home winemaking easy and fun

[Damummis]

I have peach mead & peach wine in airlocks. Just bottled rhubarb. This week I will start elderberry.

 

[saddina]

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/

The joe recipie, an easy, almost always right quick mead. I like it better with lemon, but I don't like oranges to begin with.

 

[3goodeggs]

This is Terry Garey's recipe. She calls it Mulberry revenge.
I have just about worn this book out. I have notes all through it. (she only uses honey but gives the sugar amount as well. This may really be worth purchasing because of your honey connections)
This is for one gallon. I multiply everything by the number of berries I have to use the larger carboys.
3 3/4 quarts water
2 1/4 lbs sugar or 21/2 lbs honey
3-4 lbs fresh mulberries
1tsp acid blend or juice and zest from one small lemon-(I always used the lemons because we had them)
1/8 tsp tannin
1tsp yeast nutrient
1 campden tab- I pour my hot sugar water on top of the fruit, let it cool down then add the enzyme. That way I do not have to use the campden tab for sterilization. Be sure the must is cool first or it will denature the enzyme.
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
one packet Montrachet or Champagne yeast-(again, I am cheap and do not use a whole packet-If you have time to wait. I use one packet per 6 gallon carboy, so one packet per gallon seems like over kill, but f you want to get on with it, use the whole packet. I do sloth wine.)
berries in straining bag, mash them with sterile gloves or potato masher. pour hot water over berries. add acid, tannin, yeast nutrient. wait for temp to come down and add Campden tab. 12 hour later add pectic enzyme if you used the camden tab, otherwise you can use it when the must cools.
write down PA, 24 hours later add yeast, remove bag after two weeks drain, but do not squeeze it. if PA is above 3-4 percent give it another week, then rack to secondary fermenter cover the carboy with something so that the light will not ruin the color, air lock, then 4-6 months check PA and taste. If you like it. bottle it then let it rest a year.
This is Terry Garey's recipe from her book the joy of home wine making. Avon Books New York.
it has kummels and barley wines, potato and parsnip, apples and soda pop. It is worth the purchase.
and like I said, she made all of her recipes based on honey. It is the book you need.

I rack about three times, Fermenter to carboy, then twice more. lastly, I do an extra rack into a large carboy to let it age in it instead of the bottles. I guess, actually that is four rackings. That may be over kill too. I have heard that the flavor is better when it can age together in a batch, rather than in bottles. I have space issues too. But, full or empty it takes up a lot of room. It is a hobby with a quiet presence but it takes it's space.

 

[thepremo1]

wow your giving me alot to process and for that i thankyou
i dont know what Fermaid-K + DAP is?

i get the honey from my work and it isnt anything special is that ok?
for the Meadowfoam Honey you think i could just mix vanilla and honey can call it good?
im not sure what you mean by sugar break??
i'm guessing that is the different times you add the sugar?

i have space issues too!!!! im currently useing saw horses and an old door for a table in the basement, and all the big carboys go under it, and the small one on top.
does anyone use a ferrari bottle filler?
thanks for all the stuff
and i checked that book out of the library when i first started making wine, but it was a litttle high lvl for me and only used it for basing info

 

[thepremo1]

Pumpkin Mead

This is a nice seasonal mead with a beautiful orange color and makes 1 gallon.

•Yeast: D-47 Lalvin
•3 pounds of clover honey
•1 gallon of spring water
•12 ounces of pumpkin
•1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
•1 gallon of spring water
•1 twist of orange peel which is about 1/5th of the total orange peel
Easy to do: Add all your ingredients, stir vigorously then pitch your yeast and aerate for five minutes.

something i found online
i would like to try this time fall comes around

 

[saddina]

Quote:
When it asks for citrus peel, do yourself the favor and zest it, so you don't get the pith (the white bitter part of the peel). Too much pith and you'll have a bitter brew that needs aging out, zesting prevents it.

 

[thepremo1]

so I was inquiring into my wine I had bottled, and I was curious about my mead, like I said I had tasted a little when I bottled it and it wasn’t very good

(it has aged about 3.5 months.
, but I had made two batches, one with more honey than the other,(I used raw honey with like pieces of bee still in it) I got 4 and a half bottles out of the one with more honey so I tasted the half. it was sweet and pleasant, I wouldn’t mind drinking it now. this made me doubt my first taste of the other mead, so I tasted that one and it was
I didn’t use that much more honey in the other batch, so why is it so much better, I used virtually the same recipe