May 2014 Wine of the Month Club

[StoneCreek]

I'm doing a Loquat this month and I have a small plastic container of the loquat seeds sitting on the counter that I haven't thrown away yet. Last night I got a whiff of an amazing smell. At first I thought I had left a glass of Disaronno on the counter but couldn't remember pouring a glass recently. Upon further investigation the smell of intense Amaretto is coming from the seeds! A quick web search led me to one of my favorite foraging sites, eattheweeds.com, where I've found a Loquat seed Grappa recipe to try along with warning of certain toxicities. Two drinks from one fruit. Gotta love it. Can't wait to try the grappa soon.

 

[Jericurl]

David, I want pictures and the recipe!

 

[Kraffty]

HaHa, I just got my first equipment kit for Christmas so I've only been Winemaking for about 4 months. Jeri, How did your Cactus Pear turn out? Have you tasted it recently, Mine was very drainable!

"Very drainable" - very funny whether it was intentional or autocorrect.
Mike

 

[StoneCreek]

Jeri, I will post a link to the recipe because I feel one should read the short article first so they can decide for themselves if they want to make the grappa since the seeds have known toxins. You can find the recipe here: Loquat Grappa. I'll post some pics as I make it soon. I'll need to thaw some more loquats first since I'll need more seeds. Although, I might just start another batch of wine as well.

Kraffty, nope. drainable isn't even a recognized word so there isn't a chance that auto correct messed with it. It was bad. Maybe one day I'll get around to posting what not to do with those things! However, as bad as it was, someone had to be the first to experiment with something new.

 

[Stressbaby]

I'm doing a Loquat this month and I have a small plastic container of the loquat seeds sitting on the counter that I haven't thrown away yet. Last night I got a whiff of an amazing smell. At first I thought I had left a glass of Disaronno on the counter but couldn't remember pouring a glass recently. Upon further investigation the smell of intense Amaretto is coming from the seeds! A quick web search led me to one of my favorite foraging sites, eattheweeds.com, where I've found a Loquat seed Grappa recipe to try along with warning of certain toxicities. Two drinks from one fruit. Gotta love it. Can't wait to try the grappa soon.

Yes, I agree. I bagged the frozen fruit for my batch, including the seeds; the scent of Amaretto during the fermentation was distinctive and intense. I took a sniff last night...still there!

 

[StoneCreek]

Yes, I agree. I bagged the frozen fruit for my batch, including the seeds; the scent of Amaretto during the fermentation was distinctive and intense. I took a sniff last night...still there!

It must be the seeds because I did not get an amaretto smell at all from my primary with just the fruit. It actually smelled kinda bad in my opinion until the SG hit about 1.020. Then the fruity smell came forward and now that it is at about 1.010 tonight the smell has improved even more.

 

[StoneCreek]

I have decided to do two wines this month. I found myself eating a handful of fresh blackberries and then saw my son grab one of those small Ghirardelli chocolates from the pantry. Then a thought occurred. Guess what it was? Yep, gonna try a chocolate blackberry. I have seen some other chocolate and fruit wines but haven't found a recipe for one with blackberries. I will be starting a new thread in the country wine making section in hopes of getting some good advice. Wish me well.

 

[Jericurl]

Today I racked the lemon blossom, the petunia, the blueberry mojito, and the regular mojito.
They are all just ok
Well...the mojitos are just ok.
The lemon blossom and the petunia....well, let's just say they have a lot of flavor.
A lot.
Almost a sickly sweet candy flavor.
The SG on all four was below 1.00 so I know there's really no sugar left in any of them.
Hopefully by this time next year it'll be aged out into something decent.

 

[Stressbaby]

I'm not doing a 1 gal batch for WotM this month. But I bottled a 1 gal batch of Pomegranate-Fig as sort of an "Old World" country wine and it turned out fantastic:

Pomegranate seeds 1# 11 oz
1# dried fig (chopped)
1# 10oz fresh fig (chopped)
1 can red grape concentrate
2 bananas sliced with skins, simmered, strained
1.5# sugar
1 Campden
Yeast nutrient 3/4t in thirds
1t Pectic
1t acid blend
8.5 pints water
Lalvin K1-V1116

Freeze pom seeds. Thaw, then mash in ziplock bag to break up the seed membranes. Chop figs. Place in straining bag in primary. Boil 6 pints water and add 1.5# sugar. Add to primary. Chop bananas with peels, simmer 1/2 hr in 1 pint water, strain into primary. When cool, add grape juice, 1 Campden tab. After 12 hours, add 1t pectic. After another 12 hours, adjustments: add 1.5 pints water to bring up volume; no sugar adjustments needed; 1t acid blend to get pH to 3.48. After another 12 hours, rehydrate yeast and pitch. Nutrient added in 1/3's, total of 1t. Usual care. No backsweeting.

Rich, full bodied, red-to-garnet in color, which reminds me of the elderberry wines I've made to date.

 

[Jericurl]

So I still haven't bottled any of my WOTM Club wines.

I can't decide how I want to bottle them.
For most, I'd like to bottle them in smaller bottles since there is only one gallon. I'm not a fan of the tall, skinny 375 ml bottles for most of these. I guess I always equate those bottles with something super fancy, etc. I can't imagine bottling my onion wine in that.
Any ideas on what else I can use? I'd like something the size of a beer bottle, maybe a bit bigger would be fine, but I don't want to buy any extra equipment to put a lid on it, so I would prefer something that can be corked. I also like corks, just in case I don't degass as well as I think I did. I don't want bottle bombs and I certainly wouldn't want to give a bottle to someone only to have it bottle bomb on them.
No real idea of what I'm looking for though and I thought I'd check with you guys to get some ideas on what's out there.

 

[Jericurl]

Stressbaby,

I know your pomegranate-fig wasn't one of your WOTM Club wines, but I went ahead and included it in the summary at the beginning of the thread. Since you posted the recipe, I figured it would make it easier if someone went searching for it.

 

[Stressbaby]

Sure thing.
I'll be back in for June, I'm thinking elderflower...

 

[the_rayway]

Hey Jeri,
I suggest the port-style 375's instead of the ice wine style. That's what I'm doing with mine (the one batch I've bottled so far...)

 

[Jericurl]

Oh that is much, much better looking. I'll definitely be buying that for my regular types of wine. I'll just have to find someone close by that carries it. My regular wine supplier has been out of 90% of the wine bottles they carry for close to a month now.

Have you seen anything smaller than that for things like the cooking wines?

 

[the_rayway]

I used this size for my habanero wine, but I have seen the little 135ish sizes around too. IMO, they kind of feel like they are too tiny to bother with though.

One Gallon (UK) gets me 12 of the little 375's, which is lots!

 

[winesleeper]

Welch's Green Chile Wine Update

Wow! When I stared May’s wine I thought that I would have more time. Just now I have finished May’s wine for ageing. After the racking and back sweetening I had a small sip. Could not taste the roasted green chili flavor, but it had a little burn after you swallowed, which I liked. Next time I will use more green chili’s to get more flavor.

Jericurl & the_rayway – I’m the only one in my family that likes green chili’s. So I only buy enough in August to last me thru the winter. I grow several types of hot peppers in my garden for the summer time just for me.

 

[Medic8106]

My dandelion went fairly well. It needs racked here soon when i get the chance. Only thing i would have done different is when i added the raisins to the must i would have placed them in a mesh bag like everything else. They made quite a mess.

 

[the_rayway]

Winesleeper, I'm the same. My husband and kids are not crazy about spicy anything. So I have a 'few' pepper plants just for me

Nathan, I've got to go back and check your recipe. I've got 1.5 litres of dandelions in the freezer, just waiting to go into a mead. I'd like to see again what you did.

 

[Jericurl]

Jericurl & the_rayway – I’m the only one in my family that likes green chili’s. So I only buy enough in August to last me thru the winter. I grow several types of hot peppers in my garden for the summer time just for me.

I don't know if I should feel sorry for you or glad that you don't have to share with anyone!
We have about a dozen different kinds of peppers planted in the garden (and several plants of each) and we still buy a metric buttload of green chile peppers in the fall.

 

[the_rayway]

I try and get several different types each year now, but the standards are: Habanero, Jalapeno, Big Chili, Hungarian Hot, Cayenne, and Serrano. Then I work from there. Sweet peppers don't really do well in my garden as I get maybe one per plant during the entire season!

They produce like crazy, so I've got peppers to spare that I dry or freeze for the winter months. Nearly killed myself making habanero flakes the first time...