# cranberry wine, anyone interrested?



## davepopularcpt (Dec 9, 2007)

I've made several batches of cranberry wine, ameliorated with white and/or red grape juice concentrate. It aged several years and sadly we drank the last of it on Thanksgiving. If you're willing to age it for a few years it's an especially good and beautiful glass. Let me know if you'ld like the recipe.


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## Sacalait (Dec 9, 2007)

The only cranberries we get doen here come in a can in jelled form.


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## sandmanxy (Dec 11, 2007)

*cranberry wine*

does it work with dried fruit?


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## Kevinski324 (Dec 14, 2007)

*I'll try it..*

Yes, please send me the recipe, I'll give it a shot.
Thanks, Kevin


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## davepopularcpt (Dec 21, 2007)

20# cranberries, fresh then frozen then crushed
1# chopped raisins
1qt. red grape concentrate or enough red juice to give your must a ruby color
12.5# white sugar
7.5 qt. HOT water
3tsp yeast nutrient
3 or 4 tsp. pectic emzyme
1.5 tsp liquid tannin
10 campden tablets crushed 
10 qt. cold water

[step 1 - combine cranberries, raisins and hot water in your primary fermenter, allow mix to steep for about 10 minutes and mix in the sugar until it's fully dissolved. Next, add red grap juice or concentrate to the mix then add cold water. By now the must will be a very sexy red color. Adjust the acidity to 6.0 to 8.0 g/l tartaric and specific gravity to 1.09 ish. add yeast nutrient pectic emzyme liquid tannin and campden tablets. Allow the must to sit overnight or until it temp. is around 70 deg.F
step 2- Start and then add Narbonne yeast or a yeast that tolerates a little acidity (Montrachet red is good). If you don't see fermentation in 24 hrs, try a little warmth, it should start.
step 3 - When ferment slows (About 7 days) strain out the skins, seeds and pulp. This step is easier if you put the mush in a nylon strainer bag at the beginning. Squeeze the pulp thoroughly. You can do it by hand in this quantity. Now rack the wine into a sanitized 5 gal. carboy, top up and put on an airlock. Rack again after 3 weeks. Bulk age about 3 months.
step 4- depending on your preference at this point, fine and/or filter your wine and bottle it. You can play around with wine sweetner if you like, but I don't. Cold stabilizing also mellows out the wine quicker and I do recommend this, especially if you can do it before you bottle the wine. Give it at least another 9 months ageing to do it justice. The longer you wait to drink it, the better it will be. Good luck and oh yes, your local supermarket will sell off it's cranberries cheap just after Christmas! Let me know how it goes.


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## Shiraz4me (Jan 4, 2008)

*Yum!*

Yum, I must try this recipe out! Thank you so much


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## bikerangie (Jan 19, 2008)

I made a batch using a very similar recipe last fall. Good stuff! What else could I possibly do with a 25# bag we got for nothing?
Watching my husband crush the cranberries between two cookie sheets was priceless.


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## Benjo's Mom (Aug 22, 2008)

Sounds delicious! I will keep my eye out for the after Christmas sales on cranberries. I bet this is healthy too


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## finnbee (Jan 1, 2009)

Hi! I just put together a batch; have never made it so it's a guess. What is your recipe? I used the same one I used for grapes and cherries; that was lovely, rather portlike. Because it was a tad sweet, I thought an equal amount of sugar, mixed with the cranberry mash, would help it come out about right...
thanks!
finnbee


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## WaWa (Sep 12, 2009)

Hey Dave
I made cranberry wine recently from juice. I've just bottled it and I'm a little disapointed in it because it is rather thin . I added banana gravy and it improved slightly. In your opinion, will it improve much with age? How long?
The colour in gorgeous though!!!


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## Midwest Vintner (Sep 13, 2009)

WaWa said:


> Hey Dave
> I made cranberry wine recently from juice. I've just bottled it and I'm a little disapointed in it because it is rather thin . I added banana gravy and it improved slightly. In your opinion, will it improve much with age? How long?
> The colour in gorgeous though!!!



cranberry is much like blueberry. it can be over a year before it even starts to get good. better to let it go 2 years. we have opened bottles from 4 months- 2 years in almost every variety we've made. some make little difference after 1 year. others will seemingly get better after 2 years even! typically anything high in acid will age slow and most darker berries are like this too.

wines i try to let age more than most:
-elderberry
-blueberry
-blackberry
-cranberry
-green tomato
-gooseberry
-cherry
-pear
-peach
-black current
-any red wine (merlot is the only we've done)

wines that need age, but won't change as much after a year:
-raspberry (<can really go into both categories, depending on how it's made)
-strawberry
-pineapple
-jalapeno
-pecan
-apple


i can't think of others right now, but this is what i've found in my experience. depending on how the wine is prepared, you can change how long it's going to take. if you like a sweeter wine, you can mask an under-aged wine some with sugar. a dry wine is hard to mask mistakes and a young wine. a great dry wine is harder to make! also, a low-acid start will make aging faster (ex. starting with a pH of 3.6 vs 3.4). this will make the bitterness of the acid be less pronounced in a younger wine. the wine won't be as protected though. it will need to be drank within 18 months or so or you can drink vinegar.


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## WaWa (Sep 14, 2009)

Thanks so much, I just need to be patient!


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## Tom (Sep 14, 2009)

A few Important things to remember:

1st the 3 "P's"

Patience
Patience
Patience

And

The 3 "T's"

Taste
Taste
Taste
Thru the process
"You can not rush wine before it's time"


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## Midwest Vintner (Sep 14, 2009)

Tom said:


> "You can not rush wine before it's time"



you sound like my dad! he says that all the time. might be that he's over 60 and doesn't want push himself though. lol it's very true though. 

aging any wine will produce better results until it hits it's peak. i think most of the fruit wines will peak in the ~1.5-3 year area, but as always with aging a wine, it can spoil. acid, apv, and storage will affect how well it does.


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## afss (Nov 9, 2010)

decided to give this one a go for my first fruit wine. I was given a box, worked out to about 20 lbs. I had to seperate it into 2 different primaries as it wouldn't fit into one with much room for a head.

i mixed everything up tonight except the tannin (i'll pick it up tomorrow) and the yeast. What lalvin would be a good choice? from the limited knowledge and reading i have done i think K1V-1116 looks to be a good one but am open to feed back.

i tested the sg at 1.095 or so and the acid (first time i have done an acid test) seems to be around 7. if it was too high or too low what would you add to adjust it?

Thanks


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## Wade E (Nov 9, 2010)

Ive made cranberry wine twice and loved it both times. Its almost getting time to start another batch here also.


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## afss (Nov 9, 2010)

any ideas on the K1V or the acid?


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## Wade E (Nov 9, 2010)

The acid is very good for a cranberry and its usually higher and we have to struggle to get it down or just deal with it so your in real good shape there. Thew K1V should do fine for this. Sorry I completely missed your question there somehow.


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## Luc (Nov 10, 2010)

sandmanxy said:


> does it work with dried fruit?



I just made a cranberry wine from dried cranberries.
Dried cranberries are the only ones obtainable here for a good price. Fresh cranberries cost way to much here in Holland.

Well to sum it up, it was bad !!!
Maybe after aging a year it will be good, but at this stage I am not willing to drink it.

Luc


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## afss (Nov 10, 2010)

no worries Wade, I do that too sometimes on other forums i am on. It looks like a great color alread and its only been sitting for about 12 hours now. I'll add the tannin tonight and then the yeast.


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## Truebrew (Nov 27, 2010)

Luc said:


> I just made a cranberry wine from dried cranberries.
> Dried cranberries are the only ones obtainable here for a good price. Fresh cranberries cost way to much here in Holland.
> 
> Well to sum it up, it was bad !!!
> ...



So Luc, just how bad was it? I was contemplating a dried cranberry/almond wine but perhaps I should just move on to something else?


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## Tom (Nov 27, 2010)

I have not used dried Cranberry. I have made cranberry wine both from fresh fruit and 100% juice. Both came out good.
LUC, recipe?


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## Wade E (Nov 27, 2010)

Ive made it with the Vintners Harvest wine base and it came out real good. I would imagine the Walkers Fruit farm 5 gallon bucket of juice would be pretty darn good!


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