Notes on my wine/mead making (newbie)

[the_rayway]

Thanks Deezil!

The empty glass smells like an apple liqueur, all vanilla, oak, sweet and tart.
Dangerous is right.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Congrats Ray! One thing to look into is if you are going to let it do MLF they say that the bacteria can eat the sorbate and give your cider a geranium smell, I have never smelled that one before, just backsweetened, sulfited and fined and filtered (non sterile) and put in beer capper bottles in case that wasnt enough stabalizing. So did you use crabs, were they also bitter or just sour? WVMJ

Schnellert Family Apple Wine
This wine was started in July of 2012 - my very first straight up 'Country Wine', made from the most sour apples I have ever come across. It was a 1 Gallon Batch, fermented in the old family farm's cider jug.

I cracked this open, nicely chilled today and was immensely surprised and impressed. It has a nice cider nose - all apple. Taste is smooth, buttery, a hint of spiced rum and vanilla. It tastes very similar to a nice off-dry white, but far nicer than most I've tried. This stuff is SMOOTH! Light-medium body, and golden colour.

This is a fantastic success for me - my first country wine that I went in nearly blind with tastes like something I would spend a good $15-$20 (Canadian) for in the store.

This firms up my belief that it did go through a spontaneous MLF like I mentioned somewhere in my first post in this thread.

Recipe - 1 Gallon
Primary:
2 Lbs, 2 oz White sugar
4 Lbs very sour apples, chopped
1/2 a rum-soaked vanilla bean
1/4 tsp Tannin
1 Tsp Yeast Nutrient
1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1 Campden Tab
EC-1118 Yeast
Water to 1 Gal
_______________
Secondary additions:
8.6.12 1/2 Lb white sugar
2 cups apple juice from original apples
Top up with water
9.1.12 1/2 Vanilla bean, Madagascar Bourbon
10.23.12 1/4 tsp pectic enzyme
11.13.12 Campden tab
12.31.12 2 part fining agent
7.1.13 Filtered and Backsweetened with sugar to 1.012, bottled

Looking at this now, I realize I never sorbated the wine before sweetening. There is no indication of any bottle fermentation, so a year must have been enough time with finers and filtering to be 'safe'. Won't repeat that oversight again though! Also, you can tell it was during the beginning of my wine-making career as there is a lot of fussing near the beginning.

At this point, I would say that I wouldn't change a thing about it. And I hope I can hit up the folks who's apples I picked for another picking this year!

 

[the_rayway]

Hey Jack!
I used regular apples, but they were bitter and sour. I think the owner called us in too early on that tree by about a week or so. I tried using some for applesauce, and it needed a LOT of brown sugar to make it edible. The kids hated it, and they love applesauce like nothing else.

Never heard that before about the MLF - interesting though, I'll look into it for future reference!

How`s the cider coming along?

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

We already drank a lot of our cider we made this season, more waiting to be bottled but garden and orchard need our time first, we do more of a cyser style vs just cider, I like the body the honey gives and boosting the alcohol a little make it more stable. We also made a Goldrush varietal, put it through MLF to knock down some of the acid, still waiting to see if that worked. We are switching to 22 ounce beer bottles for ciders now, put them in a box, put a label on the box and not on the bottle or on the cap so we dont have to keep scraping and cleaning cider bottles. Do you know what kind of apple you made your cider from? Jack

 

[the_rayway]

Hey Jack, I like the idea of a cyser. Mine really is more of a wine than a cider as it's sitting around the 13% mark Totally by accident of course.

I haven't a clue as to the type of apple unfortunately. We have so many apple trees in Winnipeg that are very well established many of the owners have no idea as to the type. It is the most-grown fruit in the city as far as we can tell. Kind of like Peaches in Kelowna. I once asked my neighbour what type of tree his was and he replied "crab apple". He's in his 70's and the tree was planted before he was born. His mother who is in her 90's also has no idea what type it is.

Wish I could get the crabs and apples from my Great-Granny's place. We loved those little sours like crazy when I was growing up. Helped feed 5 generations of my family too!

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Ray, is the apple tree still there or is it to far away? If its still alive grafting is pretty easy. WVMJ

 

[the_rayway]

It's still out there, but I've no more room to do an apple. However, my sister in law is looking to plant some trees...I'll chat with her. Thanks for the great idea!

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Do you guys already have an apple tree? You can graft over onto a small rootstock like a B9 or P2, something that only gets like 8 feet tall or less. They can be pruned like a peach tree to keep them smaller and keep all the branches in reach in theory. WVMJ

 

[the_rayway]

Actually, my neighbors have apple trees - I used up the little space I had on 2 Apricot trees. My yard is perfect for them, and they are much harder to come by here than apples

I may have to just pray to the Gods of Fermentation for a good variety and a special picking each year for my ciders/wines. Part of the excitement is the experimenting, yes?

 

[the_rayway]

Just bottled both my Pure Pear Mead, and my Lilac Mead.

Lilac Mead: started July 2013, bottled Aug 2014. 1 US Gal = 5 bottles with a bit to spare. I added nothing to this come bottling time. S.G. is .999 and it's dry. Colour is dark golden with hints of pink in certain lights. Smell is floral. First sip is spicy, balanced with acid and dryness. If you roll it on your tongue it has a lingering honey taste. Still a bit green, but it's 13% so I can give it time to age. This is my first ever dry wine or mead that I have bottled. It reminds me of a dry Gewurtz, or a spicy Sauv. Blanc. Both are ok by me. I'm actually surprised at how much I do like it considering that I'm not a dry white drinker.

Pear Mead - started July 2013, bottled Aug 2014 1/2 gal US, yield 2x750 + 1x375. I sweetened this one with a bit of sugar to 1.010, and added a touch of acid blend. Colour is light gold. I find it still to be quite harsh, but with some potential once it smooths out. You can just taste the pear and vanilla, but there is still a lot of green taste which boots most of that out the door. I plan to crack the split bottle next summer and see how it's going. This one ended up at 11%, so I'm not sure how long I'm ok to age it for. A year or two for sure.

 

[the_rayway]

Here are a couple of pics of the Lilac. You can see the hint of pink in the one shot. It was the last of the bucket, so there's a fair amount of sediment floating about

 

[the_rayway]

Right, so I keep this thread super up to date

I popped the cork on my Raving Raspberry Mead today. It's nearly two and a half years old now. Colour is still really beautiful, hot pink! The flavours have developed a lot since I last cracked a bottle: the fruit has brightened up considerably and really shines. The bitterness that was present before is entirely gone and it has a nice honey aftertaste. Drinking it is like having a handful of fresh raspberries picked right off the bushes.

Acid and sweetness are in balance, and it feels fresh and perfectly tart-sweet in you mouth.

It's brought back to me (yet again) just how much ageing pulls a wine/mead together. It also gets me excited all over again about my mead making!!
Cheers!
Raelene

 

[the_rayway]

As usual, I kind of suck at keeping this all together

I've got a bunch of my WOTM wines/meads/ports ageing in the basement, and it's time to get them bottled!

Banana Bochet Port
Apricot Port
Apricot Blackberry Mead
Dark Berry Wine
Traditional Mead with Oak
Grapefruit Wine
Summer Strawberry Wine
Franken Mead
Franken Port

I'm going to say that all have benefited from my 'absence' over the last year or so...I will try very hard to post as I go along.

Cheers,
Ray