Brown Riesling

[jjduen]

I have attached a photo of my wines I have aging in my basement.

The first three going from left to right are Riesling and the furthest right is a peach.

As you can see, the first carboy of Riesling, which is also the youngest, is continuing to turn darker brown. The only difference from the other two is I fermented with the juice and zest of two of my Key Limes.

I have added kmeta to the carboy to try and stop/slow down/ revert if I am getting oxidation.

Any suggestions or ideas?

Please help

 

[Julie]

Is there a light on behind the two in the middle? Are these kits, juice buckets or fresh grapes?

 

[jjduen]

No lights, in my dark basement. The pictures were taken with my cell and the flash was on.

The were all from fresh press juice bought from Debone winery here in NE Ohio.

A thought did occur as the brown one, as I said was the youngest, was made from the same juice which was all bought at the same time but frozen as I was going to use it to back sweeten.

We decided to keep the others dry do I thawed the juice in the fridge and then proceeded to warm and make the wine

Could freezing have done something? It was sealed in one gallon milk jugs whilst frozen.

 

[Rocky]

JJ, How does the wine taste? If it is oxidation, you will be able to tell by the taste. Are you saying that you added the zest from two (2) key limes? Was the juice the same color as the other Riesling when you thawed it and began fermentation?

 

[jjduen]

Yes same color initially.

Taste is surprisingly good. Typical Riesling with the hint of key lime and a the smell is same as taste.

 

[s0615353]

I do not know about Riesling, but last year my chardonnay looked to be a golden brownish color in the carboy, but was a straw yellow in the glass. If it tastes fine, it could be an optical illusion from the dark yellow color of the wine when so much of it is in a large container. Think of how dark red wines look in the carboy, yet they could be a light garnet in the glass. If it was oxidized to that dark brown color in the picture, you could smell and taste it.

 

[pjd]

I think you have a chemical reaction to the key lime juice and zest going on. I cant imagine anything else. It likely wont hurt anything, it just doesn't look "normal".

 

[Putterrr]

are all your carboys the same colour or are some clear glass and others glass with a green tinge. I to have had wine that appeared dark in the carboys but looked much different in the bottle/glass

cheers

 

[jjduen]

Carboys are all the same color.

I am going to taste again tonight and check doge, ph, and acid. I will report results tonight.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

This is just my own personal experience - those carboy bungs that fit over the neck, I always had trouble trying to make a good seal from them. I also had problems with the universal ones as well - I use the standard tapered stoppers and replace them as they tend to get hard and not seal as well.

 

[Rocky]

This is just my own personal experience - those carboy bungs that fit over the neck, I always had trouble trying to make a good seal from them. I also had problems with the universal ones as well - I use the standard tapered stoppers and replace them as they tend to get hard and not seal as well.

Good eye, Steve. I did not notice that he had those carboy caps on top. They are definitely not air tight. I use them for racking and transfer with my pump and there is always a slight leakage. I can seal them by manually pushing down on them. Personally, I would not use them for an airlock.

 

[Terry0220]

How does it look if you put some in a glass? Is it still dark? I had one that looked dark in the carboy but once I put some in a glass to taste, it wasn't dark. Just my $.02

 

[jjduen]

Took a sample this evening and compared to the bottle if Riesling my wife was drinking, it is definitely darker

Check vitals and got the following:

spgr- .992, TA- .704, pH- 3.52

Both my wife and I tasted and smelled the wine and, even at only a month old, tastes pretty good.

The orange carboy cap on top was very tight but I replace it with a bung and check valve anyways.

I just don't know.

Going to let it keep going and see what happens and taste again in Feb.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

 

[jjduen]

As a second side note;

We tasted my peach tonight and it had a very pleasant peach blush taste.

I had about an ounce left in my glass and I poured it into about an ounce of the above Riesling. For the H of it I tasted the blend and then had my wife taste it.

To our surprise we did not taste the peach at all but the citrus and the Key Lime really jumped out from the Riesling.

My wants me to remember that blend for later when we bottle.

 

[JohnT]

jjduen,

You numbers look good and, since the taste is good, I would have to assume that the wine is not oxidized.

By any chance, were these a late harvest Riesling? If the grapes were late harvest, then your wine would take on a natural brown color.

Even if they were not late harvest, I could be that the grapes were "sun burnt" which would also account for a natural brown color.

The "Brownness" might not have been that obvious until the wine cleared. The more the wine clears, the more you can notice the natural brown color.

Did you notice that the grapes were a little more on the brown/yellow side? Were they that typical bright green Riesling color?

Also, what was the initial Brix reading?

 

[jjduen]

Juice was harvested second week of October.

The juice was yellowish brown and definitely not greenish. If you notice the other two carboys are also yellowish as these were all the same juice bought the same time.

Should the juice have been greenish?

 

[JohnT]

Juice was harvested second week of October.

The juice was yellowish brown and definitely not greenish. If you notice the other two carboys are also yellowish as these were all the same juice bought the same time.

Should the juice have been greenish?

HMMMM,

Interesting,

The juice is usually a green or green-yellow hue.

I did not realize that all three carboys cam from the same batch of grapes.

Is it possible that the brown one contains juice that was pressed, while the other two have "free run" juice?

 

[jjduen]

All the juice was bought and two 5gal carboys filled out of there master tank at the winery.

 

[firejohn03]

Brown is a bad color in wine. OXIDATION??????

 

[JohnT]

HMMM,

Very curious.

could you pull a 1 oz sample and airate it? see if that clears up the color?

Are you sure that all of your carboys were clean? how sure are you of that acid reading on the carboy that went brown?