adVINtures

Last night I finally got around to checking this wine and racking it into the secondary. Removing the lid, the odor of alcohol was quite strong, replacing any lemon or mint type odor. There was some fizz on stirring, but not a ton. The specific gravity was down to 1.050, with a PA of 6.4%. So, we still have some fermentation left to do.

In color, the wine has gone from being sort of a murky tan/yellow/green to being more of a buttery yellow. I did taste some just to see how things were coming. At the 10.6% alcohol already achieved, you can feel it going down. The first flavor is the lemon and the persisting sweetness from sugar. It is highly reminiscent of a lemon shake-up from a fair. Once the tang has subsided, a nice soft spearmint flavor aftertaste is left. Its really quite pleasant, actually.

I was pleased to see the bubbles rising to the top and the activity in the airlock once it had been racked. Fermentation appears to still be going on, which is excellent. Remember, this wine tends to arrest fermentation, so I am a little more worried about this one getting to 0% PA on its own. For now, it will have to be let be.  I have to work every night through June 2nd, and once I get out of work at 6am June 3rd, I have to make it to the airport for a 9:05am flight heading to San Antonio.

Today is my father’s birthday, just as an aside.

Had to add yeast today. I had picked up a few packs of yeast, just to have, yesterday at my supplier. This recipe recommends champagne yeast. I had a packet of Pasteur Champagne, and of a Lalvin yeast. Now that I know what I am doing, I opted to test the must before picking my yeast.

My SG is at 1.128, with a PA of 17%. Then to look to the yeast: the Pasteur has a max of 13-15% alcohol. So, it would be killed off before my wine reached its full potential. The Lalvin EC-1118, however, has an alcohol toxicity of 18%, so hopefully we will reach the potential 17%. We will see. Another thing to note is that this yeast is good for using to restart stuck fermentations. This particular wine recipe is prone to stuck fermentations, so maybe we can avoid that. The compact lees it tends to create may also be helpful in racking down the road.

So, I added the yeast to my primary, stirred well, and recovered with airlock. I hope with my new understanding of things that this goes well.

I had noted that my carboy had a good 1-2 inches of sediment. Even though it hasn’t been long, I did decide to rack this again. I just racked it to another 1 gallon carboy. Poured a little into a cup to taste. It  is a bit fruity and sweet to start. Definitely don’t need to sweeten. So, I topped off with just plain old boiling water.

A concern I have, however, is that it has quite a yeasty smell, and a yeasty aftertaste. Will this go away in time?? I sure hope so. I am interested to know why this yeast flavor has persisted, and what to do about it….

I do vow to not touch this wine again for two months. So, until July 22…

Because my “Virgin Berry” is in a rather booring stage right now (sitting on my desk racked and aging a bit), and because I have some spearmint in the backyard that is trying very hard to strangle a rose bush, it was deemed time to start a second wine.

Having read a few books and websites, evaluated the influence of science, and been more awakened to the nuances of wine making, I scanned a few resources for a good, general, herb wine type recipe. In my favorite (so far) book, there were a couple suggested.  I went with a hybrid of the “Basic Herb or Flower Recipe” and the “Mellow Mint Wine” recipe. These both thanks to Terry Garey once again, in her Joy of Homewinemaking book.

Taking from the mint wine, I started by gathering four cups of lightly packed (well, lightly to medium packed) spearmint leaves gathered not ten minutes prior from my yard. These were rinsed, placed in a pot and one quart of water added. The goal was to get this to a simmer on the stove, then let steep for an hour. As I tend to, I walked away for a few minutes too long, so the mint leaves got to a light boil before I killed the heat. Lid in place, fire off, that sat for an hour.  Meanwhile, I sanitized my primary, decided on other ingredients, and got the other three quarts water boiling.

I do not have a source for honey, so went with the usual white granular sugar- 3lbs to be exact. This was added to the 3 quarts of water to boil. The boiling of water and sugar is something not done previously with the Virgin Berry, but seems to be advocated. I would suppose this allows for better dissolution of the sugar, and more of a sanitizing step as well.

For a tang, I did opt to use the juice of two lemons (freshly squeezed by yours truly) rather than the acid blend. This will give more of the citrus flavor, rather than purely spearmint.  The recipe for basic herb calls for 1/8 tsp. of tannin, but the mint called for 1/4 tsp. I went with the 1/4 tsp. Tannin adds dryness, and since the mint wine tends to be a bit sweeter (according to what I have read) I went with the 1/4 tsp. It also helps clear and stabilize wine, so I figure a tad more can’t hurt, right?

With mint leaves steeped, water boiled, we were ready to go. Poured the leaves and water through a strainer into the primary, added the water and sugar solution, the juice of two lemons, 1tsp. yeast nutrient, 1/4 tsp. of tannin, and one crushed campden tablet.

This will sit overnight, and yeast to be added tomorrow. I got some champagne yeast for this batch, specifics tomorrow.  With a little luck, I will even remember to test my S.G. so I know what % alcohol my final product is this time!

I racked my wine for the first time tonight. I got home from work, and had enough time for a change. I am reading the book by Terry Garey, “The Joy of Home Winemaking”. It is a light and easy read, packed with information. But, according to this, I should have racked my wine a week or two ago. It has been “sitting on its lees” too long. Other sources I have seen, not complete sources granted, have said nothing about this…I just thought you racked once secondary fermentation was done, when you stopped seeing bubbles. I was still seeing bubbles- little tiny ones going to the surface now and again. But, for fear of ruining my wine or turning it to vinegar, I decided to rack sooner rather than later. There has been a thick coat of sediment for at least a week.

I only have one one gallon growler. I did, however, have a 64oz growler that I emptied last night. It was from a local brewery and had been filled with beer. I washed that and sterilized it. I realized that all of my wine would not fit in this other container. What I was hoping for was to rack the one gallon fermentor into the 64oz bottle, then clean my one gallon, rack the stuff in the wine bottle into it, then re-rack my other back to that as well. This was all working fine and dandy…except the 64oz bottle is a dark amber- difficult to see fluid level when you are standing above it. So, before I know it, I have wine spilling over onto the floor. Got that up, and realized that I would have to improvise. In the meantime I tested a sample for SG. Well below 1.000, potential alcohol below 0. Hmm. Guess its done. I then sanitized my primary, finished racking into that, then cleaned and sanitized my secondary as planned. I managed to rack the wine into it, and put the rest into the gallon as well as planned. Except now, because of the spilled wine (which my dog really enjoyed, by the way) my fluid level was too low. I needed to “top off”.  I have read a variety of methods to topping off- use water, fruit juice, boiled water, boiled sugar water, etc. I have read about adding campden or not adding campden. Stabilizer, or no stabilizer. I didn’t anticipate having to worry about this yet, as I didn’t think my secondary fermentation would be done already.

In the end, I ended up boiling just over 3 cups of tap water, adding ½ cup of sugar, 1 campden tablet, and ½ tsp of stabilizer. To top off, I used maybe ½ cup of this solution. I don’t know if the campden or stabilizer will even be in a quantity enough to make a difference.

I did taste the wine before adding this. Not bad, tastes like wine. I think I can sense the berry essence, but it’s not the greatest. I didn’t sample after topping off- will save that for next racking. The wine looks a bit more like Hawaiian Punch right now than wine.

I will note that before next racking I will be getting another gallon carboy. And will be hoping I didn’t ruin the wine with my topping off method.

Much more progress has been made! By this morning bubbles were moving through the airlock every 5 seconds or so. SG today is to 1.042, so not much longer now before moving to the secondary. Things were still very fizzy. I am apparently very nervous about this next step, as I had dreams of it last night. I couldn’t figure out the siphon or anything. Hopefully I will figure it out before then. I don’t think there is really much to do with that step, its more the racking to clear before bottling that makes me nervous- adding the right stabilizers, etc. And knowing for sure (source recommendations differ) on whether I do or don’t add another campden tablet. Better get to the bookstore.

I am switching to working third shift today, so this might mess up my schedule some too. I will have to plan ahead better to be sure to have enough time in the evenings to do my testing. Though, it seems I won’t have to do the daily stuff much longer.

What I have been doing, is filling my cleaned sink with about a gallon worth of warm water and the sanitizer. I put my hydrometer, testing bottle, funnel, and a ladle in the water. I disconnect the airlock, put that in the sanitizer, remove the fermentor lid and put that in sanitizer. Using the ladle, I mix my wine, then ladle about two scoops of fluid through the funnel into my tester. Then add the hydrometer, take a reading. Dump the tested wine back into the bucket, put everything else back in the sanitizer. Then, using the ladle I mix the wine solution again, and push on the nylon sack of pulp a bit.  Replace lid, replace airlock with fresh sanitizer. Rinse tools and put them up until the next day. Moves pretty quickly.

Wine is looking a bit better in the new, smaller bucket. It was VERY fizzy today, almost like it was carbonated. I stirred it before getting my sample for the hydrometer. I don’t know if that is proper. I figure it gives me a better profile of the entire bucket in that sample, but the bubbles and fizzing make it hard to read the hygrometer. I also noted that the bucket did not show any sign of lid concavity or changes to the air lock. I think its because I couldn’t get the lid on tight. It does have markings and an imprint reading “to remove lid cut/break bottom of slots”.  I cut/broke nothing and wonder if that’s why I couldn’t get the lid on.

The SG was down to 1.065 today. Improvement, but don’t know what level of improvement to expect over a 24 hour period. Did not note the really yeasty smell like yesterday though; it definitely seemed more fruity.

After stirring again, mashing the nylon bag of fruit pieces/pulp, I replaced the lid. I did use wire cutters to clip the bottom of the slots, soaked the lid in cleaner again, and put the lid on. I still had to put the bucket on the floor and really get over it to put the lid on properly. We’ll see how things look tomorrow- if the lid tightening makes a difference. I think there’s less likely to be oxygen leakage to mess anything up this way, so hopefully…

Addendum: Ten minutes after writing the above, I looked at my airlock- it is sending up big bubbles every 10-15 seconds. Ferment away little yeasties!!

Oh boy. I did a bunch of reading today, and just began to realize how much I don’t know. I am thinking that maybe I should have started with a kit while so green and in the brand new to learning process. I am seeing information on treating yeast before adding if dry, evaluating sugar content for the specific brew based on potential alcohol by volume %, how oxygen affects fermentation, and on and on and on.
Thus it dawned on me. How the heck was I gonna make 1 gallon of wine in a 6 gallon secondary fermentor. You have to “top off” to get rid of as much air as possible…uh, that would mean that my wine would be almost purely water. So, back to Siciliano’s I go. I ended up getting a 1 gallon growler with a bung to fit for the next steps, rather than using el gigantor fermentor. Also got a smaller primary fermentor with more of a 2-3 gallon capacity, which is perfect for the volume I have including the fruit in nylon still sitting in there.

So then the question was, if decreased oxygen volume is important, thus the airlock, etc., wouldn’t it make sense to move my concoction to the smaller bucket when I test the SG today? Guy says no, let it be…but I can’t test the SG without taking the lid off, thus refilling the dead space with oxygenated air anyhow. Unless there is a magic technique of which I am unaware to get the wine into a testing bottle.

What I ended up doing was sanitizing a ladle, a funnel, the testing bottle, the hydrometer, and the small bucket. Used ladle and funnel to get potential wine (is it still “must” at this point??) into testing bottle, then used hydrometer. The specific gravity today is 1.074, with a potential ABV of 9.9%. I am assuming this (SG) is down from yesterday (beginning to see how maybe it’s a good idea to test every step of the way) but don’t really know what fermentation process may be going on. I also think that the 9.9% ABV reading may indicate % to go, not end product. So maybe yesterday the potential ABV was more like 12?  I did note the air lock had changed and the lid of the fermentor was convexly bowed. There was quite a yeasty odor when I removed the lid, too, and when stirred my mixture seemed to bubble or fizz. I think those are good signs?

Once the value was noted, I poured everything into the smaller bucket, put the lid on, and attached the airlock.

We’ll see if this makes a difference by tomorrow. Meanwhile, I guess I have a LOT more reading to do. I see a trip to the bookstore in my near future.

Concoction looks much the same today, except I mixed in the stinky yeast. For this batch I am using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, I.N.R.A.- Montepelier, I guess the letters and numbers are more an ID of what genetic strain. Anyway, this is a Lalvin product, K1-V1116 which is evidently recommended for fresh fruit wines. There are other varieties I saw, some more for red wines, another for second wines, etc. I went with the fresh fruit, since, well, I am using fresh fruit. Next step is mixing every day for the next five days and checking the specific gravity. Only one problem- the fluid is too shallow to check the SG using the hydrometer by just putting it in there. I am guessing I will have to transfer some liquid to a deeper container, properly sanitized as well, to test. I think this is what the tall decanter test tube type things at the supply store might be for; sure would make things much easier. We will see how the next couple of days go, but I think that is on my shopping list. My starting SG is supposed to be 1.090-1.095. Didn’t test today, so I will assume.

For my 31^st birthday, my husband bought me a beginning Vintners kit. I have loved wine most of my adult life and wanted to give it a go in the make-it-yourself world. I had gotten him a Mr. Beer brew kit for Christmas and he really liked that, though now he is looking at getting a more advanced kit so he can buy his grain and hops and make up his own beers.

For my debut, I wanted to start with Pomegranate wine. I went and bought all supplies for this, but then couldn’t find pomegranates available this time of year. The recipe book was at home so half guessing bought a pint of blackberries and four pounds of strawberries. The hope was once we got home, between fruit and supplies, there would be enough to get going. Luckily, I had everything needed.

The kit I got came with the cleanser, a non rinse type which made things easy. I put a gallon of warm-hot tap water in the primary fermenting bucket, and added 1 tbsp of the cleanser. All supplies that I anticipated needing I dipped in that and laid out to dry.
Next to start on the fruit that needed cleaned and readied. I decided to use the strawberry wine recipe, but instead of using 3.5 lbs of strawberries, I would use the pint of blackberries, then enough strawberries to make 3.5lbs of fruit total. Once the fruit was prepared, I put it in a small sized, coarse filtering nylon bag. The fruit is to be crushed in this bag, allowing the juice to flow out into the clean primary fermentor. Once the fruit is all crushed, it is left in the bag and the bag tied off. I used a plastic potato masher to crush the fruit. That royally sucked- the end of the masher kept digging into my hand, and crushing the fresh fruit wasn’t as easy as I had imagined. I had the bag of fruit in the bottom of the primary fermentor bucket, spread it out some in the bag and mashed it against the bottom of the bucket. The bucket was on the floor so I could get over it and use that leverage which helped, but the tool was not ideal. I will have to figure out something better for the next batch, and will have to make do for this one, unless I find a better recommendation somewhere.

Once the fruit was crushed to my satisfaction, it was time to add all other ingredients, other than the yeast. The first task was to add 7 pints of water…FYI one pint is equal to two cups, so 14 cups of water went in. Then went the two pounds (!!) of sugar, acid blend, tannin, yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, and campden. The campden comes as tablets. Don’t know why, and what the heck it is is research yet to be done. The campden does need to be crushed. Luckily I have a mortar and pestle, but I had not thought to get that out and sanitized. Note to self: don’t forget next time. But, the campden did crush easily. With all that added, I mixed all the ingredients together, put the lid on, and attached the air lock. I haven’t put water/cleanser in the airlock yet, but plan to do so tomorrow after I add the yeast. I don’t figure fermentation and gas exchange is too much a concern yet, but didn’t want that blow hole in the lid open to dust.

We’ll see how the concoction looks tomorrow.