Watermelon Wine

[Ernest T Bass]

It smelled great when must, and even has a good smell now. It taste great also, back sweetened to 1.015. I was worried about the secondary fermentation, it is pretty hot in the shop where I do my wine thing, usually around 90 to 95 during the day and may get down to 80 at night. When it was fermenting in the secondary the carboy got a little warm and when I racked it, the wine even felt a little warm. But, I think it turned out great.

Semper Fi

 

[Runningwolf]

Looks really good Bud. Is the wine clear? It is hard to tell in the picture. I bet it is really good served cold and maybe even with a bit of tonic added to it.

 

[Ernest T Bass]

Filtering it cleared it a lot, but not as good as I would have like it. I started to run it thru the filter again and see if that would help. Also, in reading the post (it didn't say it out-right) but I have the feeling that if you ferment at as low of a temperature as you can, you get more flavor = True or False?

Semper Fi

 

[Zwetschgen]

Typically the colder you ferment the longer it takes, the longer it takes the more time the wine has to absorb flavors from the fruit/pulp, so in a round about way, yes, the colder you can have it ferment the more flavor it should have.
My watermelon wine came out to a yellowish color, did you add some food coloring to restore a more original look?
Also, you don't drink much JD do you?
I am semi-concerned about the amount of foam in some of your bottles... what is that about? Has it started to ferment again?

 

[Ernest T Bass]

Yes, I did add food coloring. It was about the color of lemon aid before. The foam was not in the carboy when I bottled, I think and hope it is from bottling. I bottled all but 2 with screw caps, I'll watch em a while, then loosen the caps and re-tighten em. The two with corks, I am sending to my sister in Prior, Ok.

Semper Fi

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

How long did this age? I didn't think it was that long ago that you started this batch. Good call on the coloring BTW.

 

[Ernest T Bass]

When does ageing start? After it went dry, I checked it for three days and no change. Then I racked it and added K-Meta and Sorbate and waited 24 hours. Back sweetened and added food coloring and filtered then bottled. Any and all comments are welcome, I need all the help I can get. I just don't want to wait 6 to 9 months. The wine is pretty clear and taste good to me.
Again, comments, good or bad welcome, especially the bad ones, they are the one that will help me.

Thanks

Semper Fi

 

[Runningwolf]

Bud your wine will only get better as it ages. I would think you would want to let it age after stabilizing for at least three months whether it is in the bottles or carboy. You'd get along fine with Troy up in North Pole, AK but he hasn't been on in a while.

Bottom line is, if you like it, drink it! Remember the 3P's though.

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

I would be a little concerned about more sediment settling in the bottles. Perhaps with watermelon wine there is not all that much to begin with.

 

[Julie]

Bud, when did you start this wine, it seems to me that you were just talking about starting a watermelon wine after Djrockinsteve had started on and I believe that was at the end of June?

Two weeks seems awfully fast to start, fement dry, clear, stabilize and then backsweeten a wine. What was your starting sg and what was your ending before backsweetening?

And those screw caps, those are the original ones that were on the JD bottles? You really need to see about wine bottles and corks.

 

[Runningwolf]

me thinking he's thirsty

 

[Ernest T Bass]

j

Julie, herz how it went. Understand, my shop is about 95 - 100* during the day and gets down to maybe 85* at nite. Stuff works fast at those temperatures.

6/25: Two large watermelons
Cut em up in about 1 inch squares and froze em, 6ea 1 gallon
zip lock bags
Later that evening I made my Yeast starter: 1 cup of warm water in
a quart fruit jar and added1 pack of red star premier cuvee and a
pinch of nutrient
6/28: Set watermelon out to thaw
Added 1 tsp of sugar to yeast starter
6/29: Yeast starter doing nothing
Divided batch up - now making 2ea, 3 gallon batches. Had to add
a quart of water to each batch to get em both to 3 gallons.
Added equal amount of watermelons to each bucket.
Mashed watermelon up real good with my hands
Added 1 pound of rasins to each bucket.
Added 3 pounds of strawberries to each batch, fresh and frozen
that I froze when I froze the watermelon.
This is when I found out how much must I had and added the
1 quart of water to each batch.
Added 3/8 tsp of k-meta to each batch
Put both matches in the grill, to keep the bugs out.
Threw out the yeast starter, it was doing nothing.
Started a new starter: Two starters, one for each batch
1 1/2 cups of warm water
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp yeast enigizer
1 pack of red star primier cuvee and covered with strainer
and left on bench.
SpGr of must: 1.030 on both batches
added 3 cups of sugar to each batch to get SpGr 1.070. done in
small steps using simple syrup.
Added 1/8 tsp tannin to each batch
Added 1/4 tsp bentonite to each batch
Added 1/8 tsp of tannin
About 10 pm the SpGr= 1.060
6/30 9 AM SpGr= 1.026
Transferred to carboy with air lock
Started with 6 gallons of must at SpGr 1.000 after transferring
Had a pint short of 5 gallons
7/1/ pH = lite blue
added 1/4 tsp of acid blend
pH = 3.2
Total Acid = .625
7/2 Racked to 4 gallon carboy, 1/2 gallon jug and 1/2 wine bottle
7/5 SpGr = .991
Racked
Added 1/2 tsp k-meta
Added 1 tsp sorbate
7/8 Using the wine caculator on web site - back sweetened with
1 1/2 pounds of sugar, I figured this would get me close to 1.015
to 1.020. Used simple syrup make with the watermelon wine
SpGr = 1.010
Racked all wine to 5 gallon carboy
Added 1/2 cup of sugar to carboy and stired good = 1.012
Added 1 cup of sugar to carboy and stired good = 1.016
7/9 Added super kleer as per directions
7/12 Racked - degassed - filtered and bottled - had 14 jack daniels and
2 wine bottles.

See, Julie it don't take long to make wine and it taste goooooood to.
just kidding, I know I rushed it, but since it fermented soo fast, I
just did things as they happened. I know I was lucky that it turned
out good. I'm going to let it age in the bottles for a while (maybe
a couple of weeks)

Thanks for all the feed back, I love to hear from all of ya'll, good and bad.

Semper Fi

 

[Ernest T Bass]

I just found out something else, it doesn't do any good to space thing out and group em together. When it post em, it's all run together.

Semper Fi

 

[SpoiledRotten]

I'm lauging out loud, Bud! You are so much like me. I really have to work on my patience. I'm thinking as long as I'm not entering it in a show, drink it up before it goes bad.

 

[Julie]

lol, Bud that is a freakin whirlwind. Your numbers do look pretty good, glad it worked out for you.

 

[bricklayer67]

I was wondering about the food coloring aspect; I am getting ready to finish a watermelon wine I've had in cold stabilization for 4 months now, and there is no pink left in the wine. Like you said, Bud, it looks like lemonade!

 

[Julie]

I was wondering about the food coloring aspect; I am getting ready to finish a watermelon wine I've had in cold stabilization for 4 months now, and there is no pink left in the wine. Like you said, Bud, it looks like lemonade!

I added strawberries to mine which gave it a strawberry/watermelon taste. It was very good and the strawberries gave it some good color.

While there are some on here who add food coloring, I do not encourage it. I know food coloring is considered safe, I still look at it as adding something that is artificial to your wine.

 

[bg7mm]

did mine also with strawberries and melon, 50/50 and we ended up with a nice color and flavor, process went abit longer before bottling

 

[Julie]

did mine also with strawberries and melon, 50/50 and we ended up with a nice color and flavor, process went abit longer before bottling

watermelon is not a fast wine to make, I always recommend at least one year before drinking.