Hi everyone. I just started with wine making this spring and have lots of stupid questions I will need help with. Istarted a gallon batch with frozen raspberries yesterday. I had the berries in amesh bag, added the water, sugar, pectic enzyme, acid blend, nutrient and campden. Today was add yeast day, which I did... but for some reason I assumed I needed tostrain the juicefrom the bag and discard the fruit.... which I also did.Now thatI look back over my recipe it says not to do this until it has fermented for 5 days. Since the berries are out in my compost bin I have no way to get them back. Will the wine be okay if I just leave it? ShouldI go buy more berries? Or maybe add some raisins or something else in their place?
Newbie with a couple of questions
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What color were the berries when you pulled them out? Did you press them to remove as much juice as possible? I would taste the must that you have and see if it has alot of the berries flavor and you may be ok or add the raisins for some extra body. When I removed the bag of berries from mine they were bleach white, all color had been removed and was in the wine, but they were in the must for a week or two.
Steve
Steve
Thanks for your reply, Brandst. The berries were still as red as can be. I squeezed as much juice as I couldout of the bag and the liquid is nice and red. I'll give it a taste but I don't think I have the experience to know if it's strong enough. Maybe I should add raisins just in case.
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If you could get some more berries soon enough, they would probably be a good addition to the wine. Not sure of the best way to introduce them into the mix though, since the campden tab was already added to the first batch. If you put them into the bag as is, they won't be properly sanitized. Maybe you could crush a campden tablet into a quart or so of water and drench the new raspberries in it for 10 minutes or so. Drain them well and add to the bag and place in the must. The pectic enzyme is already in the batch so that should work on the new berries. I like to squeeze the bag gently each day to help extract the juices.
I'm sure it will turn out all right either way. Raspberry has a very powerful flavor. Good luck.
I'm sure it will turn out all right either way. Raspberry has a very powerful flavor. Good luck.
Putting frozen berries in a quart or so of campden water wouldnt be the best idea as
they are giving up alot of their juice because of being frozen. Soaking
fresh berries in campden solution should be fine. Keep in mind that
alot of people dont use campden at all and as long as they keep things
clean and as sanitary as possible they have few problems. I would add
frozen berries (without using any campden), as they seem to be cleaner that fresh and mash as much
as possible against the side of your primary and call it a country
wine. That would be better than a weak insipid wine in my way of
thinking. Good luck, ras and blackberry are my favorite fruit
wines.
Edited by: paubin
they are giving up alot of their juice because of being frozen. Soaking
fresh berries in campden solution should be fine. Keep in mind that
alot of people dont use campden at all and as long as they keep things
clean and as sanitary as possible they have few problems. I would add
frozen berries (without using any campden), as they seem to be cleaner that fresh and mash as much
as possible against the side of your primary and call it a country
wine. That would be better than a weak insipid wine in my way of
thinking. Good luck, ras and blackberry are my favorite fruit
wines.
Edited by: paubin
Welcome poppysue,
I'm with paubin, I'd add as much frozen berries (thawed to the must temp) as you tossed out and introduce it back to the must. I wouldn't worry about the campden, just make sure that the container you thaw your berries in is sanitized. Most wineyeast strains are prettytough, especially once they getworking. Good luck!
I'm with paubin, I'd add as much frozen berries (thawed to the must temp) as you tossed out and introduce it back to the must. I wouldn't worry about the campden, just make sure that the container you thaw your berries in is sanitized. Most wineyeast strains are prettytough, especially once they getworking. Good luck!
Shoot... I added about a pound of gold raisins last night. I didn't have the raspberries on hand and wouldn't have been able to get them until today. I figured I needed to something asap. It's bubbling now and looking good today.Raspberry is my favorite winetoo, soI'll prolly buy some more and makeanother batch. Live and learn. Thank you all for the advice.
poppysue,
I recently made wine from red raspberry concentrate that has real promise. I also used the concentrate to back sweeten a small batch that I made from can raspberries. The flavor the concentrate gave the wine was incredible! Here is a link, and it's on sale: http://www.brownwoodacres.com/raspberry.htm
I made 6 gallon of concord from there concentrates and it is ready to bottle and tasting pretty good right now. I made 3 gallon of cherry from the concentrate that is bulk aging right now. I racked a couple of days ago and snuck a little taste.Very good!
I recently made wine from red raspberry concentrate that has real promise. I also used the concentrate to back sweeten a small batch that I made from can raspberries. The flavor the concentrate gave the wine was incredible! Here is a link, and it's on sale: http://www.brownwoodacres.com/raspberry.htm
I made 6 gallon of concord from there concentrates and it is ready to bottle and tasting pretty good right now. I made 3 gallon of cherry from the concentrate that is bulk aging right now. I racked a couple of days ago and snuck a little taste.Very good!
Linda0210,
I made the raspberry with 24 cans of Oregon Red Raspberries and added 1/2 pint of concentrate along with sugar, nutrient, pectic enzyme, acid, and tannin.
The Cherry I used 1 1/2 pints concentrateplus two cans of Oregon Tart Cherries.
The Concord was all concentrate. I used 4 quarts to get 6 gallons.
I sweetened a 1 gallon batch of raspberry (last year)with a cup of concentrate and it was really good, but the concentrate has a tendency to cloud the wine when adding after fermentation, but the raspberry was very dark and not as noticeable as a lighter wine.
I made a gallon of Cherry from Juicy Juice Cherry (last year)and added a cup of concentrate forflavorand it was very cloudy, but the taste was very good. Filtering helps quite a bit, but it is not crystal clear. I just drink it in a very dark room
.
I made the raspberry with 24 cans of Oregon Red Raspberries and added 1/2 pint of concentrate along with sugar, nutrient, pectic enzyme, acid, and tannin.
The Cherry I used 1 1/2 pints concentrateplus two cans of Oregon Tart Cherries.
The Concord was all concentrate. I used 4 quarts to get 6 gallons.
I sweetened a 1 gallon batch of raspberry (last year)with a cup of concentrate and it was really good, but the concentrate has a tendency to cloud the wine when adding after fermentation, but the raspberry was very dark and not as noticeable as a lighter wine.
I made a gallon of Cherry from Juicy Juice Cherry (last year)and added a cup of concentrate forflavorand it was very cloudy, but the taste was very good. Filtering helps quite a bit, but it is not crystal clear. I just drink it in a very dark room
