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Some time ago, @Rice_Guy generously gave me a few bottles of wine. I have held on to most of them longer than he would have liked, I am sure! I finally found the right occasion the weekend before last to enjoy his off-dry rhubarb wine. We drank it during an airshow in hot weather, and was delighted by the crisp, refreshing quaff with a pleasing amount of sweetness (SG 1.010). Thanks, David!

In the picture, that is not me; it is a friend visiting from Germany, and he (believe it or not) brought that hat with him!

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Some time ago, @Rice_Guy generously gave me a few bottles of wine. I have held on to most of them longer than he would have liked, I am sure! I finally found the right occasion the weekend before last to enjoy his off-dry rhubarb wine. We drank it during an airshow in hot weather, and was delighted by the crisp, refreshing quaff with a pleasing amount of sweetness (SG 1.010). Thanks, David!

In the picture, that is not me; it is a friend visiting from Germany, and he (believe it or not) brought that hat with him!

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Did you get a chance to stop by the Sea Plane Base?
 
I'm very late in posting this. On the north-bound segment of my trip to NY in early July, I had the pleasure of meeting with folks in the DC area, hosted by Fred (@mainshipfred) at his shop. I've commented on that in other threads.

Fred gifted me a couple of bottles, a Cabernet Sauvignon heavy blend and a Petit Verdot heavy blend. My brother (who attended the tasting) and I opened the CS, and it is a great wine.

In NY I opened the PV, which was shared with my niece, sister, and BIL. The bottle suffered an early demise.

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The bottle deserved it's fate, a proper fate, as good wines should be shared.
 
Did you get a chance to stop by the Sea Plane Base?

You mean at Oshkosh (Airventure)? I have in some past years, but I didn't make it to EAA this year. This was the Air and Water Show in Milwaukee. Am I correct in thinking you had a plane at the Sea Plane Base this year? 🛫 If so, very cool!

One interesting thing for me about the airshow in Milwaukee is that I live fairly close to it, about where they do their turns to go back to center stage. So, in the practice days leading up to the event, and on Sat/Sun themselves, I have F/A-18's screaming over my house every few minutes!
 
No, I don't have a seaplane. I just live next to the SeaPlane Base. Sorry for the delay, was in Canada actually catching fish.
 
Here is a funny one: I am enjoying (a portion of) a bottle of Old Vine Zin from @Cap Puncher (Andrew) But he doesn't even know I have it! :)

We had the crush for the Wisconsin Vintner's Association today, but Andrew had to work. He was kind enough to drop off a bottle of a previous wine when he was picking up his grape allottment before the event. We enjoyed it (and many others) after the crush, and I wound up taking his bottle home (half full) after the tasting ended.

I learned from talking to others that it is a young wine, but it did not seem like it. It was a very nice quaff.

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Last night after we got done unloading our grapes, my son and I popped a cork on a couple of @VinesnBines's wines.

My son's reaction to the CS is that if he took it to a party, it would disappear instantly. This wine went down very smoothly.

The chocolate mocha was a nice finish to an evening of hard work, and settled us in preparation for more work crushing the grapes in the morning.

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Last night after we got done unloading our grapes, my son and I popped a cork on a couple of @VinesnBines's wines.

My son's reaction to the CS is that if he took it to a party, it would disappear instantly. This wine went down very smoothly.

The chocolate mocha was a nice finish to an evening of hard work, and settled us in preparation for more work crushing the grapes in the morning.

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Super nice comments!! Thanks so much! The CS is a cheap kit with tweaks inspired by @ joeswine. It is a crowd favorite! One of those wines that vanish at the holiday parties. The chocolate mocha is an Apres kit I caught on sale. I’m ready for the holidays!

I had to ask @Winemaker_81 for more of his FWK Blackberry because our son and daughter in law decimated our stash. That’s turned out to be another crowd favorite! Just right at any time; especially when pressing reds. We were so busy opening the blackberry that we let our Marquette overflow from the press!!
 
Super nice comments!! Thanks so much! The CS is a cheap kit with tweaks inspired by @ joeswine. It is a crowd favorite! One of those wines that vanish at the holiday parties. The chocolate mocha is an Apres kit I caught on sale. I’m ready for the holidays!

I had to ask @Winemaker_81 for more of his FWK Blackberry because our son and daughter in law decimated our stash. That’s turned out to be another crowd favorite! Just right at any time; especially when pressing reds. We were so busy opening the blackberry that we let our Marquette overflow from the press!!
Thank you
 
This will be my first attempt at winemaking. But, since I'm in Hawaii, and have access to plenty of fresh guavas, I decided to try to make guava wine. Two questions: how much sugar if any? I'm not a fan of sweet wine. And do I keep the seeds or remove them?
 
Did you ever receive an answer?
This will be my first attempt at winemaking. But, since I'm in Hawaii, and have access to plenty of fresh guavas, I decided to try to make guava wine. Two questions: how much sugar if any? I'm not a fan of sweet wine. And do I keep the seeds or remove them?

I've never made guava wine, but I know others on this forum have. I can speak to your questions from the more generic perspective of making any other fruit wine.

Before adding sugar, you should consider what you want your potential ABV to be in the end. For that, you would measure your juice's specific gravity using a hydrometer prior to adding any yeast. If you anticipate a final gravity (once the yeast has eaten all the sugar) of somewhere between .990 and 1.000 (for the sake of argument, let's say 0.995), then you initial reading will tell you where you're likely to wind up.

If you want something close to 14% ABV, you should have an original gravity of around 1.100. For 12.5%, your original gravity should be around 1.090. Depending on where your gravity is, you may (or may not) need sugar to get your guava must to your desired original gravity.

I'd talk a little about too much sugar here too. Go slow in adding your sugar - I'd do it as simple syrup - until you get to the gravity you want. Also, if you add sugar beyond your yeast's tolerances, you're bound to have a wine that tastes too hot or have residual sugar after your ferment (and instead of dry gauva wine, you wind up with off-dry, semi-sweet or sweet instead).

I'm betting there isn't a ton of sugar in guavas - at least not enough to make a wine that's 10%+. So, adding sugar is pretty likely.

On your other question... Seeds = tannin (body...bitter... pucker... stuff that dries your mouth). They're not a bad thing. The recipes I've seen today include directions to chunk your guavas. So, it seems that seeds are expected. Once you get done fermenting, you'll rack the wine off the gross gauva lees like skins and seeds.

Dig around before you start. Find a recipe that looks interesting to you. The one's I saw added things like brown sugar instead of white, ginger, pineapple, clove, anise, and peppermint...

Good luck!
 

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