Strawberry/Blueberry Wine

[AWelch]

1st shot at this and at least I'm hitting the target, I hope. I have no scale. So here goes.
1/18/13:
3- 1 gal bags Fz Strawberries(we grew last yr)
1- 1 gal bag Fz Blueberries(we grew last yr)
parceled out into Ninja and pulsed a few times to get a mush and put into nylon bag.
As directed on tannin, bentonite, yst nut., campden tabs, yst energizer, and water, I think I missed counted on amt..
1/19/13: 15-lbs sugar, and Lalvin 1118. sg 1.080
1/21/13: forgot pectic enzyme. Better late than never.
1/23/13: sg 1.034
1/24/13: sg 1.012. Transfered to secondary and 1 milk jug.

While in primary stirred 5-6x/day and squeezed bag with big plastic spoon to the side of primary. Afraid to stick hands in and squeeze manually. (only because I'm a disable RN, and I don't care how much you scrub and wash your hands, there is still critters under your nails. Titrating a heating pad at first, but off by 3rd day and keeping >/=78*. This thing has been ginning since day one. Numbers, I think, are spot on. Juice very dense and rolling in carboy.

Constructive criticism encouraged!

...here's to the future!
Anthony Welch

 

[galen1]

Very good on want you have posted so far. Don't worry about what is under your nails or you will drive yourself crazy doing this stuff. I would have squeeze manually to get every bit of flavor out. Your ec 1118 was a good choice. Keep it cool or it will blast through the fermentation. The pectic enzyme will help clear down the road. Strawberry is really dirty. Good job.

 

[AWelch]

1/28/13- four days since transferred to secondary. Fermented like crazy until yesterday. Checked sg today and is above the 0.998 mark, but not to where the hydrometer is completely sunk. I have not seen this discussed before, ?suggestions as to what is going on and what I need to do.

Anthony

 

[novalou]

1/28/13- four days since transferred to secondary. Fermented like crazy until yesterday. Checked sg today and is above the 0.998 mark, but not to where the hydrometer is completely sunk. I have not seen this discussed before, ?suggestions as to what is going on and what I need to do.

Anthony

All you have to do is wait. Pretty easy! It sometimes takes weeks for the last few points on the hydrometer to go down.

 

[AWelch]

sg 0.0898 -0.0896 if the scale could go down that far. Tasted and smelled from thief, sour, but not rotten egg odor. Racked to clean carboy, because reading some past thread on other fruit wines were confusing. Some say leave on lees, others say lees are more or less "rotting" and imparting off flavors. So just decided to rack off of lees and let set a month and retaste it. But should I add K sorbate, K meta, and Sparkaloid or wait before bottling?

Anthony

 

[novalou]

sg 0.0898 -0.0896 if the scale could go down that far. Tasted and smelled from thief, sour, but not rotten egg odor. Racked to clean carboy, because reading some past thread on other fruit wines were confusing. Some say leave on lees, others say lees are more or less "rotting" and imparting off flavors. So just decided to rack off of lees and let set a month and retaste it. But should I add K sorbate, K meta, and Sparkaloid or wait before bottling?

Anthony

You can add k meta now. It should clear on its own in a month or so.

Always a good idea to rack off the lees.

 

[Redskins]

Getting ready to start some fruit wine and was wondering how people stir every day. Do you keep a bucket of sanitize solution next to it so you can stir with spoon and put back into sanitize bucket? If your stirring that much and often i would think you are sanitizing the spoon each time right?

 

[novalou]

Getting ready to start some fruit wine and was wondering how people stir every day. Do you keep a bucket of sanitize solution next to it so you can stir with spoon and put back into sanitize bucket? If your stirring that much and often i would think you are sanitizing the spoon each time right?

Yep, premixed sanitizer is the way to go. Be sure to rinse the juice off your spoon before you put it back in the sanitizer.

 

[wineforfun]

Getting ready to start some fruit wine and was wondering how people stir every day. Do you keep a bucket of sanitize solution next to it so you can stir with spoon and put back into sanitize bucket? If your stirring that much and often i would think you are sanitizing the spoon each time right?

I just rinse my plastic spoon I use to stir with, under very hot water and let it drip dry. So far this has worked fine for me.

 

[Sammyk]

I leave my spoon in the bucket and the bucket is covered with a heavy bath towel. Sanitized the spoon at the beginning....

 

[AWelch]

I stirred and mashed the fruit bag 4-6 times a day. For a week I scalded the spoon w/hot water. When my order of StarSan came in I made a spray btle and 1 gal jug of it. Did a search to find the ratios. Now I spray the spoon down. Wine is now racked into carboy as stated above. Very clear, but smells sour. Gonna' let set for a couple of months and check again. I have a batch of SP now going and I stir it 4-5 times a day and it is foaming and fermenting like the wine, but I have no cap on it. I think because there was no fruit used. Numbers are spot on. Had a friend tell me when I was a kid, "If you can read and follow directions, you can go and do anything in this world."