April 2014 Wine of the Month Club

[the_rayway]

Hi All! Happy SPRING!!!
(I hope you're getting spring wherever you are - we still totally aren't)

Welcome to the April Wine of the Month Club, open for anyone to join and make a 1 gallon experimental batch.

Please post your exact recipe, and all the steps you do. Pictures are highly recommended! We hope that at the end of the month you will give us a breakdown on what you learned, what you could have done better, and what you did right. We're all learning here folks, share your ups and downs with the group!

We will pop a cork on a bottle of whatever adventurous (or not so adventurous) test batch you make in April of 2015 and post our results in this thread at that time. If it's yummy, we ask you put your recipe into the Recipes section of the forum for all to share in your awesomeness.




Here's the list for this month:

1. Rayway – Nectarine Lime Pee
2. Winesleeper – Blueberry Apple Cider Wine
3. Winforfun – DangerDave’s Dragon’s Blood Port
4. Jericurl – Mojito Wine
5. Fabrictodyefor – Tropical Daze/Crazy Daze blending experiment
6. BuffaloFrenchy – Concord Raspberry Dessert Wine

Considering so many people are full into spring cleaning, gardening, etc. (unlike me), I'm impressed with having 6 participants this month! Yaay us!

Remember: please update the thread with your experiment as you go along, and if it's a great recipe please post it in the recipes section of the forum per Julie's request.

I'm looking forward to hearing about how things progress throughout the next year! While I don't even want to think about November, I'm super excited to have the first online taste testing of the 2013 November WOTM!

 

[the_rayway]

I'm looking at a Nectarine-Lime-Skeeter-Pee-type-thing. It's going to be awesome, so stay posted

I'm looking for that pop of lime and the sweet, orangey-peachey flavour of the nectarines. It's my "think summer" recipe. Thinking there may be a chance of a few bottles being carbonated in beer bottles. TBC.

 

[winesleeper]

Blueberry Apple Cider Wine

April and spring in Kansas equals hail, high winds >60 mph, grass fires and tornadoes. I just love spring in Kansas. You make and store all of your wine in the basement.
Here is my plan for one gallon:

1 gallon Louisburg KS Apple Cider, pasteurized, unfiltered, no preservative, sweetener, nor additive of any kind.
2 lbs. frozen blueberries
1/3 cup Craisins
1 lb. light brown sugar (Adjust for starting SG of 1.090)
1/16 tsp potassium metabisulphate
1/8 tsp liquid pectic enzyme
1 ½ tsp acid blend
1 tsp yeast nutrient
½ tsp yeast energizer
+/- 1 quart water need to start with 1 1/4 gallons due to racking loss
1 packet EC1118 yeast
½ tsp potassium sorbate (Stabilizing)
1/16 tsp potassium metabisulite (Stabilizing)
1 tsp sparkolloid (Clarifier)

Will post some pictures when I get started.

 

[vernsgal]

Spring has sprung here, the trees are all in bloom! Achoo!!!
I'm still undecided on my wine this month ( my husband thinks I'm nuts to be thinking wine with so much going on ,Lol)
I'm thinking something with grapes and blueberries...

 

[the_rayway]

Winesleeper - that recipe sounds like it's going to be super yummy! Are you thinking of a cider-type thing? Carb a few bottles and pop the top?

Kim - I had great luck with my concord-blueberry blend (next time I'll adjust the acid though), so I'm looking forward to your recipe! Are you in packing and moving mode?

 

[vernsgal]

I'm looking at a Nectarine-Lime-Skeeter-Pee-type-thing. It's going to be awesome, so stay posted

I'm looking for that pop of lime and the sweet, orangey-peachey flavour of the nectarines. It's my "think summer" recipe. Thinking there may be a chance of a few bottles being carbonated in beer bottles. TBC.

This sounds real good. I'm looking into carbonating a few wines too. I'll be following to see which way you go with it

Are you in packing and moving mode?

Lol, yup ,it's what to pack, what to give to the kids, what goes to goodwill...
It's also all the paperwork getting my husbands pensions all in place.

 

[the_rayway]

Good luck Kim! I hope it goes as smoothly as possible.

 

[Stressbaby]

I think I'm going to be lazy and do the Williams Sonoma concentrate wine I've been thinking about.
It violates my "locavintner" theme which is to include in every wine something that I've grown or that grows nearby.
But other than about 50# of persimmons in the freezer, I don't have much else to work with at the moment.

 

[Jericurl]

I have really got to get some bottled before I mix up anything else!
And I've still got my two Pacific kits to start.

But I'm definitely going to start something this month.

I've got about 2 pints of lemon blossoms frozen in my freezer that I wanted to use for wine.
I took a look at Jack Keller's website for floral wines and it looks like he uses quite a bit more flowers for his floral wines. The closest I can find to lemon blossom is orange blossom. He uses a 1/2 oz of dried lemon blossom flowers with 2 to 3 lbs of orange blossom honey.

So my dilemma is this, do I make a mead and use the frozen flowers to flavor it? I really don't want to have to wait years to drink this wine.
Or do I make it using a base of white grape concentrate? Since I was wanting something better than Welch's for this batch, where would I find some other kind of neutral white grape juice to use?

 

[the_rayway]

Hmmm...my first instinct would be to use the honey. But, like you say it could take quite awhile to come around. Quantity wise I think you're ok - I used 1 litre of Lilacs for my lilac mead and it's just perfect. Not sure how strong lemon blossoms are?

However, you might want to try some wine grape with a floral flavour. Maybe a Gewurztraminer or a Riesling?

 

[Jericurl]

I'm definitely willing to try that out, I just have to find somewhere that sells the base juice.

I guess I could always buy a kit and just use the juice, but I'd rather find somewhere that just offers up the juice.

 

[jkrug]

If you are looking for grape concentrate try homewinery.com

They have most grape varieties.

 

[Jericurl]

Oh, that is fantastic. Thank you.

Now to decide which base to go with....

 

[the_rayway]

Ok, got this puppy going!

Recipe so far:
6 Lbs Nectarines, thawed and treated with 1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1.8Lbs Sugar (to S.G. 1.072)
380mls RealLime juice
1/4 tsp Bentonite
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
K1-V1116 yeast

It's fizzing away today (pitched the yeast last night), and smells yum! Strong nectarine smell with a bite of lime. I'm mildly concerned that the lime will contribute too much bitterness - but that's why it's a 1 gallon test batch! There have been very good reviews about Lime Skeeter Pee, so I'm hopeful

I'll attempt to save a bottle till next year in April so I can post my findings - but honestly? Likely it'll get drunk this summer

 

[wineforfun]

Haven't been posting much but I have been "dabbling" with a few things. All of your recipes are looking real good.
I did just start a batch of Dave's DB Port last Saturday, so that will be my April feature. Have been following his recipe in the port section.

I am not sure which month I posted what, but I did get my elderberry bottled. I tried a bottle of the oaked and non-oaked the other night. It turned out very well. I backsweetened the oaked to 1.000 to pull a little flavor back in and the non-oaked to 1.006 to pull even more of the berry flavor.

Also, got my chocolate covered cherry bottled. Sweetened it up to 1.020. It is ok at the present time. I added a little cherry vodka to it to try and get some more cherry flavor going. I will be curious to see what time in the bottle does for it. Hopefully it turns out well with time as I have 9 more boxes of chocolate covered blueberries I can use.

Great work to all, keep it up.

 

[winesleeper]

Blueberry Apple Cider Wine Update

Rayway, looking to make a wine not a carbonated cider. In the last year I have learned how to get the bubbles out of the wine. So, I’m not going to start bottling bubbles now. Maybe later?? Pitched the yeast today with a starting SG of 1.090.

 

[Jericurl]

Well, I went ahead and purchased the gewurtztraminer concentrate.
It is supposed to make 5 gallons.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the other 4 gallons right now.

I could either mix up the entire 5 gallons, then siphon off one gallon for my April wine and use the other 4 for something else, or I could split the concentrate and take 1/5 out of it, then freeze the rest until I'm ready to use it.

Also, since I have about 1.5 pints of the lemon blossom flowers, I'm wondering if I should add them to the primary and let them ferment out, or add them during secondary when the fermentation is almost done.

For yeast, I think I'm going to use D47.

Still on the fence about using white sugar vs honey. I'm afraid the honey might weigh down and cover the flavor from the flowers.

 

[the_rayway]

Hey Jeri! My two cents:
Use the flowers in the secondary, so you don't blow the flavours out the airlock. Maybe go 2/3 sugar, and 1/3 honey so it doesn't get too heavy?

Mmmm, Gewurztraminer! Make the rest into wine if you like it

 

[Jericurl]

mmmmmmm.......Gewurztraminer!

I've still got some random bags of fruit in the freezer. Wonder if I could do something interesting with the left over wine concentrate and add fruit during secondary.....

 

[Jericurl]

So, I couldn't stand it and I wanted to start something today....I'll give you guys a teensy hint.....