First Watermelon Wine

[dking193]

Tonight was my first attempt at watermelon wine. For reference I used two recipes. One from Jack Keller that he got from Norma Jean and Carole Darden's Spoonbread and Starwberry Wine book, the other was from Winemaker's Recipe Handbook (purple 101 recipes).

The one on Jack's website from Norma adds no water, all juice and I think should work out better. However, the amount of acid blend seems to be off.

I pressed out 3 gallons of juice this evening. The recipe Jack references called for 3 tsp of acid blend for the 3 gallon recipe. The other called for 2.5 per gallon or 7.5 tsp for the 3 gallon. I had issues doing my TA test no mater how much acid I put in, I think my SHS from last fall might be bad, but my PH meter started at 4.2 PH, and yes it is calibrated. I stopped adding acid blend once I reached 9 tsp and PH of 3.7. I never got a good TA test using my Vintner's best acid testing kit.

All this to say, these watermelons that I grew were not high in acid as several have stated watermelon to be, just the opposite. Very high PH and low acid. I'm making a yeast starter and will pitch the starter tomorrow evening.

My question, should I continue to add acid blend to get the PH down to 3.4 or stay at the 3.7? During fermentation is it possible the TA will increase and the PH drop? I'm going to use Pasteur Champagne Yeast.



Thanks Dave

 

[plowboy]

I would go easy on the acid blend. I had the same problem with my first batch of watermelon last year. Just could not get a good reading so just kept dumping the blend in. Fermented out without too much fuss. But after a week or two it developed a horrible bitter taste. I was hoping it would age out but after 9ish months in the carboy it wasent changing. So sadly it got dumped and I learned a lesson.

 

[Julie]

Not to discourage you but please understand, watermelon juice is very unstable, it spoils very easy. Keep the juice on the cool side until you get the yeast on it and do not use a brew belt, you need to keep this on the cooler side based on the fact that the juice spoils easily. And add some nutrient to the must.

Since you could not get a good acid reading, I would leave it alone, you can always adjust after fermentation. This is one of the biggest reasons that I hate recipes. You should never put in a re-defined amount of sugar and acid blend. You need to test and let the fruit tell you how much to use.

Good Luck and let us know how it comes out.

 

[dking193]

Thanks for info, I did stop adding the Acid Blend once I got the PH down to 3.7. Tasting the wine after adding sugar it didn't taste too tart and it improved the otherwise bland taste of the juice. The juice is around 65deg right now and has been through the night. I'll get the yeast starter in it soon.

And about that yeast starter... So on Jack Keller's website, he states to feed the starter every 2hrs. So does that mean you don't get much sleep on starter days. I grabbed about 5hrs of sleep and missed a couple of feedings. The yeast was barely bubbling this morning, but when I feed it again, it seemed to come back alive. Feeding yeast for a starter is like having sea monkeys, if anyone ever did that. The question is, do you really, really need to feed those critters every two hours or don't and worry you killed a few million by starving them out? Oh and is it bad that you used all the sugar to get your must up to the right brix/SG and the last two feedings were with honey instead of granular sugar?

Yeast starter recipe:
1/2 cup of apple, orange, or grape juice
pinch of nutrient
1/2 tsp of sugar
yeast

repeat top 3 every two hours for 24 hrs. (12 feedings)

Thanks for the help folks!

Dave

 

[plowboy]

Open yeast pack, dump in bucket. I have yet to have a batch fail to start within 12 hours. No point in babysitting something that can figure its self out

 

[reefman]

I second Plowboy's technique. It has worked for me everytime as well.

 

[Julie]

A yeast started is good for a wine like this because of the need to get this fermenting as fast as possible. You needed to start the yeast starter when you started the must. At this point, I agree with above, I would just add it and make sure you stir this at least once daily, preferably twice a day.

 

[dking193]

Thanks again guys. Yep I probably overworked the starter a bit. Never used one before. I've been making wine for about 2 years and started my vineyard last summer with clearing a slope full of Kudzu, lessons learned there... that stuff is hard to kill, but the muscadine and grape vines are doing well.

Here are some pics of the watermelon process to date.

 

[dking193]

Checkout the image below this is 8hrs after pitching the starter. I'd say I'm off to the races with the fastest fermentation start to date. If anyone is interested, I can update how this batch goes later.

 

[Julie]

What a nice color, yes please keep us posted on how well this goes.

 

[dking193]

Roughly 24hrs after pitching the yeast starter the SG is down to 1.030 from 1.086 starting SG. The yeast is working hard, boiling away, great smell and looks like I'm past any chance of spoilage. I ordered up a new test kit for TA, and the PH is down to 3.53 from the original 3.7.

I usually rack off primary around this SG level, but it's only been two days. Any suggestions on when to rack off primary for this wine?

Here's what the must looks like now.

 

[dking193]

Picture didn't make it for some reason. 2nd try.

 

[Julie]

I would let it down to somewhere between 1.000 and 1.010 and then snap the lid down, add an airlock and let ferment to dry in the primary

 

[Bnew17]

Im glad you started this thread as i will be starting my first watermelon wine myself here shortly. I have 40 Crimson Sweet watermelons on the vine in my garden right now. I have heard that spoilage in the first few days is the main reason for failure with this wine. How did you keep the must cold enough to prevent this??? I have seen where people will use "ice bombs" and freeze water in water bottles and suspend them in the must.

 

[Billberry]

Ever since Jack Keller added a pure watermelon recipe to his recipes I've been interested in trying it. But all summer I haven't been able to find a nice sweet watermelon to use. It has been my experience that the seeded watermelons have the best taste but all I have seen in the supermarkets this year are seedless watermelons. They taste ok but if I'm going to try the recipe I want a seeded watermelon.
I may have to grow my own next year if I don't find any this year. Perhaps a farmer's market might be a good place to look?
Yours looks great Dave! I can't wait for your opinion on the finished product.

 

[cintipam]

Don't forget homewinery.com sells a watermelon concentrate. I've been pleased with all I'be bought there, tho I have not tried the watermelon.

Pam in cinti

 

[dking193]

The yeast starter was the trick here I guess. At the rate it's going it will be done with primary fermentation by the end of 3 - 4 days of fermentation tops.

As for keeping it cool, I converted our detached garage to an office (man cave) a few years back with a small split system heat pump/AC. I set the temp for 70, usually 78. So no refrigeration to speak of, just not too hot. The other option if you have floor vents is to put right next to your vent and let the AC blow on it as I don't have room in my frig for 3-6 gal bucket of juice. I think the big issue is you just don't want it in the garage with summer temps.

Also I've learned you don't have to wait 24hrs to pitch your yeast after adding the Metabisulphite. I waited about 11-12 hrs and added the starter. Also, I pressed the melons at night to keep the flies and bees at bay. Still had mosquitos to deal with. This also ensured I wasn't doing it mid day summer heat. I had a few of the melons in the house (as many as I could sneak past the wife) so they were near 75deg when we started pressing.

To summarize:
Day1:
- Started the yeast starter around noon.
- Pressed melons from 9pm - 10pm (had help).
- Put 3gal of juice in primary.
- Measured TA and PH, and made adjustments.
- Put extra juice about half gal in frig for toping off after primary (maybe).
- Measured SG and added about 6 lbs of sugar to get it to 1.087. Was shooting for 1.085 - 1.090 but if I add the other juice to top off, it will drop it down some.
- Juice made it to office around 11pm at 70 deg.

Day2:
- Got up early and started feeding yeast starter again. Was concerned I may have killed some yeast because I missed 2-3 of the every 2hr feedings and is why I started the post. Soon as I added the juice, sugar and nutrient again, stirred it up, it looked like all yeast settled to bottom and I thought I had killed them for sure. Nope, they began eating and the starter came alive gain.
- around 11am, I added the starter to must and stirred real good to get lots of oxygen into it
- Within an hour I could see activity, by 4hrs it was really going and 8hrs after adding the starter it looked like most must after 2-3 days.
- Gave another good stir before bed and knew I would get a good fermentation
- Stir each day 2 times, morning and night

Day 3
- all still looks good
- took SG reading this morning and 48hrs after adding the yeast starter, SG was 1.030 down from almost 1.090.

My biggest fear is TA testing was flawed and I may have added too much acid blend. I have a new test kit on the way an will retest later. If I did over do it, I'll get the 3gal carboy into my next-door neighbors old frig he uses for cold stabilization to see if I can knock down the TA.

Hope this helps.

 

[dking193]

Julie - When I checked the SG this morning it was down to .992. I went ahead and racked to carboy and topped off with some fresh watermelon juice I had in the frig. It has a low brix of only 12 so should help keep alcohol down some.

Funny thing about winemaking is all the surprises you encounter. Like I had no clue watermelon wine was going to be white. I assumed because the fruit was pink/red it would end up pink. However from the pic below, looks like it will be a white wine. All the red pigmentation of the fruit turned white and fell to the bottom of the bucket in the lees.

I'm a visual person guys. I talk with my hands and use drawings and pictures to illustrate most things. Photography is my other hobby. Being new to the forum, I haven't seen a lot of pictures posted, but I plan to post pics when it makes sense. I hope that is okay?

I'll update in a few months when time to rack again.

 

[Kraffty]

Nice job Dave. Post and pics are great and it's good to see someone have luck with the dreaded watermelon. Hope it stays on track, if successful you might have a lot of others following your directions carefully.
Mike

 

[Julie]

Yes, it need to be racked to the carboy, did you any and k-meta? If not you should. LOL, it is funny how it turns white. I decided to make mine into a strawberry watermelon wine. The strawberry helped in keeping it a light red color.