csmithbass
Junior
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2012
- Messages
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So, I am living in OR, and blackberry season is approaching. I was working on making a berry/fruit press for fun (see attached photo). It went well, and only required a few minor alterations during my initial pressing. If anyone is interested in my process on building this simple press, I'll post a thread with more info.
Now onto the main reason I am starting this thread:
I picked almost 30lbs of fresh, ripe, sweet, delicious plums from a tree at my g-parents church. They are delicious, so I decided to press them now that i built this above mentioned press. (as opposed to boiling water over halved plums, such as is mentioned in recipes I have read: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques12.asp ) Now I have done a few wines from concentrates, from frozen fruit, and a few meads (currently have my 'Super Mead' going in the basement) , but have never experienced a wild fermentation. I have always done crushed campden tablet per gallon. However I realized saturday night (after crushing) that I did not have enough campden tablets for my desired volume. *uh-oh* I added what I had (4.5 gallons worth), airlocked my primary, forgot to check yesterday, but this morning it is foaming and fermenting. heh
I have read up on some information I could find considering wild fermentation (this thread gave me alot of info: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f45/strawberry-wild-yeast-37627/ ). I was initially going to try and halt my wild fermentation, and start a new controlled fermentation in a day or two... yet now I'm thinking I will let it start the fermentation, and add the Lalvin Labs yeasts once I reach about 3% alc/vol.
My ingredients:
~29 lbs plums (miniature variety, not much larger than a large cherry)
~12 c. sugar
water filled to 23 L (i know this is more volume/plum-weight than most recipes)
[initial gravity = 1.070]
I will keep people posted as things go, and please feel free to leave me any comments and/or suggestions of how to keep from losing this batch to wild yeast strains....I don't need 23L of Plum Vinegar!!!
I plan on adding Yeast Nutrients today, as well as Energizer when I add the Lalvin Labs yeast later.
To be continued...
Now onto the main reason I am starting this thread:
I picked almost 30lbs of fresh, ripe, sweet, delicious plums from a tree at my g-parents church. They are delicious, so I decided to press them now that i built this above mentioned press. (as opposed to boiling water over halved plums, such as is mentioned in recipes I have read: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques12.asp ) Now I have done a few wines from concentrates, from frozen fruit, and a few meads (currently have my 'Super Mead' going in the basement) , but have never experienced a wild fermentation. I have always done crushed campden tablet per gallon. However I realized saturday night (after crushing) that I did not have enough campden tablets for my desired volume. *uh-oh* I added what I had (4.5 gallons worth), airlocked my primary, forgot to check yesterday, but this morning it is foaming and fermenting. heh
I have read up on some information I could find considering wild fermentation (this thread gave me alot of info: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f45/strawberry-wild-yeast-37627/ ). I was initially going to try and halt my wild fermentation, and start a new controlled fermentation in a day or two... yet now I'm thinking I will let it start the fermentation, and add the Lalvin Labs yeasts once I reach about 3% alc/vol.
My ingredients:
~29 lbs plums (miniature variety, not much larger than a large cherry)
~12 c. sugar
water filled to 23 L (i know this is more volume/plum-weight than most recipes)
[initial gravity = 1.070]
I will keep people posted as things go, and please feel free to leave me any comments and/or suggestions of how to keep from losing this batch to wild yeast strains....I don't need 23L of Plum Vinegar!!!
I plan on adding Yeast Nutrients today, as well as Energizer when I add the Lalvin Labs yeast later.
To be continued...