November 2013 Wine of the Month Club

[Jericurl]

Elmer,

Did you use the solid chocolate or the powder form?
Just curious.
I used powder and it was quite a bit more than what you added.
I'm wondering if I could have gotten away with using less.

 

[Jericurl]

Ok,

November is winding down and I'm still stuffed from all the food we ate yesterday.

Time to start gathering your thoughts about if you learned anything ref winemaking this month, something that went really well for you, and if you would have done anything differently.

 

[Stressbaby]

No changes for me.
I've got my December wine ready to go...

 

[the_rayway]

November

What went well: this wine was super easy, fermented well, and has great taste. Creating a recipe and actually following the plan makes things go a lot smoother.

What could have gone better: I should have made a bigger batch, and done it last year - so it would be ready to give away as Christmas prezzies this year. (hindsight: 20/20)

What I learned: never underestimate the pectin in apples. Always add a bit extra pectic enzyme to assist with preventing pectin hazes.

 

[Elmer]

Elmer, Did you use the solid chocolate or the powder form? Just curious. I used powder and it was quite a bit more than what you added. I'm wondering if I could have gotten away with using less.

I used powder.
I decided to use more than one of the recipe structures I was following suggested.
It has a heck of a strong chocolate smell. & flavor!

 

[Jericurl]

What went well: Making a plan and sticking with it.

What could have gone better: Making sure I had ALL of the supplies before I started. I thought I was covered, but didn't have a stopper to fit a 1 gallon jug. I had Manthing tinker around with the original packaging that the cranberry juice came in and he was able to make a temporary barrier using the lid, a grommet, and an airlock. It is all PET plastic so it should work until I get my new jugs/stoppers next week. It'll be about time to rack it again anyway.

What I would have done differently: I don't regret using habanero pepper in the wine, but I think I should have gone ahead and used the whole pepper instead of taking out half of it. I can't taste any pepper in the wine now. Hopefully the flavor will pop up again after some aging. I also wonder if I should have made two gallons and put habanero in one and cayenne in the other.

Overall, I feel like it's going to be a good batch and will work out great. I do feel like it's going to take forever for the lees to drop out. Hopefully it will be ready for drinking in a years time.

 

[Stressbaby]

Let's try to remember to come back and update our wines on this thread.
Jeri, are you going to start a December thread?

Edited: I see that you already did.

 

[LoneStarLori]

Oh I feel so inept for not posting. These reports are looking good.
Can I get a Mulligan till Dec. 3rd? I haven't been able to tend mine for a week. Grandkids are time suckers.

 

[Jericurl]

No hurry Lori.

We aren't on any kind of a timeline here!

Enjoy those littles while you have em.

 

[Winenoob66]

Just a quick note on my sugar wash, it is moving so slowly its not even funny I hit it again with 5tsp nutrient and 2 1/2 energizer heated the room to 75 degrees and stirred it some to introduce some oxygen into it and still it is slowly going but at least it is a bubble every 10 seconds now instead of once a minute. More to come later.

 

[Stressbaby]

Winenoob,
Are you going to carbon filter it?

 

[LoneStarLori]

Yep, I'm still here. It's been a busy couple of weeks trying to get ready for Christmas. So much Amazon, so little time.
My strawberry chocolate is resting nicely. The color is beautify. This is a pic from when I reached it last week. It has gotten a little darker since then. The taste is very strawberry, and chocolate is upfront.

What went well: Being able to get all the ingredients in a reasonable time frame. The fun of smelling it in the process.

What could have gone better: Keeping better notes after the secondary. Lesson learned.

What I would have done differently: It seems that everything went pretty well as I expected. However, I think I may have racked it off the lees from the secondary too early. There was a lot of pulp floating on the top as well as some lees on the bottom after being in the secondary for ten days, so I racked it. That lost of a lot of the floating pulp which I later realized would have settled. I'm sure it took some flavor of the strawberries with it.

In conclusion; I plan to let this bulk age for the next 3 months, then rack again and bulk age some more. According to the recipe, it should be bulk aged for 9 months. I am looking forward to tasting again in 3 months, and again at each racking. I think this is going to be a good first attempt at a true country fruit wine.

this picture was taken at the second racking and is how it sits now. I love the color!

 

[Winenoob66]

Sorry Stressbaby I didn't see your post until now.

No I wasn't planning on filtering it at all, I was kinda going by a video I seen on youtube

heres the link for what I am following it is kinda long you can skip the math part if ya like on how many bottle he is going to need. I basically am just using the mix and going from there.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3nWUa4FkMw[/ame]

 

[Winenoob66]

Nice looking wine Lori
I hope it tastes as good as it looks I so want to try this as I am a avid strawberry lover and will eat about anything that has chocolate in it.

 

[kryptonitewine]

this picture was taken at the second racking and is how it sits now. I love the color!

Interesting. I made your recipe other than I used welch's concord. Mine still looks like a jug of chocolate milk.

 

[LoneStarLori]

Interesting. I made your recipe other than I used welch's concord. Mine still looks like a jug of chocolate milk.

It's not settling at all? What kind of chocolate did you use? Was it "dutch".

 

[kryptonitewine]

It's not settling at all? What kind of chocolate did you use? Was it "dutch".

I retread your post and you're farther along then me. I'm in secondary and it's still very slowly perking.

 

[Stressbaby]

Here is the November WotM, Lime-Ginger.
Starting to clear up a bit.
I have had to fine most of my citrus wines (usually with Isinglass) so I won't be surprised if this doesn't completely clear on its own.

 

[the_rayway]

How's the taste Stressbaby? I'm interested to see if it's as much like a margarita as it is in my head...

 

[Stressbaby]

Taste is very good for a young wine... more lime than ginger at this point. I haven't made lime from other limes but these Persian limes I grow make great wines.