A Newbie Question

[tatud4life]

I have a question for everyone. I've been making variations of skeeter pee and Dave's Dragon's Blood for a few months now and I'm wanting to try something different now. I've been adding different fruits and flavoring ingredients to get different flavors and colors. Can I make a batch of say blueberry and leave out the lemon juice? As long as I use enough blueberries for the size of the batch, it should act just like grape wine correct? I'm also assuming that I would need the same amount of berries for a 6 gallon batch as if I was using grapes. Thanks in advance everyone!!!!! I hope your Christmas shopping is going well!! If not, crack open a bottle of wine and then go shopping. It will definitely make it more fun!!!! But, be careful!!!!

 

[Arne]

Well, almost all the wines are made pretty much the same. I would probably recommend going to the recipe section and checking out what others have done. It will at least give you somewhere to start and an idea of how many berries you mite need. These are going to take longer than the skeeter pee to finish out, and mite take much longer to get where it tastes good. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[GreginND]

I'm also assuming that I would need the same amount of berries for a 6 gallon batch as if I was using grapes.

That really isn't a good assumption. Every fruit has a different balance of flavor concentration, sugar and acid. Grapes happen to be spot on usually for what is needed to make a balanced wine. Most other fruits are not. That's why you see some water added to most other fruit wines. Mostly to tame overwhelming flavors and acid that is too high. As a consequence, it is harder to balance and adjust. I will second Arne's suggestion that you take a look at some recipes and get a better idea of how folks have been making fruit wines.

 

[tatud4life]

Ok. Thanks Arne and Greg!!!

 

[dangerdave]

Did you miss the Dragonette thread, Marc? In that thread, I made Dragon Blood without lemon juice. I also make a tropical fruit wine using the same "presser method" as the Dragon Blood (again, without lemon juice), and it's one of my wife's favorates. If you check out the Dragonette thread, please read the whole thing, as I made some changes/observations/additions along the way.

Glad to see you're expanding your views, Marc. Keep the Dragon Blood going, so you'll have something to drink while you make something else.

 

[tatud4life]

Yeah Dave, I must have. I'm on my phone and it won't let me look at some of the threads for some reason. Ill check it out when I get to work and see what I can learn from a better wine maker than me. Just out of curiosity, what purpose does the lemon juice serve? I did an inventory of the wines that I currently make and the ones that I want to make and they number 19 different wines. I think that is a good number to stick with. I might add one more to make it an even 20.

 

[dangerdave]

When I first started making wine, I read a lot about it. Somewhere, in all that info, I read that there are two kinds of wine makers. Artists and Chemists. One is either interested mainly in the chemsitry of how to make a good wine, or the artistry of creating a good wine. From what I have learned, you can produce a more consistant product if you lean mostly toward the established chemistry of wine making, taking careful readings for PH, SO2 content, etc. This requires, needless to say, equipment with which to test your wine, with adjustments for (mainly) acidity and sulphite that follow, in order to make a well balanced wine that won't produce "off" flavors or smells, and will be well protected during aging. When I started out, I made kits and used established recipes, both of which---through the efforts of their creators---produced a balanced wine.

Having said all of that, many recipes call for an acid blend of some kind to be added in the primary with the fruit or juice to balance the must to a PH which will produce a wine somewhere between (PH) 3.1 and 3.7. If you were going to back sweeten the wine later, such as in the Dragon Blood or other Skeeter Pees, then a higher acidity may be desired in order to create a balanced wine at the end.

Having started out as a wine Artist---with no testing equipment---I have had a hard time convincing myself to move toward the Chemist. The Dragonette wine was an experiment. It turned out great in the end---with some slight modifications to the Dragon Blood recipe. I added 3 tsp of acid blend to the primary must to give the wine the desired balance. This amount was extrapolated from other recipes I had discovered using similar fruit.

Sorry, I'm rambling, my friend. Did I, um, answer your question?

The complete Dragonette Recipe is here: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f2/dragonette-triple-berry-wine-34681/

 

[GreginND]

Dave, some very good points you have there. As a chemist by profession I have made many wines without testing acid or SO2. I think the best wines are made by combining just the right amount of artistry and chemistry. This too needs to be balanced. Too much chemistry and it could be bad news!

Above all - taste and experiment and taste again.

 

[tatud4life]

Thanks guys!!!! I'm still learning this!! Tannins, acid blends, and a few others still baffle me! I have some acid testing strips and tested my muscadine batch. The acid level was somewhere in high acid level. I think around 7.0 maybe. I have never been able to make heads or tails of those little strips, so I just went with it. So far, the taste has been pretty close to the muscadine wines that I have drank in the past. I have yet to back sweeten it and I'm going to shoot for a final specific gravity of 1.010 or 1.012. I have read a couple of books on winemaking. One of them dealt with the chemistry part of it and I was more confused after I read it. I guess I'm just flying by the seat of my pants at the moment. I guess I need to purchase some acid blend and other ingredients just to be safe. I love making skeeter pee, different variations of it, Dragon's Blood, and the many variations that I can get out of it. I also want to be able to devise my own recipe for wine from grapes since I have 3 muscadine vines in my backyard. I've learned a great deal in my short time here from you guys!! I just know that there is still a lot more that I don't know.

 

[dangerdave]

- taste and experiment and taste again.

That's my method...

 

[dangerdave]

I love making skeeter pee, different variations of it, Dragon's Blood, and the many variations that I can get out of it. I also want to be able to devise my own recipe for wine from grapes since I have 3 muscadine vines in my backyard.

Do what you love and work with what you have. That's the way!

 

[tatud4life]

You're right Dave!!!! I know my wife loves it. I can't seem to keep up with her demand!!!!!! She REALLY loves it!!

 

[dangerdave]

The things we do for the women we love!

 

[tatud4life]

Yep! They can make us do strange things!!

 

[cohenhouse77]

I made a blueberry pee which turned out to be the best and most popular wine I have made yet. I followed Dave's dragon blood recipe but instead of adding the straining bag of fruit, I used 3 - 36 ounce bottles of organic "Just Blueberry" juice to seven gallons, with one bottle of lemon. It is my Christmas gift to everyone this year.