Get ready Waldo..........

[blytheau]

ah the campden has no residual effect, didnt know that must break down then, good to know you dont recomend a boil, or close to, to kill wild yeast on fruit? Is this too hard on the fruit

 

[Waldo]

You are doing great Jobe.

...Sorry podner but we had a new addition to the James clan yesterday evening and I was away. How much sugar did you have to add? Did you dissolve it in some of the must? Edited by: Waldo

 

[jobe05]

Waldo:


Addd 3.5 pounds of suger. Did it in stages, About a pound at a time, mixed withsome must in a measuring cup, then added backand checked SG till it got to 1.050


Mark:


There is a lid and airlock on the bucket. Im shooting for 20 tp 22 % ABV. This yeast will get us close to that, if not 20%, then fortify with something like Brandy, everclear, or just good ol' fashion Moonshine!


Wild yeast is in the air and will attach itself to the fruit. fresh picked Berries here will start to ferment on it's own if just left to sit for any time. Unfortunately, it won't ferment very much alcohol before it peters out and because there is no control of the strains, ya never know what it's going to do to the wine.

Edited by: jobe05

 

[blytheau]

Hi Jobe and Waldo
I got a starter going for my yeast, it looks like about I litre [thats about a QRTfor you blokes] its krausening up allready, and should ready to pitch tomorrow. The fruit is thawing overnight in my shed
The fruit is allready pretty pulpy due to the freezing, Oh I weighed them, we have 12kg of blackberrys over 24lbs so we should be right for 5imp gallons [25litres]
The plan of attack tomorrow is this, a fairly hot water goes into the fruit this should help float out some stalks and crap, mash up fruit with spud masher, I dont want to use a stick mixer or anything to much air and worried that tearing up the seeds might harm the finished product,
do a couple of runs like that to strip out sugars and colour and blackberry flavour. I think I will follow your lead of putting the fruit into a bag and leaving in the fermenter, in this case a boiled to within an inch of its life cheese cloth bag If I am going to need sugar to get the sweetnes up I will add it at the start of the ferment, after finding the SG I will be shooting for SG 1150 to1200 if I need sugar to get it up to that, I will add then. After 1 or 2 days I will kill the ferment with the grappa [moonshine]just howmuch is the question. I would then add the campden tablets as im told this is an antioxident, then rack to secondary for it to clear I suppose thats a few months out of my life. I will rack into a 25litre glass carboy and wrap it black plastic against light strike [is light strike alsoa problem with wine?]I am impressed with your aim of 20 to 22% ABV I would of been happy with 18% about average for our ports here. but youve given me something to aspire to I am working on the idea that my huge starter will prevent wild yeast taking over thankyou for all your advice on this Icant believe that I stumbled on two blokes making port the same week im having a go at it...............IT'S A SMALL WORLD, BUT I WOULD HATE TO PAINT
Cheers mark

 

[jobe05]

Waldo:


1.028 tonight and still bubling strong, based in my calc's, we are right at 13%........ still a ways to go.


When do I add more sugar?


Edit: How rude was that.......


Congradualations Waldo on the new addition to the family..........


It make me shiver to think of all the wine makers that there is going to be in Arkansas in another 20 years...................


I mean............. Who's going to drink all that wine............


I feel a poem building...........Edited by: jobe05

 

[peterCooper]

Congrats Waldo!

Blytheau,

What yeast are you using? Not all yeasts are going to go that high. Looking at you SG start, you must be putting a huge amount of sugar in. Other posts I've seen work with a lower starting SG but add sugar in increments on the way, letting go up and down between 1.050 down to 1.020 and then adding sugar to bring it back up to 1.050, maybe a couple of times but eventually letting it fermnet dry.

Then you back sweeten after you've stabilized.

 

[blytheau]

Just came in from shed almost finished the port extravaganza, SG is 1030 [a light beer] and we've almost exhausted the sugar from the fruit, tastes very good, will add 1 or 2 kilos of sugar to final must. upon reflection aiming for a ridiculously high SG is pointless as I candial in alcoholcontent with the grappa [moonshine] but I do want a sweet por As for the yeast it is a lalvin EC-1118 [champagne region] and ive built up a large starter [I find in homebrewing it is a great way to assure a fast take off] .......more to come hopefully with pics ..............

 

[Waldo]

Thanks all..She was a beautiful baby girl, 6lbs, 8oz. Will post a picture maybe this evening.
OK Jobe..lets get the strainer bag out, squeeze it gently to extract the goodies and siphon it into a carboy. I would go ahead and dissolve your sugar in some of the must add this to the carboy and then siphon from the fermenter into it. How's it tasting?

 

[blytheau]

Friday morning about 8am. port is bubbling away nicely.Ended up with way more must than we planned for, about 30litres instead of 25 litres 6galls not 5galls.So we made a smaller brewin a 5litre flagon. I ended putting 2kgs of dextrose in, that I had laying around for homebrewing. I will let the ferment run for 2 or 3 days then kill it off with grappa [I will rack ontothe grappa to help it mix] then I intend to rack off theprimary, let it settle for a week or so, then park it for a recommended timeas yet unknown, I will be advisedby more experianced people than me. [thats you blokes]but 6 months seems the minimum. We can use the 1 gallon flagonas an experimentfor our fortifying and sweetning..........now some questions please
Is light strike a problem with dark wines, should I wrap my clear glass carboy in black plastic
What about oxidisation? I will fill the carboy right up past the shoulder to minimise exposure to air, [and bung it obviously]even if I have to discard excess port. would some campden tablets act as an antioxident?,
Im not worried about infections because once the grappa hits it nothing will survive. Im workking on the grappa is 100% add 1part grappa to 5 parts port and im in the "ballpark" [couldnt think of aussie equivelant]
Have I made any major blunders that you can see?
thanks mark

 

[jobe05]

Mark:


It would seem that your time line looks good to me, and yes:


1- Keep your dark wines in the dark or cover from exposure to light.


2 - Fill the carboy to whithin an inch of the bung and keep water in the airlock.


I wouldn't add campden at the first rack, but I "THINK" you may add on the second. We'll have to wait for Waldo on that one.


Mine is at 1.020 tonight. I worked long hours yesturday, last night till 4 am, then all day today. Waldo wants me to rack, but I honestly don't have any energy to do it right now...... Sorry Waldo...... It's going to have to wait till Saturday. I'll keep an eye on the SG everyday to see where we are at. Ferment seems to have slowed considerably, so adding sugar at this point, may leave us sweeter than we want. We are right now at 14.13%, and if it goes to dry from here, we'll acheive 17% and may have to fortify from there. I wish it would go higher on it's owne however. What would you recommend? More yeast nutrient? energizer? Sugar? Taste great, but not that strong blackberry flavor I prefer....., but getting there.

 

[Waldo]

Might try a little Yeast Energizer at racking jobe. I think she has plenty of sugar left

 

[blytheau]

Is yeast energizer, the same as yeastnutriant??

 

[jobe05]

Waldo:


Sg tonight was 1.010. I added 1 teaspoon yeast energizer and more sugar to take the SG to 1.020.


At work we installed a new computer system that as with all systems, isn't going well....... So this has been a bad week to start this, unfortunately. I'll be home in the morning, then I have to go to work for a while to conduct interviews. I need to hire 5 people and have put this off all week. Right now the qualifications for the jobs I have open have changed. New qualifications: If you can breath and stand at the same time, pass the drug test by the third time, your the guy!


Any ways...... I should be home by 3 pm, so I'll check the SG, rac and see where we need to go next. I tasted it and could feel the hair starting to grow on my chest, so that means it's getting there. From here, if the SG will go to 1.000, We'll be at 18.21%.... not to bad.


PM me your address, when I rack this, I will send you a sample so you can taste test during the process. I still think we should add Blackberry juice in the end instead of the grape juice, not much blackberry flavor right now, or it's just covered up by the sweetness right now, I'll let you decide.Edited by: jobe05

 

[Waldo]

I am wondering if the malt has masked the blackberry flavor. I have never used it in a wine so not sure what the effect is. Any of you beer makers out there have any thoughts on this or has anyone else used malt in your wine?

 

[blytheau]

How much malt did you use??? liquid or dried???
mark

 

[blytheau]

I would use 3.5kg in a good heavy 25litrebrew, and get a sh*tload of malt flavour, on its own the malt wouldgive youabout 1.056 points and would yield about 5.5%abv at 75% attenuation

 

[masta]

Is yeast energizer, the same as yeastnutrient??

One of the nutrients naturally lacking in most wines is nitrogen. Having
sufficient nitrogen in the fermentation allows yeast to reproduce more
readily. The higher the rate of reproduction, the higher the wine’s rate
of fermentation. Nitrogen also helps the yeast to produce higher levels
of natural enzymes, which means your wine will clear and age quicker.
Having plenty of nitrogen will also increase the yeast’s tolerance to
alcohol.

The most common source of nitrogen is yeast nutrient it comes either in
powder or tablet form. Yeast Nutrient supplies nitrogen to the yeast in
the singular form of a phosphate. Yeast Nutrient is sufficient for make
wines from grapes and other fruits that are similar to grapes such as
currants and berries.

In certain situations yeast energizermay be more beneficial than Yeast
Nutrient. Just like Yeast Nutrient, the Energizer supplies the wine yeast
with much needed nitrogen, but from a wider range of nutrients than just
phosphate. Yeast Energizer contains over a dozen yeast extractive
proteins, along with B1 Vitamin, and di-ammonium phosphate. All are
valuable sources of nitrogen.

Yeast Energizer should be used when fermenting certain types of wines
such as meads, vegetables, herbs, etc. The more the produce is unlike
grapes, the more likely Energizer will be of benefit. Unlike grapes, these
type of musts are typically deficient in the set of nutrients wine yeast are
used to receiving. Yeast Energizer compensates for these deficiencies.

 

[jobe05]

Thanks Masta.... I didn't know the answer to that.


Mark: Following the recipe, I used 1/2 cup per gallon, so 1 1/2 cup for my 3 gallon batch.

 

[Waldo]

Thanks Masta.....Any thoughts on what the malt might be doing to the flavor of thewine? Edited by: Waldo

 

[masta]

Not sure about the malt flavor when adding it to a wine but since it is a small amount and light I would think it has minimal effect on the overall flavor and is added more for body and bit of residual sweetness.