new project

[hunter8]

ok the new project is spearmint wine.
recipe is 1qt mint leaves,3 lbs sugar,1 gal water,1 campden tablet,1tsp yeast nutrient,1/2 tsp pectic enzymes,1gram wine yeast.times 3 on the recipe.
sp.g.is 1.102 but water was warm.i'll recheck it be4 i put in the yeast.
hopefully i don't become too much of a pain in the *** with my questions around here. but i'd like to learn.and i know very little. thanx all.

 

[St Allie]

That sounds really interesting..

what gave you the idea of making mint wine?

Allie

 

[hunter8]

well theres a recipe in a book i have for mint wine. and my wife has a ton of spearmint growing outside our window.so what the hey.also theres a graveyard by our house that has rasberry's growing by the edge of it. i'm going to try to get enough of them to make a batch. my new goal is to try to make some wine from things that dont cost me anything to get.(just trying to save a buck fruit is expensive).perhaps later in the summer i'll try tommato wine from our garden.that way i only have to pay for sugar and chemicals.

 

[smurfe]

Sounds good. Let us know how it comes out.

 

[Luc]

Some questions to think about on this recipe.

I do not see any call for acid ???
The combination of acid and mint might give an overwhelming
strong taste but NOT using acid might impart off-flavors (medicine like).

In my humble opinion an SG of 1.102 will yield way to much alcohol. Again the combination of mint and alcohol will be way to overwhelming. 1.102 will ferment out to about 13% or more which is way to high for a white wine in my opinion.

Luc

 

[hunter8]

Some questions to think about on this recipe.

I do not see any call for acid ???
The combination of acid and mint might give an overwhelming
strong taste but NOT using acid might impart off-flavors (medicine like).

In my humble opinion an SG of 1.102 will yield way to much alcohol. Again the combination of mint and alcohol will be way to overwhelming. 1.102 will ferment out to about 13% or more which is way to high for a white wine in my opinion.

Luc

seeing as i already have it mixed. is there anything i can do to lessen the specific gravity? add water?

 

[Madriver Wines]

watering it down will do that. But knowing the actual SG is difficult if fermentation has already started.

 

[hunter8]

ok worked a really long day. and i wanted to save the wine from being too strong. so i added 1 galon of water and sprinkled the yeast on. too tired to check the gravity tonight.hopefully this saves it. its really an experiment anyway.

 

[Ceegar]

also theres a graveyard by our house that has rasberry's growing by the edge of it. i'm going to try to get enough of them to make a batch.

You could call this wine Boo-berry Wine

 

[Luc]

ok worked a really long day. and i wanted to save the wine from being too strong. so i added 1 galon of water and sprinkled the yeast on. too tired to check the gravity tonight.hopefully this saves it. its really an experiment anyway.

Re-adjust the mint as it will be watered down also.........

Luc

 

[hunter8]

ok moved to secondary.this is the first i checked the s.g. sinse i added the water.i know i should have. but i was dealing with a 4 letter word i hate --WORK. anyhoo s.g. is .998 seems a bit low.but i havent checked it for a week.its a brewin though.

 

[St Allie]

Is it smelling really minty?

Allie

 

[hunter8]

Is it smelling really minty?

Allie

yes it is

 

[Wade E]

.998, sounds more like its done.

 

[hunter8]

.998, sounds more like its done.

yeah i know thats what i thought. its weird.perhaps i read it wrong.
its still fermenting though.

 

[hunter8]

does that mean i did something wrong? or can it be close to done already?

 

[Wade E]

It can easily be done already. Some fermentations can go very quick and this dont mean your wine will be good nor bad. Some yeasts will ferment rapidly and some will ferment nice and easy and it also depends on nutrient in the mustd also. I like to ferment my red grape wines fast and furious and my white and other fruit wines cold and slow. When you have the same sg a few days in a row its done fermenting and ven though you might still see bubbles its mst likely just C02 escaping from your wine.