How many wine makers do we have here?

[Dawn419]

We love Jack Keller's site, tons of good information there.

We'll be using the Watermelon-Grape Juice Concentrate recipe and adjusting it up to 6 gallons. We brought 4 small watermelons home from my moms, yesterday so I think we're looking really good as far as pure melon juice goes.

We'll take notes and pictures along the way and keep y'all updated on how this goes!

 

[HHandbasket]

Well the annual crush has started in the Amador county/El Dorado county wine apellation areas in California and I tasted my first fresh-picked primitivo (zinfandel) grapes yesterday! Mmmmm, LIKE CANDY!

When I get off work this afternoon, I'm gonna run down to the winery where DH works and watch the crush. I don't make my own wine, but I'm a foodie and love good wine and am fascinated by the entire process. He works in the tasting room right now, but he hopes to work his way up into the winemaking aspect of things there.

I'm excited about the viognier they have coming out in October. I hear it's yummo.

 

[muddstopper]

How many bare feet does it take to crush a crop of grapes? I have had plans on the drawing board to build myself a fruit press all summer, just never got around to it. As our interest in wine makeing continues to grow, a press will have to be in our future before the next harvest. Now that apples are in season, the DW is wanting to make some hard cider. We already have some apple wine blends in the carbouys. Something has also been mentioned about making some vinegar???????

 

[Dawn419]

Thank you again, muddstopper, for your help with the yeast starter!

Watermelon wine is fermenting happily away in the primary as I type this! We got it put together on Sunday and were so pleased to end up with almost 4 gallons of fresh watermelon juice and once we added the white grape juice concentrate and 13 cups of sugar, we added just a hair over a gallon of RO water to top it off. The worst part was zesting and juicing a dozen lemons by hand.

Will post pix later...fixin' to connect up on my newly built computer and retire my dinosaur!

 

[Dawn419]

So far, so good with my new "turbo-charged" computer! It's so fast, compared to my old dinosaur, that I'm wearing a safety belt, helmet and hope I don't get pulled over for speeding!

Click in the link to see pix of the watermelon wine. Will add more pix once we get more fine tuning done on the computer. Just click on the individual pix for descriptions/details.

The wine is smelling really good...all I can smell in here right now is lemons and watermelon!

 

[chicken stalker]

well I'm a little unsure about my spiced orange mead. I started it in January and it has been sitting in a glass gallon with an airlock since. Today I decided I'd bottle it up, but after first taste now I'm not so sure. It's dry, very dry. No honey flavor at all coming through. Can I back sweeten it? If so how?

 

[Dawn419]

Found some hopefully useful information on back sweetening for you, chicken stalker:

Back Sweetening

back sweetening

 

[muddstopper]

I had never head of using Splenda in wine before, but according to the link its supposed to work. What I normally do is add regular sugar everytime I rack my wine off. The yeast in the wine will only work up to a certain acohol level, usually around 11%-12% depending on the type of yeast used. There are yeast types that will work upto around 20%, but those are usually reserved for those making "Shine". Any sugar added after the acohol level is reached will only sweeten the wine.

I never add all my sugar at the start of the wine making process. I prefer to add it a little at a time to make sure that I dont cause a stuck fermentation, and to make sure I dont get the wine to sweet. I will rack the wine, taste test, and then add more sugar . If the recipie calls for 4 cups of sugar, I will usually add 2 cups at the start of fermentation, one cup when I rack it off into the carbouy, and the 4th cup the next time I rack. Then, if the wine is too dry, I will just keep adding sugar every time I rack until the taste suits me.

I question how much Honey was used to make the orange spice mead? The recipes I have found suggest that a gallon of honey will make 5 gal of mead, which means you have to use 4 gal of water. In fact most of the wine recipies call for so much juice and add so much water. I have found that when following those recipies that I lose most of the fruit taste once the wine is made. With my wines, I use all fruit juice with no extra water added, and with my mead I use 1 gal of Honey and two gal of water. I have three gal of mead that needs racking off one more time before placeing in the bottles. At last racking, the wine was still sweet and you could still taste the honey. I havent checked the acohol level but it tasted potent.

 

[chicken stalker]

This is the recipe I used except I used champagne yeast instead.
http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/an-easy-delicious-mead-recipe.htm

 

[kerrysmommy]

my dad is one! i help him make them and he names some after me