Raspberry Wine Started

[montyfox]

I had a great crop of raspberries this year from my garden, soooooo.


I didn't quite have enough to make more than 1 gallon since I like to eat a few as well. I am following Terry Garey's recipe in the book "The Joy of Home Winemaking."


I did use 4 1/2 pounds of raspberries and the starting S.G. was 1.085. I also used Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast, which I added on 8-22.


The color looks great and it is bubbling away nicely.

This is my first attempt at making a wine from scratch. I've made several from kits and decided to give this a try. I sure hope it turns out as well as I've heard.


More pics to follow after I rack it.Edited by: montyfox

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Looks great, good choice on the yeast in my opinion. You'll be through a gallon in no time, I'm sure next years crop will go more toward the wine effort!

 

[Wade E]

That should be a great wine there.

 

[Waldo]

looks mighty good

 

[pkcook]

Hey Montyfox,


The wine looks great! Raspberry is my favoritefruit wine.

 

[montyfox]

I have a question for all you fruit wine experts out there. At what S.G. do you remove the bag from the fermentation bucket?


I started out at 1.085 and will check the S.G. tomorrow as it will be exactly one week since I added the yeast. Do you wait until 0or do you remove it after a week regardless?


Also, how many of you squeeze the bag upon removing verses just letting it drip? I'm guessing that this depends on the fruit. My instinct with raspberries is telling me not to squeeze as this will release the smaller particles into the wine.


I'm really excited about this one. It smells great!

 

[Wade E]

i take the fruit out after 7-10 days depending on temps, if it is winter and the temps are low then Ill go 10 days or close but if its summer and warm temps then Ill pull the fruit sock out faster to prevent spoilage. As far as squeezing I almost always squeeze unless its a very fibrous fruit like banana and would just squish out through the pours of the bag. Raspberry I definitely would get all the juices out by squeezing and have many times . I just did a Crab apple and wish I didnt squeeze that 1 as much as I did as I have tons of sediment to rack off of but its just another racking so all will be well.

 

[montyfox]

It's been 8 days and I checked the S.G. this morning. It came out at 1.000, so I transferred to a glass carboy. The color looks good and it smells great!

I actually had enough to bottle 1 gallon carboy and 1 half gallon carboy. The half gallon has a ton of sediment in it and I think I'll only get about 750ml out of it. That's ok with me as that's one more bottle than I was expecting.

 

[Aaronh]

Looken pretty good

.

 

[Wade E]

You will still have to rack both of these so might end up with a full 1 gallon after all is said and done and thats the way most do it. Start with more and not have to worry what to top off with later.

 

[univity]

Looks very yummy! I like the red color.

 

[joeswine]

what did you do with the mash in the bag ,didn,t through it out ,did you?

 

[montyfox]

As a matter of fact, I dumped it in my compost bin. I'm guessing by the way you phrased your question that I've make a grave error and now need to hear from the voice of experience.

 

[joeswine]

next time take that mash and place it into a sauce pan warm it up,cook it a ,a little ,add a little simple syrup to it ,then take it off the heat and use a fine mesh chiefs strainer and press the mash through it,until theres nothing but a compose left,what your left with in the bowl is pure raspberry puree add some sorbate to it and either freeze it to add back to your wine later or add to your wine in secondary fermentation adds such depth in body and flavor................won two golds with fresh raspberries that way ..........................







http://www.sweetim.com/s.asp?im=gen&ref=12

 

[montyfox]

I bow to the master and wish I would have known sooner. However, next year I'll be ready. Is this something that you do with all your fruit wines (peach, blueberry, strawberry)? Sounds like it would greatly improve them.

 

[Wade E]

As a recipient of Joe's raspberry wine I will say it works and works VERY GOOD!

 

[grapeman]

I need to comment on Wade's new Avatar! A kitten recently followed my son Rick home in the middle of the night.He loves to do exactly like the cat in the Avatar. We get up to a house full of shredded toilet paper!

 

[Wade E]

I have a black cat called Toby that does this very thing and my daughter found that avatar and showed it to me so I had to change it. We have to keep the bathroom doors pulled to so we dont end up with this mess constantly.

 

[ehlenrg]

I'm far from an expert but I rack from the primary in 6-9 days. Mostly dependent upon what else is going on in my life. I'd like to hear about the end result because I'm planning to try fresh fruit next time.

My last raspberry was from a Vintner's Harvest can of fruit using the 3 gallon recipe on the label. It has a slightly metallic taste that is gradually going away. It's been in the bottle about 12 months now. Each one I open seems a bite better. I also blended some 50/50 with cranberry and that seems to mask the metallic taste.

 

[Wade E]

Havent seen you in awhile Dr.Bob. Ive noticed that taste once or twice myself and wondered if it was from being in that can too long as Ive never noticed a canned date or expiration date on the can. I can say that the taste has gone away on every batch but I do sweeten my fruit wines back also so that would mask it also.