FERMENTED FRUITS IS MOVING - http://www.vinodafrutta.com

Fermented Fruits is moving to our own little patch of real estate within the HTBWMedia.com / BaronVonInternet.com community of Information and Community based websites and blogs. Our brand spanking new URL is http://www.vinodafrutta.com The site is still under construction but the receipe's are in the background waiting to be published with a brand new recipe for YEAST FREE Strawberry Mead. Yup, tried and tested without adding ANY Yeast. So this means the Strawberry Mead will taste as it should, pure and natural. The fermenting process is taking a little longer, however the NATURAL yeasts from the Strawberries is currently vigorously reproducing so we should see some nice results WITH PICTURES, shortly. Oh ya, the new site also has the ability for approved members to post their own blogs, recipe books, articles and participate in the community Wine / Mead making Forum. So if you enjoy the art of fermenting fruits, join the community at http://www.vinodafrutta.com I'd love to chat. Drop me a note there if you have any questions. Cheers Heinz
Free Wine & Mead Making Tips, Tricks and Community

Club Dubya - My new Online Community

Check out Club Dubya. My newest experiment in "Social Networking" Call me Naive, but I would like to create a non-corporate online community with an emphasis on the word "Community" Maybe I'll even stick in a Wine making section if there is enough interest. It is still being worked on, but feel free to drop in and say Hi. There is already a few members and we are growing.

www.clubdubya.com

Pass it on Eh!

Club Dubya - Don't Harsh My Mellow Eh!

CONSUMER INFORMATION

CONSUMER INFORMATION
Make CENT$ of it all

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Saturday, November 21, 2009

USING STEVIA FOR WINEMAKING

Stevia is a natural sweetner made from the leaf of a shrub in the sunfower family native to Paraguay. Although there is some contraversy over the use of Stevia as a food additive in the United States, many countries have been using Stevia as a sweetner for years. My research into Stevia shows Japan as the pioneer in the Stevia Industry.

So how does this apply to wine. Well, many winemakers like to condition or sweeten their wine after fermentation. Normally, this is done by adding treated sugar or wine conditioner. The reason for the treating is to prevent further bottle fermentation which results in sediment and possible cork popping. The later being a frequent occurance in my wine cellar as I refuse to use sulfites of any kind.

So back to Stevia and winemaking. Aside from being up to 300 times as sweet as sugar, Stevia is heat stable, pH stable, and non-fermentable. Yes you read right, Stevia will not ferment. For that reason, Stevia is an excellent way to sweeten or condition your wine post fermentation. For those into completely natural winemaking, you could also use Honey or even Agave Nectar for the fermentation of your wine.

Although I'm sure this post will have those traditional grape only wine makers shaking in their boots, I feel there is nothing wrong with a little experimentation. In fact, many award winning wines use Stevia as a final conditioner. In my experiment I plan to use less fermentable sugars and ferment my wine to complete dry. From there, I will let the wine settle, rack and filter accordingly before I add the Stevia to taste. I know this is far from traditional, but it is worth a try and chemical free. I think I will even buy some Stevia Plants or seeds to keep total control on the ingredients in my chemical free Stevia sweetened Wine and Mead.

Here are some Stevia related links. If you purchase from the links here, I get paid a small portion. This helps pay for my playing around with wine and ends up getting more stuff posted on this blog.



Monday, March 30, 2009

Blueberry Mead - Pure Juice Version

At the beginning of this month I made a batch of what I called Black and Blue Berry Mead. This was basically a combination of re-constituted Blueberry juice, some concentrated (Home made) Blackberry juice and spring water. This time, I figured I would make a pure Blueberry Mead. So no water, no blackberries, just Blueberries and Honey. Of course, there is some water as the blueberry juice is reconstituted, but this is as close as I could get without actually picking the berries.

BLUEBERRY MEAD RECIPE

6 Litres Blueberry Juice
1.5 Litres Blueberry / Acai Juice (OK not all blueberry)
1 Tsp Citric Acid (Blueberries have a very low acid content)
3.5 Cups Honey

1 Pack 1118 Yeast
1 Tsp Nutrient

Inoculated at 6PM on March 26th, 2009


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At about 6:30 PM on March 29, 2009 I stopped the fermentation in the usual way
For those unfamiliar with my practices, I heat the Mead up to about 65 F and let it sit covered with the heat still slightly on (enough to keep the temperature up) for about 10 minutes. This is a crude version of pasteurization and it kills the active Yeasty Beasties without the use of added Sulphites.

Once the ten minutes were up, I poured the Mead back into a cleaned out Primary Jar and put the lid on. I let this sit overnight to cool then I racked the Blueberry Mead into 2 separate 1 Gallon secondary jugs and added some Sparkeloid.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

DANDELION WINE

How to Make DANDELION WINE
DANDELIONS are in season during the spring and summer months, but they lend themselves deliciously to a beverage you can serve year-round. April and May are the best months to harvest dandelions for the purpose of wine making in the Northern hemisphere. Try it out, and taste it for yourself.

Ingredients

* 1 package (7 g) dried yeast
* 1/4 cup (60 mL) warm water
* 2 quarts (230 g) whole DANDELION flowers
o Using 2 quarts+ of just the petals can make for a less bitter DANDELION WINE .
* 4 quarts water (3.785 L)
* 1 cup (240 mL) orange juice
* 3 tablespoons (45 g) fresh lemon juice
* 3 tablespoons (45 g) fresh lime juice
* 8 whole cloves
* 1/2 teaspoon (1.25 g) powdered ginger
* 3 tablespoons (18 g) coarsely chopped orange zest; avoid any white pith
* 1 tablespoon (6 g) coarsely chopped lemon zest; avoid any white pith
* 6 cups (1200 g) sugar

Steps
1.
This is only the first half of the DANDELION blossoms!
This is only the first half of the DANDELION blossoms!
Wash and clean the blossoms well. Think of it as a fruit or vegetable; you don't want bugs or dirt in your DANDELION WINE. Remove all green material.
2. Soak flowers for two days.
3. Place the DANDELION blossoms in the four quarts of water, along with the lime, orange, and lemon juices.
4. Boiling the DANDELION blossoms.
Stir in the ginger, cloves, orange peels, lemon peels, and sugar. Bring the mix to a boil for an hour. This creates the 'infusion' that will later become wine after fermentation.


5. Strain the dandelion liquid.
Strain through filter papers (coffee filters are recommended). Let the infusion cool down for a while.
6. Stir the yeast in while the DANDELION infusion is still warm, but below 110 degrees F.
7. Cover it and leave it alone, let it stand overnight.
8. Pour it into bottles, poke a few holes in a balloon and place over the tops of the bottles to create an airlock, to keep out unwanted wild yeasts, and store them in a dark place for at least three weeks so that it can ferment. At this point you now have wine!
9. Rack the DANDELION WINE several times, optionally.
10. Cork and store the bottles in a cool place. Allow the DANDELION WINE , time to age. Most wine making recipes recommend waiting at least six months, preferably a year.

Tips

* Pasteurization uses sixty-five degrees Celsius (149 degrees Fahrenheit) for half an hour to avoid changing character.
* Pick the DANDELION flowers right before starting so they're fresh. Midday is when they are fully open. Alternatively, you can freeze the DANDELION flowers immediately after harvesting, then pull off the petals right before preparing the DANDELION WINE.
* It may take more than three weeks for your DANDELION WINE to ferment if the temperature inside your storage area is cool. But be aware that fermentation at warmer than room temperature may change the taste of the wine, and can lead to higher levels of fusel alcohols, which have been known to contribute to hangovers. Warmer temperatures can cause many other problems like strong yeasty flavors, rancid odors and bacterial contamination. Generally fermentation should be done at room temperature or lower (50-75 F or 10-24 C).
* This recipe will produce a light wine that mixes well with tossed salad or baked fish. To add body or strength, add a sweetener,raisins, dates, figs, apricots, or rhubarb.


Warnings

* Avoid using DANDELIONS that may have been chemically treated. Also, try to stay away from DANDELIONS that have been graced by the presence of dogs, or that grow within 50 feet of a road.
* There is some evidence that DANDELIONS have a diuretic effect and may cause more frequent urination.

The Home Wine Cellar

When you are passionate about wine you begin collecting it. Sometimes you sign up for a wine enthusiast club and now are collecting rare wines. As your collection grows, you need a place to store it all. A cupboard can without difficulty be redesigned into a space saving wine cabinet to age your valuable collection.

A few factors must be considered first, before you initiate building the wine cellar. For instance where is the closet in relation to the rest of the house? Avoid converting a closet against an outside wall into a wine cellar. Temperature, temperature, temperature, outside walls make it very hard to keep this steady as they face the elements. Choose an internal closet where your wine can be stored in a more stable atmosphere.
Your wine will age well if you keep close tabs on the temperature within the cellar, this is critical. Don’t stress if at some times of the year the temp is higher and at other times it is lower, this is acceptable as long as it is a slow shift. If this happens over and over again, gradually the wine inside will be ruined as well. Temperature fluctuations are to be avoided at all costs when it comes to storing wine. You’ll notice damage of this nature straight away. Look for the sticky deposit that often forms around the capsule. Over time the continual expansion and contraction of the wine will damage the integrity of the cork. Each time the temperature changes, the cork is essentially pulled out and put back in. When this happens, minute quantities of wine may be pushed out along the edge of the cork allowing air to seep back in. While it is usually good to expose wine to the air, as it brings out more flavor, it’s the last thing you want when aging wine. Your wine is ruined. It is best if your wine stays in the range of 54-57 degrees to properly age. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow down the ageing process. Irreversible damage will be done if your wine is kept at a temperature above 82ºF for even a month.

Make sure you have a vapor barrier in the closet. Mold like the humid environments that are good for wine. Also think about a high quality wine cooler for keeping tabs on the humidity and temperature.





After the designing comes the constructing. Building a wine cellar is lots of fun! You will need to purchase a few essential items. Purchase some inexpensive wine racks from a hardware store or online retailer or storage shop. With some cheap racks you’ll have a simple but very effective mini wine cellar. Wine rack designs will vary in bottle density. Price variations are more to do with aesthetics than efficiency. Individual racking is the most convenient for selecting bottles. A good idea is to have racks against only one wall of the closet. Then you may still have floor or shelf space available for wines that you purchase by the case. Constructing a custom wine cellar on a budget is simple and easy at home. Go for function over design to save money. Let your wine speak for itself.

A small addition, that will bring so much pleasure down the road!


Wine Cooler and Refrigeration Units
When constructing your wine cellar, you must take into account the temperature and humidity levels in the room or area you are storing wine. A wine cellar must maintain constant levels of humidity and temperature in order for the wine to age properly and not sour or be damaged. A wine cooler or wine refrigeration system is essential to any wine cellar. Wine coolers and chillers can come in many different forms, from in-wall or in-column chillers, coolers that can be stored under a table and out of sight, to standalone air conditioning units. Regardless of the form your wine cooler takes, its importance is not to be minimized or left out entirely.

The size and amount of wine in your wine cellar will dictate what kind of wine cooler you will need. It goes without saying that as your bottle capacity increases, so does the price of the chiller as it has more room and materials to maintain at a constant temperature. Optimum wine cellar temperature and humidity is discussed in another article, for now we will be looking at sizes, prices, and kinds of wine refrigeration systems. Wine coolers start at around $100, and can cool around 6 bottles of wine. If your collection is larger (and likely it is) then you will be looking at more expensive units. $300-$400 will get you a wine cooler that can refrigerate up to 35 bottles or so, this is good if you have a wine cabinet or wine pantry where you store your collection. However, if you are designing a large wine cellar or wine room then you will need to look into the heavier duty options. There is no specific upper price limit when it comes to pricing out a quality wine cooler, although as the size and value of your wine collection increases, the necessary quality or your wine storage system increases as well.

High quality wine coolers control the temperature and humidity using a digital temperature controller wired to a thermostat. In order to ensure consistent humidity and true temperature, be sure not to instal the thermostat near the door that you enter and leave from and away from any air vents or circulators that may affect the immediate temperature. More elaborate wine refrigeration systems can also be installed, chillers and air circulation systems are often a must in the higher quality wine rooms. Custom wine coolers can also be designed that are both ornate and functional, serving to compliment the decor of the wine cellar, though these usually inhabit the realm of very expensive to abhorrently expensive. Maintaining the proper temperature and humidity in a wine cellar is of utmost importance, be sure you understand what is required and how much it will cost so you do not skimp on this important portion of wine cellar


Proper Ventilation In Wine Cellars
Ventilation can be damaging to wines because it can upset the delicate temperature balance in the cellar. While gentle air currents in themselves are of little consequence, the danger arises when these currents vary the temperature in all or part of the cellar. In particular, artificial cooling units have a tendency to introduce cold air currents.

There needs to be a compromise here. On the one hand, moving air can be a necessity in maintaining a stable temperature throughout the cellar. In doing so, however, the air should not be of such a temperature, or moved so quickly, as to cause rapid fluctuations in bottle temperature. This naturally presupposes that the temperature can vary in different parts of the cellar, and this in itself should be avoided if possible. Where absolute perfection cannot be attained, it is sufficient to ensure that stiff breezes directed at the bottles are avoided, particularly if they have the potential to change the bottle temperature.

There will always be sceptics who challenge the significance of a good cellar. The evidence presented will be anecdotal and subjective. Invariably, a particular old bottle will be cited, having been stored under imperfect conditions, consumed at a ripe old age, and praised wholeheartedly. My response is simple: These critics may never know just how much better that bottle could have been.



Maintaining The Levels of Light In A Wine Cellar
The very best underground cellars are cold, incredibly stable, moist and dank, and of course, very dark. Wines are creatures of the night, emerging from their long hibernation for just one moment of glory. But that moment will be less than glorious if the wine has spent its hibernation continually on display.





It has been verified that exposure to light produces chemical reactions in wine that cause it to deteriorate. In particular, ultraviolet light has the greatest effect, and white wines and champagnes are the most vulnerable. Amber-coloured bottles provide very good protection, but regrettably these have long ago fallen out of fashion to their much less protective clear and green counterparts. Consequently, the best solution is to keep the cellar in complete darkness whenever it is unattended. Intermittent artificial light will have minimal effect, but daylight should be avoided.



Watching The Vibration Levels In A Wine Cellar
If you are able to satisfy the demands of the first four conditions for cellaring wines, you are doing very well indeed. The last two are of lower consequence, but are worth considering for the best results. The first of these is the avoidance of disruption to the wines, both in the form of movement of the bottles and of vibration.

Guigal is the most important producer in the famous Côte-Rôtie region of France’s Rhone Valley. Outgrowing its 300-year-old cellars in Ampuis, it recently embarked on an enormous construction project. The result is almost two hectares of cellar caverns, climate controlled to 13oC and 80% relative humidity. This proved to be something of an engineering nightmare, with the facility sandwiched between the mighty Rhone river and a train line on one side, and a main road on the other. The finished product not only supports the road, but also Guigal’s production facility, with a mass of some five tonnes per square metre!

Traffic rumbling across the top of the cellar is detrimental to the wine. Understanding this requires a little insight into the way in which wine develops. Put simply, the chemical processes in the wine produce larger and more complex molecules that eventually fall out of the solution as sediment. Under stable conditions, these are able to settle along the bottom of the bottle or barrel, allowing the wine to develop fully. Movement disrupts this process, stirring the sediment and mixing it throughout the wine.

The solution at Guigal was to construct an advanced anti-vibration system throughout the entire cellar structure. While most of us do not have the problem of trucks rumbling over our wine collection at home, vibration can still pose a threat. Mechanical cooling units are prime culprits.

Further to this problem, there are extreme phenomena such as ‘travel shock’, which the wine can experience after extended transportation. It may take weeks or even months to settle before it is again at its best. Closely related is ‘bottle shock’, where the wine takes some time to recover from the bottling process.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Black and Blue Berry Mead

I was at Costco about a week ago and ran into these jugs of Blueberry juice and figured why not. So I bought 4 litres and had at 'er. Since my previous batches of blackberry Mead used more of a concentrated juice and this was nowhere near as dense I figured I would add in some of my frozen blackberry juice.

Her is the recipe

4 litres Blueberry juice (I used RW Knudson)
1.5 litres Frozen Blackberry concentrate
1 Litre of bottled water
1 Litre (Approx) Honey
1 Package 1118 yeast
1 Tsp Yeast Nutrient

Starting Specific Gravity
Approx 1.080
Innoculated
9:15 AM PST on March 3, 2009

As a side note, I also had a little bit of Acai / Blueberry juice left over which I couldn't drink because it gave me the plops so I added that as well (Approx 1/2 litre)

I stopped the batch when it reached 1.010 which was at 8:15 AM PST on March 6th, 2009 so that would make it almost 71 Hours. I did the usual heating pasteurizing process and set it to cool for the day before sticking it in the secondary jugs with airlocks. I also added Sparkeloid to the batch just after I put it in the secondary. Not exactly typical practice but I wanted to get the yeast out of there.



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Racking # 1 - March 30, 2009

I decided to rack this puppy at the same time as I put the next batch into the secondary. Less mess that way. The clarity was quite impressive for a first racking, I guess that could be attributed to the sparkeloid. Taste is fairly smooth and still abit of residual sweetness. Since there isn't really any yeast left, that will probably stay.

After racking, I put in some more sparkeloid and let it sit.