I don't know "Nuthing"

[Brenda D]

We have several Pindo Palms on our property. Last year I made enough jelly to keep the neighborhood in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a couple of years. If you don't clean up the fruit as soon as it falls off the tree the backyard will smell like a brewery so I thought why not wine?

I have never made wine in my life nor have I ever seen anyone make wine other than my grandfather when I was a small child and I never knew anything after the grape juice was extracted so I don't have a thing to go by. I ordered a kit from EC Kraus that you use your own fruit. I also ordered an extra bucket with tap and lock. Although they sent a book , I need to be treated like I am in Kindergarten with step by step on what to do.

I picked, washed, pitted and froze the fruit a couple of weeks ago. I started with 15 pounds to hopefully make 5 gallons of country wine. Last night I cleaned my fermenting bucket, laid out the fruit to thaw and this morning I started. This is what I have done.

I put about 2 1/2 pounds of fruit at a time in the bag and squeezed until the 15 pounds was done. After completing the squeezing I did an acid test. I am thinking this fruit is high in acid to begin with. It took 4cc of the sodium hydroxide to make it change colors and stay. Is my thinking right and this is high acid or I may not have known what I was doing and got it all wrong to begin with. I did not add any acid when I mixed the other indredients.

I next poured in 10 pounds of sugar and then added my water up to the first ledge of the fermenting bucket. I think it is a 7 gallon bucket so I am assuming I guessed the 5 gallon mark more or less correctly.

I crushed and added 5 campden tablets, 5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient and 1 1/8 teaspoon of pectic enzyme. I did not add any acid (should I?)

I stirred all of this up. There are gobs of un-melted sugar in the bottom. Is this normal?

I pulled the Hydrometer from it's case. First time I have ever seen one in my life. I did not have anything tall enough to float the thing in so I just stuck it in the fermenting bucket. My reading is in the red on 70 where it reads "Start Wine". Is this right? I noticed most of the recipes has a start reading of 1.080 or more. How do I increase or decrease a reading and since I read 70 what is the actual reading?

I just placed the lid over the top of the fermenting bucket (did not screw it down) and placed a clean towel over the top where the hole is for the air lock. Did I do right by this? Speaking of air lock. I just examined that thing and it has a cap like a medicine bottle over the top and no directions either. When I get to the point where I use an air lock do I remove the cap or not.

Please let me know everything I have done wrong and what to do to correct it before I add the yeast tomorrow.

Sorry my first post is so long and thank you for reading this far!

Brenda
&lt; id="gwProxy" =""&gt;&lt; ="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" =""&gt;<div id="ref">< id="gwProxy" ="">< ="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" =""><div id="ref">

 

[intoxicating]

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on the jelly palm. What state are you in? I have wondered what the fruit tastes like. I live about 3 1/2 miles from George's store. Would love to trade fruit if you are around here.

I am unfamiliar with the E C Kraus kit. I would encourage you do do a couple of web searches using different search engines for jelly palm wine recipes. They will have varying proportions and levels of detail.

Also, pull out the paper that should have come with the hydrometer. It should explain a little better, especially if it has multiple sets of numbers on it. Pay attention to where the decimal point belongs. Most common source of hydrometer problems.

Look at your fermenter. It is hopefully labeled with the volumes at different levels. If not, use an empty gallon jug after the fermenter is empty to measure, and use a permanent marker on the outside to label. You will forget if not written down.

It is usually recommended to heat a half cup of the water in the recipe for each cup of sugar to boiling and dissolve the sugar. Stir till it completely dissolves then add to the bucket. Lots of people get into trouble because they add water up to their five or six gallon mark, then start adding sugar that is dissolved in more water, and end up with seven or eight gallons of weak fruit flavor.

The air lock should have instructions in the recipe/instruction book. If not, gently press the funnel shaped part into the hole in the lid, being careful not to push out the black rubber gasket. You may need to put a little sulfite solution on the gasket or air lock to get it to slide in. Make sure the dome part is in place. Add sulfite solution to the little molded line, a little above half way on the funnel. The dome will just start to float. Snap the "medicine bottle lid" on top.

I also recommend watching all the videos on George's web site, a couple of times. After watching all of them once, the second time through they start to fit together better.

You didn't mention adding the yeast yet. Whether you have or not, stir, stir, stir, till the globs of sugar dissolve. If you sulfited the must, (the juice in the bucket) then wait 24 hours to add the yeast. This gives the sulfite a chance to evaporate out of the juice, so it doesn't stun the yeast you paid money for.

Again, welcome to the fun, and the obsession.

 

[ArdenS]

Jack Keller has a generic recipe for making wine from jellies from which you might get some ideas:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request231.asp

One big issue would be neutralizing the pectin.

 

[Wade E]

Welcome to our forum here but you have a lot of stuff that Ive never even heard of so i wont be of much help here but luckily we have a lot of experienced wine makers and hopefully a few will have some experience with what you have there.

 

[xanxer82]

Do you have a hydrometer? What's your starting gravity?

 

[smurfe]

Do you have a hydrometer? What's your starting gravity?

Yeah, she said it read "Start Wine"

Kraus must really simplify it for the beginner. Actually not a bad idea. Anyway, to the OP, welcome aboard. Sounds like you are off to a good start. I hope you stirred that sugar in till it dissolved. I like most stir mine into heated water as if I was making a simple syrup and add it to the primary with some cool water to level.

 

[Brenda D]

Thanks everyone for your welcome and thoughts.

On the second day I tested the acid and added tannin, acid blend and the yeast. The reading on the hydrometer dropped below the red marking that reads "start wine" so this alarmed me but I decided not to do anything until I read more. On the first day I did get back in the fermenting bucket and stirred it to dissolve the sugar that was clumped up in the bottom.(None of the instructions that came with the kit mentioned melting the sugar first)

Today is day 3 and it is beginning to smell like something fermenting and you can hear a lot of fizzing going on. I am still concerned about the hydrometer reading and now am debating on adding more sugar. I will wait to see if I get any replies here before I take that plunge. Today the hydrometer reading is right at the red area that reads start wine" it is 1.100. Am I right in thinking this should not have dropped like this and I have a very low alcohol potential?

My acid test now reads .70 for tartaric and 4.48 for acid. This is right in the range for a white grape but mine is from palm fruit so I don't know. It is not in the range for the reading that just reads "fruit"

Thank you all and any help will be appreciated.

Brenda
< id="gwProxy" ="">< ="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" =""><div id="ref">

 

[Brenda D]

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on the jelly palm. What state are you in? I have wondered what the fruit tastes like. I live about 3 1/2 miles from George's store. Would love to trade fruit if you are around here.

Thanks! I did not know this was a forum from a store. (I have since found it) thanks for pointing it out!

I believe you must be in Texas. I am in NW Florida or I would certainly share some fruit with you. Every year I have a hundred or more baby palms that spring up under my trees. If you are interested in them I can mail you some. Warning they are slow growers and it could be 10 years or so before you get fruit. When I cleaned my fruit this time I took all of the seeds and spread them along the fence line. I told my 5 year old grandson that maybe by the time he started college we could pay for his education with the trees that come up!

I posted again with everything I have done so far if you care to read more of my ramblings. I figured since I am getting a fermenting smell and a fizzing that something is going on as it should be....LOL I will either have wine, vinegar or something the chickens won't even slurp up or pick through!
< id="gwProxy" ="">< ="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" =""><div id="ref">

 

[Brenda D]

Do you have a hydrometer? What's your starting gravity? 

My starting SG reading was 1.070.  The second day it dropped or I think in wines case you would say raised (I'm still not sure about this thing) to 1.010????Today is day three and it is right at the line of 1.100.  This thing is driving me nuts!&lt; id="gwProxy" =""&gt;&lt;!--Session --&gt;&lt; ="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" =""&gt;&lt;div id="ref"&gt;

 

[Brenda D]

Off topic but what is all the gobbly gook showing up at the end of my post. I am sure it is something I did during registration....&lt; id="gwProxy" =""&gt;&lt;!--Session --&gt;&lt; ="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" =""&gt;&lt;div id="ref"&gt;

 

[Rocky_Top]

Hi Brenda , It sounds like you are off to a good start. Do not add more sugar. 10 pounds is a bit much for a fruit wine. I think you will be fine. Most of the time you want to start around 1.085. Now for the hard part. the long wait.

 

[Rocky_Top]

I have found lots of advice on making wine threw the years. Most of it bad.My best advice is to continue to ask for advice on this site, and read the old posts. The old posts will answer questions that you did not know you had. It sounds like you need a little practice on the hydrometer. Water out of thetap in FL should be a hair over 0.000. You can practice using a tall glass and sugar or even salt.The ocean water is 1.023 - 1.026 That's another thing. If I still lived inFL I would use store bought water. No big thing.
I have never used the heated water to mix the sugar. I need the exercise. 5 gallons = 10 minutes of hard stirring. heating to mix is a good thing LOL. The sugar should be mixed before you can take a good reading. The sugar at the bottom will change your reading.


When it comes to wine you have lots of time.Read and think before you make a change.


You might finda neighborthat makes wine "the old way" when you do cover your ears unless you are talking to a monk or you really like trial and error. The tools that we use make up for years of trial and error. What works well with your water and your fruit and your sugar and your temp and your humidity and and and...... may not work well for mine. That is why we use tools.

 

[Brenda D]

Thanks Rocky Top. No neighbors that I know of make wine. I live on 10 acres in the middle of the woods. My closest good neighbors are Mormons and they won't even drink a cup of coffee with me!...LOL

At your advise I will not add more sugar. I added 10 pounds because of all the recipes I was trying to compare to palm fruit and all of them had 2 pounds to the gallon. I have 15 pounds more of the fruit frozen and hubby is cleaning about another 7 pounds as I type. I guess we will learn as we go. Maybe I should have started with a known fruit instead of one little known!

Edited to add:</font> We have a deep well of 300 feet and have excellent water. We are about 20 miles from the coast.

 

[Rocky_Top]

You will find lots of great recipes out there. The sugar part is a big guess. It can change daily. A grape can loose 20% of it's sugar in just a few days on the vine. This is why we use the hydrometer to set the sugar levels.
I think that you may have picked a more difficult fruit for a wine. However if you stick to it and give it time to age it should turn out great.

 

[Wade E]

I concur mot to add anymore sugar. I have no idea what kind of sugar Palm has but even with no fruit sugars at all that would render right about 1.085 - 1.090. This will be a higher alc wine most likely so it will need lots of time to smooth out but sweetening your wine will help smooth it out a bit if you like sweeter wines.

 

[intoxicating]

I would LOVE to have some baby palms from you!!! Not sure how to mail the baby plants so they don't get cooked. Probably
have to wait till cooler weather, it is over 100 during the day here,
most days. I have a forest of 1 to 5 gallon pots on the back porch with tropical plants of all sorts.

I think I must have confused someone by calling the Pindo a "jelly palm". I saw someone replying about recipes to make wine from jelly. If your plants are as prolific as the ones I read about, you don't need to bother your jelly supply. Pectinaise AKA pectic enzyme are useful in most non-grape wines, to prevent or treat pectic haze. I am dealing right now with the 50% of my Mexican Plum port that won't clear. They are a native wild plum that make great wine, but like all high pectin fruits, clearing is unpredictable.

 

[Brenda D]

I would LOVE to have some baby palms from you!!!  Not sure how to mail the baby plants so they don't get cooked. 

I used to own a mail order nursery so they can be sent now by Priority mail. If you'd rather wait until it's cooler for you to plant I can understand that. It's so hot here I only venture out in early morning or early evening.

If you'd like them now just let me know how many and PM me your name and mailing address and I'll get them off to you this week. If you want to wait just remind me later.

You are right about the Jelly Palm being prolific. I have frozen over 50 pounds from one tree and have fed the chickens as much and there is more ripening. Don't expect the baby trees to look like much. It takes about 2 years are so for the trunk to start forming. Right now they look like thick blades of stiff grass and some of the tops that get in the way are weed eated!

 

[Rocky_Top]

Here is a newly posted recipe for jelly palm:
http://forum.finevinewines.com//forum_posts.asp?TID=9257

 

[intoxicating]

Brenda, I PM'd you, did it go through, I never did a PM before. J

 

[Brenda D]

I got your PM with the info. I'm sorry, I should have replied back to let you know. Guess I have been too excited with my first wine venture!