CC's not so fine WINE diary

[CrealCritter]

It looks & sounds like my kind of drink! I may have to look harder at wine making! Waiting is the hardest part.

It does take a long time no doubt about that.

I've read wine made with grapes using natural yeast already present on the skins take a very long time...

Racked 1 week after starting
Racked 4 weeks after first racking
Racked every 3 months after that (three times)
For an estimated total of 10 months and 1 week before its even bottled. Then cellar aged minimum of 1 year before sampling.

I don't think I have that level of commitment for a grape wine. I'll stick with fruits and berries for now - thank you very much

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Don't rush a good thing! (course I have no idea what I'm talking about, lol) You've been doing good so far - continue on!

 

[CrealCritter]

Don't rush a good thing! (course I have no idea what I'm talking about, lol) You've been doing good so far - continue on!

Yep... Since i already stabilized with potassium sorbate, I decided to cold crash the strawberry wine in my mini brew refrigerator. it takes atleast a week to clear when you cold crash. To me it's already clear but then again I just want to be sure its as clear as possible. Once cold crashing is completed, I'll rack it again for the third time and allow it to sit at room temperature for at least a week then it should be ready back sweeten and bottle. Cold crashing won't hurt anything and will prevent wine diamonds from forming after being bottled and chilled, so cold crashing seems worth a try.

 

[CrealCritter]

Cranberry 1116 - 27 July 2019

After having to dump my last batch of cranberry down the drain due to a "flowers of wine" infection. I started another batch of cranberry this morning. Following the same Jack Keller recipe.

However, after telling my buddy at the homebrew store about my loss. He was surprised and asked me exactly what I did. After several minutes of Q&A we narrowed it down to something went wrong during the initial ferment. After a few more minutes of discussion, I believe we found the source. Which was the dried cranberries themselves. He told me when making wine with dried fruit you must "cook" the fruit to kill off any rouge bacteria. I did not know this... But a little more discussion yeilded some very interesting conversation about pasteurization. So that's exactly what I did.

I had already made up the must and was waiting for the 24 hour gas off period to pitch my yeast starter. But I got out two big stock pots and put the fermentation bag with 6 lbs of cranberries in one pot and enough juice to cover, the other pot was just juice. I heated both pots to 160 degrees and maintained the temperature for 15 minutes. Then cooled both pots in a large tub of cold water. Once both were cool to 80 degrees re-assembled must and fermentation bag back into a clean a sterile fermentation bucket and pitched the yeast starter. Its been about 4 hours and I already have fermentation starting.

I'm really glad I spoke to my buddy at the homebrew store. He's a cool guy and is always giving me solid advise. I set the gravity of this batch pretty high so I can stop fermentation and have some residual sugar left, since cranberries are very tart. This was another suggestion from my buddy.

Starting Gravity (SG) 1.116. I hope its smooth sailing from here on out.

31 July - recipe calls for stirring twice daily, but since i have a strong ferment happening, I haven't stirred at until this morning. The gravity has dropped to 1074 which is approx 5.3% alcohol by volume produced so far. 5.3% alcohol in 4 days is a healthy strong ferment.

 

[CrealCritter]

Here is the color of finished strawberry 1090 wine I started 31 May 2019. It's finished and a golden color. Since this finished fermenting at a gravity of .990 or approx 13.5% (ABV) Alcohol By Volume. I back sweetened with 4 ounces of table sugar to bring the gravity to appox 1.000. This will put it on the high side of a dry wine.

My wife helped me rack this last night. I told her that my buddy at the home brew store told me it would finish yellow and that a drop or two of red food coloring is standard MO for strawberry wine. She NO, food coloring is just gross. I agreed and told her that I had already told my buddy that whatever color it finishes at will be the color it remains.

There's nothing left to do now but taste test and possibility back sweeten a little more then bottle and age. I believe I'll get 10 or 11 standard 750ml bottles from this batch but I'm in no hurry to bottle this wine.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh man.… that's sucky! Sorry it was a fail.

 

[CrealCritter]

But... At least my blackberry wine came out if cold crash refrigeration clear You win some, you loose some - that's what makes it deliciously interesting.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Pour some in a glass - I want to see if it is Pale Ruby or Pale Purple in color...

 

[CrealCritter]

Pour some in a glass - I want to see if it is Pale Ruby or Pale Purple in color...

I think maybe more of a salmon or pink at this point. It's very young, hasn't even been bottled yet. We'll see when I degass and bottle it in a few days. The little bit of oxygen head space in the bottle does some interesting things to wine over time.

Example: My watermelon wine and when you forget to check the air lock sanitizer level and a little air got in. You can see the oxygenated wine in the top part of the neck of the bottle. Not a big deal... I'll just syphon that brown off and disregard it when it completes fermenting and when I rack it again.

 

[CrealCritter]

Cranberry 1090 wine attempt again, but with vintners harvest wine base instead of dried cranberries.

Maybe 3rd times a charm?

Shooting for 4 gallons of finished wine.