October 2014 Wine of the Month Club

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vernsgal

vernsgal

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I ask all of you to have patience with this month's because.. :i this is my 1st.

Okay everyone I want to see some recipes posted here! For those of you who have done earlier months, lets see a new one!! For those that haven't ,this is a great way to show what you're doing, receive help and/or suggestions and most importantly enjoy sharing your new found hobby!

For this month's ,if it's okay with everyone, I'd like to welcome all sizes of wines. Normally this is for 1 gal new recipes but I know ,myself included(see Sept), that sometimes you have enough fruit to try 3,5 or 6 gal.

So no excuses lets try some wining! (and not the urban dictionary kind :) )

:a :u
This month:
buffalofrenchy - Pumkin Wine
aryoung1980 - Pear/Grape Wine
Waynep - Peach Wine
vernsgal - Blackberry Port
 
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Let's do it.. I am in! I missed September and am back in October...
No recipe yet but it will be pumpkin wine because I see those darn pumpkins everywhere so why not make some wine that I will age till thanksgiving dinner 2015 ~ 1 year from now.
 
Lol. Looking forward to your recipe! Pumpkin has always sounded intriguing .
 
I'd love to try a pumpkin batch for 2015. I will await a recipe from those with experience and give it a whirl. The hardest part of this new hobby for me is waiting for the wine to age!! What does one do for a year waiting!! Guess I'll have to buy wine for a while.
 
homesteader26 said:
I'd love to try a pumpkin batch for 2015. I will await a recipe from those with experience and give it a whirl. The hardest part of this new hobby for me is waiting for the wine to age!! What does one do for a year waiting!! Guess I'll have to buy wine for a while.
Click to expand...


Make some quick drinking wines like Dragon's Blood or Skeeter Pee for while you wait for your other wines to age...also gives you an excuse to buy more carboys, lol...


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There aren't really 'rules' per se. We ask that you post your recipe and each step you take, preferably with pictures! If you have the time/inclination at the end of the month, we would appreciate a breakdown of what you did right/wrong/learned about the fermentation portion. These are experiments, so share with us what you're learning - because we're all learning.

As you go along through the year, you can periodically post about progress.

At the one year mark (in this case, Oct. 2015) we will pop open a bottle of our experiment and taste it with remarks, what we've learned, what we like, don't like, etc. If the recipe is good - post it in the recipes section of the site for others to try!

This is still pretty loose as we haven't quite made it to the first WOTM year mark - that will be next month. If anyone wants to check out what happened in our very first go-around, search "November 2013 Wine of the Month Club".
 
I'm beginning to shudder at the thought of having to try my December wine at it's year mark
 
Lol! Was that the onion wine? I'm a bit concerned about the Pumpkin Hazelnut one of mine.
So many are still aging in their carboys! I should get some bottled...
 
No that was my "beetle juice". I buried them deep in the cellar. I'm still not sure whether to taste at 1 year mark or to wait the the 2 year
 
I don't know if I will have time this week end to start the pumpkin wine as I have 4 wines at different stage that need my attention but it might not take me as much as I fear for these four wines since I should receive the all in one wine pump from VacuumPumpMan tomorrow.

Whether I start this week end or next, here is the plan:
Credits goes to Jay's Brewing from Virginia. I found the recipe online randomly. It looks very similar to the one available on the Jack Keller's website except with less sugar (2 vs 3.5 lbs) so I will go with less!
Jay's Brewing Pumpkin Wine 1 Gal Recipe
Jack Keller's Pumpkin Wine 1 Gal Recipe

Jay's Brewing in Northern Virginia Home Brew Store said:
Pumpkin Wine Recipe – 1 Gallon Yield

Looking for a wine that is good in the fall? Maybe seeing pumpkin beer has got you bummed out if your a wine maker. Well this is the recipe that you want to do if you want to make a pumpkin wine. With this wine you can either produce a super dry wine which will be around 18% or a sweeter wine, it’s all based off the wine yeast.

If you wanted to go the high alcohol route use Lalvin K1V-1116 or Lalvin EC-1118. If you wanted to have a sweet wine use, Red Star Côte des Blancs. This will get you about 13% with 5% residual sugar. If you wanted a little less sweet I would recommend Lalvin 71B-1122.

This is one of those recipes that you want to get a early start, it takes some time to get done with this recipe. Make sure you have plenty of time.

Pumpkin Wine
Yield: 1 Gallon Batch

5 lbs grated pumpkin flesh
2 lbs finely granulated sugar
1 tsp pectic enzyme
.5 oz citric acid
1.5 tsp yeast nutrient
1/4 tsp yeast energizer
1 finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet
6-1/2 pts water
Wine yeast (see above and choose)


Directions:

Take pumpkin flesh and grate the pumpkin flesh. (Don’t place chunks in a blender and attempt to chop them.)
Take water bring water to a boil and stir in the sugar until dissolved.
Take off the heat, and then put pumpkin flesh in primary.
Pour boiling water over pumpkin.
Take mixture and cool to room temperature and add crushed Campden tablet.
Take cover and put on top of primary and allow to sit 8-10 hours.
Add pectic enzyme and allow to sit overnight.
In the morning, add citric acid, yeast nutrient, energizer and yeast.
Cover primary and shake daily for about 5 days.
Take mixture that was in the primary and pour through a nylon straining bag and let pumpkin drip drain.
Transfer to secondary and put on an airlock.
If you do not get a full gallon of liquid, wait 5 days and top up as necessary.
Rack after two weeks
Rack again after additional 30 days, topping up and refitting airlock each time.
Set aside for 3 months and then rack, stabilize, sweeten if desired.
Wait 3 weeks rack into bottles.
Set aside and wait 1 year to drink.
Click to expand...
 
I was reading the ingredients on a pouch of fruit juice that I happened to have an excess of and saw that it was nothing more than pear and grape juice, both from concentrate. After a quick hydrometer reading, I found the juice was at 1.052 so I measured out my sugar to get me to 1.092.

One Gallon Pear-Grape:
1gal. + 1pt. Juice
1lb. + 1/4c. White sugar
2tsp. Wine tannin, liquid
1/2tsp. Acid blend
Montrachet yeast

I added the extra juice and sugar to primary to avoid topping off my one gallon carboy after my first racking.

24 hours into fermentation there is a strong H2S aroma. I realized I never added nutrient so I added a 1/4tsp.

I'm planning on doing the 5-20-40-90 schedule that I read about for kit wine making.
ImageUploadedByWine Making1413067638.714331.jpg
I'll fine with Sparkelloid around day 20.



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I posted in Sept that I was going to start a gal of Peach wine. That didn't happen due to not being home enough consecutive days to be able start it and get through the primary fermentation. So I am finally starting it today. The Must is in the bucket and I have a yeast starter brewing at the moment. I am following the recipe in the book called "Enjoy Home Winemaking". The starting SG is 1.110 and the acidity is a bit low. I am going to recheck the acidity in a few days once the fruit starts breaking down before doing anything about it.

This is my first fruit wine made from actual fruit. My second batch ever. I have enough pears in the freezer for a 5 gal batch. I thought a 1 gal peach batch would be a good test run so to speak.

10/13 Edit: Had a little concern about the yeast starter not being foamy this morning. I started a second batch and when it started foaming, I added it to the must. Came home from work and the airlock is bubbling slowly so it's working!
 
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Sorry for not keeping up daily on this.I had a house full of company these past 4 days. Now that the house is empty again...lol
I'm glad to see some of you have gotten your wines under way :db
There's still lots of time for anyone else who would like to participate this month!

aryoung1980 said:
I'm planning on doing the 5-20-40-90 schedule that I read about for kit wine making.
Click to expand...
I think I know what that is but could you give us a bit of info on that?
buffalofrenchy said:
Pumpkin wine is under way.
Took a pumpkin from the front yard and leveraged help from the little ones...
Click to expand...
Now that looks like a fun way to make wine! :try
waynep said:
I am following the recipe in the book called "Enjoy Home Winemaking".
Click to expand...
could you post the recipe for those that don't have access to the book? I'm glad you got your fermentation under way. Sometimes it just needs a little nudge lol


I've decided to do a blackberry port this month.
So far I've pulled the blackberries from the freezer (approx.7 lbs.)
 
The 5-20-40-90 schedule I read about goes like this: primary ferment until 1.000-1.010 (about 5 days). On day 5, roughly, rack to secondary. On day 20 add finings. Day 40 rack. Day 90 bottle.


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I heard about it on WMT and read that same article after researching it.


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Hi All . . . Racked my peach into the secondary this afternoon. It's pretty cloudy but the SG is down to .995. I did sneak a slight taste and it's pretty harsh right now. I hope it gets better.
 
Don't know if fermentation is going on the pumpkin wine.
Slow to no signs of airlock depending on the day.
I have seen one bubble going out in the airlock couple days ago. Today the airlock is resting low.

It is hard or impossible to measure the SG. At the beginning there was too much solid and now (probably due to the pectic enzyme) it is a thick sludge.

I have some montrachet yeast. Should I make a starter and pitch it? Could it be bad if I have two full bags of yeast in one gallon? The first one was Cote des Blancs and didn't make a starter.
 

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