blumentopferde
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2012
- Messages
- 242
- Reaction score
- 36
Hey there!
I'm in trouble with winemaking!
I just finished my first bottle of homebrewn white wine and it just tastes disgusting!
But from the beginning:
- I had a spraying accident in my wineyard and burnt a lot of leaves, so less clusters formed and they formed later than usual.
- I let them ripe longer than usual - until late October - so I still got almost ripe berries.
- Many berries were already rotten, so I cut these out and just left the healthy ones.
- In the end a handfull of healthy berries remaining which I crushed.
- I let the crushed berries in the refridgerator overnight (I've heard that this might intensify the taste), and squeezed them the next day.
- Then I added a starter culture made from apple juice to the grape juice.
- As I had an incredibly small batch of grape juice the starter culture would make about 1/3 of the whole batch
- I covered the must with enological oil to protect it from oxidation, as I've heard that oxidation would destroy fruity aromas.
- I put the whole thing in the refridgerator at 8°C and let it ferment.
- I used cold tolerant yeast (I've read that this would create better taste) and - unbelievable but true - the fermentation really got up to 9% Vol Alc.
- Then I took the batch out of the refridgerator, filled it into a new bottle and tried to reinitialize the fermentation with new yeast.
- It took a while until I figured out that there was no more sugar left in the batch and that was why the fermentation stopped.
- Then I added some sugar and let it ferment until 12% Alc under room temperature.
- Once again i filled it into a new bottle and put it into the refridgerator to clear.
- It took incredibly long, more than half a year, to get the wine clear.
- Now I filled it into a bottle.
- But before I tasted it, and it tasted HORRIBLE:
In spite of the high acid and low sugar content the wine tastes sweetish, thick and blunt. It actually tasted like that all the time from the beginning, that's why I didn't figured out that there was no sugar left any more.
Now I wonder where this taste comes from.
Is it the grape material? Did I use too much yeast? Too much apple juice? Or was it the cold fermentation?
What do you think?
I'm in trouble with winemaking!
I just finished my first bottle of homebrewn white wine and it just tastes disgusting!
But from the beginning:
- I had a spraying accident in my wineyard and burnt a lot of leaves, so less clusters formed and they formed later than usual.
- I let them ripe longer than usual - until late October - so I still got almost ripe berries.
- Many berries were already rotten, so I cut these out and just left the healthy ones.
- In the end a handfull of healthy berries remaining which I crushed.
- I let the crushed berries in the refridgerator overnight (I've heard that this might intensify the taste), and squeezed them the next day.
- Then I added a starter culture made from apple juice to the grape juice.
- As I had an incredibly small batch of grape juice the starter culture would make about 1/3 of the whole batch
- I covered the must with enological oil to protect it from oxidation, as I've heard that oxidation would destroy fruity aromas.
- I put the whole thing in the refridgerator at 8°C and let it ferment.
- I used cold tolerant yeast (I've read that this would create better taste) and - unbelievable but true - the fermentation really got up to 9% Vol Alc.
- Then I took the batch out of the refridgerator, filled it into a new bottle and tried to reinitialize the fermentation with new yeast.
- It took a while until I figured out that there was no more sugar left in the batch and that was why the fermentation stopped.
- Then I added some sugar and let it ferment until 12% Alc under room temperature.
- Once again i filled it into a new bottle and put it into the refridgerator to clear.
- It took incredibly long, more than half a year, to get the wine clear.
- Now I filled it into a bottle.
- But before I tasted it, and it tasted HORRIBLE:
In spite of the high acid and low sugar content the wine tastes sweetish, thick and blunt. It actually tasted like that all the time from the beginning, that's why I didn't figured out that there was no sugar left any more.
Now I wonder where this taste comes from.
Is it the grape material? Did I use too much yeast? Too much apple juice? Or was it the cold fermentation?
What do you think?
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