RJ Spagnols Coffee Port started - RJSpagnols

[jamesngalveston]

a good ruby port should be about 18 to 22 percent....port is not easy at all.
i usually start mine out at 1.100 sg, and use a wyeast dry port yeast culture , when i get to around 10 percent abv I add my brandy...i try to add brandy when i have enough sugar left in the must to have my sweetness to taste....
a port wine never has an addition of a fruit pack are sugar at the end of fermentation...
that sets off the difference from a port wine, from a normal wine.

 

[jamesngalveston]

heres good article on port


http://winemakermag.com/427-luscious-port-wine

 

[beggarsu]

a good ruby port should be about 18 to 22 percent....port is not easy at all.
i usually start mine out at 1.100 sg, and use a wyeast dry port yeast culture , when i get to around 10 percent abv I add my brandy...i try to add brandy when i have enough sugar left in the must to have my sweetness to taste....
a port wine never has an addition of a fruit pack are sugar at the end of fermentation...
that sets off the difference from a port wine, from a normal wine.

If you are adding store bought alcohol or brandy or - what's the point of making wine? That just looks to me like cheating.
Making your own wine it should be yours alone.

A bottle of port costs 10 bucks, a bottle of brandy cost 25-30 bucks .. kind of seems a pointless endeavor.

anyway I'll read the article - seems interesting. thanks

 

[jamesngalveston]

LOL.....First off...I have collected port wines for along time as well as fine whiskeys.
I have some ports that cost 100.00s of dollars. While most are in the 50 to 75.00 range.
1.....A port wine is sweet with out adding sugar at the end, thats why you add the brandy..it stops the fermentation leaving the wine sweet.
Thats the critical step... knowing when to add the brandy to leave the wine sweet.
I guess if you really do not know what a port is, it would not matter.
Hope your wine turns out well.....

 

[SouthernChemist]

If you are adding store bought alcohol or brandy or - what's the point of making wine? That just looks to me like cheating.
Making your own wine it should be yours alone.

Real port (which can only truly be called port) is not even made this way. Fermentation is generally halted about half-way through with a rather potentbrandy called aguardente, which is not much like the brandy you get at the liquor store. The left over grape sugars provide the sweetness. Most of the alcohol comes from the brandy. The blend of grapes (many permitted varietals) provide the flavors.

On a side note, aguardente is sometimes drank with espresso or black coffee.

 

[jamesngalveston]

I have a few batches made using aguardente, but i like the way Eau-de-vie
taste...very light...and try to use a vs brandy, i have used us blackberry in my blackberry which was pretty good....

 

[beggarsu]

LOL.....First off...I have collected port wines for along time as well as fine whiskeys.
I have some ports that cost 100.00s of dollars. While most are in the 50 to 75.00 range.
1.....A port wine is sweet with out adding sugar at the end, thats why you add the brandy..it stops the fermentation leaving the wine sweet.
Thats the critical step... knowing when to add the brandy to leave the wine sweet.
I guess if you really do not know what a port is, it would not matter.
Hope your wine turns out well.....

My taste buds stop working when anything costs more than 25 bucks. I won't allow them to work. That's not a good way to live that I could ever adhere to as a philosphy.
..
If I can't make it myslef and on the inexpensive , it's not a homemade wine, Otherwise what's teh point. The point is to make it myslef, make something that tastes good and not spend a fortune to do so and make something worthwhile that can be given to others as gifts.
..
If it's truly homemade then you should make your own alcohol to stop your own fermentation - I understand the definition - but technically it doesn't have to be brandy - it could be anything - it's just brandy has become the thing.

Anyway I wouldn't call it homemade unless I made my own brandy or aguardente or high alcohol substance that could stop the fermentation.

 

[beggarsu]

Real port (which can only truly be called port) is not even made this way. Fermentation is generally halted about half-way through with a rather potentbrandy called aguardente, which is not much like the brandy you get at the liquor store. The left over grape sugars provide the sweetness. Most of the alcohol comes from the brandy. The blend of grapes (many permitted varietals) provide the flavors.

On a side note, aguardente is sometimes drank with espresso or black coffee.

Then technically as per a definition based on process you could stop it with vodka or Chinese rice wine 60-80 percent or just about anything high alcohol content or even pure alcohol. Pure alcohol might best because then all the taste must be generated by the wine.

the wiki definition supports my idea:

aguardente is a generic term for alcoholic beverages that contain between 29% and 60% alcohol by volume.
..
Both aguardiente and brandy—from the Dutch expression for "burnt (i.e., distilled) wine"—originated as terms for distilled spirits using whatever ingredients were available locally.

 

[beggarsu]

S.G remained at .992 consistent over 3 days. Offset most likely + .01 so might be 1.002.
maybe...
.

I put the wine in 2 times 3 litre jug + 1 times 4 litre jug = a total of 10 litres?

How did 12 litres become 10 ? Evaporation?
The lees were not more that 300-ml. estimate or prob 100-150ml.
I checked the jugs filling others with water I used a one litre pop bottle as a measuring tool having a mark on it where i filled the bottle with 4 exact cups of water. -
the 1 gal takes 4 litres exactly to where i filled the wine right up the neck. . The 3 litre takes 3 litres similarity.
4 + 3 + 3 = 10

Hmmm.....

oh well

So anyone with any idea how 12 litres become 10????

evaporation or wa that the original?

 

[beggarsu]

I guess if you really do not know what a port is, it would not matter.
Hope your wine turns out well.....

Thanks


The idea to add any high alcohol at a certain point is something I can play with - that's interesting.


. I don't want to imitate something that is out there, rather I would wish to create my own taste at reasonable cost.

 

[joeswine]

Wine style port kits

THERE IS SOMETHING TO THE NAME

WINE STYLE PORT KITS

 

[LoneStarLori]

Anxiously awaiting the thread. No matter what you call it.

 

[beggarsu]

THERE IS SOMETHING TO THE NAME

WINE STYLE PORT KITS

AHA !!!

Yes! I looked at the label

"Coffee Port Style"!!!

I am now so educated about ports -

I think i will make my own genuine port with...maybe 40-45 percent vodka.

 

[GaDawg]

If one has to make everything to call it homemade, you can not use a kit

 

[joeswine]

Question???????

I know there are some of uses who made the caramel port kit ,could you PM- ME I have some questions especially if you have already made the coffee port.....that would be a plus in the conversation,

 

[beggarsu]

Ok my coffee port is bottled - it tastes really good.

I bottled 15 times 750 ml bottles and had about 350 ml left over which i sipped as tester.

So that would be 350 bottles if I had 375 ml bottles -so that is the quantity they advertised.

The F-PAck was 1.5 litres added so the combination of my 3 jugs must have been about 10 litres + as previously reported.

11.5 litres divide by 750 ml = 17.33 bottles.

math works out.
So a jug system was better than a possible 11.5 carboy as what I aged was nowhere near 11.5 until F-pack was added on final day..

I added about 10-14 heaping tsp of instant coffee ( maxwell - what I had left in an open jar on the shelf) and had 80 cc of wine conditioner (less than 3 ounces) (has some P sorbate inside) left over from something else so I added that. I also threw in one campden tablet + a few grains of meta-sulphide as a I did a lot of stirring when I finalized here putting all three jugs in a 5 gal carboy to stir in the F-pack etc. I repoured into jugs and plastic bottle to wait a day if any more lees - which there was but only some smudges on the bottom of the jugs before I transferred out to final bottling. I used my own tubing apparatus on a straight wire to siphon out of jugs.





From the leftover sampler tastes really good right now.


I think the tip on instant coffee was quite useful.
If I want to subdivide ( after aging) or give away as gifts I have a couple of cases of beer bottles (500 cc ) with rubber stoppers - they look good.
So when I want to transfer after aged - each two bottles of port = 3 bottles of 500 ml and I saved the fancy labels so I can label whatever it is if I give away as gifts.
All in all - quite a success very tasty- I guess I'll try the black forest next.

 

[Putterrr]

I know there are some of uses who made the caramel port kit ,could you PM- ME I have some questions especially if you have already made the coffee port.....that would be a plus in the conversation,

I also just bottled my coffe port Joeswine style.

I added 2 tbsp of instant coffee to the secondary. After stabilizing there was allot of head space so i added a bottle of WE LE Merlot to top up. Figured it wouldn't hurt the base wine much. After clearing i racked to my pail and added the F-pack. When put back in the carboy, there was a bottle left for later topping up. It sat for 4 months then racked again and 2 tbsp added to the the mix. It sat for another 5 weeks before racking and bottling this Sunday. I added a small amount of glycerin before bottling which brought out the flavours a bit more. I also added 4 Hazelnut-vanilla coffee beens to each bottle. It taste great and i hope everyone likes there gifts this year.

Thx Joe

 

[beggarsu]

Nobody liked my Coffee Port including me. Can't quite figure it - starts to taste ok, smells good but as I drink it - not OK "je ne sais quoi"

I think I put in too much instant coffee about 14- 17 tsps from my notes...

maybe that's it

 

[beggarsu]

I suppose it was too much instant coffee that sent this port style to the graveyard.

I just filtered what was left of it in a 5 micron filter (the original was unfiltered) to see if that would make any difference. The only other thing is I could use the one micron filter on it.

It's now sitting in two litre pop bottles ( sealed to the top in a dark place) to settle before I re-bottle it back to some of the labelled bottles. I could have used 3 and/or 4 litre glass wine jugs (got a whole lot of them) but I want to "see" any detritus - can't see much with this dark wine though- though I will see clearly any dregs at the bottom of the bottles when siphoning out..

Just checked - got 3 times 2 litres = 6 litres + 4 oz "save" bottle, _ It think I used 2-3 campden in the re-racking filtering process Used the whole house filter - which works really well - maybe I should have used the one micron filter but maybe nothing can get the instant coffee out.

Other than that - it might just go down the sink - or maybe I might make my morning coffee with it heh - this hobby is going to alchoholize me...

 

[Putterrr]

Joes original coffee port thread called for 4 tablespoons instant coffee. if you put in 14-17 level teaspoons (with an actual measuring spoon and not a coffee spoon) that would translate to 4 2/3 to 5 2/3 which is not that much more. I only used 2 and it is everyones favourite port style so far

cheers