Help in designing my wine

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Woodbee

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2009
Messages
274
Reaction score
1
Well, things have been rather slow around here for the last few days so this may be a great time to add some fodder to graze on. So here I go.I am wanting to make a small batch of wine for the kitchen. I am thinking Celery/Lime.
I want this to be a dusty dry wine with a whole lot of bite. I will probably use the entire lime. Skins seeds and all. and with the celery I think that the leaves will add more flavor.
So what do you all think you would include in your must? And how much. What yeast would you use. How much sugar? I am shooting for a two gal. batch. Also, When it is done how could I turn half of it into vinegar?
Do I want a high or low abv. What PH do I shoot for?
Jump on in here and let me know what you all think. I will create this wine from the answers I receive here.
Thanks.
Brad
 
I know from cooking that the celery leaves will add a lot of celery flavor. I usually add those to the pot if I'm making chicken soup stock, not sure how that will be in a wine though.
 
I don't know about the recipe but it might end up SUPER bitter if you leave the Lime skins on and ferment it to dry.

To make vinegar simply put the wine in a bucket/crock with a lot of air room and cover with a towel. You can speed it up by adding a couple cap fulls of apple cider vinegar (with the mother) or simply buying the right critters from your LHBS.

Vinegar likes a lot of surface area. When I made it I took a couple of good beers and put them in a half gallon jar. Added in two cap fulls of Braggs Apple Cider vinegar and let it sit on top of the fridge like that, with a towel over the top much like you would with a primary. I think it took about a month and a half for it to really taste like vinegar. Let it go for as long as you like. When I was done I heated it on the stove for a while, not boiling but enough to mostly pasteurize it.

As with wine it tastes much better after some time in a bottle, 6 months or so. I now have an excellent Malt Vinegar I used Guinness and a Local IPA. I think the IPA made it bitter at first but time has mellowed out the strong hops bitterness.

Good luck sounds like an interesting combo.
 
I am not sure but I would probably avoid the skin and seeds also. I think some of the zest would be good though. You absolutely don't want any of the white pith from the skin or from what surrounds the "meat".

I made this mistake from an orange wine I tried last winter. I peeld them, but left the pith on the fruit before smashing them in the cuisinart. It was so bitter it was undrinkable. It is the only batch I ever dumped.

Other than that, I look forward to hearing how you decide to proceed.

Troy
 
If there is a positive aspect to leaving seeds in a wine wort, it is news to me... never heard anyone recommend it.
pH should be between 3.0-3.5... 3.2 ideal.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top