# November 2014 Wine of the Month Club



## the_rayway (Nov 2, 2014)

Welcome everyone to the official start of our second year of the Wine of the Month Club!!!

This totally unofficial club is open to anyone who is interested in making a one gallon test/experimental batch and sharing the recipe, process, ups and downs with the rest of the club. 

We like:
a) full recipes with all ingredients and steps as you go along
b) pictures
c) helpful suggestions on recipe ideas, stumped members
d) thinking outside the box
e) pictures! (did I say that already?)

At the end of the month, we would appreciate a recap of the good, the bad and the ugly of the primary fermentation, as well as periodic updates throughout the year as you go along.

At the one year mark, we will all pop open a bottle of the previous year's wine and take pictures, post comments on how it turned out, and hopefully have a tried and true recipe to post int he recipes section.

For those new and returning, I'm looking forward to popping open a bottle of my November 2013 WOTM and posting the results! Also a bit apprehensive as my batch was an apple habanero...

All right, who's in!?!
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Oops! My bad, folks. We're into December and I'm just updating the OP now!

Rayway - Currant/saskatoon/chokecherry/cranberry wine
Winesleeper - Pumpkin Pie wine
Stressbaby - Cranberry Pomegranate
Aryoung1980 - Cranberry
Wineforfun - Acerglyn (maple syrup mead)

We are small, but mighty  Lots of 'holiday' type recipes this month, and rightly so with Thanksgivings, and Christmas on the way. Looking forward to everyone's updates!


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## the_rayway (Nov 4, 2014)

Ok, here is my proposed batch for this month. I need to go fishing in my freezer to see what fruit I have on hand, and what I have stored in other people's freezers 

2 Litres Ribena (black currant)
3 Lbs Raspberries
5 Lbs Saskatoons
3 Lbs Chokecherries
2 Lbs High bush Cranberries
1 Lb Bananas
10 Dried Figs
Several grams Med toast French Oak Chips (primary)
Pectic, Bentonite, K-meta, yeast nutrient
Sugar to 1.095
Yeast TBD

I'm trying for a dark, rich, red wine. Hoping that the flavours will combine for something that doesn't require any (or very little) backsweetening. 

My gallon is approx 4.5L, so the plan is to have a full 4.5L of juice. I will gently heat the saskatoons, chokecherries, cranberries and raspberries to juice them. Saskatoons should yield 1 litre, Raspberries and Chokecherries another 1 litre, cranberries around a half litre. Finish up with the 2L of Ribena and that should cover it.

Once the sugar is added that should make up approx another half-ish litre. It should leave me enough for topping up for a final 1gal finished wine.

_Day 1_
Thaw fruit with pectic enzyme layered in.
_Day 2_
Juice the fruit, cool, add sugar to target O.G., bentonite, oak, nutrient, and a shot of k-meta.
_Day 3_
Pitch yeast - I'll make a decent starter with some of the fruit juice as the Ribena contains sorbate.
_Days 4-10ish (until 1.010)_
Stir well several times per day. At 1.010 rack to carboy.
_Secondary_
Let it go completely dry and sulfite. 
Rack as needed while ageing to 6ish months. At that time, taste test for acid, further oak, and see if it needs a tiny bit of sugar to balance.

Thoughts?


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## winesleeper (Nov 5, 2014)

*Pumpkin Pie Wine*

Halloween is now over and I have a few pie pumpkins. So I’m going to make a Pumpkin Pie Wine this month. I found the recipe on Jack Keller’s WineBlog. Could not find some of the items required, so I have substituted and added a few items. Should be ready to drink by Thanksgiving 2015.

Plans for 1 gallon (Jack Keller’s Recipe):

•	5 lbs peeled and cleaned pie pumpkins, grated
•	2 lbs Demerara (or Turbinado) sugar
•	11-oz can Welch's 100% White Grape Juice frozen concentrate
•	1 tsp finely diced fresh ginger
•	zest and juice of 3 Valencia oranges (or 15 oz Valencia orange juice and zest of any 3 oranges)
•	zest and juice of 1 lemon
•	3 3-inch cinnamon sticks
•	6 whole cloves
•	1 tsp pectic enzyme
•	1/8 tsp grape tannin
•	Water to one gallon (about 3 quarts and 1 cup)
•	1 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
•	Champagne wine yeast

Put water on to boil. Meanwhile, peel pumpkins, remove seeds and grate with food processor. Put pumpkin, sugar and juice of citrus fruit in primary. Combine zests and spices in jelly bag, tie closed, and place in primary. Pour boiling water over ingredients in primary. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Cover primary and allow to cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, thaw grape concentrate. When must is cool add grape concentrate, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient and then stir briefly and re-cover must. Wait 8-10 hours and add activated yeast in starter solution and re-cover the primary. When fermentation is vigorous, ferment three days, stirring daily. Remove spices and strain liquid into secondary, fit airlock and ferment 30 days or until still for 3 days. Rack, top up and refit airlock. After 60 days or when wine clears, rack again and stabilize with 1/2 tsp potassium sorbate and one finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet, top up, and refit airlock. After additional 60 days, sweeten to taste if desired and rack into bottles. Allow to age one year; two is better. [Jack Keller's own recipe]
This was a marvelous golden-white wine that aged wonderfully. If you cannot get the smaller, more tender pie pumpkins get the smallest you can. Get the pie pumpkins as soon as you see them, One or two are required for a gallon of wine (above recipe).

Changes that I have made:
•	Using C&H light brown sugar in place of Demerara sugar
•	Using Tropicana Florida orange juice in place of Valencia orange juice
•	Added 1/16 tsp Potassium Metabisulphite, ½ tsp Yeast Energizer, and 2 tsp Acid Blend
•	Put everything in the straining bag except for the liquid items.
•	½ tsp potassium sorbate (Stabilizing)
•	1/16 tsp potassium metabisulphate (Stabilizing)
•	1 tsp sparkolloid (Clarifier)

Will post update when I get it started.


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## the_rayway (Nov 5, 2014)

Hey @winesleeper !
Nice looking recipe - Jack Keller is a great resource 

If I may put in my 2cents, I would recommend roasting the pumpkins before using them. It caramelizes the flavours a bit and concentrates them. Also, when I did my Pumpkin Hazelnut mead, roasted sweet potato was also added as it seems to boost the pumpkin flavour. 

Looking forward to your progress!


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## Stressbaby (Nov 6, 2014)

I second both of rayway's comments.
Toast the pumpkin
Substitute sweet potatoes for 25% of the pumpkin.
Take this from someone who nursed 3 gallons of pumpkin wine for 2 years before pitching it down the drain.


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## kryptonitewine (Nov 6, 2014)

Hi everyone! Just stopped in to say Hello! I've been out of the brewing thing for awhile due to some family issues. I just don't have the time right now although I sure could use a glass or two to deal with all the BS. 
Glad to see the WOTM club is still moving along!!!


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## winesleeper (Nov 6, 2014)

*Pumpkin Pie Wine Update*

Rayway and Stressbaby, I will make a note in my pumpkin wine file about using sweet potatoes and toasting/roasting the pumpkin first. Maybe I will try that next year, but this time I’m using the recipe above for my base pumpkin wine recipe to base my like or not like of pumpkin wine. Did you guys use small pie pumpkins or the large Halloween pumpkins? They say that it can really change the taste. Will be adding the yeast in the morning. Thanks for the comments.


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## Jericurl (Nov 6, 2014)

I can't wait to see what our 2nd year of WOTM club brings us!
I'm just stopping in for a fly by wave.

I'm not sure if I am going to have anytime at all to start a batch this month but I'm certainly going to try to keep up with all the results.


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## the_rayway (Nov 6, 2014)

@kryptonitewine - hey Jim, good to hear from you! Hope all is calming down on the family side and that we'll see you around more 

@winesleeper - looks good in the pail! I used a pie pumpkin for mine. Didn't want any Jack-o-lantern flavours coming in there. They tend to taste pale and watery at the best of times.

@jericurl - long time, Lady! I hope you'll crack open a bottle of your Nov. 2013 WOTM and share with the rest of the class. Reminds me...need to go and grab a bottle of mine and pop it into the fridge.

I've got chokecherries and high bush cranberries thawing right now. I think my freezer friends are holding out on me as the saskatoons have not shown up yet. It appears I'm missing 5Lbs of blackberries too. Hopefully they'll get dug up by someone tonight. Grrr. Wish I had a properly working deep freeze!


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## winesleeper (Nov 7, 2014)

*Pumpkin Pie Wine Update*

Added the yeast this morning. Starting SG: 1.084 TA: .45% Starting working this afternoon.


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## the_rayway (Nov 8, 2014)

Ok, got mine rolling yesterday as follows:
2 Litres Ribena (black currant)
5 Lbs Saskatoons
5 Lbs Chokecherries
5 Lbs High bush Cranberries
3 Bananas (no skins)
10 Dried Figs, sliced
10 grams Med toast French Oak Chips (primary)
Pectic, Bentonite, K-meta, yeast nutrient, booster rouge
Sugar to 1.106 (oops)
Yeast RC212

Heated the berries until the juices ran, plonked them in a stocking. Added ribena and water to the 4.5 Litre mark. Added sugar to 1.106 (got a little away with myself there). Bentonite, booster rouge, oak, bananas, figs, and kmeta into the bucket.

12 hours later, used pectic enzyme at 3/4 tsp as the cranberries have an exceptional amount of pectin. 24 hours later I pitched the yeast with a bit of a starter.

Juice tastes quite interesting. Almost like a dry red grape wine even though it's got all the sugar. I'm attributing this to the chokecherries right now. Just the juice before adding sugar was at 1.060, so lots of sugar already there to work with!


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## winesleeper (Nov 12, 2014)

*Pumpkin Pie Wine Update*

SG at 1.002 so I racked it to a 4L & 1.5L with airlocks.


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## Stressbaby (Nov 16, 2014)

My WotM entry is a quickie made from Williams and Sonoma Cranberry Pomegranate cider concentrate.

2 qt bottles of Cranberry Pomegranate cider concentrate (pasteurized, no sulfites, but does have some elderberry and pear too I believe).
2 qt water
1/4tsp tannin
100g sugar
1t pectic
4t calcium carbonate
1118 yeast

The water + concentrate wound up at 1.080 so I added 100g sugar to get to 1.090. The pH started at 2.41. 4t of calcium carbonate took it to 3.14, which may still be too low but we'll see. I added pectic, waited several hours, then just pitched the yeast on top, no starter. Ignore the acid blend in the picture below, I didn't use that after I found out what the pH was.


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## aryoung1980 (Nov 16, 2014)

I'm going to be having a late start this month but the plan is to make a cranberry wine. I have just under 3.75lbs of fresh Wisconsin cranberries I want to ferment. I need to do a little reading up before determining a recipe. 

I'll post my recipe and process in the next couple of weeks.


Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making


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## winesleeper (Nov 17, 2014)

*Pumpkin Pie Wine Update*

Well I may have a problem with my Pumpkin Pie wine. The SG moved down to 1.000 and has just stayed there for over 3 days. So I thought it might be a little cool at 69-70 degrees. So I warmed it up to 72-75 degrees for 2 days. The SG is still at 1.000. So I guess it’s done and I will continue on with degassing and stabilizing. Every wine I have done so far has stopped with a SG in the .990 - .994 range. Is this a problem?


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## the_rayway (Nov 18, 2014)

@winesleeper It may be a case of un-fermentable sugars in your demerara sugar. When I made my Pumpkin Mead with bocheted honey it finished at 1.004 because the caramelizing of the honey caused it to have un-fermentable sugars. Bochets are the only time this has happened to me, but I haven't done much/anything with brown sugars. Just my two cents.


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## wineforfun (Nov 18, 2014)

Ok, I will do my best to keep things updated and report back when done. 
Just started an Acerglyn. Ctmaro (Mark) had given me this recipe awhile back, via PM, and I tweaked it a bit. Hope I don't mess it up. I am told and have read it should end up tasting like a semi-sweet bourbon. Not a big bourbon fan but this recipe looked interesting and Mark liked it.

2lb. Great Value clover honey
1lb. "Tahitian" honey(honey I brought back from Bora Bora with me)
25oz. 100% Maple syrup grade A dark amber
1 gal. water
1 1/2 tsp. nutrient (1 tsp. now and at least 1/2 tsp. around 1.080 - 1.090)
1 1/2tsp. acid blend
Lavlin EC-1118 yeast
Starting SG 1.130

Have done some reading on acerglyns and am hoping the yeast will die off around 1.010, leaving it semi-sweet. If it goes dry, I will backsweeten to 1.006-1.010. Going to be fairly high in ABV. Will stir it twice daily, once in morning and once at night.

11-13-14
Mixed all ingredients, less yeast, together.

11-14-14
Added hydrated yeast.

11-17-14
SG 1.090
Added 1/2 tsp. nutrient

11-19-14
SG 1.060
Added 1/4 tsp. nutrient

11-21-14
SG 1.042

11-23-14
SG 1.027
Racked to 1 gal. carboy, 1-750ml and 1-375ml and airlocked all. Still bubbling away a bit so hoping it will die off around 1.010. Sitting around 13%+ ABV at the moment. Noticed the other day, while re-reading the recipe, I forgot to add energizer. Seems to be fermenting away pretty well, so should be ok.

12-10-14
Checked SG and it is at 1.000. CRAP. My calculations have the ABV around 16.9%. Was hoping it would die off around 14%'ish and 1.010 so I wouldn't have to backsweeten. 
No biggie, I will rack it over in a day or so as it is getting a fair amount of sediment building up. Will backsweeten/top off with maple syrup as needed.


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## aryoung1980 (Nov 28, 2014)

I started my cranberry wine today. Thanksgiving feels appropriate for such a task. Unfortunately I had a few hiccups along the way and the wine won't be what I anticipated. 

Below is my recipe and I am unsure of what the final volume will be. Originally I wanted 1 gal but I added too much sugar. I then over diluted the must. I altered my plan for a 1.5 gal batch and figured I'd need 10 pts of water. By the time I got to 8 pts, my OG was down to 1.084. My master plan was to get 1.120. So, I rolled with the punches and left it alone.

5.25 lbs cranberry
3 lbs white sugar
0.40 g k-meta
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
8 pts water, carbon filtered
EC-1118 champagne yeast

I froze and thawed the cranberries twice to help break down the cell walls. After the second thawing I ran them through my blender. I used the pulse setting just to break them apart. Some are still whole and I'll try to pop them open during my daily stirs for the duration of primary.

I added the k-meta to the macerated fruit. 8 hours later I added the pectic enzyme. 13 hours after the k-meta addition I added the nutrient, sugar and water. I rehydrated the yeast and pitched that 13.5 hours after starting. I know I'm running a risk of the k-meta playing havoc on my yeast but I wanted to start experimenting with different wait times.

I'll ferment around 65F and see where it takes me.


Here's the macerated fruit alone before adding to my primary.




Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making


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## Jericurl (Nov 29, 2014)

Oh I bet that is going to turn out fantastic.

Are you going to rack onto any more cranberries or leave as is?

Don't forget to buy a ton of cranberries to shove into the freezer in case you decide this is the best thing you have ever made! I hate that we can only buy cranberries once a year around here.

I'm thinking I may do something similar for Dec 2014 WOTM (it's time to get back in the saddle!) but maybe add some orange juice.


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## cintipam (Nov 29, 2014)

I served cranberry wine I made at thanksgiving. It changed lots between 6 months of age and a year old. I like tart, so the young stuff was fine for me but no one else could stand it. Thursday the very same folks who wouldn't drink it last christmas emptied the double sized bottle. It really really smoothed out.

Now that I've had lots more experience under my belt I believe I would add a big batch or raisins to the primary. It was good, but I think a bunch of raisins and a couple bananas would really make it truly special. That's my plan next go round. Also, I used RC212 yeast to enhance flavors and nose. If you use it be sure to step feed nutrients since it is a hungry yeast.

I just looked back and saw Rayways recipe. RIbena sounds excellent! I didn't know I liked black currants till I added some extract to a blueberry wine I had made. It really added a nice touch. But raisins would be easy to find, cheaper, an still step up my old recipe a big notch.

Pam in cinti


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## aryoung1980 (Nov 29, 2014)

Jericurl said:


> Are you going to rack onto any more cranberries or leave as is?




I am thinking of racking on top of another 1.5lbs of cranberries to make up for my over dilution.



Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making


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## aryoung1980 (Nov 29, 2014)

cintipam said:


> Now that I've had lots more experience under my belt I believe I would add a big batch or raisins to the primary. It was good, but I think a bunch of raisins and a couple bananas would really make it truly special. That's my plan next go round.




I'll keep that in mind because I do plan on making more cranberry wines. This past summer I tried my grandmother's semi dry sparkling cranberry wine and it was the best thing I've ever had.



Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making


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## Jericurl (Nov 29, 2014)

Pam,

I was under the impression that the RC212 was mainly for red wines.
What made you decide to go with it for cranberry?

And what do you think it added to your finished wine rather than using something like D47?


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## cintipam (Nov 29, 2014)

I like D47 a lot and use it alot, but for white wines. 212 is supposed to excel at keeping berry color and aromas for reds. Here are some saved notes i have regarding the 2 yeasts.

Lalvin	BOURGOVIN RC 212	Dry	1105-02	Aged Reds, Young Reds	59-86°	14% Low

Lalvin	ICV D-47	Dry	1080-02	Blush, Dry Whites, Sweet Mead	50-86°	14% Medium

I know it doesn't say much, but I figured cranberry would be a young red that I keep dry which is always my preference. It was other info from WMT that talked about keeping color and aroma. I had tried cranberry with 1118 and it really stripped out a lot of color and flavor. It looked like a blush, and I couldn't tell the berry. The 212 made a big difference. I could honestly tell this was cranberry wine. the color wasn't deep dark red, but glowed like a garnet. It was honestly an awesome wine, but a bit thin on body and a one note on flavor. That's why I want to add raisins and bananas next time.

BTW I really like QA23 for white wines also. It's pretty much my go to now since it has 16% alch tolerance, and I'm prone to lots of fpaks for flavor during final stages of my wine. I found that I need the higher alch or else it turns into cooler territory. Just my personal style that I've adapted to,

Pam in cinti


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## Jericurl (Nov 29, 2014)

Pam, thank you. That is a lot of fantastic information.

I think I am going to take a page out of your book for next month's thread.


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## cintipam (Nov 30, 2014)

I'm flattered, but gotta say if I had access to the stuff that Rayway is using I'd do her recipe in a heartbeat!!! I grow lots of unusual fruits but no chokecherries or black currants yet. BTW she also is using RC212.

The only other yeast I plan to try with cranberry is 1116. It is supposed to be very good for berry wines besides being excellent for stuck ferments. At my LBH the other day he showed me printed info from the company that stated 1116 handled up to 20% alchBV. My original books etc stated 13%, but the official website is now saying 18%. 

I am trying to tame down my Fpaks and get more flavor in up front. It should make a more delicate complex wine, and at this point I'd like to go that direction. Right now I'm getting juice buckets and adding lots of fruit in the primary. This fall I put pawpaws, asian pears, and Hinnomaki yellow gooseberries into a chard using D47 since I hoped to do some battonage. Had to drop that plan since residual bentonite was stripping flavor. It is already fairly smooth tho so I have high hopes for it. 

Pam in cinti


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## cintipam (Nov 30, 2014)

aryoung1980 I'm impressed at your using real cranberries. Looks like you've done some great work already on your wine. Since you've already dealt with pectic enzyme and kmeta and are hoping to up both flavor and sugar you might consider frozen cranberry concentrate. That's all I used in my cranberry wine. I've found using brands with high fructose corn syrup is fine in primary, but for backsweetening at the end I always stick to Old Orchard brand. Somewhere in the past year or so a scientific minded person posted about not using HFCS later since it adds off flavors later, but is perfectly fine to put in primary since the yeast have no trouble digesting it. I've followed that with great success and always have a variety of Old Orchard flavors to fpak my wines.

Pam in cinti


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## jkrug (Dec 3, 2014)

Made a cranberry last year. Drinking it now. Taste just like popping a cranberry in your mouth and all. Very tart but I like it. My turned out a little thin but still delicious. Fun watching people drink it for first time and seeing them pucker.


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## the_rayway (Dec 4, 2014)

Hey everyone! Sorry, I'm behind on everything right now  I'm updating the OP now.

I've racked my wine to glass, and it's dried out very well (.996). Colour is fantastic! I had enough left over for top ups which I've tossed into the fridge too. There was a TON of sediment, but the bags of fruit were decimated when I took them out and gave 'em a squeeze.


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## aryoung1980 (Dec 6, 2014)

My cranberry wine is giving me troubles. The only thing I can think of is that I pitched my yeast too soon after the k-meta. On day 4 my must was still at OG. I decided to pitch 7g of bread yeast to get fermentation started. I figured a small amount of alcohol would protect it until I could get to my LHBS. Well, today is day 8 and I finally was able to get another packet of 1118. I took a hydrometer sample and my must was STILL at 1.092. I tasted my sample; it was good and no suggestions of spoilage. I added a can of Old Orchard cranberry/raspberry and pitched the rehydrated yeast.

I sure hope fermentation starts up. I'll probably add some more nutrient too.


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## the_rayway (Dec 6, 2014)

Sounds like you have some bad wine yeast...and the OG is likely too high for the bread yeast (killing it).

So long as it tastes ok, you should be good to go!


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## aryoung1980 (Dec 11, 2014)

Fermentation started right up with the new yeast. I pulled it off of the fruit tonight. Dosed it with some nutrient and splash racked into a 1 gallon carboy and a 1/2 gallon jug. It's at 1.040 and 68F right now. I'm not sure yet if I will let it finish out in this jug or if I'll rack it again at ~1.010.

Hydrometer sample is quite promising.


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## the_rayway (Jan 2, 2015)

I racked mine today and popped in the KMeta. The colour is awesome, and the taste is...interesting. You can taste the cranberries and chokecherries a ton, but it's incredibly tannic, and very acidic. I'm thinking it might be a good candidate to try a potassium carbonate treatment on. Will definitely wait a good six months before I go that route though, just to see if it smooths out.

I'm also considering oak additions, as I think some toasty flavours could go really well with it.


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## wineforfun (Feb 24, 2015)

Bottled my Acerglyn(from post #17) a month ago. Tried a bottle of it last week and it is different, but ok. Very curious to see how time in the bottle does for this. It is similar to a sweet bourbon, without the harsh bourbon bite. ABV ended up just over 15% after rackings, topping up with maple syrup, etc.


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## Stressbaby (May 17, 2015)

Bottled the Williams Sonoma Cranberry Pomegranate cider wine today.
Original recipe here.
This is a good quickie wine if you have access to the concentrate. It took very little work, and it cleared on its own. I was very pleased with this result. I brought the pH up from 2.41 to 3.14, and probably should have brought it up a little more. I didn't backsweeten this wine at all, but rather added 10ml glycerin and 1/3g Tannin Riche and the result is a reasonably smooth, fruit forward, medium bodied wine.
Here's a pic of the bottles and the dregs.


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## aryoung1980 (May 30, 2015)

I sampled my cranberry wine this morning. Great cranberry flavor but a bit too acidic. I dosed it with k-meta and sorbate. I'll do a few bench trials with some simple syrup to see what I like. Once I know the dosing rate, I'll scale it up and sweeten each bottle individually.


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## aryoung1980 (May 30, 2015)

I did my bench trials and found that I liked 3.75mL of simple syrup per 30mL of wine. This came out to roughly 2 cups of syrup for my 1 gallon batch. My syrup was 2 cups water with 1 cup white sugar. I mixed the syrup and wine all together in a bottling bucket instead of dosing each bottle individually.


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## the_rayway (May 31, 2015)

Looks and sounds great!!


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