Orange and Maybe Dark Chocolate (Newbie)

Hey Everyone, my name is Dylan. I just made an account now to just idk put my recipe out there I just started about an hour ago...

so here it is, any feedback will be appreciated

so....oh btw...I'm in New Zealand so it'll be in metric measurements....sorry

1.5L Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice
2.5kg White Sugar
Water upto 10L
1/4 tsp tannin
1 packet of wine yeast nutrients
1 packet of wine yeast MA33 (for citrus wine) so I'm told...

Simple, but yeah I wish to add dark chocolate a week before I bottle it, just to hopefully get an orange and Dark Chocolate wine, or add more orange juice at a later time, I have 3L of orange juice frozen and waiting

once I added all the ingredients and stirred it I got a SG of 1.09 so around 12ish%?

Thanks

Hi Dylan,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. One suggestion I would make is add your chocolate after fermentation instead of a week before bottling. And I won't use powdered cocoa, use a good quality dark chocolate about 85% cocoa.

Good luck

I would visit Jack Keller's web site for his orange chocolate port wine. It has some great tips on making this wine.

Agree with Julie 100%.

I made an orange juice wine and then once cleared, added Lindt 85% dark chocolate bar. Broke it into pieces just small enough to fit into carboy opening. Left it for two weeks. Wine has an orange'ish flavor with a hint of chocolate finish.

+1 for Julie, but you may also want to experiment with roasted cocoa nibs. They are 100 percent pure cocoa and typically they will drop out clear.

Thanks everyone, just waiting on my must to start fermenting :/ how long should it take before I see any activity in my air lock

after reading a little bit more online I've removed the lid and just covered it with a cheese cloth so that the yeast gets all the oxygen it needs, it's already been a day :/ will my yeast be alright or should I throw in another packet but make up a little batch on the bench to get it going rather than just throwing it straight in the must

If you have already added a packet of yeast, you are good to go. Yes, just keep it covered with the towel. I stir mine twice a day(once morning, once night) to keep plenty of oxygen in it.

Alright sweet I'll stir it as soon as I get home, thank you

Hey, after adding Kmeta and potassium sorbate, I left it for a week and just racked it this morning. I had a few dark spots sitting on the lees, is the wine a throw away? I've just added some dark chocolate and gonna let it sit for a week, as of right now the wine is pretty much undrinkable xD but hey it's a learning process. and once I've let the chocolate sit for a week or two I'm gonna clear and then bottle worse case I throw it all away good thing I started 4 batches at the same time haha

Why do you think that it might be trashed? Trashing a wine should be the next thing after the very last thing to think about!
You say that it is undrinkable... because why? Was this the wine you started 3 weeks ago? In wine years that is a wine that is still in diapers . It's not even toddling yet, it is so young... Is the wine very acidic? OJ can be incredibly acidic. I made a batch of orange wine that it took about two years for the harshness of the acids to smooth out. You may want - if you can - to check the TA and pH . You may find that you need to either dilute the wine to cut the acidity or add some chemical base, Calcium Carbonate, for example to neutralize some of the acidity... But you say only "undrinkable" .. Is there a different problem?

That's quite true, it is very young like I'll still go ahead with it and leave it for a while, um the taste is just terrible honestly don't know how to describe it, but I definitely won't give up that easily. The only thing is, is the black spots on the lees? Maybe mould? I'm not sure could that taint the taste ? But I'll go buy a ph tester and try that , thank you

MrAtom said:

That's quite true, it is very young like I'll still go ahead with it and leave it for a while, um the taste is just terrible honestly don't know how to describe it, but I definitely won't give up that easily. The only thing is, is the black spots on the lees? Maybe mould? I'm not sure could that taint the taste ? But I'll go buy a ph tester and try that , thank you

Click to expand...

Could you post a pic?

I've already disposed of the lees, but this is what I have atm no real color to it. It's going alot browner now that I've added 90% cocoa chocolate