How many wine makers do we have here?

[Canieldonrad]

Eh I would've left it until racking off sediments, just to get all of the sugar and flavor out. I guess I would say freeze it and use it in the next batch.

As far as getting sick, it shouldn't hurt you. If you did any sulfiting to the must then there shouldn't be much left to make you sick. However, there is yeast. And yeast can do some pretty terrible things to your .. uh.. I'll call it an "aura."



edit-

Ok, I surely will. This is my first time making strawberry wine, so I too am curious if the color will remain the same or lighten up?

What do you think? Any thoughts?

Sorry just noticed this post. The only Strawberry wine I have seen tends to be the color of bourbon with a bit of pink added in. But I have had people tell me that sometimes it comes out brilliant pink in color.

 

[kuntrygirl]

The part of the pulp mixture ( and I will try to explain the best that I can) was a gel type substance that was left in the strainer (forgot to include that, so that may change everything because now that I'm thinking about it really wasn't the pulp) after the separation process (confusing?). When I dumped the final mixture in the strainer (after getting all of the pulp out) to allow the liquid to drain into my 5 gallon bucket before the final step, was when I noticed and smelled this winderful preserve-like gel and became curious to how it would taste.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I'm excited to see what the final color will be.

 

[Canieldonrad]

Well the gel would be from pectin. A lot of brewers use a pectic enzyme which will break it down when you begin fermentation, allowing for more material to use when fermenting. It also helps with clarification by breaking up the pectin and allowing the wine to be more transparent. All of the remaining material will find its way to the bottom of the bucket for easy clean up later on in the process. Any fruit based alcoholic beverage will contain pectin in some shape or another. So its not an uncommon thing for people to use.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Aaahhhhh..... Wow!!! Very detailed explanation and easy to understand exactly what you said and what that means. Glad to know that people use the gel. I think I will use it like a spread on my toast and biscuits. Thank you very much for taking the time to explain this to me.

 

[Canieldonrad]

I HAVE A TREAT! Pictures of my partial whole hive mead. My father found a hive that only had drone brood as they had no queen and no viable eggs for a queen cell. I tore into two frames for: Honey, Pollen, and Brood. I used a capping tool to pull the caps off of the honey and to expose brood to the liquid. Then removed sections based on the wires that hold the comb in place.

The honey used was our leftover honey from 2001. The aroma and taste is strongly of end of summer blooms. Very aromatic, and delightful floral tastes. It was mostly crystallized which made transferring easy. It came out in chunks easy to put into quart jars for measuring. But it really proved a problem when stirring in the water. I started with a very high gravity, about 1.102. So I pulled about a gallon of must off. Added more water to reach 1.090 and the bucket is nearly packed. I used different yeast, Premier Cuve'e.

Enjoy.

Image of amount of in comb pollen.



Image of amount in comb honey and brood used. Honey was the top corner, brood in the bottom.



The bag with contents loaded in for steeping.





I did not take a picture of the must, it had a lot of debris and bubbles on the top so the image would've been pretty poor.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I HAVE A TREAT! Pictures of my partial whole hive mead. My father found a hive that only had drone brood as they had no queen and no viable eggs for a queen cell. I tore into two frames for: Honey, Pollen, and Brood. I used a capping tool to pull the caps off of the honey and to expose brood to the liquid. Then removed sections based on the wires that hold the comb in place. The honey used was our leftover honey from 2001. The aroma and taste is strongly of end of summer blooms. Very aromatic, and delightful floral tastes. It was mostly crystallized which made transferring easy. It came out in chunks easy to put into quart jars for measuring. But it really proved a problem when stirring in the water. I started with a very high gravity, about 1.102. So I pulled about a gallon of must off. Added more water to reach 1.090 and the bucket is nearly packed. I used different yeast, Premier Cuve'e. Enjoy. Image of amount of in comb pollen. Image of amount in comb honey and brood used. Honey was the top corner, brood in the bottom. The bag with contents loaded in for steeping. I did not take a picture of the must, it had a lot of debris and bubbles on the top so the image would've been pretty poor.

WOW!!!! Thanks for posting!!!

 

[Totalcolour]

So many more fruit to try.

I want to try:
Muscadine
Pineapple
Fig
Peach
Plum
Watermelon
Banana
Apple
Pear

Any suggestions for new wines?

I like pear/cranberry; it goes very well with festive meals like turkey, or on it's own, or as a summer spritzer. I have made all these too, Pineapple, Fig, Peach, Plum, Watermelon, Apple (fizzy cider), Pear, Apricot., Kiwi.

 

[Totalcolour]

All this mead talk has me VERY interested. I want to try it but I may mess it up. Is there a book called, "Mead Making for Dummies", cause I'm sure I would mess it up?

I have two good ones.


Or this one

 

[kuntrygirl]

All this mead talk has me VERY interested. I want to try it but I may mess it up. Is there a book called, "Mead Making for Dummies", cause I'm sure I would mess it up?

I have two good ones. Or this one

Thank you!