# jack keller's recipes



## pmdbama

i've noticed that a lot of new guys (such as myself) get referred to jack keller's website for fruit wine recipes, but at the same time, most people here recommend 5-6 lbs of fruit per gallon yield. jack's recipes usually call for less than that.

i used jack's 3rd recipe for strawberry wine (going slightly over) meaning I used 18 lbs strawberries and 2 lb raisins for a 5gal batch. i'm wondering now if i should add a few pounds more while she's fermenting away? i was planning on adding 2-4 lbs later as a back sweetener to make it semi-sweet.

or am i just missing something?


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## JasonH

Jack's site and his recipes are great. I use them as a guideline for all my wines. Still, it just makes sense that if you want more fruit flavor you should use more fruit per gallon. One thing I like about this site is that the people here really strive to make great wines and that usually means adding more fruit per gallon. I have made strawberry in the past and would suggest you use 6 lbs a gallon to really concentrate the flavor. My last batch was 5 lbs per gallon and it was good, but it could of been better.


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## Tom

Jack's recipes are low in flavor and high in alcohol. Personally I would not use them and here's why.
He does NOT tell you what the starting gravity s/b. Just add sugar blindly.
He does NOT tell you to ck the TA.. Just add acid blend
just t name a few.
Always know what gravity you want. For fruit wines no higher than 1.085. ALL of his are 12%+. Using that the alcohol will over power the fruit.
Ck here 1st and you will make a great Fruit wine.
Raisins will help in body but you need more than 3#'s of Strawberry per gal. In fact Strawberry I suggest 6-8# per gal as its light in flavor and high in water.. You will also want to make a F-Pac. ( do a search here for that) and back sweeten. Both or which Jack does not mention.


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## Goodfella

I agree with everything Tom said.


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## pmdbama

that's what i figured. well, off to use the boiling off method to figure out o.g. then i'll get back you guys. there's a fix somewhere.


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## Tom

add as much#'s you started with. Go to Sams and pick up 2 bags (frozen)


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## BobF

Tom said:


> Jack's recipes are low in flavor and high in alcohol. Personally I would not use them and here's why.
> He does NOT tell you what the starting gravity s/b. Just add sugar blindly.
> He does NOT tell you to ck the TA.. Just add acid blend
> just t name a few.
> Always know what gravity you want. For fruit wines no higher than 1.085. ALL of his are 12%+. Using that the alcohol will over power the fruit.
> Ck here 1st and you will make a great Fruit wine.
> Raisins will help in body but you need more than 3#'s of Strawberry per gal. In fact Strawberry I suggest 6-8# per gal as its light in flavor and high in water.. You will also want to make a F-Pac. ( do a search here for that) and back sweeten. Both or which Jack does not mention.


 
If you read all of the articles on keller's site, instead of just looking at recipes, you'll see that using a hydro to get to your desired SG and acid testing to get to your desire acid level are highly recommended bu keller.

He also explains things like sulftite (campden) use, which isn't always mentioned in the recipes. 

That's one of the things I really like about his site. As difficult as it is to navigate, if you take in all of his site's content, you'll understand the why behind what goes into recipes.

OTOH, you can just follow the recipes and get decent wine.


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## pmdbama

alright. i used the boiling off calculator and the ext abv is 14.9. I'm not happy. 

i'm rethinking adding more berries to the recipe, because that'll only add more sugar and the abv is already higher than i'd like. 

i may just resort to topping off using f-pack at the end to add body and flavor. what do you guys think (looks like i'm gonna loose quite a bit after first racking. a lot of lees at the bottom)


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## Wade E

If you add more fruit and more water or just fruit youll be creating more volume which will bring the gravity down.


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## Luc

Tom said:


> Jack's recipes are low in flavor and high in alcohol. Personally I would not use them and here's why.
> He does NOT tell you what the starting gravity s/b. Just add sugar blindly.
> He does NOT tell you to ck the TA.. Just add acid blend
> just t name a few.
> Always know what gravity you want. For fruit wines no higher than 1.085. ALL of his are 12%+. Using that the alcohol will over power the fruit.
> Ck here 1st and you will make a great Fruit wine.
> Raisins will help in body but you need more than 3#'s of Strawberry per gal. In fact Strawberry I suggest 6-8# per gal as its light in flavor and high in water.. You will also want to make a F-Pac. ( do a search here for that) and back sweeten. Both or which Jack does not mention.




I agree with most of this statement but not all.
I am not here to defend jack, as he is quite capable of doing that himself. However....

The point is that people just go to jack's site and scavenge recipes and do not read the rest of his site.
That is the same reason why I don't want my recipes be placed on this and any other forums.
Jack (just like me) has a method for winemaking. And if you do not follow that method and just take out the recipe, the wine will not be like it was meant to be.

Jack's wines are high in alcohol (12% up) if you just examine the recipe. However on his website he advocated racking each wine at least 4 times. When filling up this will lower the alcohol to the meant 11%.

On my site I always give you the recipe AND the way it was made and calculated so you can adjust it to your own fruit quality.
If you just take out the recipe, my wines could also disappoint you easily.

About the amount of fruit used: I can concur with that.
In my opinion most wines are made with a too low fruit count.
Think cider made from pressed apples and not dilluted. Think grapewine. No winery in his good mind will water down grapejuice.

Take your fruit. Sample the pure juice and adjust with water, acid and sugar in function of the quality of the juice.

Remember most recipes water down and then have to add acid to bring the acid level up.
I advocate to measure the pure juice and then water down as much as needed to bring acid to an acceptable level. That will give you a more full bodied wine and you will not have to add raisins to create the body.

My next web-log story will for example be on blackberries. My blackberry juice measured an acidity of 8.
You just have to water the amount of juice down with a quart of the volume to get an acidity of 6.
That will give you a far better wine as when just taking a volume of berries and water down and then add acid again.

Take your pick.

Luc


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## pmdbama

well, here's what i figure i'll do to try and fix the issue and you guys let me know what you think.

when i rack in a couple weeks, i'll be losing some volume, so my idea is to take 8-10 more lbs of strawberries, juice them, then cook the juice down to reduce volume to fit in the carboy.


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## Wade E

Well, Im not sure if you are sweetening his wine after it is stabilized or if you are trying to make it ferment again.


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## pmdbama

it would continue to ferment. i'm just trying to figure out a way to correct my "under-fruitted" wine. I'm just over 1 week in secondary, so i figure adding fruit to correct for body and flavor at this point wouldn't do any harm. Then, of course, f-pack later to taste.


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## Wade E

That would work then as youll be upping the volume but by comcentrating it like you are planing to do wont add much volume and youll be adding sugar which might up the abv.


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## kegmeister

Here is what I have found with fruit wine. I'll use plum as a specific example.
If I make a batch of plum wine with 6 pounds of fruit per gallon that is usually about 2/3 fruit 1/3 water and sugar. But I have tried it with more fruit and less water and more water and less fruit. The basic result is with more fruit you will get a more complex wine, it will be more difficult to clear and definitely need to age longer, in bulk and in bottle, to reach its potential. With less fruit it will clear and mature faster and be a lighter wine with a hint of plum flavor.

one is not necessarily better than the other, both can be quite good. Wine people will tell you that bigger, bolder, heavier, is better but whole parts of the world relish in simpler, lighter wines too (nouveau beaujolais for instance). The decision is yours, thats half the fun of making your own after all.


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## jtm4300

I need a recipe for Jalopeno wine


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## JackKeller

jtm4300 said:


> I need a recipe for Jalopeno wine



My original recipe is at Requested Recipe: Jalapeno Wine.. I have made this wine nine times. I entered it in four competitions and won four best of class awards (two blue ribbons, two gold medals) and stopped entering it after that. It just didn't look like it was going to win a Best of Show or Grand Champion.

Please read my intro on jalapenos. Buy one and take a bite of it outside the market to determine whether it is mild or hot before buying more and making the wine. You don't want to be disappointed later.

I want to thank Luc for his very well-worded reply to the original topic. If you use my recipes and did not know what he explained until reading his reply then I am disappointed that you did not read much of my site. It is laid out to educate and walk you to the recipes. By the time you get to them you should know what Luc so succinctly said. By the way, Luc has one of the best winemaking blogs on the net and I have reported on his results and cited it on my own blog.


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## vacuumpumpman

I have made your Jalapeno wine recipe from your website - and yes it is hot - just the way I like it !!

Thanks again !


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## aer

*JAck KEllers recipes*

The only thing I can add to this is that I use Jack's recipes as they are regularly. They turn out great, very tasty and have never had a problem with them. You just have to read the whole blog and catch on to his methods.


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## kyjake

I never start a wine I haven't made before without consulting Jack's site,seeing his recipe ,comments in his web site and anything in his blog I can find.The lemon wine I have just started got some idea's from his blog subject on lemon mead.


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## roland tourangeau

jtm4300 said:


> J'ai besoin d'une recette pour le vin Jalopeno
> [/CITATION]


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