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[cimbaliw]

Thanks Sammy, the way she's going, I think I can get it to dry over the next week or two in secondary. However, just to clarify; do you ferment to dry in primary or do you transfer to secondary at 1.010-1.020 assuming you add the extra 4lbs sugar at start up?

 

[chrisjw]

cimbaliw
you need to ferment to dry (at least .99) or it will be way too sweet once you add the fpack. When you add sugar up front you cannot follow the directions from the manufacturer!

Sammy, Just to confirm: Dry for the Coconut Frascati base + additional sugar has SG of .990 or .99X? I was assuming .992 or so.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[Sammyk]

cimbaliw No I fermented to dry in a primary pail. Yes on the 4 lbs. up front.

 

[Sammyk]

chrisjw The FG was below .99 but I don't recall how much. For us .99 is good enough, close enough. LOL

 

[deboard]

Finally received my two yesterday, Coconut Frascata and Melon Zinfandel blush. I started the Melon Zinfandel Blush today with modifications. I added about 10 lbs of various fruit (mostly strawberries and table grapes), and 1 cup of hibiscus flowers. I'm trying to push it more towards red rather than a blush. I sulfited and let it set for a day, adding pectic enzyme 12 hours in. Finally I raised the SG to 1.085 with a little over 3lbs of sugar.

I have about 10 additional pounds of light fruit, pineapple mostly, that I'm going to add to the coconut frascata when I get around to making it.

 

[Sammyk]

Ooooo pineapple sounds good with the coconut. Let me know how it goes. I don't plan to make the 2nd kits until fall because it is so hot here.

 

[geek]

do you guys back sweeten this coconut after fermentation is done?
Or you add the fruits in primary?

 

[Sammyk]

I used the entire f-pack because of the sugar up front raised the ABV. Not yet but I may add some pineapple to the next batch of coconut that we do.

 

[geek]

pineapple seems like a nice combo with coconut.
Are you thinking of putting a thawed fruit pack in primary to squeeze and get the juice out?

My shipment finally arrived today..!!
I can get a pineapple frozen bag at Costco.

 

[Sammyk]

geek I am not sure and I won't be starting until fall, it is too hot here to be fermenting wine. But yes think I will put some pineapple of sorts because coconut pineapple sounds great!

 

[deboard]

I plan on using the f-pak that came with it to backsweeten. I'll add the pineapple to the primary. The pineapple I'm using is a collection of fresh and canned pineapple I've been accumulating in the freezer for a while.

 

[chrisjw]

I was thinking of adding some pineapple juice to the primary in place of water (and posted the idea a few days ago on the winepress forum) but I thought that doing so was a bit of a crap shoot at this stage with my limited experience with this kit.

Sammy or anyone, have you tried to just add a small amt of pineapple juice to a glass of the coconut frascati? I was wondering if it tastes good. Rum sure adds a lot to the taste of a pina colada so I know that it won't taste like that.

I was thinking of making a pineapple f-pak by reducing pineapple concentrate, adding it to some of the coconut f-pak and testing it on a small sample of the wine (after fermentation).

 

[Sammyk]

Interesting idea Chris. I have vanilla I made from putting vanilla beans in a bottle of Barcardi light Rum. I think a touch of vanilla with rum would be interesting. Have to pick up a can of pineapple juice and try that and made a dash of the vanilla rum.

 

[deboard]

I think a pineapple f-pac would work well, but if you do that you might consider waiting until after adding it to use the clearing agents that the kit contains. Pineapple is notoriously hard to clear, and if you add more after you clear you might need to clear again.

 

[Sammyk]

deboard do mean the pineapple fpack in place of the one with the kit? Because there is really no coconut taste until you add the fpack. But I could see adding half coconut and half pineapple fpack?

 

[deboard]

I would say in addition to the coconut f-pac. That might make it too sweet for some but chris-jw mentioned reducing some pineapple juice to add in addition to the coconut f-pac. For me I'm sticking to the coconut f-pac that came with it.

 

[Sammyk]

What about reduced unsweetened pineapple juice before you add the final clearing agents?

 

[Rampage4all]

Started my coconut last night added 4#sugar and pitched the yeast OG 1.095 down to 1.075 this morning

 

[geek]

I will start mine tonight but didn't think about adding sugar in primary, sounds like you want to increase alcohol level.

 

[Sammyk]

geek IF you do not add sugar to the primary, the wine will be way too sweet with the f-pak. By adding 4 pounds of sugar, it will raise the ABV, make it not so sweet and have a longer shelf life. If made per the directions it will no last as long in the bottle either and will be sickly sweet - which is the reason most do not like these type of kits. These are summer time drinks and meant to drink in the summer but we never abide by that, we have them when ever we like. If you increase the ABV they will be super nice by next spring IF you do not get around to drinking them all about 6 weeks after starting the kit. We do like to bottle let them set a few weeks before dipping into them.

Hope that helps.