Get ready Waldo..........
- Thread starter jobe05
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Thanks Waldo. I don't know whats more exciting right now, a few days of R&R with the family, or starting this port (the other family).
Are we going to fortify this in the end? What are you planning for an ending ABV?
If we fortify, do we use:
Brandy?
Everclear?
Or do I put my order in for some local shine?
Are we going to fortify this in the end? What are you planning for an ending ABV?
If we fortify, do we use:
Brandy?
Everclear?
Or do I put my order in for some local shine?
Lets wait and see what the ABV is after the fermentation has ended and then decide. We need to be shooting for around 18%. Another tool for the arsenal. I would recommendusing a pair of panty hose (new) to use for a strainer bag for the blackberries. They seem to inhibit release of particilate into the must better. If we do fortify I wouldrecommend a good brandy
OK Waldo....... Almost ready. I have the order I placed with George so should be good to go except for the panty hose.......
I have a problem with that......... Do we have to? I have a new straining bag.
While passing through Charlotte, I stopped by a brew shop there and he had a sale on Classic Liquors Brandy making kits. He didn't have a plain brandy kit, I was hoping he would so if we had to fortify, it would be all home made. So I just got a Hazelnut Brandy kit to play with.
Due to work responsibilities.... we'll probably start this Saturday if your available.
While passing through Charlotte, I stopped by a brew shop there and he had a sale on Classic Liquors Brandy making kits. He didn't have a plain brandy kit, I was hoping he would so if we had to fortify, it would be all home made. So I just got a Hazelnut Brandy kit to play with.
Due to work responsibilities.... we'll probably start this Saturday if your available.
OK Waldo..... 19 pounds of berries are out of the freezer and thawing. Hopefully they'll be ready in the morning some time to get them in the bucket. My wife used some of my sugar, so may have to do a last minute store run, other than that... Im ready! Oh yea... I have to put the camera on the charger....
The Port has been started!
Per Waldo's recipe and direction, here is what I have so far:
First, here is the room that we will be working in.......
A little cramped, so we'll all need to stand at the door, and don't mind the mess:
The other side: In progress: Johannisburg Reisling (top), Synphony(Right), Barbera (Left) and the gallon jug and smaller bottle (top) is a cherry wine.
Here's where I do all my cleaning......... even bottles ...... YUK!
Per the recipe, here are the supplies we will needfor the must:
And our Guest of Honor:
19 pounds of fresh (then frozen) Blackberries. I don't know how well you can see the size of the berries, but they are HUGE!
Since I have changes the recipe to 3 gallons, I used 1 1/2 cups of the light Malt:
Soaked and crushed 3 campden tablets in a bit of water:
Then mixed the rest of the ingredients as per the directions in a bit of water to desolve, and added to the must:
Mixed 4.5 pounds of sugar with hot water to desolve, added to the must and came out with an SG of 1.094:
Added the Straining bag full of Blackberries and will check back in 8 hours to add the pectic enzyme:
With all the stirring of the ingrediants, a lot of foam is created. It has a nice smell of blackberries and Malt. I questioned the malt at first, but it adds a nice aroma to it that you can actually smell to give you sense of how it's going to taste in the finished product.
More later.Edited by: jobe05
Per Waldo's recipe and direction, here is what I have so far:
First, here is the room that we will be working in.......
A little cramped, so we'll all need to stand at the door, and don't mind the mess:
The other side: In progress: Johannisburg Reisling (top), Synphony(Right), Barbera (Left) and the gallon jug and smaller bottle (top) is a cherry wine.
Here's where I do all my cleaning......... even bottles ...... YUK!
Per the recipe, here are the supplies we will needfor the must:
And our Guest of Honor:
19 pounds of fresh (then frozen) Blackberries. I don't know how well you can see the size of the berries, but they are HUGE!
Since I have changes the recipe to 3 gallons, I used 1 1/2 cups of the light Malt:
Soaked and crushed 3 campden tablets in a bit of water:
Then mixed the rest of the ingredients as per the directions in a bit of water to desolve, and added to the must:
Mixed 4.5 pounds of sugar with hot water to desolve, added to the must and came out with an SG of 1.094:
Added the Straining bag full of Blackberries and will check back in 8 hours to add the pectic enzyme:
With all the stirring of the ingrediants, a lot of foam is created. It has a nice smell of blackberries and Malt. I questioned the malt at first, but it adds a nice aroma to it that you can actually smell to give you sense of how it's going to taste in the finished product.
More later.Edited by: jobe05
Waldo: Must was 74F when I added the Pectic Enzyme last night, this morning, it's 72F. The room is were the main AC duct runs through so it stays pretty cold. For aging and clearing it good, but when Im fermenting I run a small heater in there to keep the room toasty warm (74F or so).
Here is the must when I first opened this morning:
Again... Per your instruction, it's now time to stir it up, crush that bag and add:
Here's the yeast floating on top of the Must:
I'll let this get a good start before I stir it up again, I'm thinking tomorrow morning. I gotta say though, so far I'm not impressed with the fine mesh bag. I't very diffacult to get the must squeezed out of it. Maybe once everyting starts working and it get some CO2 built up in it it will break down easier and I can hand sqeeze it everyday. Right now it's very diffacult to press it with the spoon, bag is very hard (with Berries), I left a lot of head space in the bag, thinking this would give the berries more room to roam.
The malt smell wasn't as noticable this morning. When I tasted it, you could get a hint of it in there, but not as a "side" flavor, but more blended with the fruit to mellow it.
Based on calculating starting SG of 1.094 and if it ends at .996, thats going to give us 13.32% alcohol. Are we going to add sugar during the process after 1.010 to increase the alcohol? I'd like to shoot for 20%, Thoughts?
Here is the must when I first opened this morning:
Again... Per your instruction, it's now time to stir it up, crush that bag and add:
Here's the yeast floating on top of the Must:
I'll let this get a good start before I stir it up again, I'm thinking tomorrow morning. I gotta say though, so far I'm not impressed with the fine mesh bag. I't very diffacult to get the must squeezed out of it. Maybe once everyting starts working and it get some CO2 built up in it it will break down easier and I can hand sqeeze it everyday. Right now it's very diffacult to press it with the spoon, bag is very hard (with Berries), I left a lot of head space in the bag, thinking this would give the berries more room to roam.
The malt smell wasn't as noticable this morning. When I tasted it, you could get a hint of it in there, but not as a "side" flavor, but more blended with the fruit to mellow it.
Based on calculating starting SG of 1.094 and if it ends at .996, thats going to give us 13.32% alcohol. Are we going to add sugar during the process after 1.010 to increase the alcohol? I'd like to shoot for 20%, Thoughts?
I would not worry about squeezing the strainer bag fom this point on jobe until you get ready to remove it from the primary. I would also recommend taking a couple of paper towels, wet them good with some sanitizer and wipe out the inside of your primary down to the must level. Once your fermentation begins you need to punch down the strainer bag a couple of times a day and stir the must gently. When you do get ready to remove the strainer bag just squeeze it gently. Looking good so far podner
I was wondering about the juice on the sides of the bucket, but I figured once it gets going, it's safe. I will wipe it down after I punch the bag down. Your not suppose to squeeze the bag each day? I always have and have ended up with hardly anything left in it after a week. I was wondering how people were doing second runs with the fruit............
I see a second run coming!
I see a second run coming!
Pretty fast fermentation going on Waldo.........
1.050 right now and bubbling strong. The bag was floating on top and just as full as it could be, filled with CO2. Took a lot to get all the co2 out of it to get it to go at least beneath the surface of the must.
Can't really describe the taste yet, except it doesn't take like Blackberry, nor does it have that nice Dark Blackberry color. More red than dark, and just taste....... fruity sweet, but no distinctive blackberry. Wondering if I shouldn't take it to dry, and instead of the grape juice at the end, squeez out 5 pounds of Blackberries and add that juice....... Whaddya think?
Also, if we are just going to 13% (based on the starting SG), should I start adding more sugar (a cup or so at a time) when it gets to 1.010 and feed it up to ...... hopefully 18%+?
1.050 right now and bubbling strong. The bag was floating on top and just as full as it could be, filled with CO2. Took a lot to get all the co2 out of it to get it to go at least beneath the surface of the must.
Can't really describe the taste yet, except it doesn't take like Blackberry, nor does it have that nice Dark Blackberry color. More red than dark, and just taste....... fruity sweet, but no distinctive blackberry. Wondering if I shouldn't take it to dry, and instead of the grape juice at the end, squeez out 5 pounds of Blackberries and add that juice....... Whaddya think?
Also, if we are just going to 13% (based on the starting SG), should I start adding more sugar (a cup or so at a time) when it gets to 1.010 and feed it up to ...... hopefully 18%+?
WALDO!!!!!
Very happy and hungry Yeast................
1.020 right now!
Due to the timing of our post at this moment, and the lower than expected SG right now. I'm going to add sugar to bring the SG to 1.050 again. I'll measur the amount of sugar and let you know.................
Actually............
I'll wait one hour for your response, then add the sugar..... I don't want to make any mistakes, but I don't want to starve any of those hard working yeasties...................
1.050 should get me through till tomorrow night if I screw up so you can get me back on track.
Very happy and hungry Yeast................
1.020 right now!
Due to the timing of our post at this moment, and the lower than expected SG right now. I'm going to add sugar to bring the SG to 1.050 again. I'll measur the amount of sugar and let you know.................
Actually............
I'll wait one hour for your response, then add the sugar..... I don't want to make any mistakes, but I don't want to starve any of those hard working yeasties...................
1.050 should get me through till tomorrow night if I screw up so you can get me back on track.
Hi this is indeed fortuitious. I and a friend are about to make blackberry port tomorrow 16 august I have had them frozen for months as it is winter here in Australia. You recipe puzzles me for a few reasons dont campden tablets stop the ferment by killing the yeast?? I dont understant why you put them in at the start I was allways under the impression to put them in at the end as an anti oxident. Also you sound like you are going to allow the ferment to run its course why dont you want residule sweetnes or do you kill the yeast then add a syrup??
For my part I was thinking of stopping the ferment by adding grape spirit [this is called grappa here] I did find this thread very helpful
Ps this is my first post I just joined about 10 minutes ago
mark blythe
For my part I was thinking of stopping the ferment by adding grape spirit [this is called grappa here] I did find this thread very helpful
Ps this is my first post I just joined about 10 minutes ago
mark blythe
Mark:
Welcome to the forum. From my understanding of the use of campden tablets is that they perserve the fruit and will kill any wild yeast from from fermenting. Preservation of the fruit would be paramount. A good ferment that will increase the alcohol level sufficient to ward off any germs could take a few days. As you can see from my post above, the use of Campden, certainly have in no way slowed fermentation, this is the fastest one I have ever had. Added the yeast Sunday morning at 1.094, 36 hours later, it went to 1.050, 60 hours later, we are at 1.020. Thats amazingly fast.
Just added 3.5 pound of sugar to raise the SG to 1.050. Based on my calculations, if fermented to dry, we would have an ABV of 17.24%....
Not good enough.
Mark, we will sweeten back with the red grape juice that was called for in the recipe. But we'll take this to dry (if Waldo says so) to make sure the yeast are done doing their thing, have nothing more to feed off of and die.
Keep us posted on what you are doing. I'm enjoying this port experiment, and can't wait to do a blueberry next.Edited by: jobe05
Welcome to the forum. From my understanding of the use of campden tablets is that they perserve the fruit and will kill any wild yeast from from fermenting. Preservation of the fruit would be paramount. A good ferment that will increase the alcohol level sufficient to ward off any germs could take a few days. As you can see from my post above, the use of Campden, certainly have in no way slowed fermentation, this is the fastest one I have ever had. Added the yeast Sunday morning at 1.094, 36 hours later, it went to 1.050, 60 hours later, we are at 1.020. Thats amazingly fast.
Just added 3.5 pound of sugar to raise the SG to 1.050. Based on my calculations, if fermented to dry, we would have an ABV of 17.24%....
Not good enough.
Mark, we will sweeten back with the red grape juice that was called for in the recipe. But we'll take this to dry (if Waldo says so) to make sure the yeast are done doing their thing, have nothing more to feed off of and die.
Keep us posted on what you are doing. I'm enjoying this port experiment, and can't wait to do a blueberry next.Edited by: jobe05
PolishWineP
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Welcome Mark! Glad to see an Aussie on board!
The campden will kill off wild yeast that could interfere with the yeast of your choosing. Don't want it to have a mind of it's own.
The campden will kill off wild yeast that could interfere with the yeast of your choosing. Don't want it to have a mind of it's own.
peterCooper
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But, you do wait a day or so after to make sure the campden has done its job before pitching the yeast.
A few questions
1 wild yeast from the fruit?......or wild yeast from the enviorment?
2 It looks like you chose an open fermentation why not a closed fermentor
3 I like the idea of malt being added it would give dome body to the
finished port maybe liquid malt would be better for that than dried malt
4 17.24%ABV.....not good enough !!! a man after my own heart. Here in OZthe beer is getting weaker and weaker alchohol is my drug of choice!
I will let you know how we go tomorrow
We had a go at it last year just fermented it out thin bodied, dry, but very potent about 18% ABV whatABV are you aiming for? Also made some eldeberry wine godd for getting oil stains of concrete and softening paint brushes that about all
cheers mark
1 wild yeast from the fruit?......or wild yeast from the enviorment?
2 It looks like you chose an open fermentation why not a closed fermentor
3 I like the idea of malt being added it would give dome body to the
finished port maybe liquid malt would be better for that than dried malt
4 17.24%ABV.....not good enough !!! a man after my own heart. Here in OZthe beer is getting weaker and weaker alchohol is my drug of choice!
I will let you know how we go tomorrow
We had a go at it last year just fermented it out thin bodied, dry, but very potent about 18% ABV whatABV are you aiming for? Also made some eldeberry wine godd for getting oil stains of concrete and softening paint brushes that about all
cheers mark
