Good morning all, well after doing a bit of research I have dived into making my own wine. I've now got an Apfelwein and mixed berry and apple wine in secondary.
Since the mixed berry was my first wine from scratch I have, not surprisingly, made a few (I hope not critical) mistakes. Since I would prefer not to make the same mistakes again next time I figured that I would ask for your collective wisdom to critique where I went wrong.
I figure my log might help so:
From my reading since (and some discussion on another forum) I'm led to believe that the amount of berries I had was enough to flavour a Gallon of juice, but not enough to produce a Gallon of juice. I did some more reading on this forum this morning and would I be correct to say I probably need 10# of berries for 1 Gallon of juice?
Any other suggestions, please feel free to recommend better ways of doing things. (yes I know I need a mini auto syphon )
Thanks everyone
Since the mixed berry was my first wine from scratch I have, not surprisingly, made a few (I hope not critical) mistakes. Since I would prefer not to make the same mistakes again next time I figured that I would ask for your collective wisdom to critique where I went wrong.
I figure my log might help so:
Size: 1 Gallon
Yeast: 8g VR21
Sugar: A1, 450g dissolved in some water
Ingredients: 2x Woolworths Frozen Mixed Berries, 1x Woolworths Frozen Raspberries, Additional 150g Woolworths Frozen Raspberries, ~1.2L Berri Apple Juice, Pectanise
SG: 1.090
Primary: 19 Jan 16
Secondary: 22 Jan 16
Bottled:
Notes:
19 Jan 16 AM: Berries removed from freezer and placed on counter to defrost during the day.
19 Jan 16 PM: Berries squished as much as possible and placed in straining bag with ~1.2l of apple juice. Left for a couple of hours. After several hours the bag was removed and squeezed, SG was checked at 1.048. Sugar required was calculated at 400g and 450g of sugar dissolved in some water was added - extra was added to compensate for the extra water to dissolve the sugar. SG rechecked at 1.090. Berries were replaced and the lid replaced. Yeast to be added tomorrow afternoon. I don't know of I've been careful enough about sanitisation, I have added 2 crushed campden tablets dissolved in some water.
20 Jan 16: Potato masher used to mix the must and punch down the cap. 8g Vintners Harvest VR21 yeast and 4g yeast nutrient pitched.
21 Jan 16 AM: Cap punched down
21 Jan 16 PM: Cap punched down
22 Jan 16 PM: Gravity measured at ~1.004, attempted to rack to secondary... Failed badly. Was unable to establish a syphon with the auto syphon due to wrong hose diameter. Conducted syphon using mouth (gargled Vodka) eventually moved all into 1g carboy... Only half filled.... Added as much remaining apple juice as I had ~⅓ of a bottle. Refilled bottle with cold water and added that. Used ~1.75L of additional water.
Did taste sample for gravity check (before water and apple juice) dry and very tart/tangy unfortunately a good portion of that has probably been lost now, also expect that the final ABV will be much lower than planned.
From my reading since (and some discussion on another forum) I'm led to believe that the amount of berries I had was enough to flavour a Gallon of juice, but not enough to produce a Gallon of juice. I did some more reading on this forum this morning and would I be correct to say I probably need 10# of berries for 1 Gallon of juice?
Any other suggestions, please feel free to recommend better ways of doing things. (yes I know I need a mini auto syphon )
Thanks everyone