Get ready Waldo..........

[blytheau]

One and half cups is "sod all", but cant say what it adds to taste, not much im tipping. Maybe the cane sugar is diluting the blackbery flavour? but I dont think I would be adding any grape juice...............do you have ribeena over there? its a blackcurrent juice you can get a fizzy drink but you can also get ribeena cordial, "syrup" how would that go?
Like the sound of this "yeast energiser" I wonder if it would push a beer over the line, and lift the rate of attenuation on really high SGbeers and imperial stouts.
I am going to rack my port today [I hope] let itsettle out fora day maybe then rack onto the grappa and leave a short time then bottle, colour is really nice havent tasted yet, but fingers crossed.

 

[jobe05]

Mark:


2 quick questions. Why do we use ID's, then refer to each other by our common names...........

And what do you mean by "sod all".


I have never heard of ribeena, but my thinking was, if we need to, I could squeeze another 5 pounds of blackberries and add the juice for more flavor after stabilization.


I have never added yeast energizer after the fermentation started, but I was impressed at how quickly it brought it back to life.


I took my camera down to take pictures of the port racked, but forgot and the camera is still down there. The color is wonderfull, very deep, deep red, almost purple.


After racking, I squeezes the pulp bag, added a gallon of water and sugar to an SG of 1.080. Lets see if we can get another gallon of second run........... I'll let this one go to only 13% or so.

 

[jobe05]

Ok....... I was feeling guilty for being lazy and not going back down to take the pictures and get them posted.


Here's the full 3 gallons. Pretty color:

Here's a close up. You can se the action inside, rather vigorous still:

I'm starting to have second thoughts about just adding extra blackberry juice. I'mthinking I should just stick to the recipe! I'm sure the blackberry flavor will come out with some aging. But I wonder what some oak would do for it...................Edited by: jobe05

 

[blytheau]

"sod all " means "next to nothing" of "no consequance". And ribena is blackcurrant health drink or energy drink its marketed for its huge amounts of vitaminC maybe they dont have it in america its here, and its in the UK.
Cant help with theother question about using common names. my surname is Blythe and just add theAU to denote being Australian,
You port looks a lot tidier than mine. Mine has got all this gunk at the top might bekrausen might be stuff that got throught the sieve.How hard is it to post pictures on this forum. remember this is supposed to be fun As we say in oz we arn't playing for sheep stations.

 

[Waldo]

Looking good Jobe...I think I would defer on the oak for a Port though and something that might work well for getting back more of the Blackberry flavor is a flavoring concentrate that George sells.
http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=3515

 

[jobe05]

ribena is blackcurrant health drink or energy drink

Well there ya go! Thats why I have never heard of it!

I was joking about the name thing, we all do that a lot.


The "floatie's" that you have in your must is just some of the pulp that escaped through the strainer bag. If you have a funnel with a screen in it, you can rack through the screen on your next racking to clean it up.


Waldo: I don't kmow if you have ever used that stuff, but I did once on a raspberry wine I made a year and a half ago, the wine is horrible!

I suspect, the Artificial, almost plastic taste it has came from that.


I think we should just let it go, or you can mak a better judgement when you get the sample.

 

[Waldo]

Sounds like a winner to me Jobe...
Does anyone else have any experience with the flavorings?

 

[NorthernWinos]

We have used a small amount of apple in our apple wines...think it is pretty good.
Also used some bluberry in some blueberry wine, but think we used too much...will have to try it again now that it has aged and see how it is.

 

[Wade E]

you guys are the pros but I simmered down a gallon of all natural black
currant juice to reduce the amount of liqyid without losing flavor and
added it to my black currant wine. It really enhanced the flavor that
the vintner's harvest was lacking.

 

[peterCooper]

I suspect that it's a matter of garbage in garbage out. If you use high quality ingredients and you do all the processing, you know what you're getting. If you rely on a processed bottle of Ribena (oh howe I hated that stuff as a kid) you'll unfortunately get somthing entirely different and worse.

 

[peterCooper]

Oh, and Jobe, we use aliases so the IRS doesn't find out how much wine Blytheau is making and not paying US taxes on

 

[Waldo]

Jobe..are you keeping the carboy covered with a towel or something similiar. The blackbery loathes any kind of light

 

[blytheau]

Im not making wine in the US I am making it australia, the OZ goverment would not be overly impressed with thegallon of grappa I have, but as long as I dont try making a quid out of the stuff, no one worries overly.If I had a wool bale fullof blackmarket tobacco, might be a different story. Is hobby wine making legal in the US?? once again as long its not for profit?? Some schools have port bottling nights here,as afund raiser, [you can only eat so much choclate] We are also allowed to have 200 bottles of homebrew beforewe are technically in breach of the law.

 

[Wade E]

Here in the U.S I believe its 100 gallons per person of age or two hundred per head of household. Am I correct Waldo?

 

[jobe05]

Wade:


You are correct!


Waldo: The winemaking room is very dark with the lights off. No windows, nothing, pitch black, except for the little red light on the heater that keeps the room at a comfortible 75 degrees.Edited by: jobe05

 

[Wade E]

Whats the difference between a wine and a port, Just the alchohol level?

 

[blytheau]

100 gallons per person.......................words fail. If that was common knowledge hereyou would have half my town move over there.
I allways thought of port as a fortified wine, like sherry, tokay and Muscat.
a principal difference being whereYOU stopped thefermentation proccess the earlier you stop the sweeter the finished product. you then fortify with "grape spirit"

 

[jobe05]

Waldo:


Sample has been shipped, UPS. You should receive on Weds

 

[jobe05]

SG tonight @ 1.012 and falling, albeit slowly.........


Still no flavor........ At least not a blackberry flavor.

 

[Waldo]

Does it seem hot jobe?