home winemaking easy and fun

[saddina]

Quote:
Mead is the bulk of what I do, my guess is it's still too young to drink 9 months is young to let it age, I usually brew in november the NEXT year's holiday meads, (so what i made last thanksgiving weekend will be bottled for holiday 2010 gifts).

 

[thepremo1]

i have carrot wine going right now, its ... intresting tasting
has anyone used hoey to sweeten the wine, because now that im working for a bee farm, i have like 15 pounds of honey, more than i will use in like 3 years time just eating it,
what do you sugest doing when a batch starts to referment after its been bottled?

 

[saddina]

Quote:
Well 15 lbs would do 5 gals of mead, but it seems you're already struggling there... (find your mead recipie and i'll help you sort it out). When a batch referments, I call it sparkling wine, let it fizz deciently and then store it in a fridge that's been tinkered with to keep wine storage temps. Since I'm fond of sparkling sweet dessert wines backsweetening and fizz are usually what i'm trying for.

 

[thepremo1]

3 pounds honey
3tsp maltic acid
1.5 tsp tartaric acid
.25tsp tannin
.75tsp yeast energizer
campden tablet
oh and spring water
yeast
for 1 gallon
somthing like that
i ment honey for a wine sweetener, instead of conditioner or suger
when its "fizzing", what about bottles blowing up?
i found a guy on craigslist selling 1000 bottles for 20 bucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im called him, but he says that someone is suppost to pick them up to day and he is alittle over an hours drive away away so i guess i missed out
im pretty bummed

 

[saddina]

Quote:
I've had 1 bottle blow in 10 years, it was a corked bottle in 112 degree heat. I use grolich style swing caps so they stay put. capped bottles worked too (had a deal with the guys I worked with, they'd bring me bottles, i'd recycle them with more beer). You should be able to swap in the honey tbsp for tbsp for sugar (i've been toying with agave in that manner in some gallon batches). Your recipie seems workable, how long did you age? mead isn't a quick drink. (I do have a recipie for a fast & hot one but it's the onlt "speedy" mead).

Oh yes... and since it spends so long in the same vessel sterilization is a must, things can get really funky if you break sanitation. (I'm in the middle of 6 galons of orange spice vineagar because mr saddi spaced off steralizing the hygro and wine thief.

)

 

[3goodeggs]

orange spice vinegar sounds fabulous. don't wollop Mr Saddi yet! It maybe a good thing.

 

[saddina]

Quote:
I have plans to make it into a vinagrette for spinach and wild greens salads. Origionally it was the base for some spiced holiday hot toddies, Wassil gone wild, if you will.

 

[thepremo1]

they aged about 2and a half months now.
my first bottle i ever bottled blow up
but you live and you learn, ever since then i have been very scidish when it comes to bubbles in the bottle
i cork most of my bottles, is that not the way to go?
the other thing i do is since i get all my bottles from a bar down the road, their all fifth bottles, i just put on their screw caps and drink those ones first.

 

[3goodeggs]

Quote:
I have plans to make it into a vinagrette for spinach and wild greens salads. Origionally it was the base for some spiced holiday hot toddies, Wassil gone wild, if you will.

I made some 'seconds' wine from the must of a couple fermenters, and it needed something, so I put in cinnamon and allspice, but did not think about putting it in cheese cloth in order to fish it out. By the time it fermented out it was as strong as cough syrup. I have gallons of it and no idea what to do with it.
medicinal? hot- with red wine? I think it would just ruin more red wine. I could clean the bathrooms with it at Christmas time!

I like this thread. I enjoy making wine more than drinking it though.

 

[saddina]

Quote:
Way too young to drink

. Try it again in November. Corking is good for still wines, but unless you're using wire baskets, like champange corks, the pressure in the bottle can pop the corks. You'll want to either cap them like beer bottles, or use a swing cap to stop the popping, or else store them cool. I do both, use swing caps AND store them in a retrofitted fridge that keeps them cooler.