Notes on my wine/mead making (newbie)

[the_rayway]

Hi All,
Raelene from Winnipeg here - I'm so happy to be joining the site, so much fantastic information and great advice!

I've been thinking about making homemade wines/meads for over a decade and now and am pumped to be finally doing it.

I've posted a couple of tentative things on the site, and I hope that one day I will be able to contribute (instead of begging for help)

Currently working on:
Rhuberry Wead
Sour Apple Wine
Blueberry Wine (wow, is it ever slow to start!)

Ray

 

[robie]

Welcome to the forum. When a question is asked, feel free to contribute what you already know.

 

[the_rayway]

I guess I'll use this as a bit of a record of what I'm doing/have done (apologies if I bore anyone!) I'm using Terry Garey's book as a guideline for these recipes because she makes it seem simple, and I love her sense of humour.

Here are a couple of pics of what is currently on tap: Apple Wine, Wild Blueberry Wine, Rhuberry Mead, & Cellar Craft Amarone. The picture in the shot glass is the Rhuberry at first racking. My Apple may be going through spontaneous MLF, but I'm not totally sure...

I'm thinking to try a gallon of pear wine, I got 16-1 gallon jugs from a really nice lady in town so I feel rich in carboy space! Also planning to do an Orange Creamsicle Mead, and possibly a Caramel Apple Wine. Mmmmmmmm wine named after desserts

I'll post more as I go along!

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome aboard!!!

 

[the_rayway]

Woot! I hit the mini-jackpot this week!

Got the 'throw away' peaches from the farmer's market for .99/Lb so I've got 5 Lbs in the freezer prepped and ready to go, plus I found dead ripe raspberries and blackberries at the Sobey's cash & carry for $10/flat (5Lbs)! This is unheard of up here!

I only picked up a flat of each as I'm trying to mostly do 1 Gallon batches to start with this year with the country wines just in case I screw up. This means I can add a few more batches for this fall once my honey comes in!

My husband is starting to think I'm crazy...

 

[the_rayway]

So, we racked the Blueberry Wine last night and WOW. It tastes like heaven! I figured it would be all nasty and alcohol burn and green, but it was delicious!

It hasn't finished fermenting out the sugar - still at 1.008, but considering we started at just over 1.100 it's already at a good 12%. The blueberry is more subtle now and the colour is this amazing, vibrant, hot red. Makes my Malbec look brown

I think that this one is going to be a keeper! Definitely a yearly brew.

 

[robie]

So, we racked the Blueberry Wine last night and WOW. It tastes like heaven! I figured it would be all nasty and alcohol burn and green, but it was delicious!

It hasn't finished fermenting out the sugar - still at 1.008, but considering we started at just over 1.100 it's already at a good 12%. The blueberry is more subtle now and the colour is this amazing, vibrant, hot red. Makes my Malbec look brown

I think that this one is going to be a keeper! Definitely a yearly brew.

That's great. If you drink it very fast, you might consider making it more often that once a year, provided yu have a source for berries.

 

[Dend78]

AWESOME, there is something about Blueberry isnt there, i started super small and super rough on mine and it still turned out awesome, when i say rough no hydrometer, no plan to follow just went with my gut and still turned out really good.

you have some good looking carboys going there keep us updated!!

 

[the_rayway]

So my Rhubarb looks like it's finally done fermenting - whew! I thought it would never finish! It`s super-dry at .994, and has an ABV of about 14%. I beat the heck out of it yesterday with the drill to degas, and this morning added 2.5 very fresh Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans. My hope is that the vanilla will smooth out some of the very acidic rhubarb flavour.

I also added .5 of a bean to my apple wine. Cause I love apples and vanilla

If you love vanilla beans in your wine or mead, I found a fantastic place online to order from. I got a quarter pound of beans (came out to 29) of high grade Madagascar beans for $25 including shipping! It`s called the Vanilla Food Company and they have $7 shipping anywhere in Canada. Sure beats spending $7 for two shrivelled beans at the grocery store! These puppies will be headed into my Orange Creamsicle mead this fall as well.

Blueberry is perking along quite nicely and is down to 1.008 (from 1.100ish!), and we`ve got a Cellar Craft Sterling Cabernet that we just started. Gotta have stuff to drink while the fresh wine is on the make!

Also, on a different note, I just finished my 13th batch of canning for the summer - we are going to eat GOOD this winter! And the tomatoes are just starting to ripen!

 

[Julie]

Hi Raelene welcome to winemakingtalk

 

[the_rayway]

Thanks All!
Robie - They're frozen wild canadian berries, so I can get them all year round
Dend78 - I'm thinking that blueberries just taste so good in general that it's pretty hard to mess it up - how awesome is that!

So today my son is 3 months old, and I finally crushed all 45Lbs of my crabapples - whew - that's a workout. Gave me 2.5Gal of cider though, so well worth it

The juice is nice, not too acidic at about a .9 (finally got my acid test kit and think I did the test right), and has a nice light rose colour. S.G. is 1.050. Not too shabby! I'm thinking that I'm going to make it into 3x1gal batches once primary ferment is over, and play a little bit. One with spices, one with caramel, one with...something else...

Also, just got a call from my honey lady and the golden stuff is in! Still trying to decide how to divvy it up with everything I want to experiment with. I finally got Ken Schramm's book, so it's giving me some ideas for melomel additions in terms of amounts of fruit. I think I might have convinced my hubby that he should give a try to making a braggot out of some malt he has sitting around too.

I love fall!

 

[the_rayway]

I think this is my year! I signed up for a Fruit Share pick for grapes (concord, of course) along with three other people. My hope was that I would get enough for a one gallon batch of actual grape wine But then...I'm at the owner's house and snipping away and - NO ONE ELSE SHOWED UP!!! Mine! All mine!!!

I picked 60Lbs of grapes in an hour and a half (with baby there, I might add), and the homeowner didn't want her 1/3 share either! Wow! This means after I donated the 1/3 share to charity I had 40Lbs all to myself! I picked up a press and went to work.

I got 15 litres of juice, doing everything wrong and losing a lot because I threw out the skins without letting them drip. My garbage can was full of juice an hour later Still, this is good! S.G. was 1.086, but the acid was .8% My test kit says it should be .6% so I diluted and added some sugar to the 23Litre mark (6Gal US). Ended up with an S.G. of 1.096 and acid of .6% dead on.

Popped in the usual suspects and am waiting to pitch the yeast. What an exciting day!

My library is starting to look awfully full though...

 

[bover907]

Nice looking grapes, and BEAUTIFUL Baby! I'm only on my first batch, and know I'm going to get addicted to doing this, but Wow, you're busy! lol. Keep it up. I need to learn how to can.

 

[the_rayway]

Thanks Brian! I had no idea that this year was going to be THIS busy! What is your first batch? How's it coming along? Canning is easy, as long as you can set aside an hour or so - you have enough time to do a batch! The Bernardin website is a great resource

Yeast is pitched into the Concord grape must, temp was way lower than I wanted, so may need to pop on a heat belt to get it up a bit more. Temps have fallen quickly over the last few days with September rolling on. I'm resisting putting on the furnace because I love that feeling of being warm and toasty under your blankets with a cold nose!

I think the crab apple is about ready to transfer to carboys, just need to decide on what spices and in what amounts to add them.

Does anyone know a good brand name of label you can print at home that comes off nicely? I've got all these designs for my wine, but don't want to print them on regular Averys because they are heck to get off!

 

[bover907]

First batch is concord, but mine's from welch's concentrate, lol. I wanted to go on the cheap the first time around, just to get the process down, and in case I screw it up.

 

[the_rayway]

I had only planned to do a couple of batches since it is my first year too...then I got all of this fruit!! My canning cupboard is full already, so it's all going to wine. In a couple of years I am going to have a heck of a starter wine cellar! Lol!

 

[the_rayway]

Here are a couple of pictures on my wine progress (left to right, front to back):

Turbo yeast started in pail (hopefully for cooking vanilla & light liqueurs...first time trying it)
Concord grape wine,
White Zinfandel (For a friend),
Apple Wine,
3x Crab Apple wines: one caramel vanilla, one spiced, one for top up,
Blueberry Wine
Rhuberry Mead
CC Sterling Cabernet
CC Sterling Amarone

The shot glasses are the Apple and Rhuberry (together), and Blueberry Wine. I also tossed in a picture of my canning cupboard, which is beautifully full right now. All I have left for canning should be more tomatoes I've already got 3 batches of salsa (note the yellow tomato + habanero pepper Nuclear Salsa), and one of ketchup.
______________________
Soon (hopefully) to start:
Chocolate Orange Port
Orange Creamsicle Mead
Raspberry Mead
Blackberry Mead
Pear Wine
Peach-Sunflower Mead

I'm almost embarrassed to let people into the library these days, it feels a little...excessive? (obsessive?)...? I can't help it though! It's so much fun! I may need to start investing in more of the 3 gallon carboys though - all six of those soon-to-be batches will be 3 gals each

I'll have to start staggering these so I can be busy all winter - and drinking by spring!

 

[GreginND]

Time for bigger facilities! Looks great!

By the way, if you ever get down to Fargo, let me know. I've got plenty here for tasting.

 

[the_rayway]

Thanks for the invite GreginND!
Love Fargo will let you know the next time we're in the area!

We tested the s.g. of our blueberry last night, down to 1.000. We racked it and drank the sample. The taste has become VERY earthy. Don't know if this is normal, or is because we used Bentonite in the last racking to help with clearing. Hopefully it will decrease significantly over the next little while. A bit concerned that we might have diluted this one a bit too much as well as we have mostly topped up with water. Thinking about an F-pack, or finding a few bottles of pure blueberry juice to help out...when to add?

We also cracked open a 1/2 bottle of my Apple Tatin Port we bottled just before Luther was born (3ish months ago). INCREDIBLE. It has smoothed out so much, the apple is now starting to really meld with the caramel/toffee flavours. And the colour! Pure sparkling amber. I'll post a picture next time we have a glass (tonight?); have to finish the bottle of course Has anyone else made this port?

 

[the_rayway]

So it`s been a busy little while for us here, and not just with wine making! I can`t seem to get a moments peace or space (or sleep) for anything...

We managed to filter and bottle out Cabernet & Amarone. Funnily enough, the Amarone test bottle tasted much less green than the Cab. We had thought it would be almost un-drinkable for a year or so! My girlfriend also finished her White Zin - which again turned out beautifully. I think I`m starting to be spoiled with this one.

My library was starting to look a little empty, so during Luther`s nap the other day, I decided to start my very first `traditional`mead. Which I plan to flavour later. After reading up on this for about a decade, I thought I had the process well in hand. And then:

a) I put the bucket into a pot on the stove to melt it slightly - ended up melting the bottom out of the bucket and literally threw the honey at the fermenting pail before it all drained out the bottom into the water. Honey water splashed all over the kitchen;
b) I added too much water and watered the s.g. down too much;
c) pitched my D-47 yeast when the temp was around 95 degrees F.

Turns out that maybe making mead when you`ve been up for over 72 hours is not the best idea?

Even with all of that, it still was bubbling away when I came downstairs the next morning. Thank goodness I`ll have to feed it a bit more honey soon if I want it to finish a bit sweet I think. We`ll see. I`m actually a little afraid to touch it since it did so well without any real help from me.

I also started a `pail`of Mosto Italiano Riesling. Never made one of these before. It was a 23L bladder of juice in the pail with all the little bits to add in. It was on sale reg. price $110, for $70. Can`t really argue with that! We`ll see how it turns out - I added banana chips and elderflowers to it just to make it a bit more yummy. My girlfriend made a Riesling here from a box kit and it was really weak, can`t have that!

Wee Man just woke up - gotta fly! Will update more...later...