Cherry Mead - Black Lapin Cherry and Sour Cherry

With the summer here and a wicked deal on Cherries at one of the local produce stores I figured what better time to work on some Cherry Wine. It didn't hurt that the wife is away at some silly scrapbooking retreat. It's 20 minutes away, how can they call it a retreat.... retreat from the wallet maybe.

Anyways, I popped a few percacet last night and went to work at pitting 17 pounds of Cherries. Yes, you heard right, 17 pounds. From there, I tossed the now seedless cherries into the freezer for the night. The theory being, the freezing of the fruit makes the juice or sugar molecules 'splode. I read it on that thar Internet... so it must be true.

Today I took them out of the freezer and tossed them, 4 pounds at a time, into my favorite little steam juice extractor. I can't say enough about this thing, clear juice with very little mess.

Since I only had just over 13 pounds of cherries after the removal of the pits, I didn't have quite the pre-requisite 8 litres I usually like to start with. Luckily, I had some frozen cherry juice I saved from last year. That combined with about 5 cups of sour cherry drippings from a different harvest last year made for a very sweet juice indeed. When I measured the SG (Prior to adding sugar) it was sitting at 1.060. Chit, that is sweeter than the previous batch of Rasberry Mead - Pulque. I added 2 teaspoons of citic acid, for good measure. So now I am ready to make the Cherry juice a little sweeter (maybe around 1.080)

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So here is the recipe

Cherry Mead

1 litre Sour cherry Juice
7 litres Lapin or black cherry juice
2 Teaspoons Citric Acid
2 1/2 cups Honey
1 pack 1118 yeast
1/2 teaspoon energizer

Note: I did take out about 4 cups of sweetened cherry juice (Pre Yeast) to bring the level in the jar down. The reason being, with the last batch I did, the juice was too high and it ended up overflowing. Once the fermentation starts to stabilize, I plan on adding the juice back in.

Specific gravity 1.080 on the button

Inoculated at 10 PM on Friday August 6, 2010

Additional note regarding left over cherries.

When you consider the cost of Cherries and the amount of juice required for making Cherry Wine it may seem a little expensive. However, the cherries left over when de-juicing them with a Steam juice extractor are not gone. There is plenty of flavour left over in the cherries and they can be used for pies, jams or simply eaten on their own with a little cottage cheese or ice cream. I have 5 pounds of cherries left over from the original 13 pounds. Some will be frozen some will be canned and the rest eaten as is.

You can also use the left over cherries in breads and cakes. mmmmm yummy

Raspberry Mead Pulque

Yes, once again I am head butting with the trends. I picked a butt load of Raspberries the other day as one of the local farms had a great deal on U-pick Raspberries for 99 cents a pound. Soooo I spent a few hours picking followed by a few days in pain. The resulting bounty was 20 pounds of berries which I quickly made into juice via my favorite steam juice extractor which you will see an amazon ad for on the left. I honestly cannot say enough good things about this juice extractor. It is by far my best investment when it comes to making wine.

OK, enough with the promotion of someone elses product and onto the wine making. If you do decide to purchase one though, please help out this blog (AKA my wallet) and buy it through the link on this page. Now onto the recipe

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The resulting juice from the steam extraction was about 8 litres or just over 2 US Gallons which is 2 Canadian Gallons... Eh!
In the past, I have watered down the juice to save money but this time I figured I would go as close to pure as possible, sure I would end up with less wine, but with any luck it will be a much better product.

As with most of my endevours, I first checked out what Jack had to say on the topic. In case you don't know, Jack Keller has become known as a sort of online wine Guru of sorts (Sorry Jack) He has given me advice on a few ocassions, I usually listen to what he has to say and go ahead and do what I want. Nothing against his advice, I'm just a stubborn Kraut.

So back to the recipe. Focus Heinz, focus. (I blame the heat wave in Vancouver)

So like I said, Pure juice very little water if any.

Due to the size of my primary, I removed some of the juice and ended up with 7.5 litres (or Liters in US Speak) The specific gravity pre any sugar was already at 1.030 so I did not need to add much unless I wanted to make hooch.

Raspberry Mead-Pulque

7 1/2 litres juice
1 tsp Citric acid

2 cups agave brought it up to 1.050

2 cups honey brought it up to 1.076 so I added
1 cup honey which resulted in a specific gravity of 1.083
2 cups water brought it back down to 1.081
1 tsp Energizer
1 Pack Lalvin K1-V1116 Yeast, Why.... Because


Added After Primary Fermentation:

3 Teaspoons Powdered Stevia

As an experiment, I added 1 tsp of stevia to flask brought spec gravity up by
.04. In a previous post on using Stevia to sweeten wine, I mentioned Stevia as a non-fermentable sugar. I wanted to see of the addition of Stevia pre-fermentation had an effect on the Specific gravity... well it does. So for those looking at using Stevia to sweeten their wine should add it after your final reading as it will give you a false potential alcohol level seeing as Stevia does not ferment and you will never be able to ferment to dry (per your hydrometer reading) You can see the Stevia post here

The specific gravity of the full batch ended up being 1.082 (keep in mind, a small amount of that was as a result of Stevia.

Just as a little clarification for those unfamiliar with Mead and Pulque. Mead is made with Honey instead of sugar and Pulque is made with Agave Nectar (The same stuff they use to make Tequila) In Mexico, the resluting wine is called Pulque, or Nectar of the Gods. Tequila is made by taking the Pulque and distilling it a number of times.

inocculated 8:17 PM Thursday July 8, 2010. Updates will follow as comments.

Cheers

Basic Mead

Here is a Basic Mead recipe I found.

Mead, which is also known as honey wine, is produced from 51 per cent honey, water and yeast. As fruit, spices and herbs can be added to mead, the result is a wide range of varieties, much like grape wine.

Ingredients like yeast, tannin, acids and nutrients can be obtained from beer-or wine-making supply shops or can be ordered online.

Here is a recipe for sweet mead to try at home.

Sweet Mead

1.5 kg (3 1/4 lb) pure honey

3.5 l (14 cups) water (not distilled, no chlorine)

15 ml (3 tsp) malic acid

7 ml (1 1/2 tsp) tartaric acid

1 ml ( 1/4 tsp) tannin

5 ml (1 tsp) yeast nutrient

1 campden tablet

1 pkg wine or mead yeast

In a 4.5-l (1 gallon) plastic bucket, mix ingredients (except yeast). One day later, add yeast.

After 1 month, transfer mixture to a glass jug. Keep at a constant temperature of 21 to 24 C (70 to 75 F.) Transfer to a clean glass jug once a month for the first 3 months. After that, transfer when the mead is clear of any layer of yeast or sediment buildup.

When the fermentation has completed, mead has cleared and no bubbles are visible, it is time to bottle. You may have to wait a full year before bottling. If you bottle too soon, you might have a lot of sediment which will detract from the mead.

Makes 4.5 l (1 gallon).

Sparkling Apple Pineapple Cider-Mead

OK, so it's been awhile since I've tried anything new. I've been wanting to do an apple cider so why not.

After doing a little searching and letting my mind wander a little, I came up with this recipe


Sparkling Apple Cider Mead

6 Litres Organic Apple Juice - Pressed, not from concentrate.
Specific Gravity of juice is 1.050

1 can pineaple tidbits with juice 540 ml Tossed in blender
1 litre spring water
5 1/2 Cups Honey
1 Tsp Jamaican Allspice

specific gravity is 1.100 pot alc of about 13%.

2 Packs of Lalvin K1-V1116 Yeast. Most ciders suggest using a Champagne Yeast, but I've never been one to listen to what others tell me :P

1 Tsp Energizer

Innoculated @ 5PM on Feb 27th 2008

The story of wine since 3500 B.C.

Here is an interesting little article on the history of wine. I also remember reading something awhile back which stated there was reference to mead in prehistoric "caveman" days where honey dripped into puddles and fermented. A little bit muddy for my tastes but back then they figured it was some nectar from the gods.... Kinda makes sense in a caveman sort of way.



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Source: sthelenastar.com

The origins of wine are clouded in prehistory.

The grape from which wine is best made, Vitis vinifera, originated in what is today the disputed land between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the wild grape there having the additional name of silvestris. The wine, made from that grape, was probably insipid, especially as compared with today’s wines.

More solid evidence was discovered at an archeological dig, called Godin Tepe in what is now modern Iran. Archeologists discovered a 3500 B.C. ceramic vessel that held reddish crystals. These resembled the tartrate crystals which are found today on the bottom of many corks of wine bottles. They came from the wild grape sylvestris, which still grows there today and which ferments overnight.

One theory about wine making is that a Neolithic man made grape juice from wild grapes, forgot it or left it alone for awhile, then tasted it: “Praise the gods; I am tasting heaven!”

Another theory is that it was a development of previous knowledge. Archeology has evidence that mead or honey wine and beer existed prior to wine, made from grapes. And the people of the time applied their knowledge of fermentation to grape juice.

In time, the knowledge of wine making and domestication of the wild grape spread around the Caspian Sea, Black Sea, and Mediterranean Sea, and eventually all over the world. Egyptian hieroglyphic depicts feasts with wine. Homer refers frequently to wine in his Iliad and Odyssey. The roots for the word enology, the study of wine, come from the Greek, oinos meaning wine, and logos meaning study.

The Romans spread the culture of wine and viticulture all over their known world — from their word for wine, vinum we get the many words like vine and vineyard. The Bible, both Old and New Testament, discusses wine. Many religions, both ancient and modern, have adopted wine as part of their rituals.

Pottery of many ancient cultures depicts aspects of wine. In time many lands cultivated their own grapes by cross pollination, grafting and individual agricultural methods.

Today, most of the people in varying lands throughout the world drink wine and have vineyards, and produce their wines from their own unique varietals.

The early American colonists did not have much interest in wine. An exception was Thomas Jefferson, who tried to grow European grapes at Monticello.

Prohibition was an indication of the way the American citizen viewed wine. However, after the repeal of Prohibition, the citizenry of the United States began to take an interest in wine, slowly but increasingly. That was the era of jug wines when wines of the same color were mixed together with no indication of the varietal and given the name of a district in Europe. Today the name of Burgundy or Chablis or Champagne and similar district names can be used only by those districts in Europe with a few exceptions.

In the late ‘30s and early ‘40s, varietals began to be the vogue. Wineries began to be interested in the grape as a varietal. Also, the maxim was white for fish and poultry, and red for red meat.

Today, the majority of the populace has reached a new sophistication. Wineries and vineyards exist in all 50 states. Wineries produce both varietals and special blends of wines, which people enjoy. Wine is recognized as a food, and like all foods, the individual matches all the foods so that they blend into a pleasing taste. And even that rule can be set aside for the person who prefers one wine for all his or her meals. Wine like all else in life follows the Latin saying: “De gustibus non disputandum est.” Freely translated, it is, “One does not argue about taste.”

Watermelon Wine Made Easy

Of course, I wouldn't use the Campden, but other than that is sounds intersting.


Grapes are not the only fruit that can be used to make wine. Although they are the most common, the truth is that other fruits can be used to make wine as well. In fact, it is very easy to make wine with watermelon or other fruits, such as blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries. Not only is watermelon wine easy to make, but it also provides a nice contrast to the standard grape option. Give it a try and see for yourself!

Easy As One Two Three

Making watermelon wine is extremely easy in fact, it is one of the easiest wines to make. To begin, make sure that you have all of the winemaking equipment necessary to the winemaking process. Next, gather the ingredients you will need specifically for making watermelon wine. These ingredients are: 1/2 gallon Watermelon Juice, 1 Campden tablet, Water, 1/2 pound sugar, 1/8 tsp Tannin, 1 tsp nutrient, 2 1/2 tsp Acid Blend, and wine yeast.



Begin by cutting the watermelon into quarters and removing the rind as well as all the seeds. Then cut the watermelon into slices. Using a strainer bag, squeeze the juice from the watermelon into a primary fermentor. (Put the strainer bag into a primary fermentor as well.) Add all the remaining ingredients to the primary fermentor at this time, with the exception of the yeast. Stir the mixture, cover, and let it sit for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, remove the cover and add the yeast to the primary fermentor. After three to five days, pour the juice into the secondary fermentor. Squeeze the juice in the strainer bag into the secondary fermentor, and then discard the bag.

After this point, it is safe to continue with the normal fermentation process. Remember that this process takes time and that it is important to have patience. The longer you allow the wine to ferment, the better it will taste. Also remember that your easy-to-make watermelon wine will taste better if you let it age several months after it is bottled.

Fruity Fun

Easy to make watermelon wine is also poplar because the ingredients are easy to acquire. It is a great selection both for someone who is just starting to make their own wine, and for someone who has been doing it for years. Whatever the circumstances, this easy watermelon wine will make a great addition to your evening meal.

Blackberry Almond Pulque - My first stab at it

OK, a few days ago I stumbled on a question in another wine making forum which related to Pulque. Not knowing what Pulque was and being mildly interested, I did a search. It turns out Pulque is the pre-curser to Tequila and is often referred to as Agave Mead (Agave being the suculent used for making tequila).

Not being one to walk away from something interesting I did abit more reading and came up with this little combo recipe. Actually, I was going to make Blackberry Almond Mead, but as I was getting it ready, my shipment of Blue Agave Nectar came in.

So here it is

Blackberry Almond Pulque

2 cups ground almonds
1 tsp Jamaican all-spice

Put in double boiler with 4 cups of water
Boiled for 1 hour
I filtered out the almond muck and



Added

4 Cups previously frozen pressed blackberry juice
6 Cups blue Agave Nectar
1 Cup honey
and remainder of water to make up 2 Imperial Gallons (8 Litres)

Specific gravity was at 1.085

The almond wine recipe said to let the must sit for a day prior to adding the yeast, so that is what I am doing.

See you tomorrow (OK, I must be loosing it now)

1 package of 1118 yeast
1/2 teaspoon nutrient (That is all what was left)

Raise a glass of barley wine

Toast 2008 at midnight with a delightful honeyed sipper that's meant for sharing

Dec 26, 2007 04:30 AM
Josh Rubin
Beer reporter

On New Year's Eve, a lot of folks head out to an overcrowded bar or restaurant where the highlight of the evening is a free glass of cheap sparkling wine at midnight.

As appealing as that sounds, it's not for everyone. If a quiet idea at home with a loved one is closer to your idea of a good way to ring in the New Year, you still might like something to sip. Picking up a bottle of Mill Street Barley Wine would be a good idea.

For one thing, it's clearly meant for sharing and sipping slowly, as it comes in a 500-millilitre ceramic bottle, and checks in at a hefty 10 per cent alcohol.

The rich, sweet, golden-coloured brew is made in the tradition of strong English ales first brewed by butlers for wealthy clients who wanted to impress friends. When you flip the top on the bottle, you'll be hit with a whiff of honey and caramelized fruit. The taste follows through on the promise of the beer's aroma. After notes of honey, caramel and even pineapple, there's a decent amount of hoppy bitterness on the finish.

While it's not as complex as the world classic Thomas Hardy's Ale, which is also part of the LCBO's Winter Ales program, Mill Street Barley Wine is still an excellent sipper. It also happens to be one of only two regularly made barley wines from Ontario, and the only one available bottled.

Last year, it wasn't available, as the brewery was transforming its original space in the Distillery District into a brewpub, says brewmaster Joel Manning.

"There was plaster dust everywhere. It really wouldn't have been a good idea to do any brewing," Manning says with a chuckle. At the same time, Mill Street was brewing its other beers at a new, bigger location in Scarborough.

While a good barley wine can be one of the beer world's great delights, Manning says other brewers can be forgiven for not making their own. It's a timely, costly beer to make. Unlike most ales, which are aged for just a few weeks, Mill Street's barley wine is brewed in January, then aged in tanks until November, when it's bottled. Having beer taking up valuable tank space for so long isn't cheap.

"We brew this beer because we love it. We don't make a whole lot of money on it," says Manning.

A beer made with love, to drink with your loved one. Not a bad way to ring in the New Year.

LAVENDER WINE

Mooched froom Jack Keller, anyone familiar with online wine recipe's will surely know of his work. If I end up doing this one, I would probably use honey instead f sugar and blackberry juice instead of Welches.


There are many varieties of lavender, plants of the genus Lavandula -- especially Lavandula officinalis. They all contain clusters of small, fragrant, purplish flowers. The small flowers must be picked off the stems to make the wine. Flowers can be picked and frozen in ZipLoc bags for later use. This wine is not only delicious, but its bouquet will be appreciated as soon as you open a bottle.

1 to 1-1/2 pints lavender flowers
2 lb granulated sugar
10.5 oz can of Welch's 100% white grape juice frozen concentrate
1/2 tsp citric acid
1/8 tsp tannin powder
7-1/2 pts water
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Champagne yeast

Boil 1/2 gal water and add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Stir in frozen grape concentrate and return to boil. Immediately pour boiling water over all dry ingredients except yeast in primary. When water cools to lukewarm, add remaining water and sprinkle yeast on top. Cover with cloth and ferment 7 days. Strain out flowers and transfer liquid to secondary. Fit airlock. Ferment 60 days and rack, top up, refit airlock, and allow to sit another 60 days. Rack into bottles and allow to age one year.

Goji Mead # 2 - Let's try this again

Well, the last experiment was rather interesting. I particularly liked the subtle rasberry like taste partway through the fermentation. The one major thing I learned from the last batch of Goji Mead was to check the specific gravity of the juice prior to adding Honey. The result in the previous batch of Goji Mead was a very high starting Specific gravity and a high alcohol content end product. Consequently, my wife was not too fond of the burn.

Today I am doing things quite abit differently. First of all, I checked the specific gravity of the Goji Berry juice and found it to be around 1.050. Once I added the blackberry juice and water it dropped substantially but it was still at 1.021. Here is the recipe:

2 - Litres re-consitited Goji berries Blended in a blender
6 - Cups steamed unsweetened blackberry juice
3 - Litres water
3 - Cups Clover Honey
1 - Pack of 1118 yeast

Innoculated at 8PM on Friday Decemeber 7th
Specific gravity = 1.071

I will ferment this batch of Goji Berry Mead to dry. Once complete, it will be mixed with the previous batch of Goji Berry Mead which will hopefully result in a more palitable Mead. By fermenting it to dry with a lower specific gravity, I will also gain a better understanding on the effect of complete fermentation. I will still pasteurize the Mead upon completion.

I did an experiment and found 1 cup of honey to equal an increase of about 0.015 on the specific gravity scale.

Goji Berry Mead - Now for something completely different

OK, so I think I may now have officially lost it. Well at least I'm not making wine out of onions or something crazy like that.

Goji berries, also known as wolf berries have quite the long history and as with just about anything medicinal from the orient there are claims it will make your penis bigger (Maybe not quite but something to do with sperm production). Hey Boner wine, why not :P

I started out with about 4 or 500 grams of dried berries. I added just enough water to re-hydrate them then I crushed them up in the blender. The result was about 2 litres of juice, pulp and seeds. (I think I'm going to save the seeds to see if I can grow the fruit here.

I added 1 litre of blackberry juice, 2 litres of honey and 3 1/2 litres of water. The end result was a specific gravity of 1.130. Pretty bloody high as the Goji berries are naturally full of sugar. unless you want fire water or deathly sweet Mead, you may want to try a little less honey.

As if using Goji berries to make Mead wasn't strange enough, I decided to try something different as far as yeast went. You see, I saved up some active yeast from the bottom of one of my blackberry batches and kept it in the fridge. Ya nuts I know.




So here is the recipe


Start time: 4:30 PM November 14th 2007
Specific Gravity: 1.130

2 - litres honey
2 - litres re-constituted Goji berry pulp (AKA Wolf berries)
1 - litre steamed blackberry juice (Unsweetened)
3 1/2 - litres spring water
3/4 - cup Recycled yeast pulp




POST PRODUCTION NOTE:

Although this mead has a very interesting taste, both my wife and I found it to be far to strong. To remedy this situation, I started out another batch with similar juice and water proportions but with quite abit less honey and a lower potential alcohol level. Here is the link GOJI BERRY MEAD #2

Cranberry Mead... well sort of

OK, so I picked up just over 11 pounds of fresh "organic" cranberries. According to the Polish farm guy some old guy in the area "with nothing better to do" grows a small crop of them organically.... Personally I think it was just a sales pitch but who am I to argue.

So I got home and dumped them into my handy steam juice extractor and began the process of pulling out the juice. I guess it shouldn't really be that much of a surprise, but that 11 some odd pounds of Cranberries resulted in only about 2 litres of juice (Including pulp). Typically the steam juicer is great at leaving the pulp behind, but after about 2 hours of waiting for only a small amount of juice I got impatient and started to crush the berries. Must be the results driven Kraut in me.

You might be wondering why the long background story, well that is to explain why this is sort of a cranberry Mead. You see, with only 2 litres of juice and 2 litres of honey already in the pot I needed to make up the space with something other than 4 litres of water.... Ah blackberry juice. So here is the recipe



2 Litres Honey
2 Litres Cranberry juice & pulp
1/2 Litre Apple Juice (Pure reconstituted no sugar added stuff)
1 Litre steam extracted Blackberry juice
2 1/4 Litres Spring Water
1 Cup Mushed up cranberries
2 Packs of 1118 Yeast
2 Teaspoons Nutrient

Measurements:
Specific Gravity: 1.112
Pot Alcohol : 15% Approx
Innoculated at 8PM on November 5th @ 80 F


This should be interesting as the juice is nice and sweet with a bit more tart than the Blackberry on its own.

As a side note, although the 11 lbs of Cranberries only yeilded about 2 litres of juice and pulp all was not a waste. I divided up the remaining pulp and berries and froze them for future cranberry chutney. At some point I need to get the recipe from my brother and post it on here.

Blackberry Mead - Another stab at it

OK, so after figuring out the pasteurization method of stopping fermentation I figured I would move onto a fully organized and controlled batch of mead. Being new at this whole wine making gig, I kind of mixed things up abit in the cellar (AKA basement bathroom). What was pure mead is now a mixture of Mead and wine made with brown sugar. batches that were let fully ferment are now mixed with the sweeter brown sugar versions of before. All this mixing has resulted in some stellar tasting wines but nothing consistent with a definite known recipe.

All that being said, here is what I did. This will be updated as the batch progresses.

Ingredients:

2 litres of Clover Honey
2 3/4 Litres of Frozen Pressed Blackberry juice
1 3/4 Litres Steam extracted Blackberry juice
1 1/2 Litres of Bottled Spring Water

2 Packs of 1118 Yeast
2 Tsp of Nutrient

I thawed the frozen juice out in a large pot with 1 litre of the bottled water. I kept the extra water aside to cool the must for innoculation.
It turns out I needed a little more juice to make-up the full 2 gallons required so I added in the steam extracted juice. Personally I prefer the Steam extracted juice for winemaking because it requires less straining and results in a clearer end product. In addition, the heat kills any undesirable bacteria. With the increase in fruit content, I am aiming at a fruitier tasting lower alcohol wine. My wife has been complaining about the 17 and 22% versions so this should be more to what she is used to.

measurements:

Specific Gravity is 1.105 which was temperature corrected for 90 F. This would result in wine of about 14% if allowed to ferment to dry.

Innoculation temperature: 90F

Innoculated at 12 Noon PST on October 17, 2007

Juice Extraction methods

Gunk left by pressing fruit Vs Steam extraction method




There are many opinion on the best way to extract fruit juices for making wine.

Steam juice extractor I have one of these extractors and would not go back to the old way. The best part is seeds are kept out and the resulting juice is pure. An added benefit is the killing of many wine damaging bacteria.

Electric Juice extractor which physically remove the juice from the fruit. Since these units do not use heat as the method of extraction, the juice could be considered more pure. However, I have not noticed a difference in the end result.

The Old school method is to use Cheese Cloth, this method of juice extraction involves putting the fruit in the Cheese Cloth and letting it ferment in sugar water. The juice ends up coming out leaving the pulp behind. It is always a good idea to keep a fair quantity of Cheese cloth on hand because it can be used to filter out the must after secondary fermentation.

Personally, I prefer the Steam extractor, although I have noticed a slightly sweeter taste with the Electric extractor the cleaning is just abit more arduous and the juice is not as "clean" (potentially wine damaging bacteria are not killed.)

If you use the old school method, many recipe's recommend freezing the fruit prior to wine making as the cold breaks up the juice molecules releasing more flavour.

Cold Filtering and a Brita Filter – an experiment in wine filtering.

OK, I’ll be the first to admit this next experiment in winemaking is about as controlled as a Donkey on speed. After reading a little bit on using a Brita type filter to remove corking flavour from wine, a little light bulb (OK compact fluorescent) came on above my head. Hence the reason for today’s trial.

A few weeks ago, I tried running my accidental batch of “Blackberry Mead” through a Brita Filter with no luck. Problem being, the wine had more of a syrup consistency, pretty much due to the fact it had not been racked and I really didn’t know anything about what I was doing. A few weeks later, not knowing all too much more other than the wine now looked and felt a little more like wine. The original overly sweet cough syrup flavour had been replaced with a fairly dry red. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of dry wines, I tend to prefer a little sweetness - not as much as Little Red Riding hood but I’m sure you get my point.

OK, my first experiment was with a batch of Plum Mead I had put in the fridge last week in order to see if it would clarify any better than the one in the basement. Not overly surprising, the cooled batch did have a lot more sediment on the bottom. My assumption now being… “Cold filter Wine Good Uggg.”

Not to cast any doubt on my Cro-Magnon alter ego, I decided to take this one step further and run it through a Brita Filter. The result was quite interesting, seeing as the Mead was already fairly sweet and the bite was actually enjoyable, as it was not dry. The end result was quite abit milder of a wine than I had anticipated, in fact, it ended up tasting more like a plum juice… The good news being, the alcohol content did not seem to be effected, I’m thinking I will add this experiment back into the un-brita’d batch; after all I am making wine here and not Juice.

Now onto the very dry Blackberry Mead. This is actually a mixture between my very small original accident batch and my second attempt which actually involved adding yeast. Like I said, after about a month, it was definitely not Vinegar, but it did have a bite strong enough to make the back hairs on a fish stand on end… This batch had also been stopped by pasteurization and adding Brandy. See what I mean by uncontrolled experiment.

Well as far as the result goes, the end drink was actually palatable. Since the Blackberry Mead was so much stronger than the Plum on the onset, it maintained the taste of alcohol. The bitterness and after shiver was drastically reduced. It didn’t taste any sweeter, as there was no sweetness which was being masked by the alcohol. The additional factor of lack of prior cold filtering may also have played a roll. In addition, the batch of Blackberry Mead was aged quite abit more and really did not need much filtering for clarity.

When compared to my later use of a pump filter, the Brita filtration paled in comparison. Yes it is great if you just want to finish it off nicely, or remove a little flavour of corking, but I would not recommend the brita filter as a replacement for one of those little pump filters.

FERMENTATION - TURNING GRAPE JUICE INTO ALCOHOL

Here is a little tid-bit I found somewhere online. I don't know where it came from but I found it quite infomative.


Grape juice is turned into alcohol by the process of "fermentation." Grapes on the vine are covered with yeast, mold and bacteria. By putting grape juice into a container at the right temperature, yeast ( SACCHROMYCES ELLIPSOIDUES ) will turn the sugar in the juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The grape juice will have fermented. Fermentation is carried out in stainless steel vessels.

Yeast also gives flavor to the wine. But the yeast that is on the grape skin when it is harvested may not have the desired flavor. Other things on the outside of a grape are not good for wine (for example, acetic bacteria on the grapes can cause the wine to turn to vinegar). The winemaker can eliminate unwanted yeast's, molds and bacteria, most commonly by using the "universal disinfectant," sulfur dioxide. Unfortunately, the sulfites which remain in the wine may cause a lot of discomfort to some wine drinkers. (See ALLERGIC REACTIONS TO WINE.). Some winemakers prefer NOT to do this, and purposely create wines that are subject to the vagaries (and different flavors) of the yeast that pre-exist on the grapes ("wild yeast fermentation").

The winemaker has many different yeast strains to choose from (and can use different strains at different times during the process for better control fermentation ). The most common wine yeast is Saccharomyces.

This is a good point to stop and mention "Brett," also known as the Brettanomyces strain of yeast (which can be added or come from wild yeast fermentation). As yeast works, it causes grape juice ("must") to get hot. But if there's too much heat, the yeast won't work. Cooling coils are necessary to maintain a temperature below 30° C.

A less modern, but still wide widely used way to ferment wine is to place it in small oak barrels. "Barrel fermentation" is usually done at a lower temperature in temperature controlled rooms and takes longer, perhaps around 6 weeks. The longer fermentation and use of wood contributes to the flavor (and usually expense) of the wine.

The skins and pulp which remain in a red wine vat will rise to and float on top of the juice. This causes problems (if it dries out, it's a perfect breeding ground for injurious bacteria), so the winemaker will push this "cap" back down into the juice, usually at least twice a day. In large vats, this is accomplished by pumping juice from the bottom of the vat over the top of the cap.

Eventually the yeast is no longer changing sugar to alcohol (though different strains of yeast, which can survive in higher and higher levels of alcohol, can take over and contribute their own flavor to the wine-as well as converting a bit more sugar to alcohol).

After all this is completed what you have left is the wine, "dead" yeast cells, known as "lees and various other substances.

MALO-LACTIC FERMENTATION

The winemaker may choose to allow a white wine to undergo a second fermentation which occurs due to malic acid in the grape juice. When malic acid is allowed to break down into carbon dioxide and lactic acid (thanks to bacteria in the wine), it is known as "malo-lactic fermentation," which imparts additional flavor to the wine. A "buttery" flavor in some whites is due to this process. This process is used for sparkling wines.

FIRST RACKING

After fermentation completed naturally or stopped by addition of distilled spirit, first racking is carried out. This involves the wine to stand still until most yeast cells and fine suspended material settle out. The wine is then filtered without disturbing the sediment or the yeast.

WINERY AGING

The winery may then keep the wine so that there can be additional clarification and, in some wines, to give it a more complex flavors. Flavor can come from wood (or more correctly from the chemicals that make up the wood and are taken up into the wine).

The wine may be barrel aged for several months to several years. No air is allowed to enter the barrels during this period.

Ignoring any additional processing that might be used, you could empty the barrels into bottles and sell your wine. However, during the winery aging, the smaller containers may develop differences. So the winemaker will probably "blend" wine from different barrels, to achieve a uniform result. Also, the winemaker may blend together different grape varieties to achieve desired characteristics.

STABILIZATION, FILTRATION

Stabilization is carried out to remove traces of tartaric acid. These tartarates present in the grape juice tend to crystallize in wine and if not removed completely can slowly reappear as glass like crystals in final bottles on storage.

Stabilization with respect to tartarates may involve chilling of wine that can crystallize tartarates and these crystals can be removed by filtration.

PASTEURIZATION

If the wine has an alcohol content less than 14% it may be heat pasteurized or cold pasteurized through microporous filters just before bottling.

BOTTLING WINE

Producers often use different shaped bottles to denote different types of wine. Colored bottles help to reduce damage by light. (Light assists in oxidation and breakdown of the wine into chemicals, such as mercaptan, which are undesirable.)

Bottle sizes can also vary.

CELLARING WINE


Most people assume that the longer that you keep a wine, the better it will get Since its best to store wine under certain conditions, like in a cool damp underground cellar, this is known as "cellaring" wine.

It is a misconception that you MUST age wine. The fact is, throughout the world, most wine is drunk "young" (that is relatively soon after it is produced, perhaps 12 to 18 months), even wines that are "better" if aged. While some wines will "mature" and become better over time, others will not and should be drunk immediately, or within a few years.

Tannin is a substance that comes from the seeds, stems and skins of grapes. Additional tannin can come from the wood during barrel aging in the winery. It is a preservative and is important to the long term maturing of wine. Through time, tannin (which has a bitter flavor) will precipitate out of the wine (becoming sediment in the bottle) and the complexity of the wine's flavor from fruit, acid and all the myriad other substances that make up the wine's character will come into greater balance. Generally, it is red wines that are the ones that CAN (but do not have to be) produced with a fair amount of tannin with an eye towards long term storing and maturation. The bad news is that you shouldn't drink it young since it will taste too harsh (and probably cost too much, besides). The good news is that after a number of years, what you get is a prized, complex and balanced wine.

Remember that red wines get their color from the stems and skins of the grape. This gives the wine tannin and aging capacity. White wines may have no contact with the stems and skins and will have little tannin (though some can be added, again, through barrel aging). Therefore most white wines don't age well. Even the ones which do get better through time will not last nearly as long as their red cousins. A fair average for many "ageable" whites would be about 5 to 7 years (some might go 10). On the other hand, really "ageable" reds can easily be kept for 30 years and longer.

STORING WINE


For wines that should be aged, a cellar should have proper :Temperature which does not have rapid fluctuation. 55 degrees Fahrenheit is a good, but you can live with 50 to 57 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 14 degrees Centigrade). Wide swings in temperature will harm the wine. Having too high a temperature will age the wine faster so it won't get as complex as it might have. Having too low a temperature will slow the wine's maturation.Humidity. About 60 percent is right. This helps keep the cork moist. The wine will oxidize if the air (and its oxygen) gets to it. If the cork dries out, it can shrink and let air in. This is another reason to keep the bottles on their sides. The wine itself will help keep the cork moist.

Lack of light.

Lack of vibration.

Lack of strong odors. Whatever it is that is causing the odor stands a good chance of getting through the cork and into the wine

My first wine making experiences

In mid 2007 I decided to look into making Blackberry wine. This is something which I have been thinking about for a few years already and was resisting because I did not want to waste the blackberries on vinegar. So began my journey.

After an accidental blackberry fermentation on my fridge, I started doing abit of reasearch on winemaking and fruit wines I decided to jump into the whole winemaking adventure... well with a couple of toe's first. OK maybe not quite a jump. I picked up the basics from Bosa foods, a local Italian owned store in the Vancouver area which in addition to a great selection of imported food, carries a wide selection of wine making supplies at a great price.

My shopping list

Sodium Metabusulphate - used to steralize the containers.
Vinometre - similar to a thermometer this handy little device tells you the alcohol content of your wine
Hydrometer - required tool which tells you the potential alcohol in your wine as well as a few other measurements which will be of use to you in making your wine the way you want.
1 Gallon Jugs - Because I am getting into winemaking slowly, I decided to go with smaller carboys. These one gallon jugs work perfectly.
Airlocks - These are used to keep oxygen from hitting the wine during secondary fermentation.
Wine bottles - for obvious reasons
Thermometer - very handy as wine making relies heavily on the proper temperature
Yeast - Although most wines will ferment on their own - eventually - yeast will help the process along
Yeast Nutrient - The Yeasty-beasties need some food
Yeast energizer - It is good to have this in wine-making just in case your must stops fermenting pre-maturely.
2 Gallon glass jars - You can use buckets, but I found these great glass jars in the kitchen section of a local department store. They have a loose fitting glass lid which lets Oxygen into the must but keeps the fruit flies out - for the most part.
Honey - Instead of using sugar I wanted to try something different.

That was pretty much it, some people use Campden tablets of some other sulphite to preserve the wine after fermentation, however being the stubborn Kraut that I am, I decided to do things my own way. Hopefully the wine doesn't spoil but we will soon see.

Cheers,

Heinz

Welcome

Hello,

I have recently started to delve into the art of winemaking, Particularly fruit wines and Meads.

This is a journey of discovery and hopefully you will come along for the ride.