Grapefruit wine

Ok im about to juice my grapefruits and make a 3 gal batch of the Grapefruit Win #2 found in the recipes section. i have 3 limes in the fridge and am thinking about juicing them and throwing them in as well. i havent seen any recipe that has ever had lemon or lime in it. can u use these 2 fruits in wine making or are the acidity levels just to much? dont wanna ruin a full batch of wine.

A lot of us do lemon and lime all the time. The worst part of them is it is a little hard to get the ferment to start. Try making a starter with your yeast. Draw a cup of warm water, 100 degrees or so, no hotter than 105, add a little sugar and yeast nutrient. Let it sit for a while and add a cup or so of your must. Must is your grapefruit, lemon, lime, water and all the other ingredients in your fermenting vessel. Let it get fermenting good, mite take a while. Oh yeah, make sure your must is around 75 degrees or so. Anyway when it gets to fermenting after the cup of must, add another cup. In another hour or so add another cup. if it is fermenting strong after an hour or so, dump it in your primary. When it gets going good, give it a good stir, and then stir it two times a day or so. Keep oxygen in it at least til it gets down to 1.010. Check out Lon's site (skeeterpee. com.) that is more or less what you are going to be making. Arne

Ok, Grapefruits/lemons squeezed, simple syrup poured, and yeast bubblin'. Starting SG of 1.15 (lil higher than what I woulda liked). Grapefruit wine underway.

lil worried about the sugar content of this batch. pretty high. reading elsewhere on the forum i am worried about this wine holding up. should i add some banana for body or should i be ok?? i put in 6lbs of sugar as per the recipe but 1.15 scares me a lil.

I'm bettin you are going to be allright. Your alcohol is going to be a little high, but the grapefruit should help to hide that some. When you top off if you have a good strong grapefruit taste, you can use water and that will cut the alcohol a little. It also cuts the grapefruit taste. If you get the taste too far down, you can always get some more grapefruit juice, simmer it down some and add it for flavor after stabalizing. Try sweetening it a little first tho, it will help bring the flavor back out. Arne.

Just my 2 cents worth.... but I've made a batch which blended lemon and grapefruit. I felt that the two flavors "fought" rather than cooperated. I've made straight grapefruit wine several times and it is one of my favorites. But, to enjoy it, you have to be someone who can enjoy a good glass of grapefruit juice because the fruit's flavors have no trouble coming through. Adding lemon in it seemed to create conflict, kinda like toothpaste and orange juice don't like each other.

ok it dropped to 15 sg, should i rack it or still wait to drop lower?

anyone?? anyone

Perhaps you could tell us what 15 sg means. Specific gravity is always expressed in 3 decimal places. For example: .996 or 1.085

1.015 ...

you can rack it or let it go completely dry your choice just my opinion

Time to rack it. The "violent" fermentation phase should be over. Leave some head space while in secondary. Do not sulfite yet. Top off when SG is the same for three days in a row.

Well I transferred the must to the carboy at 1.006 sg. Airlock is bubbling away. Any ideas on what to use to top it off? I am thinking of a wine I tried called Oliver's Soft White. I am not a sweet wine kinda guy and this soft white is to sweet for me. i figured it will take prolly 2-3 bottles to top off. Thought this might put just a hint of sweetness in my 3 gal. of grapefruit wine to help bring out the flavor. What you think??

Topping up a 3 gal. batch with 2 or 3 bottles of another wine seems like a big % of your final wine will end up being wine someone else made.

I would rack into two 1 gallon carboys before doing that. Then, any remainder can go into a bottle (magnum or standard as appropriate) and airlocked.

That way - once the fermentation is completed you can back sweeten or decide to blend with another wine. You have better control of the final result that way.

looking at it now, 1 bottle would top it up i think. this 3gal carboy is the smallest one i got

any ideas for a top up for this grapefruit wine? still thinking of a sweet white grape to use to make a semi sweet wine

You are asking about topping off. Are you planning to put the top off wine now, or letting it finish and using the top off for a sweetener?? If you are planning on it now, it will either ferment with the grapefruit or maybe stop the fermentation if there is enough sorbate in it. When you are getting to the end of the ferment it doesn't take a whole lot to stop it unless you want it to stop. Then of course it won't stop with dynamite. Lol. The grapefruit will probably overpower the taste of the grape wine and you should still have the grapefruit flavor. If you are going to use it as a sweetener, let it finish dry, then k-meta, sorbate, let it sit for a couple of days then you can dump it in as a sweetener. This should stop it from fermenting the sugars in your grape. Arne.

after the SG settles i will stp the fermentation and put in the clearing solution, then top off and let set

this is only my 2nd batch. 1st batch was 6 gals. this one is 3. i racked to the glass carboy and fit with airlock. bubbling has pretty much stopped, gonna check sg when i get home. its only been 5 days though. is it quicker in smaller batches?

ok so this is my 2nd batch, 1st non kit. i lost my instructions. i am adding the K-meta, sorbate and sparklloid now. i cannot remember, do i let this clear for awhile before topping off or do i top off right away???