waiting

[Nubz]

for my first ever batch of wine to finish in about a week or so
been fermenting for 3 weeks now
tasted it yesterday and its awful sweet
i know now that i had put too much sugar in with the apple juice but getting better from the last time i tasted it(too soon to tell maybe i dont know)

made it from what a lot of people would call hillbilly style lol

concentrated juice,bakers yeast,sugar of course and, a little water to top it off

anyway
after it is finished fermenting and is ready to bottle for storage
what is the idea of waiting to drink it besides the wine clearing

does this finish off the process or do we age it for the taste

 

[Wade E]

Every wine made will improve with age, some more then others. If it still has residual sugars left in it then I advise you to make sure its done fermenting by checking a few days in a row with hydrometer to make sure sure its stable and then add sulfites and sorbate to prevent any renewed fermentation or you will have popping corks or even worse exploding bottles.

 

[Madriver Wines]

Wade is right you are a couple months from bottling. Apple seems to need more aging than many other fruit wines. It is all a matter of taste and if ya like it drink it I say.
Steve
PS I am sure Troy will back me up on the last statement.

 

[Sacalait]

Bakers yeast does not have the same alcohol tolerance as does wine yeast. If it is too sweet for your taste you could make a yeast starter using Lalvin 1118 which would convert the sweetness to alcohol.

 

[Tom]

Nubz,
Do you have a hydrometer? This is one of the most important tools to have. You need to get a starting gravity reading. Then you can then tell how the fermentation is going by taking additional readings.

 

[Nubz]

not too worried about bottling it since only a half gallon survived lol(dont ask lets just say my shed stinks from dropping the other one) when this is done it will probably get drank quickly

ty wade for answering my question

i used the yeast i had easy access to to try out making wine yes i know wine yeast is better for making wine

no i don't have a hydrometer yes i plan on getting one bfor i do anything else

last but not least ty all for the replys

 

[St Allie]

hiya Nubz,

the comment made earlier about the bakers yeast tolerance, means that the alcohol will kill the yeast at an early stage.. some wine yeasts will go to over 15% ( too high for a fruit wine) a bakers yeast may make 5-7% depending on what you are using .. and a brewers yeast might make 8%.. a cider yeast can make 11% ( these are approximates to give you some idea)

usually a fruit wine to be kept cellared for up to a year or more, needs to have an alcohol level of about 11-12% for good storage.

Allie

 

[Nubz]

its still fermenting regardless of using the wrong yeast(which yes i know you are correct im not trying to argue the point) so with any luck it will be fine
like i said it was just an experiment so im not going to be upset if it doesnt go right it was so cheap to do it i dont care
anyway it go me interested in the hobby and i plan on doing it right the next time

 

[Tom]

Nubz
Look at produce stores or even big farmers markets for fruit.
Today I scored Strawberries at 50 cents a pound. Now my problem is I really did not need them as I have 3 different strawberry blended ines going now. I just cut them, sliced and froze them for "later". I may also use my steam juicer on them.

 

[Nubz]

strawberry wine does sound good
only question i have is does it retain that nice strawberry flavor when it is finished

thank you all again for being so helpful
i have always wanted to my my own drinks and a still sounds like so much more work and more risk of a big bang lol

 

[Tom]

strawberry wine does sound good
only question i have is does it retain that nice strawberry flavor when it is finished

thank you all again for being so helpful
i have always wanted to my my own drinks and a still sounds like so much more work and more risk of a big bang lol

Yes and no.
Berry wines need backsweetening and f-pac's. I did this to last years Peach and I went a little strong and now it tastes like drinking pure Peach with a kick! .. Hmm.... good!

 

[Tom]

Here is a good book to download FREE
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3394&highlight=Books
Look at 1st message

 

[hunter8]

what is back sweetening and f packs?

 

[Wade E]

Back sweetening is the act of adding sweetness to a finished wine if you dont like dry wines(ones with very little or no residual sugar) You do this by making a simple syrup which consists of 1 part boiling water and 2 parts sugar added to that water to dissolve and then let it cool. Once cool you can add it to your wine if you have added both sulfites and sorbate to prevent re newed fermentation and add the syrup slowly and taste very frequently as to not over sweeten your wine. The F-pac is what some of us do to sweeten a wine and add lots of flavor that fermentation can strip a wine of or just because we want an intense flavor profile. What you do is take approximately 1/3 the amount of fruit you used to make your wine and freeze it and then thaw it and simmer in a pot with very minimal water to extract all the juices and add a little sugar to enhance the flavor and sweetness. Once cool strain the fruit and very gently squeeze out fruit and add to your wine till taste is where you want it, it really makes a medal winning wine.

 

[Tom]

Very well put Wade.
Just got 96#'s of Blueberry,
70#'s Strawberry
30# Blackberry
Hmm GEE I wonder what to do......???
Oh yea FREEZE them !

 

[Nubz]

hmm that peach sounds so good tom

great info for me on the F-pac wade
sounds like something i would do since i would make a wine from certain fruits for the flavor of the fruit

 

[Wade E]

thats what we do and just won 1st place with Black currant wine. You can also do the f-pac with a store bought juice by just buying some decent juice and reducing it down by simmering n a pot on the stove to reduce it by about 1/3rd until its thicker and sweeter by condensing it, Ive done this many times with wines that I just couldnt get the fruit cause of out of season or the fruit is too expensive.

 

[Luc]

its still fermenting regardless of using the wrong yeast

I think I am the only one on this forum that has actually made a lot of wines using bakers yeast. And do not worry: it can be done.

When using good winemaking practices (sanitation, sugar calculation, nutrients, acid measurements etc etc etc) a good wine can be made using bakers yeast:

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2008/05/klaar-voor-de-zomer-ready-for-summer.html

and this one:

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2008/12/sinterklaaswijn-santa-claus-wine.html

I have had bakers yeast fermenting up to 14% without any problem.

A lot of people made wine when they were in their teens. They had no information on winemaking and just used some juice and sugar and let it ferment with bakers yeast. Now without practicing good winemaking behavior there is likely something to go wrong. That is why bakers yeast has a bad name.
And I am sure that if they had used 'wine-yeast' the same things would have gone wrong. And likely then the wine-yeast would have gotten a bad name.
Do not blame it on the yeast, blame it on the bad practices.

Remember that until home brew shops came along nobody actually had wine-yeasts and nevertheless they were making good wines. The entire book of (for example) CJ Berry is based on using bakers yeast.

Luc

 

[Nubz]

ty for the input Luc
also i do enjoy reading your blog there is a lot of interesting info there

using yahoo's babel fish and translating this article http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2008/05/klaar-voor-de-zomer-ready-for-summer.html was a nightmare to understand however unfortunately

 

[Madriver Wines]

Luc and Wade have a huge amount of experience and are both willing to help anytine you need it. I tried the f-pac for my strawberry and I think I ut too much in. It has a very strong strawberry flavor. Not that that is a bad thing but litttle more boost than it needed I believe. Go slow and taste-taste-taste to get it just right.
Madriver wino