proud papa

[winointraining]

Till last nite I wasn't sure of my wine making skills. Now I have verification , I got 3 people drunk last nite!!!!!!!I'm so happy !!!!!!! It worked, it worked!!!!!!!!! ITS ALIVE!!!!!!!!

 

[GEM]

OK, but how did the wine taste?

 

[winointraining]

They said it was very good , I got drunk too and I though it was excellent. One wanted to buy it so I guess that's a good thing. Even had one curb crawl home. Need to check for hangovers.

 

[jswordy]

Congratulations! For last night, you were 2 people ahead of me.


Tonight, though, there will be 6 of us...

 

[jswordy]

Need to check for hangovers.

That's good to do, because wine can be made that is nearly hangover proof. The byproducts of fermentation cause more headaches than the ethyl alcohol. So next-day head-pounders means you need to experiment with primary fermentation to try to limit the byproducts. The list of byproducts is loooooong, but the goal of tailoring your primary to eliminate them is simple and the headaches or lack of them are the best test.

 

[bakervinyard]

Congratulations winointraining, nice job!!! I also feel giddy. I went to my sisters house yesterday and brought a couple bottles of my Island Mist peach chardonnay. My "wine snob" brother in law says he doesn't drink homemade wine. Well let me tell you he drank a bottle by himself. I had tweaked the kit with extra sugar upfront. Bakervinyard

 

[winointraining]

Hey Hey no headaches. I messed up and done it right. No headache just woke up nekkid on the bed this am.

Js Thank you ! I been doing your supersugar method .

I don't know any wine snobs yet , wish I did , I'd try to trick them too

 

[jswordy]

It turned out there were seven of us at my friend's gathering and my wines were served exclusively. It seems no one had a hard time drinking them. There was none left.

Most exciting to me is that a guest's mother actually has a crabapple tree - a rarity in the South! So if all things go along as I hope, I will have crabapples for wine.

So winointraining, what has been your experience with the super-sugar Welch's? Though we drank mostly a second-pressing muscadine, we finished out with a bottle of that at the party.

 

[saramc]

Jim....did you happen to open your strawberry at this gathering? Or, have you opened one yet? I keep eyeballing it. Oh, my crabapple tree is loaded this year, fingers crossed that nothing happens to them because I am in serious want of my crabapple wine (like to blend with some with concord).

 

[winointraining]

Well I've mostly done welches with the supersugar , but did do a strawberry breeze with it and am doing a blackberry jam with it. Seems to work well with most everything I've tried to use it on. I like the sweet wines so it fits right into my plans. I mostly do just simple wines , juice, yeast, and sugar.

 

[jswordy]

Jim....did you happen to open your strawberry at this gathering? Or, have you opened one yet? I keep eyeballing it. Oh, my crabapple tree is loaded this year, fingers crossed that nothing happens to them because I am in serious want of my crabapple wine (like to blend with some with concord).

Nope, I opened strawberry at the last one and gave away several bottles. Let me know what you think. Most here have liked it, or at least said they did.

I am thinking to put the crabapples through a food processor, then use along with jugged apple juice just to add enough liquid between them. Then after it is all nice and settled, bottle and age it a year. Maybe half dry and half sweetened a bit.

It is exceedingly hard to find a crabapple tree this far South so I am hopeful I get some fruit. Heard so much about how those sour crabapples can really help the wine. Anxious to try it.

 

[jswordy]

Well I've mostly done welches with the supersugar , but did do a strawberry breeze with it and am doing a blackberry jam with it. Seems to work well with most everything I've tried to use it on. I like the sweet wines so it fits right into my plans. I mostly do just simple wines , juice, yeast, and sugar.

Thanks! I am always interested in feedback on the concept. Neat that you are using it with other fruits!

 

[winointraining]

the concept should work with any thing as long as its off dry , or a sweet wine , which is what I like. I'm new at this so every thing I do is kind of an experiment. I'm shooting for the old time wine that I used to steal a drink from, with the full body and mouthfeel. I'm told that that is just age so I'm trying to age some as I go along.

 

[jswordy]

the concept should work with any thing as long as its off dry , or a sweet wine , which is what I like. I'm new at this so every thing I do is kind of an experiment. I'm shooting for the old time wine that I used to steal a drink from, with the full body and mouthfeel. I'm told that that is just age so I'm trying to age some as I go along.

It's also the grapes used and the amount of sugar in the wine. Sugar alone will raise mouthfeel to unreal heights, if you can stand the sweetness at that level. The grapes used for the must or the juice that makes the must have tremendous effect on mouthfeel. Get some muscadines (I recommend Noble if you can find them) and make a first-pressing and second pressing wine. Use the old time recipe I posted here for the first pressing, and just add EC1118 to the pomace left from it to make the second pressing. Or let the pomace self-ferment the second batch.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f6/moonshiners-muscadine-37244/

Backsweeten both. The first pressing will have tons of mouthfeel. The second pressing serves well as a rose alone, or it is an excellent blending wine that will give mouthfeel to anything you want to make it. I blended most of it with blueberry juice concentrate, and OMG it is good.

 

[winointraining]

I need to find someone around here that has muscadines I been looking but its hard to find. I think I've hit every little veggie stand within 50 miles trying to find someome that is donna have grapes.Gonna look at a couple more vineyards up in ky next time we go see the son. lol I do know where to buy sugar around here, 50 lbs is only 14 and change at Costco.

 

[winointraining]

I remember your post on the muscadines .what did the corn meal and the potatoe add? Were they a neutrient for the yeast? Man I gotta get me some muscadines now.

 

[jswordy]

I remember your post on the muscadines .what did the corn meal and the potatoe add? Were they a neutrient for the yeast? Man I gotta get me some muscadines now.

The self-rising corn meal adds a nutrient and baking soda, which buffers the grapes. The potato is also nutrient. At least, that is what I surmised.

Check this vineyard list: http://www.tennesseewines.com/vineyards.htm

 

[winointraining]

muscadine grapes are hard to find, within a couple hours drive time.
got a question, is muscat a different varity than muscadine? what could be substituted for muscadine ?

 

[jswordy]

muscadine grapes are hard to find, within a couple hours drive time.
got a question, is muscat a different varity than muscadine? what could be substituted for muscadine ?

Muscat is different.

I used to think muscadines were hard to find in my area, too. Looked about a year, then suddenly I am awash in vineyards offering them. I have three excellent choices within 15 miles of home, and one guy who grows tons of them but will not allow picking. The birds get his. Still working on him.

If you will check Craigslist using the term "muscadine," beginning in very late August and through September, I will be flabbergasted if you do not find listings for several close enough options to pick your own.

Nashville to Taft is 1 hour, 32 minutes, Google says. There is a vineyard with great muscadines in Taft that I picked from last year. Award-winning winemaker owns it, too. I met him through the county fair. Last year he also posted to the Huntsville CL for people to come and pick.

 

[winointraining]

Taft would be closer then the vineyards I been finding. from what I'm finding ky is a little north for muscadines. I was wanting to find something along I65 and just roll the whole thing into seeing the kids weekend.
if you could , keep me posted on the harvest dates. what do they cost? I'll try to find them on the net. one thing about it , I'm finding a bunch of vineyards, even found one that lets you use their crusher destemmer.