Ice wine

[Mapleleaf]

I just bought 10l of fresh white ice wine grape juice. Should i follow the same process as with dry wine? Ferment, stabilize, degass, clarify, bottle? What should my final SG be?

 

[cpfan]

I just bought 10l of fresh white ice wine grape juice. Should i follow the same process as with dry wine? Ferment, stabilize, degass, clarify, bottle? What should my final SG be?

No instructions from the vendor?? Do you know the sg of the juice? Ice wine is NOT a dry wine. Very sweet, in fact.

Steve

 

[Tenbears]

When starting with fresh juice the TA, PH and SG should be determined, and adjusted. Generally a reputable supplier will give you a paper with this information on it. I get my juice from Presquile cellars and they not only provide that information but a recommendation on yeast, and a recipe.

 

[Mapleleaf]

No instructions from the vendor. It was a young kid who told me to come back tomorrow to talk to the owner. Iwas just driving by that store in a different town than mine. The initial SG is 1.165. I read online that for ice wine the final sg should be around 1.02. But I am not too clear about the steps to take. Especially how much yeast to use, nutrients, and how to stop the fermentaion. Because with so much sugar,it might keep fermenting. I have the store phone number. I might call them and ask.

 

[Runningwolf]

You are starting at about 37 brix which is good. You're going to need a very strong yeast starter to get it going. Ensure you use goferm in the starter and try to get at least a good pint going strong. I would use ec1118 yeast. Use the entire package. My preference would be to stop this at about 15 brix or 1.06sg. It may just peter out on it's own around this point. Again if it was mine at this point I would hit it with 100ppm of k-meta and throw it in the freezer (18° -28°) for a week. Bring it out, when it gets to room temperature, filter it.

When cold stabilizing, I normally filter immediately after pulling the wine out of the cold but Ice wine is very thick and you would have a very difficult time until it warms up.

 

[Mapleleaf]

You are starting at about 37 brix which is good. You're going to need a very strong yeast starter to get it going. Ensure you use goferm in the starter and try to get at least a good pint going strong. I would use ec1118 yeast. Use the entire package. My preference would be to stop this at about 15 brix or 1.06sg. It may just peter out on it's own around this point. Again if it was mine at this point I would hit it with 100ppm of k-meta and throw it in the freezer (18° -28°) for a week. Bring it out, when it gets to room temperature, filter it.

When cold stabilizing, I normally filter immediately after pulling the wine out of the cold but Ice wine is very thick and you would have a very difficult time until it warms up.

I can do all this except the filtering. Is filtering necessary? Instead of a freezer, I will leave it in the garage for a week where the temperature is now below 0 (celsius).

 

[Runningwolf]

A very fast drop in temperature would be better. How about a freezer? Put a solid bung on it and keep it in the for about a week. Check it daily but it should not freeze solid. When you remove it, remove 3-4" of head space and put an air lock on it. The wine will expand rapidly as it thaws. Top it back up in a day or two.

 

[Mapleleaf]

A very fast drop in temperature would be better. How about a freezer? Put a solid bung on it and keep it in the for about a week. Check it daily but it should not freeze solid. When you remove it, remove 3-4" of head space and put an air lock on it. The wine will expand rapidly as it thaws. Top it back up in a day or two.

Thanks Dan. I will put in the freezer. Just one more question, do you degass it at any point in time?

 

[Runningwolf]

I would let it age for at least 6-8 months minimum and let it degas on it's own. If you do feel a need to do it, do not do it while it's cold.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

On high gravity musts it is recomended to add about 50% more nutrients and double the yeast amount. Are you going to add a little bit of oak to your icewine? WVMJ

 

[Mapleleaf]

On high gravity musts it is recomended to add about 50% more nutrients and double the yeast amount. Are you going to add a little bit of oak to your icewine? WVMJ

No no oak. The wife does not like the oaked wine.

 

[Mapleleaf]

so I have fermented to an SG of 1.06 (~15 brix). Racked it back in the pail it came in (10L), put a solid bung and put it in the freezer. I am not sure what to put it in when I take it out of the freezer. The smallest carboy I have is a 3 gal (11.5L) carboy. That will leave me with a lot of head space. Is it Ok to just not top it up and leave it there for 6 months or so? The alternative is to age it in 2 4L glass jars and 1 1.5L jar. Would it age ok in those small jars? Or I guess I could age it in the pail itself!

 

[Treeman]

You want to fill containers to the top or it will oxidize to fast. Even now in the freezer, I would transfer to other containers. From 9L i get two 1gal glass jugs and a 1.0 or 1.5 L bottle.

I do like some oak in my faux ice wine. If you have some small bottles after racking try adding some oak. I use 2 Stavin med toast french oak cubes in a capped beer bottle (350-400 mL) for a month.


Cheers!