February Wine of the Month Club

[the_rayway]

Just wait till they start swelling up with fermenting gas. ::

 

[ckvchestnut]

Oops sorry I meant fruit! Haha ya and when they fill up with gas they look like some dead bloated animal floating around in your wine lol


Carolyn

 

[the_rayway]

So, my Jasmine Tea Mead has been chugging along very nicely. Best smelling ferment I've come across yet! Just this gorgeous, lightly floral jasmine scent. I'd also decided to use 2 tsp of nutrient instead of 1 tsp, because it appears I have really crappy nutrient - and the wine has next to no nutrients to begin with.

Overnight, all of a sudden, HUGE sulfur smell (burned match, not rotten egg) eek! And it appears that the ferment had stopped dead. No fizzing, no nothing. Crap. I stirred the heck out of it right away, then worried about it all day.

So tonight, I dumped the mead back and forth between two buckets for a good few minutes. Went out for couple of hours, and voila! Ferment appears to have re-started and the smell is gone. Just a nice jasmine scent coming out of the bucket. Thank the gods!

I couldn't believe it though! This is EC1118 we're talking about. I've never had trouble with it in the past.

Then I started thinking: (sorry for the long rant here folks) the yeast nutrient was from that other LHBS I've recently been trying, but have been questioning the quality of regarding everything they supply. So's the yeast - and the bucket! Crap. So's the supplies in the other two batches I've had H2S issues with! I think I know where my problems are coming from.

Never, ever, buy the cheap stuff. Now I need to go back to my other guy and get new buckets, yeast, and my nutrient I'm getting the good stuff, as I've mentioned.

Learn from my mistakes people.

 

[LoneStarLori]

Ah Rae, this stinks that you can't rely on your more local place. I am also starting to lean that you really can't trust what you get at some of these smaller shops. Several of them take the bulk chems and divide them up into little bags. No exp date or anything.
I'm glad to hear you got it started again.
This is sounding like a REALLY good Mead. It might just be the one that changes my mind about mead.
(that may or may not be a hint for a bottle trade) hahaha.

 

[the_rayway]

I'm IN! Lol! I wonder how the border feels about bringing bottles into the country? Will have to do some research on that...

It's true, even the 'good' LHBS in town splits the stuff up into their own little packages with no information on them. Kinda ticks me off to be honest. Why don't they just put it on the shelves as it is?

Seriously though Lori, you should give mead a try - I think you would enjoy it quite a bit. And I'm always happy to pitch in my $.02 (which, really is only $.015 American with the exchange rate, but still).

This morning it smells like it should - still that gorgeous jasmine scent. Bubbling slowly, but bubbling.

 

[ckvchestnut]

Sounds really nice Rae! Can't wait to see now it turns out!

My blueberry peach port is sitting quietly and almost clear... It's on the heavy toast Hungarian oak and I haven't made any tweaks yet as far as flavoring or sweetening. It smells heavenly, can't wait to taste it at next racking to see how it's coming along!


Carolyn

 

[kryptonitewine]

I started the March club thread today. It's a day early, but the early bird gets the worm.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f5/march-2014-wine-month-club-43943/#post495643

 

[Jericurl]

Thanks Jim, I appreciate you taking March.


I wasn't able to quite spend the time I wanted to on February and feel a bit guilty about that.


Ok guys, I posted the summary in the first post.
It looks like we have 8 wines from 6 participants.

Thanks to Raelene's failed batch, I think some of us learned a little more about copper, H2S, and the importance of proper yeast nutrients. I hate that she had a failed batch, but it did provide some active learning points.

As far as my own observations go....

What went well....I'm pretty happy with the Ars Amatoria wine. I think I'm getting a little better at imagining what flavors will go with each other. This tastes just about like I thought it would. Also, I was able to be flexible with the mead and using frozen fruit to bring the temperature down so I wouldn't kill off the yeast. I had a plan for each wine recipe and was able to work them out fairly well, instead of flying by the seat of my pants like I usually do.

What could have gone better....having a better idea of how Wyeast comes packaged, how quickly that little foil lined bag blows up, etc. When making mead, if I use heat I'm going to need to be a little better organized. Honey/water mixtures hold their heat very, very well and it takes longer than average amount of time for them to cool down by themselves. Either start several hours earlier or have cold water or frozen additions available to add.

What I learned. See above reference honey/water.
Also, a tiny bit of rosewater goes a very, very long way. Add in small increments, probably starting with 1/2 tsp per gallon and move up from there. A ton of reading gave me that tip. The rose taste is not very strong right now, but I'm going to let this age a bit and once I backsweeten, I'll make any needed adjustments at that time.

Yeast.....some has all the subtlety of a freight train and others are pretty,pretty princess picky.
D47 prefers cooler temperatures and produces a slow ferment.
Wyeast 1388 has a very specific temperature range it needs to operate in.

 

[Jericurl]

Also,

Lori, you are an enabling enabler!

I looked everywhere for those drawstring bags locally and finally had to resort to Amazon. I found them here .

 

[the_rayway]

Thanks Jim! I can't wait to try my hand at March

Raelene the second time around in March (Jasmine Tea Mead):

What went well: I was able to save it from a sad, sad H2S death like try number 1. Also, best smelling stuff I've ever smelled fermenting.
What could have gone better: me having REAL nutrients. And some energizer. Apparently all the stores around here are out, and so am I. Boo.
What I learned: hope springs eternal. no, seriously! After my epic fail on Feb. batch #1, I wanted to feel really really sorry for myself. Then I thought "why let it get me down? I can still do another tea wine!". And I did. With much hope in the batch turning out well.

On an update note: I racked the mead to a carboy. SG 1.020. Dropped a full 20 points in one day, after I first splash racked.

 

[kryptonitewine]

Jeri

Here is what I use for my fruit. They go on sale for $2.00 a 3 pack.

http://www.menards.com/main/paint/p...5-gallon-strainer-3-pack/p-1479640-c-8085.htm

 

[Jericurl]

Jim,

I have a bunch of those already too.
The problem is, I tie a knot in the top then play hell trying to get it undone again when the ferment is done.
I end up throwing the whole thing out about 50% of the time.

Yes, it's lazy of me, but the drawstring bag has it's appeal.

 

[CowboyRam]

Jim,

I have a bunch of those already too.
The problem is, I tie a knot in the top then play hell trying to get it undone again when the ferment is done.
I end up throwing the whole thing out about 50% of the time.

Yes, it's lazy of me, but the drawstring bag has it's appeal.

Why not use a zip tie, and all you have to do is cut it with a pair of wire cutters.

 

[kryptonitewine]

For the $0.67 I pay for them I don't bother even trying to open them. I just buy in bulk.

 

[Jericurl]

Lol....
Well, now you've both just made me feel like an idiot.

Zip tips will definitely work.

And yeah, I do throw them away, I just feel a little guilty about doing that.

 

[Winenoob66]

I started the March club thread today. It's a day early, but the early bird gets the worm.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f5/march-2014-wine-month-club-43943/#post495643

Early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese

 

[ckvchestnut]

Hey Everyone, I racked my blueberry peach yesterday and was surprised to have it taste more peach than blueberry! Do you all think the blueberry will come forward more with age or do you think I should try using an fpack or blueberry concentrate on it? I haven't even added any peach essence yet and not sure if I'll need to. I plan to age it as long as possible in the carboy so I can do any tweaks needed if necessary.



I currently have some head space and am contemplating on whether to top it off with brandy or blueberry or even peach... But it's already peachy I'm thinking. Sometimes I think my palate is still novice cuz I don't know what to think lol


Carolyn

 

[cintipam]

Carolyn, I think which ever flavor you would like to predominate is what you should add. This is your wine, forget other folks palates, decide what you want. But it does help to do bench trials. I have a bunch of those little flavor extracts and I make a private party of a touch of this, taste and decide. Then on to a fresh sample, different extract, etc. I was surprised how well chocolate ext melded and softened even young wine. I use it a lot more than I thought I would. Vanilla too.

If it were mine, esp since you say peach is predominate, I'd throw in one Blueberry cranberry juice concentrate by Old Orchard. Maybe some water to reach a liquid level closer to top. Doing the addition right now there is prob enough yeast left alive to process a bit of the added sugar to help offset any ABV from adding the concentrate. Adding those right at this stage has become a standard practice of mine, adds lots of flavor and not as much sweetening as there would be if you did this later in the aging process.

By the way, that is one pretty carboy. Rich color, pretty clear for a first racking.

Pam in cint

 

[ckvchestnut]

Thanks so much Pam! I'm definitely going to do some trialling and will start first with some blueberry concentrate my goal was for it to be predominantly blueberry with an accent of peach. I guess I was surprised by this because everyone usually says that it takes a lot of peach for the flavour to come through and I used less peach than blueberry. BUT... I did use a can or two of sliced peaches with syrup in the recipe so maybe that has something to do with it! That carboy is clearer than it looks too my phone camera isn't the best! But it's a very pretty colour I think


Carolyn

 

[the_rayway]

My Jasmine Mead is now perfectly clear (thanks to that Kliesol/Chitosan!) I know I could have been more patient, but I really want to get a few of these into bottles over the next month or so.

I worry that over the summer I won't pay them the attention they will need, and they'll stay cooler in the basement all bottled and labeled Pretty.