Encourage Me and Where to Get….

[FlamingoEmporium]

Have a good friend who Is a fantastic wine maker, violin maker, cabinet maker -you know the type, great at everything he does. Got me started with my first batches of fruit wine.

I have a supply in my yard of tropical fruit, so it’s only logical to make the excess into wine.

I started with passion fruit wine. Fresh passion fruit off the vines. Used EC1118, and enzyme and energizer. Went very well, and has been in secondary for about 2 weeks. It’s clearing quite well. It has a nice amber color as well. bubbling has stopped, and I’m still looking for the right hydrometer. Give me some help as to a good place to source. Need to get it ordered VERY soon.
that batch will stay in secondary for a while longer

second batch just started with some frozen mango I had - fermenting now. Are you allowed to recommend sources for supplies here ?
thanks everybody.

 

[Bossbaby]

Do you have Amazon? A tripple scale hydrometer is what you may want to use, they are fairly inexpensive so you should probably get two, one for use now and the other for when you break the first one. Definitely one of the most important tools in the wine room. Any wine making equipment store will carry them.

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

Do you have Amazon? A tripple scale hydrometer is what you may want to use, they are fairly inexpensive so you should probably get two, one for use now and the other for when you break the first one. Definitely one of the most important tools in the wine room. Any wine making equipment store will carry them.

Yup one or 2 day Amazon here. I see the triple the triple scale for under $15

 

[sour_grapes]

Welcome to WMT!

Where are you located? Many areas have a brick and mortar shop catering to brewing (which is more widespread) and winemaking. We refer to them a LHBS, for "local home brew store." You can find them by going to your area on Google Maps and searching for "brewing" or some keyword like that.

There are also online stores that are dedicated to brewing/winemaking:
Northern Brewer Home Brew Supplies
Label Peelers Wine Making and Homebrewing Equipment and Supplies
Home Brew Ohio
MoreWine - Winemaking Supplies to Make Your Own Wine at Home
Midwest Supplies - Wine Making & Homebrew Supplies
etc.

 

[Jovimaple]

I recommend you also get a test jar, especially if you are doing smaller batches of wine where the depth isn't enough for the hydrometer to float.

For example: Glass hydrometer test jar- 13"

Make sure you sanitize both the hydrometer and test jar, and then you can pour the sample back into the must and not waste it!

 

[winemaker81]

Another option is the FermTech wine thief, which is wide enough to accept a hydrometer. Since I got mine, the test jar sits unused.

 

[hounddawg]

www.homebrewohio.com
www.ebay.com
www.Amazon.com
www.homebrewing.org
Dawg

 

[hounddawg]

as stated above i keep a few wine thieves to take hydrometer readings =SG
i like the triple scale wine/beer hydrometers with color, the plain white ones give me trouble beings my eyes aint as sharp as they uset to be,
and if possible either buy 3 or 4, or build up a stash of them, if you have only one and it brakes, well hehe that is a pain in the rear end, i broke one once dumping it into my hand, it hit my ring and just like that, it was no more, as you build up it never hurts to keep spares of most everything,,
Dawg

 

[David Violante]

I’m super interested in how your passion wine turns out. Love passion fruit. I’m on my second batch of passion/mango. I didn’t add much else to the first one I made other than nutrients, and it tasted pretty good. To this one I added bananas, and some dried apricots. The depth of it is pretty amazing. There’s no banana taste but the mouthfeel is greatly improved.

Keep us posted… and welcome!

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

www.homebrewohio.com
www.ebay.com
www.Amazon.com
www.homebrewing.org
Dawg

Thanks. Like to shop at smaller businesses like homebrewohio and they had good prices I believe, but then shipping makes it the same as Amazon. thanks dawg

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

I’m super interested in how your passion wine turns out. Love passion fruit. I’m on my second batch of passion/mango. I didn’t add much else to the first one I made other than nutrients, and it tasted pretty good. To this one I added bananas, and some dried apricots. The depth of it is pretty amazing. There’s no banana taste but the mouthfeel is greatly improved.

Keep us posted… and welcome!

Interesting. Thanks ve almost always got fresh crop of banana here, and I wondered why would you want banana tasting wine, but the threads I’ve read kind of all indicate theres nothing banana about it, so I’m kind of wondering why make it at all. I’ve had some terrible small winery citrus fruit wines, but had some passion fruit wine from Key West winery (now out of business) that was really good. So I’m hoping it’s going to be good. It’s been in secondary now for only. A couple of weeks so it will. Be a while before I bottle it or tempt myself to taste it. That’s probably the hardest thing for a newbie winemaker, resisting the urge to keep tasting it. It is clearing up very nicely now and has a great amber color. I’ll be sure to let you know how it comes out. I’ve got a straight mango in the bucket now fermenting, and it will probably be going to secondary in a few day.

I’ve given thought to mixing passion fruit and mango, but they both go well by themselves. Depending how they come out I might consider blending after.

also it will be loquat season in about a month or so. They probably would make a lighter flavor taste so that might be my next batch.
thanks

 

[hounddawg]

Interesting. Thanks ve almost always got fresh crop of banana here, and I wondered why would you want banana tasting wine, but the threads I’ve read kind of all indicate theres nothing banana about it, so I’m kind of wondering why make it at all. I’ve had some terrible small winery citrus fruit wines, but had some passion fruit wine from Key West winery (now out of business) that was really good. So I’m hoping it’s going to be good. It’s been in secondary now for only. A couple of weeks so it will. Be a while before I bottle it or tempt myself to taste it. That’s probably the hardestraisins thing for a newbie winemaker, resisting the urge to keep tasting it. It is clearing up very nicely now and has a great amber color. I’ll be sure to let you know how it comes out. I’ve got a straight mango in the bucket now fermenting, and it will probably be going to secondary in a few day.

I’ve given thought to mixing passion fruit and mango, but they both go well by themselves. Depending how they come out I might consider blending after.

also it will be loquat season in about a month or so. They probably would make a lighter flavor taste so that might be my next batch.
thanks

Banana, golden raisins, apple juice, cinnamon stick and a touch of allspice,
Dawg

 

[G259]

That sounds amazing!

I was intrigued about 5 spice, so I have a 1 gal. - 5 spice apple mead going, high hopes!

I have never added banana, but have seen it a lot. My next foray!

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

First racking today on the passion fruit. Nice light color and fairly clear. I’ll look tomorrow and see what settles out.

the mango in the primary is still working pretty good after a week.

 

[Rice_Guy]

you have me jealous, back yard passion fruit. I would mix 5% passion fruit in everything to add aromatics.

I’ve given thought to mixing passion fruit and mango, but they both go well by themselves. Depending how they come out I might consider blending after.
also it will be loquat season in about a month or so. They probably would make a lighter flavor taste so that might be my next batch.

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

you have me jealous, back yard passion fruit. I would mix 5% passion fruit in everything to add aromatics.

I’ve got some in the fridge drawer now, and the vines are just starting to green out for this years crop. I’m pretty sure I have a bag of juice in the freezer. It’s orange and sticky anyhow.

 

[hounddawg]

I’ve got some in the fridge drawer now, and the vines are just starting to green out for this years crop. I’m pretty sure I have a bag of juice in the freezer. It’s orange and sticky anyhow.

orange and sticky. hum, ain't that just the sliced bread, me learning all these new fancy vintner words,, lol
Dawg

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

Passion fruit is at .998 now. Just moved mango into secondary, today was its 8th day. It is a nice light yellow right now and should clear up very light. The passion fruit is a nice bronze color.

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

I’ve only got a 1/2 pint of mango left after moving into secondary Saved for keeping headspace up after racking. I don’t have another bubbler left for it. What can I do with it / where to store it ? Fridge ? Or just keep it covered so it can gas ? Thanks

 

[hounddawg]

Fridge, plug it, get you spare S type airlocks or ventless silicone bungs,
Dawg