ok so i got tired of waiting for some alchohol, so i used a straw as a wine thief, and tried a bit of peach medley. it tasted like a regular store bought wine, so i figured it was ready. since i jumped into this, i knew i wanted a sweet to semi-sweet wine, but had nothing more than: juice, yeast and some balloons. no campden. no hydrometer. so i racked it into a sauce pan, brought it up to 155*, and i saw more activity from the mix. i let it sit on the fire, watching the temp. as it cooled back to 140, off the fire, i saw what appeared to be 'swimmers' leaving wakes of bubbles. i figured the yeast wasn't dead. so i put it back on and slowly took it up to 180*. while cooling the wine, i saw maybe one 'swimmer', which was stationary. there were some bubble strands floating up top. so when the wine reached 140, i racked into a clean bottle, sweetened, shook, and shoved in the freezer. i shoved it in the freezer to make sure the yeast go dormant/die. when it gets cold enough, and clears, (hasn't cleared yet), i will rack again. it smells like peach cobbler, or slightly bad peaches. i've read that yeast die at 120 and above. and that they go dormant at around 50. without having campden, should this process work?
stopping fermentation
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This is a huge amount of effort in lieu of a very inexpensive ingredient. And adequate sulfite levels are not noticeable and are still much less than a commercial wine. No offense, but you are half-assing it. If it is as good as you say it is, I would imagine you would want to give it every chance possible to age to perfection.
Sulfite, sorbate, set it and forget it.
Sulfite, sorbate, set it and forget it.
SarahRides
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I agree! By cooking it like that you may also be cooking off the alcohol as well, lowering your abv.
Not to mention that cooking it will make you loose much of the flavor!!! You eithyer have to learn much much patience or find another hobby, wine needs at least 4 months and that my friend is almost always wayyyyyyyyyyyyy to early!!!
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I agree with the others. Cooking a wine is a sure way to ruin it. If you want peach juice, just drink peach juice. You will drive off the alcohol and ruin the tastes.
i agree, i need to be more patient. i agree, i read that by overheating the mix, it could loose flavor. joea, if you refer to the lack of expense of campden tabs, yes, i agree they are cheap enough. my problem is acquiring some. as to half assing it, if i can make a wine that tastes good to me, gets me a bit tipsy, i'm good. if i can do it faster, even better. this recipe is said to be ready to drink in a week. i hate false advertising. i chose this recipe because it is a 'lazy man's" recipe. the guys around here let the natural yeast floating about get at their juice. if we want to talk about lazy, that is pretty lazy. however, why overcomplicate things? this was started 3 days prior to my pomegranate debacle. so this would be a week. i will test at room temp, to see how much flavor was lost. thanks again.
close enough to room temp, so i poured off a little. regular wines, to me are like beer. in that they taste awful until i've had a few. since heating and sweetening with a half cup of sugar, the bitterness is gone, though it has a slightly watered down taste, i dare say that the bitterness being gone may be contributing to the slightly watered down taste. it is drinkable, but it may also be that the abv is lower which took away the bite.
winekits4beginners
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agreed on the point that you are cooking off all the alcohol
ok, so if i don't want a wine that tastes like wine, but more like juice with a decent alchohol content, what way do i go? do i buy vodka and mix it with juice? btw, i'm aware of re-introducing yeast to the mix to bring up the alchohol, but will this make things better or worse? also, i'd like to get some of the original taste juice taste back. do i pour off some of the 'product' and refill with juice or top off with juice? will this get the flavor i'm looking for?
woodsxdragon
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look into making schnapps if you want something like that. do fruit infusions with vodka or some other nuetral spirit. it will take out the flavor. then add some sugar/glycerin to it to smooth it out. you can do vodka infusions in like a week where as wine is going to take months. or if you just want fruit flavored alcohol just go buy some flavored concentrate and mix it.
JasonH
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If you want to make a wine that tastes like juice, make a concentrate wine and then sweeten it after fermentation with the same concentrate you made the wine with. You will not be drinking it in a week, but atleast you might end up with what you want.
closetwine
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Just to point out the obvious... you should never try to stop an active ferment...
thanks. don't you stop a port? i think that's the one i read about. and if you only want so much abv, don't you stop it where you want it? nevermind, i was just reading some older posts. btw, my yeast is not dead, i cracked the cap on one of mine, and it blew out air.
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closetwine
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Nope, never stop one. use a hydrometer and get the sright SG from the get go. Then sorbate, and backsweeten until you get cavities!
And there's the dangers of trying to stop a ferment... FYI BOTTLE BOMBS!
Yes.......
doesn't adding the 2 p's stop fermentation? i did read about using less tolerant yeasts to get a certain ac. question on back sweetening: do you dissolve the sugar in a bit of water or wine? or pour it straight in? my experience with sugar is that it doesn't readily dissolve at room temp.
I would never try to stop a fermentation. There is only one way and I can guarantee you don't have the right stuff. I would always let it go to finish then back sweeten with simple syrup or similar substance.
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I am assuming you mean potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate. Those are k-meta and k-sorbate. The k is the elemental symbol for potassium, not p- that is phosphorous.
In answer to your question- no they do not stop a fementation. If you can stun the yeast with cold or alcohol, then the k-meta helps the yeast from working. The sorbate keeps yeast from multiplying, but not continuing their conversion of sugars to alcohol. Do not count on either to stop a fermentation. It is safest to go to dry stabilize with the two k's and then backsweeten.
I have stopped fermentation before by chilling the wine when it was about at the sg I desired. I then sulfited to a good level of free S02. I had left 2% residual sugar. I let the wine clear and maintained a protective level of S02. I then filtered to 1 micron with a whole house filter. After that I ran it throug a .45 micron filter to get the yeast out that might be left. It is stable and still maintains the 2% RS. My point is that it takes quite a bit of effort to get a good stable wine with residual sugars in it. It is much easier to let go dry, stabilize and then backsweeten.
n-p-k...
so, to hasten the evolution, add double or triple the yeast? if so more headspace will be needed, and the airlock or whatever that utilizes a tube coming from the fermentation vessel to a bucket of water will likely need to be used. correct? since i am new to this, why does wine take so long to become good? is it a release of something or a garnering of something else?
so, to hasten the evolution, add double or triple the yeast? if so more headspace will be needed, and the airlock or whatever that utilizes a tube coming from the fermentation vessel to a bucket of water will likely need to be used. correct? since i am new to this, why does wine take so long to become good? is it a release of something or a garnering of something else?
