I checked it the other night, and it was at 1.000. I was going to spend some time with it this morning and see if I should rack at this point, or let it drop some more if it will. I guess I don't have to mention that I'll be tasting it too.....
Get ready Waldo..........
- Thread starter jobe05
- Start date
Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:
As of 9/9/06:
SG - .998
So it's still dropping. Should I rack it off he lees today?
Based on my calculation (record keeping), we are at 19.57% ABV.
If it can drop to .994, we can get 20%.
The second run has acheived 16.5%, but I only added sugar once to that. Thinking of just adding that to a 5 gallon batch of normal Blackberry wine.......
SG - .998
So it's still dropping. Should I rack it off he lees today?
Based on my calculation (record keeping), we are at 19.57% ABV.
If it can drop to .994, we can get 20%.
The second run has acheived 16.5%, but I only added sugar once to that. Thinking of just adding that to a 5 gallon batch of normal Blackberry wine.......
Waldo:
Im getting ready to make the Blueberry port. Im going under the assumtion that I can use the same recepe as we used for the port. Any recommendations or thoughts on the amount of berries per gallon I should use?
(3 post in a row..... sigh....... I'm sounding a little needy today, arn't I?)
Im getting ready to make the Blueberry port. Im going under the assumtion that I can use the same recepe as we used for the port. Any recommendations or thoughts on the amount of berries per gallon I should use?
(3 post in a row..... sigh....... I'm sounding a little needy today, arn't I?)
Iwould think you will need the same amount of berries jobe. I think6 lbs Blueberries per Gallon will do nicely. May want to look at Kellers Blueberry Port recipe. He advocates using Elderberries in his along with the Blueberries.
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request147.asp
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request147.asp
Surely you are not tasting your wines at each step of the process are you jobe?jobe05 said:I checked it the other night, and it was at 1.000. I was going to spend some time with it this morning and see if I should rack at this point, or let it drop some more if it will. I guess I don't have to mention that I'll be tasting it too.....
Still showing signs of life so I'm gonna let it sit for another week then check it again. Taste is coming around a little better. How does your port compair to this port? The sample I sent to you was after about a week or so into the ferment as I recall, maybe two weeks... don't remember....... Memory............. second thing to go!
The sample you sentis still sitting on my counter with an airlock on it jobe and at last tasting, which was Saturday evening it had a lightly detectable flavor of Blackberry although the nosepresented alot stronger presence of Blackberry which is encouraging to me as I have added water to the sample twice now.As far as comparison with my Port, it is too early to make anycomparison at this time.
THATS WHAT I SAID!!!!!!!
I'm 50/50 on adding blackberry juice, or the grape juice. I'm going to do a test this weekend for myself and Kutya with Cherry wine and the Grape juice, I will try it with the blackberry Portas well. I picked up an extra bottle for this test. I would be curious as to what the grape juice will add in terms of flavor ad body -vs- using Sugar water (in the cherry wine) or blackberry juice in the Port. I'll let you know this weekend how the samling turns out.......... That is if I don't do to much sampling.
I'm 50/50 on adding blackberry juice, or the grape juice. I'm going to do a test this weekend for myself and Kutya with Cherry wine and the Grape juice, I will try it with the blackberry Portas well. I picked up an extra bottle for this test. I would be curious as to what the grape juice will add in terms of flavor ad body -vs- using Sugar water (in the cherry wine) or blackberry juice in the Port. I'll let you know this weekend how the samling turns out.......... That is if I don't do to much sampling.
I haven't done it yet. Was looking at it this weekend, but decided to leave it alone. It's still bubbling and the SG is still coming down slowly. Actually, I'm not to sure if the SG is still dropping, or if the bubbles (or lessor thereof)are no longer making the readings hard to take. So I decided I would goive ita few more days, check the SG, then check again next weekend. If no change, I'll rack, and do the sample test at that time.
Waldo: I thought about oak...... I think it would be good. I don't have french toast, but I do have american oak, I think it's untoasted though. I could put it in the oven for a while. Getting ready to rack it today, and do the mighty vac thing also. I need to take some blackberries out of the freezer so I can squeeze them and try the juice vs red grape juice test as well. My thought on the blackberry juice is that it won't sweeten back enough, so maybe heat the juice and add sugar? Let cool then add?
OK.......... Tasted the port in many different stages. Keep in mind when reading this post, that the port fermented out to 20%, so if not much of this post makes any sense, understand why........
Heres the must before doing anything to it. Nice clear red, but little blackberry flavor:
Added a little red grape juice to it. It darkened and sweetened it up, but absolutely barried the blackberry flavor and gave it an almost artificial grape flavor:
I took out a 5# bag of blackberries from the freezer, thawed and andded sugar to the juice. At this point, friends stopped over so I didn't get any pictures. But after adding the sweetened blackberry juice, WOW! This is how it is getting sweetened back, no question about it. I tasted about 3 glasses to make sure, and Im sure. Great flavor!
If you remember, when I made this port, after initial racking, I started a second run batch with the fruit bag. After fermenting that out, I couldn't tell the difference between that and the initial port....... so I added it all together for a now, 5 gallon batch. When I racked it, I added some Light toasted oak to one gallon to see how it would turn out.
Then I hooked up the mighty vac to quickly show Wade how easy it was to degas a carboy. I removed a couple onces of must, and hooked up the mighty vac hose to the bung:
In this pic, you can see the gallon jug that I added some light toast oak to.
Then I started pumping the mighty Vac:
Bubbles are flowing. I only started at 15 HG:
then it drops to 10HG very quickly from drawing out the CO2
Picture is a little blurry, but you can see the air bubbles coming up. I didn't pump it that long, but normally from start to finish, a half hour or so of pumping should get most of the bubbles out. Then I do it again at each bottling to each bottle. Works like a charm and really saves on the arm when stirring it out.
Waldo: Im gonna let this settle for a day or so then add the Kmeta and stuff. Right now Im gonna go have another glass.......... It's sooooooo good!
Heres the must before doing anything to it. Nice clear red, but little blackberry flavor:
Added a little red grape juice to it. It darkened and sweetened it up, but absolutely barried the blackberry flavor and gave it an almost artificial grape flavor:
I took out a 5# bag of blackberries from the freezer, thawed and andded sugar to the juice. At this point, friends stopped over so I didn't get any pictures. But after adding the sweetened blackberry juice, WOW! This is how it is getting sweetened back, no question about it. I tasted about 3 glasses to make sure, and Im sure. Great flavor!
If you remember, when I made this port, after initial racking, I started a second run batch with the fruit bag. After fermenting that out, I couldn't tell the difference between that and the initial port....... so I added it all together for a now, 5 gallon batch. When I racked it, I added some Light toasted oak to one gallon to see how it would turn out.
Then I hooked up the mighty vac to quickly show Wade how easy it was to degas a carboy. I removed a couple onces of must, and hooked up the mighty vac hose to the bung:
In this pic, you can see the gallon jug that I added some light toast oak to.
Then I started pumping the mighty Vac:
Bubbles are flowing. I only started at 15 HG:
then it drops to 10HG very quickly from drawing out the CO2
Picture is a little blurry, but you can see the air bubbles coming up. I didn't pump it that long, but normally from start to finish, a half hour or so of pumping should get most of the bubbles out. Then I do it again at each bottling to each bottle. Works like a charm and really saves on the arm when stirring it out.
Waldo: Im gonna let this settle for a day or so then add the Kmeta and stuff. Right now Im gonna go have another glass.......... It's sooooooo good!
