apple pear cider mead

It as been awhile since I vsited mycellar... to it is my kitchen and this tabletis pissingmeoff

Startedby making my own apple-pear juice. Not those ones from china but the nirth american ones

Nornal amount of juice
1 cup honey
1 cup maple syrup eh
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 tsp jamaican aolspice
1.080 start 930 pm nov 12 2011

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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

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.

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.

Blackberry Mead and a Yeast Test

As you may know from my previous batches, I have been using 1118 yeast which is more of a high alcohol champagne yeast. This time I decided to branch out and try a few things different.
Basically I started with pretty much the same base bringing the specific graivity up to 1.096 ish and separated it out into 2 batches of 8 Litres each. I am trying 2 yeasts, K1116 and 71B 1122 Both by Lalvin.



I started the batches at the same temperature at the same time. Both were innoculated at 9:45 PM on June 25th, 2008. We shall see how this experiment goes. I will keep you updated

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)

Agave Mead

I stumbled on this one and instantly thought it would be something Nico would be interested in. I think I will give it a try if I can find the nectar.

Pulque is fermented agave that is traditionally made in mexico, It is also the first step in making tequila. the finished product is sweet with a very unique flavor, the color is very light with, smells like honey



Ingredients:
11 lb Agave Nector ( Dark unfiltered)
5 gal Water
1 Pkg Sweet Mead yeast

FG: 11%
Primary Ferment: 4 days
Secondary Ferment: 5 months
Procedure:
bring 2 gal water to full boil add Agave nector bring liquid back to boil for 10 min.add 3 gallonsof water, cool to 80 F add yeast. put in primary fermenter for 5 days or until first part of fermentation is complete, place in secondary for up to 5 months.

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.

Tej - Ethiopian Honey wine

I was at an Ethiopian restaurant last night (Insert joke here) and had this wonderful drink called "Tej". The description said honey wine, however on speaking with the owner, I found this was far more than a basic Mead. First of all, it also has hops. Upon further reading, I discovered their definition of Hops is quite different. Here is what I found. Comments would be appreciated.


I think the first problem with all attempts to translate Tej recipes is that
"hops" is a translation by analogy. Gesho is a species of buckthorn. DON'T
substitute the ornamental buckthorn or the native Californian species as
they are hazardously potent laxatives.

"Woody hops" versus "leafy hops" refers to both the bark and leaves being
used. The leaves are used alone to make beer (Suwa or Tella) but Tej (or
Mies) uses some combination of bark and leaves.

Obtaining Gesho requires a trip to Washington DC or Toronto. LA probably is
good, too, but I don't know. In Toronto, the address is in Kensington
Market:
Ethiopian Spices
60 Kensington Ave (at Baldwin)
Toronto ON M5T 2K1
416-598-3014
The owner also has another store in the market selling non-food items. I
think it was on Augusta. Another store has some African items, but no
Gesho.



If in Washington, look for stores with names starting with "Merkato". A bit
of searching on the web for "Ethiopian or Eritrean food" should turn up a
list. I tried arranging a mail-order once, but the US-Canadian border
created extra hassle in that it would have taken a lot of exchanged faxes to
sort out the price and delivery. I finally managed to pass through Toronto
on holiday and stocked up.

One member of this group turned up a web link to a store in Denver, but they
didn't reply to emails and I knew that the stores in Washington do a lot of
mail-order.

Gesho is expensive, even in its own habitat.

The flavour of the leaf is quite unlike hops. I used some in place of hops
in a bitter recipe just to characterize the flavour. If I had to
substitute, I would try a small amount of aged hops (like for a lambic) for
the antibacterial action and a handful of yellow birch twigs for a vague
wintergreen-citrus flavour.

For comparison, here's my recipe, obtained in a mixture of sign language,
Tigrinya and Italian (none of which I speak):

(for 16-18 L)
Start:
4 cups powdered Gesho leaves (replace part with bark if
available)
1 1/2 cups malt (whole grains)
1 cup sugar
pkg dry bakers' yeast
5-6 L water
Leave 2 days for fermentation to start

Add:
4 lbs pale honey, including whole combs if possible
2 kg dried dates, chopped
2 kg raisins
Water to make 18 L
Ferment 13 days.

Strain out solids. Add some sugar or honey to taste if too sour. Bulk
condition in a pressure-resistant container (like an olive barrel) 15 days.
Decant and serve while yeast still slowly active.

This recipe gives a result very much like champagne & OJ. It's very easy
drinking and very alcoholic. The sourness is from the lactobacillus
introduced on the malt selected by the antibacterial action of the Gesho.
The flora make quite an impressive sight under the microscope but don't let
that frighten you!

So good luck obtaining Gesho in either form, and I think either recipe would
work. Do you know anyone from that part of the world? You would find them
quite willing to taste test for you.

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.

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