CC's not so fine WINE diary

[CrealCritter]

What to do during the presidential debate? Well de-stem 15 lbs of ripe persimmons of course. I put 3 lbs in a gallon baggie and mushed them good. Then put 5 gallon baggies in the freezer to freeze solid. Freezing fruit ruptures the cell walls of the pulp, creates more juice but more importantly makes it easier for the wine yeast to ravage. Only use ripe mushy persimmons, If you can pull the stem off easy, it's ripe. Kind of interested to see what color the wine will turn out to be.

More to follow...

 

[wyoDreamer]

I'm really interested in this wine. Persimmon was an ingredient in one of the few wines that I liked, but the winery stopped making it.

 

[CrealCritter]

I'm really interested in this wine. Persimmon was an ingredient in one of the few wines that I liked, but the winery stopped making it.

I made up the must tonight (finished around 9:00 PM, for my reference). I have to wait 24 hours to pitch the yeast. This gives the Campden (sanitizer) time to gas off so it won't kill the yeast when I pitch it. It's what sanitizers do, kill stuff. I think it will turn out to be a light peach color but we'll see. I plan on trying to sprout the persimmion seeds. Everything I've read says they need to pass through and animal first or be fermented. Well I'm fermenting them

Hit my starting gravity. I still remember 1lb of table sugar added to 5 gallons raises the gravity by .010. I was pretty amazed how much natural sugar there was in these persimmions. They we're 1.020 all by themselves in 5 gallons of water, no wonder people call them deer candy. I only needed to add 6lbs of sugar to hit 1.080. easy smeazy...

 

[CrealCritter]

Time for ignition

 

[CrealCritter]

Opps forgot to stir it last night. Looks like orange sherbet and kind of tastes like it also. I added 1 TableSpoon of pectic enzyme to help bust up the pulp and.stirred it in well.
Covered and back to a bubble through the airlock about once every 5 seconds.

 

[CrealCritter]

Starting gravity was 1.080, now ~ 1.050, this wine is now about 4% Alcohol By Volume. So it's producing about 1% alcohol per day. That's a pretty good fermentation rate for wine. It tastes good, but still pretty sweet. I'll check it's gravity again in a few more days.

 

[CrealCritter]

Wild persimmion wine is dropping about .010 gravity every day. That's a really good fermentation rate. I would like it finish right around 1.000, it should be close Wednesday.

 

[CrealCritter]

About 1.015 now or around 8.8% ABV. I'll most likely pull the bag tomorrow and rack it into a clean and sterile carboy. Even with the crushed persimmions in the bag there is still a lot of pulp and stuff floating around. I might get 3 to 4 gallons. We'll see

 

[CrealCritter]

Pulled the bag and checked the gravity it's about 1.002, just short of 5 gallons. I'll kill off the yeast tomorrow with potassium sorbate and sterilize it again with Campden tablets and then rack it into a clean and sterile 3 gallon carboy and 1 gallon jug. The wine is interesting, it has a unique flavor profile at 1.002 It's also sweet tasting, which is a total surprise. It does have the taste of both plums and peaches with a hint of pumpkin spice. If I don't mess it up it might turn out to be be a pretty good wine when it's finished. Right now it's 10.6% ABV.

Pics

Bag pull, i'm going to pick out the good seeds and try and start some saplings.

Gravity

Just shy of 5 gallons, I'll try and rack 4 gallons of clearer wine out of the center. Hopefully get 4 gallons.

Overall impression... it was a easy problem free ferment. Pretty pulpy but that's to be expected. So far I would most definitely suggest this for a beginning wine maker.

 

[CrealCritter]

Racked 4 gallons over potassium sorbate and Campden. I guess it'll turn out like a white wine. Look at me all fancy and susiticated <--- can't even spell the word right.