I keep saying I will let a batch age in the carboy for a year before bottlingbut thus far I have not had the discipline to accomplish this. You will find from experience that most Country wines take longer to come into their best than do the kit wines. Good luck on making a Muscadine and I will be here for any questions you might have.
 
Waldo....sounds like you need to join a Wine Aging Support Group....I know that I sure should.....

I am trying to age some wine...did like Joan did.....I have put 1 case [12 bottles] each of the last 3 batches of wine I made, taped the boxes shut and shoved them under the benches....

Also took 12 bottles of 2 older batches and boxed them up too...they are sweet wines and I consider them cooking wines...unless they really change with some age on them.

I have 4 batches going right now and when they are ready I am going to box up a 12 bottle case of each as well....this also is giving us more wine rack space....so I will just keep making batches of wine till all my juices are gone....then comes the hard part....deciding when to start opening those boxes....6 months...one year...or when we need more...

Last year when I couldn't drink wine for 8 months it sure gave the wines some time to develop...they changed with age...[just like we do...got better]

Think we need to start a Wine Aging Support Group on this Forum...then we can help each other...
 
Hi Waldo...in response to the muscadine recipe you asked me about from the fruit flies discussion board...I used approx 22# of muscadines (picked right from my very own wild vine!) 9lbs of sugar, 5tsp nutirent, 3/4tsp pectic enzyme, 1tsp wine tanin 5 campden tabs, and EC-1118 yeast
It was a recipe from E.C.Kraus's wine catalog
I am about to put on another batch soon so if you have any suggestions please feel free to let me know what you or anyone else thinks. I am just wingin' it!
 

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