newbie - first 1 gallon batch

[FechterNector]

First I want to apologize for asking - I should have done more research before I started my first batch. I want to make a lot of strawberry wine this summer, read up on it a little, but it's a lot to take in at once! I have five 40' rows of strawberries in the garden (more of a farmer then wine maker at this point, Annapolis jewel and cavendisch) I want to make a decent amount of wine this summer. I bought a bunch of supplies off Craigslist and started a 1 gallon batch off a recipe I found off the internet. I used frozen strawberries from last year crop. This was a test or practice batch to get me familiar with how to make wine.

Primary - roughly 4 lbs berries (that were frozen with sugar), 1 gallon filtered water, 3 cups sugar (recipe called for 4 but fruit was frozen with sugar), 1 tbsp acid blend, 1/2 tsp grape tannin, 1/2 tbsp peptic enzyme.

Let that sit for a day, then added 1 campden crushed and the yeast (red star premier cuvee) I mixed the yeast with 1/4 cup cold filtered water before adding to primary.

I did not check SG like I should have prior to tonight. Tonight, 5 days later, I ran the must through a cheese cloth. SG is 1.085 now. Is this okay?

 

[acorn]

Welcome, and don't apologize for asking. We were all new to this once. I, personally, found out a great deal from this forum, what isn't typically discussed in winemaking books.

Do you know what was your orignial specific gravity? Has it been fermenting vigorously all these 5 days before you took the reading? An original S.G. of 1.085 would have been good and would promise to make a nice medium-light wine, provided it ferments to dryness (usually 0.990 - 0.995 S.G. range). However, if the wine has fermented quite a bit over these 5 days, you will probably end up having higher alcohol content. It is a good practice in making any wine to take S.G. readings before pitching the yeast, and then monitor the fermentation progress by measuring S.G. every day until it completes.

As for your wine, one important thing you should uphold throughout the process is a meticulous sanitization routine. Though you may be aware of this already, also considering that wines are generally good at withstanding spoilage in the short term, I would nonetheless reiterate this recommendation because you definitely don't want to run the risk of spoiling this much fruit, particularly when you spend a lot of effort growing and harvesting it yourself.

Other thing you would want to do is to make sure that your room or cellar temperature does not fluctuate rapidly and widely, so, I imagine, an attic wouldn't be the place to keep your wine in. Most wine is best kept under 70*F.

One of the advantages you have as a grower is that you can control when you wish to pick your fruit as it reaches varying degrees of ripeness. Not only this affects Specific Gravity of your wine and the amount of additional sugar needed prior to fermentation, but also how your wine will taste in the end and how well it is equipped to withstand long-term spoilage. Early harvest usually produces wine with higher acidity and fruitiness, whereas late harvest tends to end up as fuller-bodied and tannic wine.

It is good that you are making a smaller batch before attempting to go big. As you do this, you will discover that, although recipies are decent guides and benchmarks to be compared with, your results will likely be slightly different from what you expect. For example, you may find that 4 lbs of strawberry per gallon of wine to be more than enough (sometimes a little goes a long way), but you will be able to adjust the amount to be used for your next batch later. See how sour/tart it tastes fresh first, this may give you some idea how the wine will taste, though note that whatever you taste fresh would amplify in wine, depending on how much alcohol you will have in it.

Anyway, I'll stop bombarding you with too much info at this point. Let us know how things go.

Good luck!

P.S. What supplies did you get, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Arne]

Did you get a ferment?? Adding the campden with the yeast might stop the yeast from fermenting. Next time add your campden up front, wait 12 hours or so, add the pectic enzime, wait another 12 hours or so add the rest of your ingredients and pitch the yeast. As Acorn said check the s.g. at the start, as you ferment along you can check the s.g. again and tell how far the ferment is along. If it actually stopped at 1.085 you are going to have a very sweet wine. That is usually about where we try to start the ferment and it will ferment to dry, less than 1.000. Anyway, give it a small taste. If it did ferment, you should get a alcohol taste. The high s.g. might cover it up tho. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi FechterNector, and welcome. Not everyone will agree with me but almost all recipes posted online do not help you make good wine. In my opinion one of the secrets to making good country (fruit) wines is to avoid diluting the fruit with water. That means you need to use much more fruit per gallon of wine than most recipes suggest and what you aim for is to extract and use the flavor that comes from the juice together with any additional sugars you may need to add to raise the gravity (and so the potential alcohol by volume or ABV) to around 1.090.

And here, I respectfully disagree with acorn. I think you need about 10 lbs of strawberries to make one gallon of wine. Sure you can use less and replace the juice with water... but why dilute the juice?

A starting gravity of about 1.090 means that your wine will have the equivalent of about 2.25 lbs of sugar in each gallon of liquid and that translates into a potential ABV of around 12%.

The other point I would make is - and again, this flies in the face of most recipes - and again, not everyone on this forum is likely to agree with this - simply adding acid blend is like adding salt to a plate before you taste the food. If you are adding acid blend because you know the pH is too high (too little acidity) for the yeast to ferment that is one thing. But if you are adding acid blend simply because you want the wine to have the kick that some additional acidity would bring then that is quite different... and since fermentation itself increases the acidity (drops the pH) I would hold off adding extra acidity until you taste the wine. It may indeed want /need more acidity but you will only know that ... and how much more it may need by using a very low tech and highly sensitive device... your tastebuds...

 

[acorn]

I think you need about 10 lbs of strawberries to make one gallon of wine. Sure you can use less and replace the juice with water... but why dilute the juice?

Thanks for your comment. The reason I tend to go with water dilution is because of too much acid in the fruit. When I made cranberry and red raspberry wines the yeast wouldn't even start fermentation until I got the pH up to about 3.0 by adding water (chalk powder and potassium bicarbonate alone couldn't deal with this much acid, if added in amounts recommended by the manufacturer). Besides, I wonder how much fruit is needed per gallon to squeeze out tiny droplets of juice from berries like cranberry? Perhaps this is something I will have to learn down the road.

Not everyone will agree with me but almost all recipes posted online do not help you make good wine.

I couldn't agree with you more on this. Every time I tried making wines from recipe books or found those online, some wine/must had been in need of major adjustments before was where I would like it to be. I, however, don't blame people who do this for the first several attempts, as they just need some guidance in the general direction. Though, yes, 1 gallon of water for 1 gallon batch of wine is a bit extreme.

 

[wineforfun]

simply adding acid blend is like adding salt to a plate before you taste the food. If you are adding acid blend because you know the pH is too high (too little acidity) for the yeast to ferment that is one thing. But if you are adding acid blend simply because you want the wine to have the kick that some additional acidity would bring then that is quite different... and since fermentation itself increases the acidity (drops the pH) I would hold off adding extra acidity until you taste the wine. It may indeed want /need more acidity but you will only know that ... and how much more it may need by using a very low tech and highly sensitive device... your tastebuds...

Bernard,
Interesting take on things. So you either a. don't add acid up front or b. add very little to adjust pH........correct?
And then you add it after fermentation, backsweetening, etc. is done, to your particular taste or like, before bottling?

 

[BernardSmith]

@ Wineforfun, Yes. I do almost all the adjustments after fermentation has ceased and the wine is quietly aging.
@ acorn, my experience has been that most of the fruits I work with are not overly acidic. Cranberries are one exception and oranges are another and I think they may need to be diluted a hair to reduce reduce their bitterness but even given that , I have not honestly found that the fruits I use have a pH that is lower than 3.2... I wonder though, if the secret to that is to use fruits from farmers markets rather than fruits harvested unripe and shipped across the country while still too green to eat. Ripe fruit may have less acidity than unripe...

 

[FechterNector]

Acorn - I did not measure SG before pitching yeast , I now know that I should have. It was 1.085 five days after pitching yeast. Not knowing original SG how much longer should I leave it in primary? When you say ferments to dryness does that mean when fermentation stops? There are still a lot of bubbles and it is starting to smell like alcohol now so the ferment must have taken...

I picked up three 6.5 gal carboys, 7.9 gal primary bucket, six cases of bottles, four airlocks, hydrometer, thermometer, siphons, cleaning supplies, ect off Craigslist from a lady who was getting out of wine making. I thought $200 was a good deal.

Bernard - I will have to try a batch with just fruit juice, no water. Seems like you would need a ton of fruit just for one gallon.

Thanks for the input!

 

[winemaker_3352]

Ferment to dry means the fermentation has completed typically below 1.000 SG.

1 gallon of water for a 1 gallon batch is extreme as well.

4 #'s of fruit is very low as well.

I would up the #'s to about 8-9 pounds of strawberries per gallon.
Cut, remove unripe portions, and depit them and freeze them for at least 48 hours.
Thaw them and you will have a ton of juice - the remaining pulp i would put in a mesh bag and lighly press them.

I would not add a lot of water as there is already a lot of water in strawberries - i would adjust TA/PH pre ferment using potassium bicarbonate - read the instructions as to not add too much.

I would also suggest using Lalvin 71B yeast strain.

 

[acorn]

Acorn - I did not measure SG before pitching yeast , I now know that I should have. It was 1.085 five days after pitching yeast. Not knowing original SG how much longer should I leave it in primary? When you say ferments to dryness does that mean when fermentation stops? There are still a lot of bubbles and it is starting to smell like alcohol now so the ferment must have taken...

I picked up three 6.5 gal carboys, 7.9 gal primary bucket, six cases of bottles, four airlocks, hydrometer, thermometer, siphons, cleaning supplies, ect off Craigslist from a lady who was getting out of wine making. I thought $200 was a good deal.

Bernard - I will have to try a batch with just fruit juice, no water. Seems like you would need a ton of fruit just for one gallon.

Thanks for the input!

As Arne also mentioned you may end up with a wine that is high in alcohol and sweet at the same time. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but the more alcohol there is, the more sugar OR acidity is needed to balance it in terms of taste. Very few yeast types ferment anywhere past 16% alcohol by volume, and most would stop on their own even even before that. When we say the wine ferments to dryness it means that virtually all sugar has been converted to alcohol by the yeast (usually this corresponds to hydrometer reading of 0.990), at which point the wine will not taste sweet. In your case, when you have more sugar than the yeast can handle, it converts sugar to alcohol until it reaches the level of, say, 16% by volume. The yeast will subsequently die off from high alcohol intolerance and you would still have residual sugar (unmetabolized) left dissolved in wine.

One way to estimate the approximate the lowest possible potential alcohol is to know how much sugar was there in the beginning by weight. Of course, you wouldn't know at this point how much sugar was in the strawberry itself, but you know how much you added to it in when it was frozen and then in cups/glasses just before fermentaion. The rule of thumb is that 17 grams (some say 18) of sugar per 1 liter of wine will yield 1% of alcohol in the said unit of volume. Thus, for example, if you added 4 cups of sugar (1 prior to freezing and 3 afterwards, where 1 cup approximately equals to 200 grams) for one gallon, the calculation is as follows:

Potential Alcohol = ((4 cups * 200 g) * 1 /3.78 L/gal ) / 17 g/% = 12.5 % (approx.)

Of course, this assumes there is no sugar coming from the strawberry, which isn't true, so your alcohol content will be somewhat higher, probably around 13.5%, which roughly equates to S.G. of 1.100. You can adjust the calculation based on what you know. Also, refer to this table:

Hydrometer/Sugar/Alcohol tables

At this point it would give you some idea of the least amount of alcohol to expect, provided the yeast can consume all the sugar before alcohol reaches 16% or so.

Other point to take into consideration, is that not all yeasts will ferment to dryness. Based on Red Star description of Premier Cuvee, it may not completely ferment all the sugar, in which case you will be left with anything ranging from medium-sweet to off-dry. Your palate will tell you how sweet it actually is.

Finally, one more comment regarding the equipment that you got. If you plan to fill up those 6.5 gallon carboys, you will probably need to get a larger primary fermenter bucket than 7.9 gallon one you've got. Another item that is nice to have is a an analytical scale or a kitchen scale with high precision (down to 0.5 grams or better)

 

[FechterNector]

Thanks for the information acorn.

The person I bought the equipment from only made kit batches. I know I will have to buy more, but it was a good start. Enough to get a little experience before I try bigger batches this summer.

 

[Arne]

You have to start somewhere. You are getting a few ideas for the next batch. Still wondering how this is coming out. Arne.

 

[acorn]

Thanks for the information acorn.

The person I bought the equipment from only made kit batches. I know I will have to buy more, but it was a good start. Enough to get a little experience before I try bigger batches this summer.

Absolutely, no rush. I just included my recommendation, because if you are looking forward to produce 6.5 gallons of finished wine, and are going to be soaking the fruit in the primary, it will rise as a cap on top of the wine during fermentation and add considerable volume. Depending on how vigorous the fermentation is, with 7.9 gallon bucket you would have to constantly worry about overflow and sticky floor and equipment.

Anyway, good luck, and keep us posted.

 

[heatherd]

To your point, a one-gallon batch lets you test out the process. It will take a few times to get it right. Generally, though, it is important to limit kmeta before yeast, so that your fermentation is not hampered.

Welcome to the forum and the hobby.

Heather

 

[FechterNector]

Saturday morning SG was 1.035 and today (Monday) 1.020. It has been 8 days since yeast was pitched. There are still bubbles when stirred up. I assume I should wait until it gets below 1.000 before racking to secondary? Thanks!

 

[acorn]

I would say it is close enough when S.G. is under 1.010. Sometimes I transfer to secondary before the end of the fermentation for two reasons: 1) there is too much gross lees (sediment composed of fruit matter) that sometimes produces off-flavors in wine if left in contact for too long; and 2) if wine is delicate, I prefer it finishing the fermentation in the carboy so that all remaining CO2 that is produced stays under the airlock and protects the wine from oxygenating. One possible drawback of early transfer is that if yeast is slow and barely active (e.g. transforming sugar at a rate of 0.001-0.005 on S.G. scale per day) you may risk getting it stuck, and having to restart the fermentation (which sometimes is a pain).

In your case, it seems to me that it is pretty trivial whether you wait another day or two when it has finished fermenting, or transfer it now. Though, just to be safe, I would leave it in the primary until it finishes. After all, there will be plenty CO2 dissolved in your young wine to protect it during a couple rackings/transfers.

 

[heatherd]

I find that if I rack to a carboy too early I run the risk of the wine foaming, so I tend to let it ferment completely and then rack.