Dumped my Watermelon Wine

[FTC Wines]

Well this is a FIRST for me. I dumped 8L of watermelon Wine down the drain today! Started the must 7-6-10, to Jack Kellers recipe with 2 lbs. added fruit per gal. Std. stabilization, racking, sorbate, back sweetening etc. It was BLAH for months & though it would get better. Well after almost 15 months I said enough is enough! It had a bad after taste, almost metallic. I heard watermelon wine is hard to make, now I know. I've made over 200 gallons of wine & never dumped any before today. Roy Fightingtown Creek Wines
Flexible People DON"T Get Bent Out Of Shape

 

[Julie]

I hear ya, I had to do the same thing last year after it sitting in a carboy for a year. I made watermelon the previous year and it was great but last year it just did not work out. And to be honest while I like the it the flavor was not that great that I want to take the chance again.

 

[docanddeb]

Everything that I have read has convinced me not to try it. I have so much wine now that I can't give away fast enough. We have tried a lot of different fruits and have chosen the ones we truly love and want to tweak and improve. Watermelon just isn't on the list right now!

Debbie

 

[Bobp]

Bad watermelon wine

I have researched the watermelon issue quite a bit, as i have heard horror stories myself... AND my wife requested a batch... if you will look at JKellers recipies he states for along time that he does not reccommend the watermelon recipies..... then he came up with one that works...

I beleive the problem lies in the type of melon and how it was treated. All fruits benifit greatly from vine ripening..in my opinion...and from what i read most sugar is created/converted in the last ripining days of the fruits life, also most melons you get at the grocery store or corner farmers market sure seem to have been selected by the farmers,for toughness and long shelf life, and then are trucked in after being picked early enough to survive shipping and expected shelf lifes.

I beleive i will try a batch if i can find the right variety, like the old sugar daddy, sugar baby's, ect... i do not like melon, and the standard black diamonds everybody sells because the last along time just lack the flavor that would drive me to eat any of it...much less devote a year or more to it....

If i come up with some good variety's i'll let you know... If some one an point me in the tried and true direction that would be great.

 

[docanddeb]

I read that one person put an ice bath around the bucket to keep it from overheating as well. THAT made sense to me. Cool ferment will keep more of the flavors intact.

Crimson Sweet was the best variety I ever grew!

Debbie

 

[Wade E]

I cool ferment all of my lighter fruit wines and if I decided to make a watermelon I surely would as I believe that is the main problem with it, that and it usually nit being truly ripe like Bob says.

 

[Bobp]

Diluted juice?

Most recipes i have read for watermelon wine call for added water ... i beleive this also could lead to long term dissapointment.. it's a weak flavor to begin with...

I would go with more actual melon juice and no added water..

With it's propensity to sour quickly, i wonder if there would be a quick way to evaporate some of the natural water creating a concetrate without using heat... more melon flavor maybe???

 

[FTC Wines]

Thanks for all the input. I'll be hard up to try watermelon again. With Apple, Peach, Elderberry, Blackberry & kits turning out so well I wouldn't waste my time! Roy

 

[Julie]

Bobp,

The watermelon's that I used are from a local farmer and very ripe, he plants a field for his family and when they are done with it he was giving the melons away. They were sugar babies, and very sweet and ripe. And I do believe Jack Keller does state that even thou he has come up with a recipe, it can still spoil. It is just an iffy wine to make no matter what you do.

I am wondering if boiling the juice first might not be more effective in preventing if from spoiling. The cool ferment does help but doesn't prevent spoilage.