December 2016 Wine of the Month Club

[wineforfun]

Too late on the sorbate. I haven't added any clearing agents except Pectin.

As for the wine, do you also keep the chocolate in the wine for 3-6 months?

I have only used chocolate on a couple of wines. I only left it in for 2 - 4 weeks. It all depends on how much chocolate flavor you want. Try a sample every few weeks and see if it is where you want it.

 

[Julie]

I use 85% Lindt's like wineforfun does but I leave it in for 6 weeks. Chocolate flavor came thru real nice. decbrown, I have used 72% cocoa on an ice wine I made and that left a real nice chocolate flavor as well. After one month taste it to see where the chocolate flavor is as

 

[dcbrown73]

We will see what happens. I still can't figure out what's best. I should just split it and go a normal cherry (something) wine and the fortified wine which I expect might need more chocolate flavor to be a real desert type wine.

 

[wineforfun]

We will see what happens. I still can't figure out what's best. I should just split it and go a normal cherry (something) wine and the fortified wine which I expect might need more chocolate flavor to be a real desert type wine.

All I can add is don't overthink it. No matter what you decide, I am sure it will be fine and if any tweaks were needed, you will know for next time.

It has taken me a few years to heed my own advice concerning winemaking as I am a perfectionist and tend to overthink things in general. Nowadays I don't get as concerned. If it doesn't turn out "as planned" then I know what to do for next time and a lot of the times it turns out being a welcome change.

 

[Jericurl]

Here we go.

Yesterday, thawed 3 frozen bananas and rough chopped them. Then added to boiling water and let them boil for about 20 minutes.
After cooling, I added to my primary.
Added between 9-10 lbs orange blossom honey. SG @ 1.084
Water to just over 3 gallons.
2 tsp of pectic enzyme.

This morning I added D47 yeast. I'll be adding Fermaid K at 24, 48, and 72 hours for nutrients.

 

[BernardSmith]

I use 85% Lindt's like wineforfun does but I leave it in for 6 weeks. Chocolate flavor came thru real nice. decbrown, I have used 72% cocoa on an ice wine I made and that left a real nice chocolate flavor as well. After one month taste it to see where the chocolate flavor is as

Julie, How much chocolate do you add to what volume of wine?
I have made some chocolate extract (about 4 oz of roasted nibs in a scant pint of vodka) and am planning on adding about 1 ounce of the extract to one gallon of my sour (brevis) mead

 

[Julie]

Julie, How much chocolate do you add to what volume of wine?
I have made some chocolate extract (about 4 oz of roasted nibs in a scant pint of vodka) and am planning on adding about 1 ounce of the extract to one gallon of my sour (brevis) mead

Hi BernardSmith, I used 7 0z of Lindt's 85% dark chocolate to 3 gallon of wine.

 

[BernardSmith]

Thanks Julie. If the extract does not give me what I am looking for I now have your suggestion for an alternative.

 

[BernardSmith]

One more question, Julie. Do you roughly chop the chocolate or do you simply break up the block into the sections demarcated by Lindt? Thanks

 

[dcbrown73]

I think I may have screwed up the batch, but I would like your opinion.

After I moved it out of the primary fermentor and into a six gallon carboy. It still had gas in it, but I didn't top it up. After reading around, I was under the impression that the cherry base had SO2 in it. Between the gas left and the SO2, I figured it would be okay until I figured out what to do with it. (add everclear or more juice)

Well, due to the holidays and getting sick. It ended up sitting like that for two weeks. I finally got around to racking it last night. I tasted it and it was ROUGH tasting. Much worse than I remember. Rough enough that it was overpowering the flavors. (I have not back sweetened at all, so it's dry and the darkest cherry wine I've seen thus far by a long shot)

I tested the SO2 levels and it was basically non-existent. (yikes!) So, it's basically been exposed for 3 weeks if you include fermentation (I started it on 12/3/2016)

I added 2lbs of 72% cacao chocolate after racking and 2 1/2 cups of walnuts and 2 grams of SO2 to bring it's SO2 levels up to 50ppm for now. I also topped it up with Welch's Black Cherry 100% juice. (it took about 75% of a 32oz bottle) I expect to let it sit for 2-4 weeks on the chocolate/walnuts before I rack it again.

I would love someone's opinion on if I have ruined it or if this is just how it's expected to taste at this point. (being completely dry and very dark cherry)

I hope it's still good. I had high hopes for this batch invested quite a bit on it for all the cherries, walnuts, chocolate, and cherry base. I would hate to lose it.

 

[dcbrown73]

Hi BernardSmith, I used 7 0z of Lindt's 85% dark chocolate to 3 gallon of wine.

Wow, hope I didn't over do it. I used a pound per three gallons. Well, I used a half-pound per from the first racking post fermentation. I added a pound per at last racking from what I read from RunningWolf.

I only tasted a very slight chocolate taste when I racked it off the 1 pound for six gallons, but then again. It had a very harsh taste that could have been covering the chocolate taste.

 

[wineforfun]

One more question, Julie. Do you roughly chop the chocolate or do you simply break up the block into the sections demarcated by Lindt? Thanks

Can't answer for Julie but when using Lindt, I break the demarcated sections in half or thirds, depending on my mood.

 

[Jericurl]

Still a couple more days to get on December's thread if you guys are interested.

I'll be starting another thread for January this weekend.

 

[Jericurl]

SG down to 1.01 so I racked this last night and added the can of blood orange puree.

That stuff smells vile. Almost like some kind of canned tomato. It tasted fine though and since I'll be adding some orange water I'm hoping the smell eventually dissipates.