August 2014 Wine of the Month

[the_rayway]

Hello everyone,
This is open for anyone to join at anytime in August 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 August 2015, we take our August 2014 bottles out for a taste test and post our final impressions in this thread. Of course, you don't have to wait until August 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!

*totally stolen from jericurl's July WOTM



Contributors this month:
Buffalofrenchy: Joe's Ancient Orange Mead
Winesleeper: Banana Wine
Rayway: 2x1 gal Combo of Banana Bochet Port and Wine

 

[blackspanish777]

I am thinking I might do some kind of peach wine made with white grape juice... But I am not sure. Curious what everyone else is doing???


Making wine in South Texas since March 2014

Cibolo Creek Cellars

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[the_rayway]

Raelene - Banana Bochet Port + Banana Wine
This double batch happened because I had a lot of bananas. C'est la vie! I'm shooting for 2 gallons, and will split them at the appropriate time into 2x1 gallon batches, 1-Banana Bochet Port, 1-Banana Bochet Mead. And in case you're wondering: yes, I totally mooched this idea from Deezil: all credit goes to him if it turns out well. If it doesn't, I'll blame myself

Please enjoy my horrible photography...

Brandy:
750mL E&J VSOP, split
3 Lbs (peeled weight) very ripe bananas, split
2 vanilla beans, split
I split everything into 2x1L jars. Into the cupboard it goes.

Port & Wine
21 Lbs (peeled weight) very ripe bananas
6 Lbs Nigel's honey (wildflower mix)
2L Peach/pear syrup (I save the stuff when we buy canned fruit)
7L Water (to S.G. 1.094)
1/8tsp K-meta

So I stuffed the bananas into sterilized panty hose, and into the bucket.
Started boiling water, and thawing the syrup in the sink.
Started boiling the honey:
10 Min - 1 Lb honey w 1 cup water
15 Min - 1 Lb honey w 1 cup water
20 Min - 1 Lb honey w 1 cup water
25 Min - 3 Lb honey w 3 cups water

What I do is when the honey gets to the point where I want it to go into the bucket, I pour some boiling water into a bowl, then pour the boiling honey on top. Much less spattering than if you use cold water. Then I stir it up and toss it in the bucket.

I added the par-thawed syrup, then cold water to S.G. 1.094. Stirred in the k-meta and tossed a towel over top the bucket.
_____________________________________________
Next (mostly regarding the port):
I will wait 12 hours, then add pectic enzyme and amalyse and let it sit for 12-24 hours.
Then I will make a nice starter with Go-Ferm and ICV-D254. Feed it Ferm-K split in three.

Once it gets down to 1.030ish I will add raw honey back to 1.060 after splitting the batch in two. One batch will go dry hopefully at 12% or so. The other I will step feed to 14-16% and let it ferment out. Hopefully leaving some residual sugar in the process. I'll probably add raw honey twice and hope that the yeast will stop around 1.030.

I'll fortify with the banana-vanilla brandy to 20%. Add some American and French oak. Maybe a touch of cinnamon/peppercorn/TBC.

 

[Stressbaby]

I'm thinking of going in a different direction this time. However, I may not start this wine until September, we'll see how the pickin' goes...
I'm thinking of a straight up blackberry, the twist being a 3-4 day cold soak. I intend to cold soak my elderberry wine this year and I thought I'd try a batch of blackberry using the same technique.

 

[blackspanish777]

Just curious...what is a cold soak again???

 

[the_rayway]

We have lift off! Great banana aroma coming out of that bucket

 

[Stressbaby]

Just curious...what is a cold soak again???

Here is a link describing it with elderberry: http://honest-food.net/2012/08/19/elderberry-wine-recipe/

Here are some other links:
http://www.winespectator.com/drvinny/show/id/5337
http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=columns_article&content=64972
http://www.brsquared.org/wine/Articles/coldsoak.htm

 

[buffalofrenchy]

We have lift off! Great banana aroma coming out of that bucket

That looks good. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[buffalofrenchy]

I am thinking I might do some kind of peach wine made with white grape juice... But I am not sure. Curious what everyone else is doing???

I made something similar a few month ago and was very good. Ingredients below:

1 Welch white grape and peach frozen concentrate
1.5 lbs peaches (8 quite small)
1.5 lbs sugar (3 cups)
1.5 tsp acid blend
1 tsp nutrients
1 tsp peptic enzyme
1 campden tab

Peaches: just wash, cut in quarters, remove stones, put in a mesh bag, smash and squeeze by hand until no solid remains - in primary bucket of course. Pour over boiling water that was used to dissolve the sugar.

 

[the_rayway]

Down to 1.040 this evening. Tomorrow I will bump up the SG to 1.060 and add more FermK. It's coming along great so far!

 

[the_rayway]

Ended up putting the FermK in yesterday night (1/4 tsp).

After work it had dropped down to 1.012. I split it into two buckets, approx 7 Litres in each bucket. One I've left to go dry, the other I added the original honey, raw, to 1.060.

I should have a dry Banana Bochet in a few days to put under glass, and I'm hoping the other will stop at around 1.030, If it goes drier, I may add a bit more honey to bump it up a bit again.

 

[buffalofrenchy]

Based on my potential lack of success on last month mead, I decided to make another mead for August however this time I am following a well known recipe to ensure success or so I thought...
I am doing 1 gal of Joe Ancient Orange Mead known on google as JAOM.

I had all the ingredients I needed. The recipe starts in a carboy and never racks till bottle time. Unfortunately my water (not warm enough) was not mixing well with my honey hence I put the 1 gal on the stove to heat it up a little... Big mistake... As I left to get my spoon, the carboy broke due to heat and I had to clean about 1/2 gal of water, 3 1/2 lbs of honey mixed with tiny broken glass - all over the stove, floor, counter top...

 

[the_rayway]

Ahhhh! No!
I feel your pain my friend. I once plonked my plastic honey bucket into my pot of water thinking to melt the honey a bit before adding it to my fermenter. Well don't you know that it bloody well melted out the bottom of the honey bucket into the boiling water and so I brought the bucket up quickly, splashing myself with boiling sugar/water, then threw the honey at the fermenter, splashing EVERYTHING. I wore those burns for quite some time.

All you can do is sigh, and start cleaning up. You'll never forget the lesson though

 

[jkrug]

One thing I can tell you with this one. It is not a quick drinker. I made 2 gallons of it last year. Tried a couple bottles during aging process and they progressively improved in taste. Tried one just about 1 yr after bottling and it was excellent.

 

[buffalofrenchy]

Thanks for the info. I m in no hurry.

 

[the_rayway]

Racked both to carboys today.

Banana Bochet Mead: S.G. 1.004
Banana Bochet Port: S.G. 1.020

With the leftovers of both combined, I ended up with a full extra gallon! Woot!

 

[Jericurl]

I'm not sure if I'm going to attempt an August batch or not.

We've been hitting 100 degrees regularly here and it's all I can do to keep the house under 85 degrees. And that's in the living room and bedroom. The rest of the house is easily 85 or warmer.

Good thing I've got my outdoor kitchen set up. It's trashy as heck but I'm getting a lot of canning done without dying of heatstroke.

My next batch is going to be a Hatch Green Chile Capsimel. It's likely going to be started at the very end of August or sometime in September. I've got 5 lbs of green chile to roast this weekend and will probably get another 15 lbs over the course of the next few weeks.
Most of the recipes I'm finding are calling for specific numbers of chiles, anywhere from 6-20 per gallon of wine. I'm not sure how this translates out into pounds. Or if I should treat it like a Dragon's Blood/fruit additive and go with a couple of lbs of peppers per gallon.
I'm guessing I'll just use regular local wild flower honey.
When we get back tonight I'll sit down and actually work out most of my recipe and make sure I've got all my nutrients, etc, on hand.

 

[the_rayway]

I was also thinking about doing another hot pepper wine, but layering peppers of different types into it. We'll see what I end up with this year. It's been one crappy growing season! I'm super jealous of both your outdoor kitchen, and your roasted chiles Jeri!

Current status of the Banana Bochets:

 

[winesleeper]

Banana Wine

A little slow getting to the party this month. Guess it’s better late than never. Member Gonzo46307 posted a banana wine recipe back in May 2009. I have decided to try his recipe for the month of August. I will add a picture after I get it going.

Plans for 1 gallon

4 1/2 lb. bananas including peel WASHED!! and sliced.
1 (11.5 oz) welchs 100% white grape concentrate
1/16 tsp potassium metabisulphate
1 3/4 lb. granulated sugar (SG to 1.090)
3 tsp acid blend
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
1/8 tsp tannin
1/8 tsp liquid pectic enzyme
Spring water to 1 1/4 gallons
1 packet EC1118 yeast
½ tsp potassium sorbate (Stabilizing)
1/16 tsp potassium metabisulphate (Stabilizing)
1 tsp sparkolloid (Clarifier)

 

[buffalofrenchy]

Finally started the orange mead. Fermenting vigorously right now. Can't keep the bung and airlock, right now I am keeping the jug in an empty 7 gal fermenter with a lead and airlock on the bucket.