July 2014 Wine of the Month Club

[Jericurl]

This is open for anyone to join at any time in July by making a 1 gallon experimental batch.

Post your recipe and step by step instructions. We love pictures, so any you take will be greatly appreciated.

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 went well.

I will post a summary of who participated and wine type in the beginning post.
Then we move on to the next month's club.

In July 2015, we take our July 2014 bottles out for a taste test and post our final impressions in this thread. Of course, you don't have to wait until July of next year, but it's a good idea to give all of these wines a chance to mature. If yours turns out great, post it in the recipes section.

If not, feel free to open it up for discussion with the group so we can hopefully figure out what happened.

Remember, we are all learning and this is just one way to do it and have a little fun at the same time. Why just one gallon? Because it's an experiment! It may turn out wretched! And pouring one gallon down the sink hurts a lot less than 6 gallons. If you feel adventurous, go ahead and make more than one gallon!

*copy and pasted because I am feeling extremely lazy today.

July Summary:

1. BuffaloFrenchy.....Lavender Mead

2. Shhdddffff......Honeydew Melon

3. Winesleeper.....Simple Mead

4. Blackspanish777.....Red Grape Wine with Mesquite Chips

 

[buffalofrenchy]

For this month: Lavender mead from honey brought to me by family members from South of France.
Used 2 and 3/4 lbs of honey for 1 gal recipe.
1 tsp of acid blend.
1 tsp of nutrients.

SG when I pitched the yeast = 1.090
Stirred twice daily.
Day 3: I suspected the fermentation to have stopped. I measured the SG at 1.062.
Day 4: still 1.062 - Added 1 tsp of nutrients as I didn't have yeast energizer and moved bucket in a warmer room
Day 5: I can see some bubbles in the must (very few). Will wait till tomorrow for another SG reading.
Also tomorrow will purchase PH strips to measure PH as I read it is common for mead to drop below 3.0 after a few days - I ll add some carbonate if needed.

 

[Jericurl]

How is your mead coming along?

Are you adding the nutrients, etc, in 1/3 steps?

I don't have much experience with meads at all, but I know The Rayway and Seth have both done quite a few if you run into problems.

 

[Jericurl]

Well guys....
I'm kind of in a slump and need some ideas for July.
I know part of it is just being in a bad mood and grieving, but I can't really come up with an idea for July.
Any suggestions?

I have 9 lbs of raspberries in the freezer. 4 lbs of rhubarb in the freezer.
2 large cans of lychee.
Fresh lemongrass, mint, basil, rosemary, borage, and lemon thyme growing in the garden.
I've also got two large hands of ginger in the fridge.

I was thinking of doing a lychee, lemongrass, ginger mix but I just feel meh about that idea now.

 

[shhdddffff]

I will be heading to the grocery store in a bit to pick up a few things, and I'm going to browse the produce section until I'm struck with inspiration. I figure there should be a decent amount of choices given that it's the middle of summer, and there's bound to be stockpile of ripe melons on sale or something.

Will post updates with pictures once I actually pick my fruit and nail down a recipe.

 

[buffalofrenchy]

How is your mead coming along?

Are you adding the nutrients, etc, in 1/3 steps?

I don't have much experience with meads at all, but I know The Rayway and Seth have both done quite a few if you run into problems.

I measured the ph yesterday (day 6) and it seemed fine.
I measured SG today (day 7) at 1.050 so went down 0.012 in 3 days...
I still transferred to the 1 gal carboy and added some energizer and last round of nutrients. Put airlock in and after 10/15 minutes the airlock didn't even move, the moving part still resting at the bottom... hopefully I ll see some activity tomorrow.

 

[Stressbaby]

Jeri,
I have made some lemongrass ginger (no lychee). I have posted two recipes in the recipes section. Both turned out pretty good. The second recipe has too much ginger I think. If you do it, use the amount of lemongrass in the second recipe but cut the ginger back by about a third or so.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[Stressbaby]

PS: I did a lemongrass mint that was way too minty at first but after a few months in the bottle the mint has mellowed and it is a very nice wine after a year. Let me know if you want the recipe.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[buffalofrenchy]

I measured the ph yesterday (day 6) and it seemed fine.
I measured SG today (day 7) at 1.050 so went down 0.012 in 3 days...
I still transferred to the 1 gal carboy and added some energizer and last round of nutrients. Put airlock in and after 10/15 minutes the airlock didn't even move, the moving part still resting at the bottom... hopefully I ll see some activity tomorrow.

Airlock activity is now steady but I am worried I added way too much nutrients to keep the fermentation going.
2.5 tsp for about 1.2 gal... roughly twice the amount...

 

[Jericurl]

Stressbaby,

Is this the recipe you are talking about?
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f2/lemongrass-ginger-wine-42248/

How much ginger overall would you say I need to use?
I think I'm going to use this recipe but add the lychee to it as well.

Now I've just got to get down to the hippie store and buy some crystalized ginger.

 

[Stressbaby]

Yes, that was my first batch. Here was my second batch which was 3 gal:

Primary Fruit: 250g lemongrass
Secondary Fruit: 100g ginger, 80g crystallized ginger, 1.5 lemon
Sugar: 4# 14oz
Campden: 1/8t kmeta upon secondary
Yeast nutrient: 3/4t Fermaid-K
Yeast energizer: 1t GoFerm
Tannin: 1/2t
Pectic enzyme: 3t
Acid blend: 2t

You can see that per gallon, the lemongrass went from 30g to 83g which is an improvement. While in my mind the ginger was doubled, I guess that was wrong. First batch had 60g/gal and second batch had about the same. Drop it back if you want to drink it young, but leave it there if you like ginger and you are patient.

While it could be just young wine, I suppose it is possible that the second batch has more bite due to the pH rather than the ginger. The first batch preferment pH was around 3.6. Second batch 3.27. I think this one is better at 3.4, as the second batch is a little sharp for me. If you don't have a pH meter, I would split the difference on the acid blend.

 

[blackspanish777]

I was thinking about just trying a plain red wine made with Welch's juice and flavoring with mesquite wood. Any thoughts?

 

[the_rayway]

Sounds like everyone's on the go already! Still thinking about mine. Also, summer = busy, so I'm trying to figure if it will work within my canning schedule.

Buffalo - just keep a close eye on that mead. Too many excess nutrients might cause it to go stinky or cause off flavours if left in there too long.

Jeri - If it feels 'meh' let's try something else! What about Raspberry-Lemon Thyme? Or Rhubarb-Ginger with a sparkle?

I hit a major score on Saskatoon, so if I have some left I might play with that. The other thoughts will be a pure Strawberry, or perhaps a fresh chamomile blossom. TBC. Thoughts?

 

[buffalofrenchy]

Buffalo - just keep a close eye on that mead. Too many excess nutrients might cause it to go stinky or cause off flavours if left in there too long.

This mead is giving me a lot of trouble. Despite the additions of nutrients and energizer, I don't think anything is going faster.

Summary:
07/01 started at 1.09
07/04 SG = 1.062 suspected that fermentation stalled
07/05 SG = 1.062 added 1 tsp nutrients and moved to warmer room
07/08 SG = 1.050 decided to transfer to secondary since I hit the one week mark and added 1/2 tsp energizer and 1/2 nutrients. At that point realized I am two times the amount of nutrients that the recipe called for (2.5 tsp total)
07/11 SG = 1.040 ...

Need help...

option 1) leave as is. let it ferment slowly... but has to deal with excess nutrients. I planned on back sweetening the mead in a couple of month. Could it hide the excess nutrients flavor that I admit I have no idea what they taste like...

option 2) make another 1 gal mead (without nutrients) with a strong yeast like Premier Cuvee Red Star that I would merge with the current 1 gal batch to make a total two gal batch...

Maybe I am simply used to ferment dry in 10 days with wine and am over reacting to the fermentation speed of the mead here?

 

[shhdddffff]

Got some honeydew melons, and found a Jack Keller recipe:

3-4 lbs very ripe melon
1 lb granulated sugar
12 oz can white grape juice concentrate
3-1/2 quarts water
2 tsp acid blend
1 crushed Campden tablet
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Champagne wine yeast

Put the water on to boil. Meanwhile, peel and de-seed the melons and cut the flesh into chunks. Put chunks into fine nylon straining bag, tie bag closed, and put in bottom of primary. Crush the melon with your hands. When water boils, stir sugar into it and continue stirring until completely dissolved. Pour over melon, cover primary, and wait several hours for must to cool to room temperature. Add all ingredients except yeast. Check the specific gravity and add sugar (add a little sugar, stir 2-3 minutes to dissolve sugar, then check S.G. again), if required, until S.G. reaches 1.088. Recover primary and set aside. After 24 hours, add yeast and recover. Squeeze bag gently daily to aid in juice extraction. When specific gravity reaches 1.020, remove bag and allow to drip drain without squeezing, returning all drained juice to primary. Allow to settle overnight and then rack into secondary, fit airlock, and set aside. After two weeks, rack again, top up and refit airlock. When wine clears, stabilize, sweeten to taste, wait 10 days, and rack into bottles. Age 6-12 months and serve chilled. [Adapted from Terry Garey's The Joy of Home Winemaking]

 

[the_rayway]

Buffalo: some meads take time, and with a 'traditional' style like you're doing the yeast has to work really hard to make things happen. Stir the bejeezus out of it with your drill or something at least 2x/day, and keep it in a warm (not hot) room.

I had one that fermented for something like 3 months before it went dry (I don't have my notes here, but it was a loooonnnng time). So try and be patient. And watchful

 

[buffalofrenchy]

Buffalo: some meads take time, and with a 'traditional' style like you're doing the yeast has to work really hard to make things happen. Stir the bejeezus out of it with your drill or something at least 2x/day, and keep it in a warm (not hot) room.

I had one that fermented for something like 3 months before it went dry (I don't have my notes here, but it was a loooonnnng time). So try and be patient. And watchful

Thanks for the headsup.

 

[winesleeper]

Mead in July

Everywhere I look, this month, I see something about Mead. I have never tasted mead before, so I’m going to make a simple mead this month. I’m going to use E.C. Kraus Home Wine & Beer’s mead recipe scaled down for 1 gallon. I plan on just following their instructions on the recipe. I will back sweeten using some of the same honey if required.

Ingredients:
3 lbs. of honey (Local Wildflower Honey)
Spring Water to make up +1 gallons
1/16 tsp potassium metabisulphate
1 tsp. Yeast Nutrient
1 ½ tsp. Yeast Energizer
2 tsp. Acid Blend
¼ tsp. Wine Tannin
1 Packet of EC1118 Yeast
½ tsp potassium sorbate (Stabilizing)
1/16 tsp potassium metabisulphate (Stabilizing)

My starting SG was 1.096, that honey must be awful sweet.

 

[the_rayway]

Right on Winesleeper! I hope it goes well and that you enjoy the final product! Keep us posted.

 

[blackspanish777]

Hey guys...just curious...how many wood chips would you put in a one gallon batch?