July & August 2015 Wine of the Month

[the_rayway]

Gah. I was afraid of this: rotten eggs. I'm beating the snot out of it, and giving a stir with the copper rod.

Dang it!!!

 

[aryoung1980]

I racked my cherry wine into secondary last night. 1.106 own to 1.009 in five days. I had an extra 850mL after racking so I put it in a 1L Erlynmyer flask and topped it off with water. I figure I'll let that ferment out along with my one gallon and use it as a top off after my next racking.

 

[quiltertoo]

I started my gooseberry wine today. These are the wild green gooseberries but my must is a very pretty pink color. I used white grape juice instead of water. I simmered 3 sliced banana in the grape juice for 20 min. then removed the bananas .I added the gooseberries and 2 cups of chopped golden raisins to the juice and simmered a bit to soften the berries. After it cooled to room temp I added the campden tabs and half my yeast nutrient. In the morning I will add the pectic enzyme. Then wait 12 hours and add my yeast. My sg is 1.086. Am I missing anything? I will test acid tomorrow.

Mary Lou

 

[Stressbaby]

I'm back in this month. This started as a 1 gallon batch but got out of control, so now it's 3 gallons.

Lychee Wine (3gal)
6 cans Lychees in syrup (20oz cans, 8oz net weight)
8oz fresh/frozen lychee from my greenhouse
1 liter white grape concentrate
900g sugar
3/4tsp tannin
1.5tsp citric acid
1.5tsp tartaric acid
4tsp pectic
QA23 yeast

Dump canned fruit into straining bag, and place bag and all syrup in primary. Crush the fruit. Add pectic, acids, sugar, WGC, tannin. After 12-24 hours, rehydrate yeast and pitch yeast. Step-wise nutrient additions in thirds, first at end of lag phase and last no later than 1.030. 1/8tsp Kmeta upon moving to secondary and allow to finish. About the second racking, add the 8oz fresh lychees and let sit in secondary for a month. Rack off of the fresh fruit, then routine care until clear. Stabilize, backsweeten, bottle.

The OG is around 1.080. Going with QA23, my new favorite for tropical fruit wines. I think my new WGC doesn't have as much pH buffer or something because it didn't take nearly as much acid as I'm accustomed to for the pH to come down. The TA was still pretty low at 3. I will add back citric to taste. I hate flabby wine.

 

[quiltertoo]

I racked my gooseberry wine into the secondary Sat. SG was at .998. If this wine tastes as good as it looks it will be a winner. I love the pink color.

Mary Lou

 

[Stressbaby]

Lychee

Lychee wine is down to 1.012 and is transferred to carboy.

 

[the_rayway]

Got back from a week's holidays and the strawberry is looking fantastic! Hot pink! I'm thinking the colour will stay

 

[the_rayway]

Aww yeah. S.G. down to 0.994 so I racked off the lees and k-meta'd it. Colour looks to be permanent!!

 

[BernardSmith]

That's the color of summer.

 

[aryoung1980]

Decided on a raspberry wine for August. My neighbor gave me 5lbs of fruit a few weeks back which I froze. Started this yesterday and pitched my yeast today.

Raspberry Wine
5lb raspberries
2.25lb sugar
0.5tsp acid blend
0.5tsp pectin enzyme
0.125tsp tannin
6 pints water
0.5g k-meta
0.5tsp yeast nutrient
EC-1118

Day 1: Combined thawed raspberries, 3 pints boiling water, and k-meta in a mesh bag.

Day 2: Added pectic enzyme. Dissolved sugar in 3 pints of hot water. Added all remaining ingredients. Cooled to 71F and pitched yeast. 1.091 OG.

Days 3-?: Ferment in the high 60s / low 70s. Stir twice daily and squeeze fruit pack until wine reaches 1.010. Remove fruit and airlock.

Ferment dry and rack every three to six months until clear with k-meta additions every other racking.

 

[jh0330]

Hi!
I am making my first wine ever!
I have a thread which I update with all my data.
I'm 5 days into fermentation.

Wild-Blackberry wine (2.5gallon tub almost full):
-5~7lbs (2.4~3kg)of the blackest blackberries I could find. (after finding this site I learnt I should have used double the amount haha)
-5.5L (a bit under 2.5gallons) water
-3kg ish sugar
-2.3L of my favourite pure blueberry juice (to give more body and to dilute the sugars in my must lol)
-15g bentonite
-30g toasted oak
-used k1 type wine yeast (after this site, I think I should have used 71b)
-SG 1.112 (I think a bit too high...)
-after moving to my 11L secondary, I will add more blackberry juice to top up (I don't know what else to do... )
-might add a 2part clearing agent few weeks (or as long as I can hold my patience)
-will "backsweeten" a portion (add k-meta and sorbate and some juice)




Darkness

Before yeast:

After yeast:

After toasted oak powder:

(mixed in)

A day in with toasted oak powder:

 

[the_rayway]

Hey @aryoung1980 you likely won't need the acid blend with raspberries - they're pretty tart as is. But a taste test will likely give you an idea.

@jh0330 those are some beautiful blackberries!!

 

[jh0330]

Hey @aryoung1980 you likely won't need the acid blend with raspberries - they're pretty tart as is. But a taste test will likely give you an idea.

@jh0330 those are some beautiful blackberries!!

Thanks! Im super excited cant wait to get it in a carboy

 

[T_Baggins]

dang I just seen this thread after starting a new one, so it can be found here :

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50684

 

[Schattenmann]

As a flat out newbie, all my batches are experiments right now, but here we go for this thread.

96 oz Welch's Concord
32 oz Knudsen Just Black Cherry (from fruit)
8 oz Knudsen Just Blueberry (from concentrate, all they make)
19 oz sugar (bringing SG to 1.110)
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1.5 tsp acid blend*
1 tsp nutrient
1/16 tsp grape tannin

Yeast is Red Star Montrachet.

I will probably add some vanilla extract (any input?).
Will definitely use .6 oz medium toast French oak chips in the secondary (that's the equivalent of 3 oz for 5 gal).

*Jack Keller et al. call for 2 tsp acid blend in Welch's recipes, but I haven't bought a pH kit yet and with the tartness cherries can bring I scaled back .5 tsp; input welcome.

I'm hoping for something that will have some character/complexity with the cherry and blueberry added. Welch's seems like a pretty common thing, but I've got a chip on my shoulder about it already due to budget, so hopefully it will have some depth and not just be some gross cheap stuff. We'll see.
I'll try to be patient with 2 bottles, but I'll probably end up sweetening one for early drinking and if it's not so great, I'll probably use some for glögg this winter.

Edit: Cast yeast today, but I held back half the must in the fridge til Tuesday—I decided to ferment half with Red Star Pasteur Red but the store is closed Sun/Mon.

 

[the_rayway]

Ah, the end of August - and here in Winnipeg - the end of summer! It was a wonderful 2 months

I will be updating the OP shortly with everyone's wines - is there anyone who is willing to start the September thread? Don't be shy - remember, we're all newbies here!!

 

[dralarms]

Mine smells wonderful. It's dry @.990 and mostly clear. Since its all juice I got no pretty pictures.

 

[quiltertoo]

I racked my gooseberry wine today. It is beautifully clear. I had a small taste and the gooseberry taste is really strong. I think perhaps I should have used less fruit or made a bigger batch. Will see what I have after a year. I may have to blend it with another wine.

Mary Lou

 

[dralarms]

Mines in the bottle, smells wonderful

 

[aryoung1980]

Haven't touched my raspberry or cherry wines since September. I racked them today with a dose of k-meta. I'm concerned about the cherry wine. It has a reddish-brown tint to the color; unlike my previous batch of cherry wine. I'm worried it's oxidized and it'll affect my long term storage. Smells and tastes ok right now.