CC's not so fine WINE diary

[CrealCritter]

Finished Persimmon Wine.

It finished at 10.6% ABV so it's a little strong. I think if I were going to make it again I would kill off the yeast at about 1.010 on the hydrometer leave a little natural sweetness and a little less alcohol. I probably will back sweeten this a little bit with white table sugar. I'll sample a few different gravities and see what it tastes like then.

On the front end it tastes like liquid persimmon, if you ever eat a persimmon then that's what it tastes like. But it smells like a very mild orange juice and it's kind of like a mild orange sherbet aftertaste that lingers long in-between sips. I'm kind of taken back by the orange sherbet after taste. That was not anticipated at all. This is most definitely a dinner wine and not a stand alone drinking or desert wine at all. I think it would pair well with chinese food. Maybe something like sweet and sour chicken, orange chicken or shrimp fried rice. I'll have to try it and see. I'm still surprised by it's citrus characteristics though.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[Hinotori]

Helps to have a nice backup record of what you did as well.

 

[CrealCritter]

Blueberry Montrachet 1097 - started 23 June 2019

Its a rainy day what else is a guy to do but raid the wife's canning shelf, for something to make wine out of. What's this? 5 quarts of blueberry juice from 2015. Actually is more like blueberries in light syrup - nice!

Next step find a legit recipe ---> http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques38.asp jackkeller recipes are legit.

Next step heat up some distilled water to make at least 3 1/2 gallons of must. Then wash and sterilize the tops of the canning jars. I need to figure our how much juice I have and its gravity. Open and separate juice from blueberries through a fine strainer into a clean, sterilized gallon pitcher. Juice is a little less than a gallon and sitting @ 1.032 or a little north or 4% alcohol by volume potential.

To the pot I added a little more than 3 1/2 gallons of water and heated just to warm. I calculated I need about 7 lbs of sugar to bring the the juice and 3 1/2 gallons of water to a starting gravity of 1.090. So I poured the blueberry juice in one if my ferment buckets along with a little over 3 1/2 gallons of warm water. Then I measured out 7 lbs of sugar and stirred it in real well. I took a gravity reading and determined that, darn I can still do math. 1.092 is close enough for government work

A little under 4 1/2 gallons of must

Next I added the chemicals as per the recipe and stirred in real well.

And fitted my fermentation bag over the bucket and emptied all those delicious blueberries into the bag. I lifted the bag and squeezed the blueberries inside the bag to mash them a little. Then I re-fitted the bag over the bucket, fitted the lid and set in with the other two wine I have fermenting. I'll pitch a Montrachet yeast starter about 1:00 pm tomorrow to give the requred 24 hours time for campden to gas off.
Easy smeezy... Blueberry Montrachet 1092

Well after I was done making the must, my wife said, you know since your wanting to make wine and all let's go through the canning shelf and see what we can find and toss the old stuff. My wife found another quart of blueberry juice from the same batch. So I dumped that into the fermenter. It most likely thew my gravity off, but I can adjust that when I get ready to pitch the yeast. Anyways that brings me closer to 4 1/2 gallons. But... We found some canned peaches, which should be enough for 4 gallons anyways

24 June - I pulled the fermentation bag and squeezed out as much liquid as I could. Then I took the starting gravity reading 1.093 or about 12.5% alcohol potential. Stirred in red star Montrachet yeast started, covered and air locked the fermentation bucket. Hopefully this will turn out to be a nice bodied violet colored wine.

25 June gravity 1091 approx .25% alcohol by volume produced so far. Nightly gravity reading at stir.

Notes: very slow to start. I've read blueberry is one of the hardest fruit wines to get started. I'll check again tomorrow evening before I get to concerned about though.

26 June gravity 1091 approx .25% alcohol by volume produced so far. Nightly gravity reading at stir. It died

I added 1 gallon of purified drinking water to drop the starting gravity & dillute the must with hopes of getting this blueberry must fermenting. I also poured the must into a clean sanitized bucket and back again twice to oxygenate the must. I will need to add 1lb 8 oz of sugar once it's fermenting strongly to bring the starting gravity back to the original. I also made a yeast starter with 2 cups of must, 2 cups distilled water, two teaspoons sugar and a pinch of yeast nutrient. My plan is to add 2 more cups of must to the starter for 2 days then add the 1/2 gallon yeast starter into the now 5 1/2 gallons of blueberry must. Blueberry is the hardest to get fermenting out of all wines. I'm such a glutton for punishment... But nothing ventured nothing gained. Its a opportunity to learn new things and if I can't figure it out there's always the drain.

1.082 gravity after addition of 1 gallon of water.

Yeast starter

27 June morning notes: I awoke this morning to find both the yeast starter and must in the fermentation bucket aggressively fermenting. Looks like adding 1 gallon of water and oxygenating the must got it started finally \o/ . I went ahead and added the yeast starter anyways, since it won't hurt anything. I'll let it ramp up a few days and then add 1 lb 5 oz of sugar to get the starting gravity back up to around 1.092. Finally got it started, horray \o/

27 June gravity 1.072 for reference only

Continued to Part 2 (10 picture limit per post)

 

[CrealCritter]

Cranberry Premier Blanc 1096 part 2

28 June Two gallons Cranberry racked pictured on the right side.

02 July it's interesting to note the amount of lees (sediment) in the bottom of the 1 gallon jugs after just 4 days of racking. There is a tremendous amount in comparison to the other berry wines racked so far. I'm sure to loose a good quart out of these two gallons and perhaps a good quart out of the 3 gallon carboy at second racking.

05 July - this batch has been blowing multiple bubbles through the air lock on the secondary about every 3 to 5 seconds since I racked it. Then I had noticed it just stopped dead in its tracks. I uncovered the carboy to discover just a few bubbles floating to the top of the neck and I noticed the wine level dropped about an inch from where I filled the carboy. I turned off the lights in the room and shined a flash light through the glass and it lit up like a peach colored lantern, meaning its clearing out.

I thought to myself... Nah it can't be done fermenting already. After all the troubles I had getting it to stay fermenting, I thought it has stopped again. Only one way to find out... the hydrometer never lies. Sure enough, the gravity is .992 or 14.1% alcohol by volume. it's just about done only .002 points left to go.

Wow I am totally amazed... I though this batch would take at least 30 to 45 days to finish fermenting in the secondary. Wine yeast are amazingly interesting bacteria and deserve some respect. 7 days in the secondary and only .002 hydrometer gravity points left to go, to be fully fermented, I'm floored.

.992 approx 14.1% alcohol by volume

Next will come racking again in the next few days to get the wine off the lees so it won't produce off flavors. Add Campden Tablets & Potassium Sorbate to stop the yeast from multiplying any further, when I back sweeten and cold crash to cause the yeast drop out of suspension and settle on the bottom of the carboy. Then rack into my bottling bucket, back sweeten to taste and bottle. I didn't expect to be here with this batch for at least a month to a month and half.

07 July - gravity of gallon jugs .992 & .994 approx 14.1 & 14% alcohol by volume produced so far. It's very close to completing fermentation.

It's turned a pretty pink color and taste dry as a bone. It will be interesting to see what color it will become once it clears out all the way. This batch of cranberry continues to surprise me how fast it's coming along. It sure gave me fits trying to get it to ferment though.

12 July - second racking, I hope this will be the last racking but probably not. 2 1 gallon jugs and a 3 gallon carboy to rack off the lees. I hope this batch will make a nice light Rosé. If so, I have 9 more lbs of dried cranberries left or enough for about 10 more gallons of wine. I want to see how this batch turns out first though.
Before racking

Racked all three into a sterile fermentation bucket with 5 campden tablets and took a Final Gravity reading of .992 so that makes this batch 14.06% alcohol by volume (ABV) great job yeasties . I can attest to its ABV also as I taste tested it and its pretty strong.

I then poured as much lees from the carboy and jugs into a clean and sterile 1/2 gallon mason jar. I'll set this in the refrigerator and it will clear so I can use the clear wine on top of the lees to top off for the next racking if needed. I cleaned and sterilized both gallon jugs and 3 gallon carboy and racked the wine back into those and topped with distilled water. Its so pretty looking now and honestly, I like the way it tastes right now, very dry, tangy, alcoholy and you can taste the cranberries after you swallow. But I doubt my ladies will like it this dry. Looks a lot better off the nasty lees. Now it's more waiting for it to clear more, how long? IDK... There's a lot of waiting when making wine, that's for sure.
After racking

16 July - little sneak preview of what color this cranberry wine will finish at. If you see the 1/2 jar on the right in the picture above. Here is how it cleared in the refrigerator in just 4 days. They call this method of clearing cold crashing.

Same batch of cranberry wine. Gallon jug kept at room temperature 1/2 gallon canning jar of lees cold crashed 4 days.

Continued to part 3 (10 picture per post limit).

 

[CrealCritter]

Blueberry Montrachet 1097 part 2

28 June gravity 1064 reference only.

Addition of 1lb 5 oz sugar. I had to pour the sugar in slow. As you can see the yeast are hungry, they are sugar addicts the must fizzed up so much, I though it was going to over flow the bucket but thankfully it didn't.

Gravity after fizzing subsided from sugar addition 1072 approx 2.64% alcohol by volume produced so far.

Notes finally ferment is active / I need to go back and calculate to make sure the starting gravity is still valid after the addition of 1 gallon of water and 1lb 5oz of sugar

29 June gravity 1065 - approx 4% alcohol by volume produced so far, nightly stir.

Notes: validated the starting gravity is now 1.097 ferment seems to be active, with multiple bubbles every 3 seconds through the air lock. Smell is wonderful, taste is tangy sweet. I'll have to see how the hydrometer readings go over the next few days. The hydrometer does not lie.

30 June gravity 1060 - approx 4.7% alcohol by volume produced so far, nightly stir.

01 July gravity 1052 approx 5.7% alcohol by volume produced so far, nightly stir.

Notes: A gain of 1% alcohol by volume in 24 hours is good enough for me, I'll take it. I'm very happy its finally fermenting steady now.

02 July - gravity 1044 approx 6.8% alcohol by volume produced so far, nightly stir.

Notes: A gain of 1.1% alcohol by volume in approx 24 hours, that's pretty good. The way this stands now it'll be ready to rack in to secondary tomorrow evening, because the gravity will be below 1040. So, should I roll the dice and increase the starting gravity by adding more sugar, thereby producing more alcohol? or... should I let it be at 13.02% alcohol? I reckon it's decision time...

03 July - gravity 1040 approx 7.4% alcohol by volume produced so far, nightly stir.

Notes: after taste testing, I decided to go ahead and not add anymore sugar. I also decided to go ahead and rack into secondary. I racked through a length of copper pipe as this batch produced a little sulfur gas early on. The fermentation bucket produced 6 gallons plus a little more for the wife, as she loves it. She even volunteered to help rack, but I think that may have been her earlier taste tests talking .

5 gallon glass carboy, added 2 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient and topped off with a little less than a pint of distilled water. I would have had plenty to fill this carboy if my wife wouldn't have drank so much of it. Big mistake... Don't let the wife sample wine before its done I'll have to figure out how much sugar to add back in to make up for a pint of water.

1 gallon glass jug, added 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, Blueberry Montrachet is on the right is. Don't all those gallon jugs of fermenting berry wines look pretty?

Continued to Part 3 (10 pictures per post limit).

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Can't wait to hear how your berry wines turn out!

 

[CrealCritter]

Next up will be watermelon wine.

 

[Mini Horses]

But hey she's smiling, laughing and all happy now. Happy wife, happy life

So true! And yours was made with love.


The making of these spirits takes a lot of "watching"

FEM & I like the put in a bottle under sink style. BUT the taste of what you do. We live way too far apart to share! Guess I'll stick with what I get from demos. Less choice but, some good wine. No love.

 

[CrealCritter]

So true! And yours was made with love.


The making of these spirits takes a lot of "watching"

FEM & I like the put in a bottle under sink style. BUT the taste of what you do. We live way too far apart to share! Guess I'll stick with what I get from demos. Less choice but, some good wine. No love.

I'm just a wine making learner... I learn best by doing and making mistakes.

I can say making wine is a lot easier than making beer, but it takes more time and is a lot more hands on. Stirring the top 1/2 of the must twice a day, once in the morning and evening. The hardest part so far for me, is trying to determine how to tweak the must to keep the yeast happy and healthy. The hydrometer is the best "tool" and I would consider it mandatory at least for me it is.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It may not be perfectly clear yet - but what a rainbow of goodness to come! So much potential there, lol!