Watermelon Wine Advice

Eric sorry I never saw this. I kept it very cold as the fruit thawed. As soon as it was all thawed I added pectin enzyme. Probably around 50-60 degrees. Added yeast starter and it was probably 60 degrees. Fermented at that temp.

Thanks for the advice steve! I started a 3 gallon batch today. Used 3 watermelons, 8 lbs. of frozen strawberries, 2 lbs. of fresh strawberries, juice and zest of 3 lemons, almost a cup of raisins, and a handfull of some grapes that no one had been eating. Added campden and yeast nutrient, then put the muslin bag of frozen strawberries on top once I had it stirred well. Will let it thaw then add pectic enzyme, wait about 12 hours then pitch a yeast starter.

I haven't added acid blend as the recipe I'm taking from uses the lemon. Before I pitch starter, i'll check my ph.

Before I forget, I also am using my Igloo Water Cooler for primary fermentor. Hoping that the extra insulation will help keep it cool, along with the cooler air in the cellar.

Must is doing very well. Starting Sg was 1.143 and very sweet!! Yeast has been kicking hard and sg is now at 1.072. Must temp when I pitched yeast was at 58 degrees, now it's up to 79 due to yeast activity. Room temp at 65. I'll transfer to secondary once fermentation slows down. If all goes well, this should be strong, and sweet!!!

When I make watermelon, I chop the fruit and run it through a press to extract the juice.
I like to use the smaller super sweets (higher sugar) than the large oblong watermelons.
5 basketball size watermelons will give you about 4 gallons of juice and 2/3 gallon pulp.

Watermelon juice spoils quickly, so I like to put my watermelons in the basement for a day or two to pre-cool them before processing for juice.

As soon as you have the juice extracted, add 1 campden tablet per gallon, along with your , yeast energizer, yeast nutrient (optional), tannin, and acid blend.
I measure for alcohol potential (hydrometer) and add sugar to yield a 12-13% alcohol.
Place at 70F or cooler overnight.

After 24 hours add yeast and mix well.
I would also recommend using Cote-De-Blanc yeast, it works well with fruit wines.

After fermentation, racking, and filtering add campden tablet to kill any remaining yeast.
Sweeten back to taste, bottle and let the good times roll.......

Sg is at 1.042. Fermentation has slowed since last night, and has a great smell and flavor. I siphoned over to secondary minutes ago. Currently the abv is over 13%. So I'm not too worried if I lost some yeast when I strained it before siphoning. Now lets hope it doesn't "volcano" on me! Looks like a smoothie.

Secondary is working like crazy! So far it is the sweetest, most appealing smell I've encountered at this stage. It's going to be hard to leave this one alone when it's done doing it's magic!!

Keep us posted. I'm enjoying hearing of your progress. Of all the fruits, watermelon is the most delicate, but sounds like you've pulled it off!

Definently!! This is only my fourth batch of wine, so I'm still new to it. But I have learned to research first and ask lots of questions. Djrockinsteve really helped with this one with his timely advice. You gotta love this forum.

Watermelon wine brings back memories for me. It was the absolute worst failure of a wine we have made. It spoiled and then I spilled some when first sampling, which literally caused a large area rug to be throw out! lol. The worst part was, with as bad as it smelled, I don't have any clue why I even tried it.

Siphoned, stabilized, and back sweetened. Sg was down to 0.991 is up to 1.030 now. Starting sg was 1.143 so I'm looking at 14.8% abv right now. Tastes really good and really strong! I'm drinking a little now.

ericonthehill said:

I'm drinking a little now.

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Well, I guess it's 5:00 somewhere...

While reading thru this post I came up with an idea. If you are going to go the strawberry watermelon route, start the ferment out with the strawberry. When it gets going good then pitch the watermelon in with it. Should get your melon going right away and mite help you get it done without the spoiling problem. Think I'm going to give it a try this fall again. Tried it a couple of years ago and it was a disaster. Bout my only failure. Used fresh melons, started them right away, but it was pretty hot out. The melons were warm right out of the field, and I think it just spoiled on me, and didn't take very long to be spoiled. Will try and do things a bit cooler this year and see how it goes. Only have flowers on the melon plants, but won't be long and will have eating melons there. Arne.

Be sure and post up pics of your big melons!! ::

Sorry, couldn't resist that one!

roadwarriorsvt said:

Be sure and post up pics of your big melons!! ::

Sorry, couldn't resist that one!

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Not many big melons around here. LMAO, Arne.

I think the main trick is to get your watermelon cool enough, and if possible use an insulated primary. Like a cooler. Also get a really good yeast starter going. After it's pitched, stir twice a day and leave it be otherwise. The more it's opened the more you allow it to warm up. It only takes 3 or 4 days to ferment to the point of siphoning to the secondary. The quicker you can get it to that point and under airlock the better. Less oppurtunity to spoil. My opinion is I won't alter my approach to making wine with watermelon, because it works, and it is a tricky wine to make from what I hear. Why try something new when it works!

Eric and Arne, You both have good points. Doing a pure watermelon wine, the cooler method would be best, IMO. With a blend, start your blend then when the fermentation takes off with a bit of alcohol in it add the watermelon. the bit of alcohol will act as a preservitive and fermentation will begin right away when adding the watermelon keeping it from spoiling.

A quick thought, if you use an insulated primary, won't it keep the heat of fermentation in as wellas keep warm temps out?? Arne.

Arne said:

A quick thought, if you use an insulated primary, won't it keep the heat of fermentation in as wellas keep warm temps out?? Arne.

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I agree, I would think it would.

I really like your idea on starting with Strawberry then add the watermelon. It would be like starting a giant starter then putting your watermelon in.