Newcomer's Pineapple wine

[Espoir]

Newcomer's Pineapple wine (need some advice)

Hi all, been lurking around in the forums for a while finally put one step forward, and started making my first batch of wine.

4 lbs ripe pineapple
1-1/2 to 2 lbs granulated sugar
7 pts water
1/2 tsp acid blend
1 crushed Campden tablet
½ tsp pectic enzyme
¼ tsp tannin
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 pkt Champagne wine yeast
Bring water to boil and add sugar. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Meanwhile, remove the topknot (leaves) and skin of the pineapple, capturing any juice produced in the process. Cut the flesh away from the core and chop the flesh into small pieces. Again, collect all juice liberated by the cutting. Put in nylon straining bag and tie closed. Put bag in primary and crush with a piece of hardwood or a potato masher. Pour boiling water over fruit, cover, and set aside to cool. When at room temperature, stir in crushed Campden tablet, recover and set aside for 12 hours. Stir in pectic enzyme, tannin, acid blend, and yeast nutrient. Recover and set aside another 12 hours. Add activated yeast and ferment 7 days, stirring twice daily. Remove nylon straining bag and allow to drip drain without squeezing. Discard pulp and continue fermenting until specific gravity falls to 1.025. Rack into secondary and fit airlock. After two weeks, rack, top up and refit airlock. Repeat this procedure every 30 days until wine clears and no new sediments form over 30-day period. Stabilize and sweeten to taste. Wait 10 days and, if stable, rack into bottles. Age 6 months to a year before tasting. [Recipe adapted from Terry Garey's The Joy of Home Winemaking]

This project started on January 29,2012. A stupid thing I did, I forgot to add the campden tablet into the must, but still left the must for 12 hours anyways with all the other stuff.. Hopefully because I washed the container with a sodium metabisuplfite mixture and had abit of the solution left when I added the must... its still effective.. (wasnt completely air dry)

Now it has been almost 10 days since the primary fermentation started and this is what it looks like. Been stirring it everyday at least twice. Starting SG was 1.09 and yesterday I checked, it was a little less than 1. And I also did something extremely extremely stupid, wanted to facepalm myself into the wall . after stirring as usual I tasted the wine to make sure it didnt turn into vinegar, but when I decided to get a SG reading, I used the same spoon.. which had already went into my mouth...

Btw.. I am located in Indonesia, which is a constant 28-30 degrees celsius everyday, so I had the primary fermentation done in my room where there would still at least be air conditioned during night time around 9pm to 7am

Any suggestions people..? Really stupid things I did for my very first batch. Hopefully I will remember them for my next batch.. so my questions are..

1. Will my first mistake kill my wine?
2. Do I have to add more sugar now to get it to 1.025?
3. Should I shoot myself for using the same spoon

Many thanks =) Sorry for the long read. I attached the first photo which was taken after around 3 days of fermenting, had much more foam before that. The other one was taken after 8 days of fermentation.

 

[Turock]

Well, you didn't take a PH reading--this might be quite acidic. On fruit, you always need a PH reading because you usually have to adjust the acid. I never made pineapple, but I would think you wouldn't want to PH to be less than 3.2

Many winemakers don't use meta in the primary. I wouldn't worry about it. However, once it's in the carboy, you should add enough meta to dose it to 40-50 PPM.

Better get that headspace reduced or it's going to oxidize. You need to get it in smaller glassware, or add marbles to bring it up to the top. Get the plastic off it and get an airlock on it so it can degas as it ages. You need to buy a carboy that you can fit an airlock on. Or a couple gallon jugs.

The wine is probably pretty acidic--that will kill off any contamination. Just don't put the spoon in your mouth again before cleaning it.

 

[Arne]

Wait til your s.g. reading is the same for at least 3 days in a row, and it should be below 1.000. Then rack if off the lees, stabalize, and let it sit for a while. Then you can add the extra sugar. If you don't stabalize it it will probably take off again which will up the abv. Where you started it at, you should have enough alcohol and the pinapple flavor should still come thru. After it sits for a while when adding the sugar, I wouldn't try and get it up to1.025 all at once. Try adding some sugar and tasting til you get it where it is almost sweet enough. Then let it sit for a few days to make sure it doesn't referment, and you can bottle it. Again let it sit for a month or two or longer and it should really improve with a little age. Arne.

 

[Wade E]

What was the starting sg and what kind of yeast did you use? Are you trying to get more abv out of this hence trying to raise the sg to 1.025? Not sure what you are trying to achieve with that. Also, do you have potassium sorbate there so as to be ablke to sweeten this wine when done are do you want it dry or are you trying to poison the yeast with adding sugar so the wine will end up sweet but high in abv? Just trying to figure out what result you want from this.

 

[Espoir]

Firstly.. thanks everyone for taking a look at my wine. Greatly appreciated!

@Turock: Unfortunately, I do not have calcium carbonate, and its quite difficult to get it in Indonesia. So even if I have an excess in acidity I don't have a solution to fix it.. I will get it next when I do a bulk order from ebay from USA.

By the way, not to doubt your experience but after reading a couple of beginners books here and there, none of them actually says to add the meta during the secondary fermentation, from what I understood.. is that there will still be a fermentation going out, and meta will stop the fermentation..? Am I wrong? (P.S: whats PPM?)

And your solution about adding marbles.. thats genius.. never thought about that one.

@Arne: The SG is now slightly below 1.0 and it is already 10 days in the primary fermentation, so once the SG stabilises I will follow your advice and rack it into the secondary.

Also an unrelated question, if I were to age it in the secondary before bottling. Does that have the same effect as bottling followed by aging?
Difference being, there wouldnt be bottles lying around the house :X

@Wade E: I used the EC-118 and my starting SG is 1.09. The only reason why I am trying to get it to 1.025 is actually because it is written in the recipe from jackkeller website, no other reason besides that I actually dont have potassium sorbate, but I do have sodium meta..

For me, the most important thing is to have the fruity taste of the pineapple at the end, and maybe slightly sweet for the ladies.

Thanks all

 

[Wade E]

Sodium meta is to be used once fermentation is over as an antioxidant. It doesnt kill yeast, it stuns it and keeps bacteria at bay. I dont think adding more sugar is a good idea as mor abv hides the fruit flavor more and will also take more time to mellow out. The meta will not stop the fermentation by the way but it will stress it but I dont think its whast he meanyt by adding it later. You should get some potassium sorbate next time so as tat you can sweeten your wines back as that brings out the fruit much more. The only way for you top do this without the sorbate is by making enough alc or by adding enough alc so that fermentation can not happen anymore but that would be around 18% abv and that is way too high for this wine!!

 

[Espoir]

Sorry I double checked my meta, and I actually have potassium meta instead of sodium meta, I read online that it is pretty much the same thing but sodium meta is more desirable?

So I guess it is a good idea if I add say 1/16 of a teaspoon into my wine when racking into the secondary fermentor.

Thanks clarifying about the sugar level, was thinking if I should stick to the recipe and go for 1.025. Next time I will get the potassium sorbate, didnt know it was a needed step, by the way, should it be added to all fruit wines or just this one in particular?

Thanks fellas, gonna make a rambutan or banana wine after this one. hehe

 

[Wade E]

Actually potassium meta is preffered is no one needs any more sodium intake in their life and some people say that they can taste the sodium. The sorbate is added to any wine you ant to sweeten. What it does is prevents the yeast cells from reproducing. You use it along with the meta after fermentation is done but before sweetening so that you can sweeten a wine where he yeast has finiehed eating all the sugar in a wine but has not reached the point where it is poisoned by the high alc. Each type of yeast has a different tolerance or pointthat it will rwach where it just cant ferment any further due to abv and EC1118 ia about 18% and most fruit wines are much better ariund 12% and IMO are typically better sweetened a little.

 

[Turock]

Yes--K meta is what we use. You need to protect the wine from oxidation so meta is a good way to prevent spoilage from all causes. You didn't do it pre-ferment, so look at the directions on the packet and put in enough to get about 40 PPM(parts per million.)

When you go to bottle it, if you add sugar for sweetness, you must use sorbate and a little more meta. It's been said that sorbate doesn't like to work as well without a meta addition. The sorbate keeps the yeast from re-fermenting because when you add sugar, you are adding more food for the yeast. So they start fermenting again. You don't want that when bottling because you blow the corks.

Let this settle out and clear in a carboy with an airlock--degas if you need to. Wine retains the CO2 from the fermenting process for a time. If you allow it to sit in a carboy for 6-7 months, all the CO2 comes out on its own. If you want to bottle earlier than that, degas by vigorous stirring. Do it several times until you see no more bubbles. Might want to let it sit for a day, come back and stir again until no more CO2 is left. Blowing corks is NOT fun.

 

[Arne]

You can leave your wine in bulk to age, you can bottle it and let it age. If you bulk age it longer, more fines tend to settle out of it. THen when you bottle it you do not stand as big a chance of having sediment in your bottles. If you get to drinking it out of the carboy, make sure you keep it topped up. When done aging, you can get it into bottles so you don't wine up with a bunch of headspace while you are drinking it. Arne.

 

[Espoir]

@Wade E, so do you mean for me to get a alcohol percent of 12 percent, should I add the sorbate before my SG reaches 1 i.e. maybe around 1.025? Or should I have reduced the amount of sugar I had in the must and backsweeten? When you say "after fermentation is done" you mean after the secondary fermentation or the primary?

@Turock, if I would like to have a sparkling kind of wine, with some bubbles in the wine when being served would it be a good idea not to degas the wine?

http://www.muliaindustrindo.com/gcont_product.htm

this is the glass bottles I am intending to get in a local supplier, screw cap glass bottles, too difficult to find corks in Indonesia anyways haha!

@Arne, alright I will do bulk aging then, I would rather not have dozens of bottles in the house aging seperately hehe.

by the way guys I have a couple of questions if you do not mind.

1. I was having a discussion with my dad, about whether or not it is a good idea to keep the wine in the basement (higher temperature ~ 30 celsius) or to keep it in my room where it could at least still have some airconditioned cool air at night. His argument is due to the temperature fluctuations the wine could turn out worse. Is that true?

2. Do fruit wines age the same way as grape wines? I.e. the longer the better, such as maybe more than 20 years. Or is it optimum at say 2 years?

3. I am also using a PET water gallon for my secondary fermentation, cause its impossible to find glass carboys here, I heard about some of the problems such as oxidation, is it a good idea if I were to wrap the sides of my PET bottle with cling wrap to reduce oxidation?

4. I am a little worried about wine poisoning..

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=734590&publicationSubCategoryId=200

How would I know if the wine I give out to my friends or family is safe? Or is it as long as I do not play with poisonous substances? (Not sure if this is a bacteria contamination or an intentional chemical contamination). Does this happen?

sorry for the long post..

 

[Turock]

Yes, fizzy wines can be nice to drink. If you want it that way, then don't degas and as soon as it's clear see how it tastes. Clearing it will allow the extra yeast to fall out so you don't have a yeasty tasting wine.

You can't change the alcohol level now, unless you add vodka or Everclear. What was the SG when you stated? You want to test your SG in the beginning, then add enough sugar to get the brix around a potential alcohol content that you're shooting for. Turn your hydrometer, and you'll see the brix scale, then the alcohol in % scale. Some people like a fruit wine with only 10%. That's fine, but you have to drink those wines early because they don't store well. For wines you want to store and age a few years, get the alcohol up around 12.5%

Storing it in the air conditioned space is much better, so your dad is correct.

Fruit wines don't age as well as some grape wines. Even SOME grape wines, like the ones we work with which are concord and Niagara, don't age as well as some of the complex Calif grapes. We make a lot of fruit wine and I would say the max for most of them is 2 years. They lose some of their great fruit flavor as they age.

I've heard people complain about plastic carboys, and air intrusion but I really don't know how they handle it. I would say that once the wine is aged and clear, it would time to get it in bottles and not do long-term storage in them. Even a grape wine could be bottled after 9 months.

Don't worry about poisoning anyone. The acids in wine really keep everything at bay. If you taste it--and it tastes good--you're not going to kill yourself. Even some infections in wine won't kill you--they won't taste good, but you'll still live!

Back in the days of prohibition here in the USA, the backwoods people would build stills using anything they found---even radiators and contaminated copper tubing from any source. That's how a lot of people died--plus the alcohol content was so high that I suppose some died from alcohol poisoning!!! Rest easy--no one is going to die from homemade wine.

 

[Espoir]

My initial SG is 1.09. So if I want a alcohol of 10 percent, I should add just enough sugar to 10 percent.

I just managed to buy some potassium sorbate locally, thinking if I should add it now, during the secondary fermentation to sweeten the wine. Or should I do it after the wine has cleared?

Thanks dude! I feel safer with the wine now haha.

 

[Rocky]

Espoir, if your initial SG is 1.090, you could expect an ABV of about 11.8% so I don't think you will need to add sugar. Do not add the potassium sorbate at this point. It will inhibit the growth of yeast cells and slow or stop the fermentation. I only add K-sorbate after the wine has completed fermentation, is clear and I am ready to bottle.

 

[Espoir]

Sorry guys, a set of questions..

1. The 1 kg bag of potassium sorbate which I bought, should I perhaps separate it into 2 or 3 smaller bags and seal it in some way, so I can use it for more than 6 months? By the way, how do I know if the potassium sorbate is no longer fit for use?

2. I have just racked it into my secondary, and fitted an airlock, the problem is I believe there is only approximately 8 litres of wine and the only secondary fermentator I have is a 11 litre carboy. I have bought some marbles and gonna add it in. Do you think I will have some problems if the wine will be 30 percent marbles in it?

3. For my airlock, I do not hear any bubbling sounds.. I read it in the forums a couple of times that people actually hear this bubbling. But I do see the water in the S-shape airlock moving back and forth slowly from one tube to the other. Sometimes the left side is higher, and sometimes the right side is higher. If this is unclear.. I will get some pictures to show =) Is it normal that I dont hear anything?

 

[Turock]

Yep--very normal not to hear it bubbling.

We keep our sorbate in a glass jar with a screw cap--seems to hold it longer than in a bag.

The marbles will present no problem for you. I would normally say to get some smaller jugs and put the batch in them, but it seems that it's hard for you to find proper containers and corks. So yes--sanitize the marbles first in some meta water, then add as many as you need to get the space filled up.

 

[Flem]

The difference in the level of the water in your S-shaped airlock can be due to changes in temperature and/or barometric pressure. It's very normal.