Michigan Wine

[wetneck]

Just stopped in to say hello. Im a rookie to wine but not really new to fermentation. I also want to start making beer because it seems like something to do while waiting for my wine to finish. A friend told me i should start making wine and it sounds fun. Ill probably give more away than I'll drink but i do like wine, i just dont have a sophisticated pallet. Apple wine is my favorite but im not a big cider fan. Sour apples are the best and hoping to make some tart apple wine. Had request to make chocolate wine and banana wine. Yeah, fufu stuff lol, and yeah its females requesting all this. Ill probably get some granny smith apples to get started and going to try banana wine also since they are inexpensive.

Always open to suggestions.

So...

Hello! and hopefully this will be cool.

 

[salcoco]

a raspberry chocolate port can be addictive

 

[wetneck]

a raspberry chocolate port can be addictive

That sounds good, do you have a recipe?

 

[sour_grapes]

Welcome to WMT!

 

[winemaker81]

Welcome to WMT!

I suggest you browse the Beginners, Country Wines, Kit Wines, and General forums. Read the threads that catch your attention. You'll pick up a lot of good information quickly. Don't be afraid to ask questions.

@salcoco's comment regarding port is a good one! I have a Chocolate Raspberry Port bulk aging now, and have 3+ yo Black Forest (Chocolate Cherry) and Coffee ports. These are kits, which are fun to make.

Had request to make chocolate wine and banana wine. Yeah, fufu stuff lol, and yeah its females requesting all this.

We have folks who make wine from everything you can imagine, and from some things that may make you cringe.

You will find folks on this forum who make only grape wines, only fruit wines, and some of us will ferment anything that sounds good. I haven't made it myself, but banana wine is supposed to be good. It's on my list .....

 

[heatherd]

Welcome! I agree with @salcoco about port, as I have made coffee port that I and everyone I know love. It is a kit and I add espresso powder, heavy toast oak, and then fortify with brandy. Very yummy. Coffee Dessert Wine Kit - Pre-order Now! - RJS Cru Specialty Limited Release

 

[ChuckD]

Welcome to WMT. Yooper or Lower? Lots is midwesterners here and from around the globe.

 

[BigDaveK]

Welcome to WMT!
Skeeter Pee and Dragon Blood are quick wines you could try. We're talking a month or less. MANY posts here about them.
Forget the "sophisticated palate" idea. If it tastes good that's all that matters. If you want to educate your mouth you can - or not.
I recently made a banana wine that I'm excited about. Have some bad news for you, though - it's supposed to be good in about a year, but REALLY good in 2 years. I hope I can wait.
Best hobby in the world! Have fun!

 

[salcoco]

Strawberry-Chocolate Wine


4 pounds sliced ripe strawberries (frozen sliced have best ripeness)
4 oz Dutched cocoa powder
11.5-oz can Welch's 100% Red Grape frozen concentrate
1 1/2 lb finely granulated sugar
2 tsp acid blend
1 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1/8 oz powdered grape tannin
1 finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet
5 pts water
1 pkt Gervin Wine Yeast Varietal B, or Lalvin 71B-1122
If using frozen strawberries, thaw. In a primary, pour into a fine-meshed nylon straining bag and tie closed. Do not mash.

Measure the Dutched cocoa powder (see Dutched Cocoa Powder, my February 5th, 2012 WineBlog entry for background on Dutched cocoa powder) in dry ounces and add to one pint of warm water in a blender, pulsing until thoroughly mixed. Add tannin, acid blend and yeast nutrient and pulse again to ensure all are well mixed and then set aside.

Pour the sugar over the strawberries and pour the boiling water over the sugar. Stir very well to dissolve sugar. Add the thawed grape concentrate and stir again to integrate. Finally, add the cocoa water while stirring and continue stirring for a full minute. Cover the primary and set aside to cool to room temperature.

When cooled, add activated yeast in a starter solution and cover primary. Punch down the bag of strawberries several times a day, checking their condition after several days. When they start looking thoroughly ravaged by the yeast (about 4-5 days), remove the bag and hang to drip (do NOT squeeze) to extract readily available liquid (I hang the bag from a kitchen cabinet door handle with a bowl underneath for about 20-30 minutes). Add dripped liquid back to primary and cover primary. Discard the strawberry pulp.

When the vigorous fermentation slows, transfer to secondary and attach an airlock. Do not top up. Allow fermentation to finish and rack, adding the finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet and then top up. Set aside in dark place for 60 days and rack again; top up with distilled water (this will not noticeably affect the flavor or alcohol level). Return to darkness another 60 days and rack again, topping up as before. Set aside in darkness 4-6 months to bulk age. Rack if required, bottle and age an additional 6 months before tasting. Yes, it is a protracted process, but well worth it. [Jack Keller's own recipe]

The resulting wine is full-bodied and delicious, the marriage of strawberry and chocolate perfect. To retain color, this wine is best bottled in dark glass and cellared in darkness or very low light. It should be consumed within a year -- two years at most."

I know that his chocolate addition is pre-fermentation, but you could probably adapt it for your needs x



use raspberry in place of strawberry

 

[wetneck]

Welcome to WMT!

I suggest you browse the Beginners, Country Wines, Kit Wines, and General forums. Read the threads that catch your attention. You'll pick up a lot of good information quickly. Don't be afraid to ask questions.

@salcoco's comment regarding port is a good one! I have a Chocolate Raspberry Port bulk aging now, and have 3+ yo Black Forest (Chocolate Cherry) and Coffee ports. These are kits, which are fun to make.


We have folks who make wine from everything you can imagine, and from some things that may make you cringe.

You will find folks on this forum who make only grape wines, only fruit wines, and some of us will ferment anything that sounds good. I haven't made it myself, but banana wine is supposed to be good. It's on my list .....

Hey, thanks for the response. Im probably in the try almost anything category. I like experimenting around with things like catching wild yeast. Im into the "professional" yeasts too but i have this idea that yeast that like say apples, grows right on apples. And yeah, its pretty easy to trap yeast like that. Sorry, getting off track a little but i plan on doing tests like using different yeasts in the same or slightly tweaked musts to figure out which yeasts gives me the best flavor kind of thing. Im a country boy stuck in Flint, Michigan. Have rural property 40 minutes northeast of Flint. I grow raspberries and strawberries sometimes. I also grow rhubarb and want to try rhubarb in some country wines. Once i feel like i got the hang of this ill probably just go crazy like i did with "sour dough" bread and just start kinda winging it. I got pretty lucky with bread so maybe it will transfer to wine too lol. We'll see.

 

[wetneck]

Strawberry-Chocolate Wine


4 pounds sliced ripe strawberries (frozen sliced have best ripeness)
4 oz Dutched cocoa powder
11.5-oz can Welch's 100% Red Grape frozen concentrate
1 1/2 lb finely granulated sugar
2 tsp acid blend
1 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1/8 oz powdered grape tannin
1 finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet
5 pts water
1 pkt Gervin Wine Yeast Varietal B, or Lalvin 71B-1122
If using frozen strawberries, thaw. In a primary, pour into a fine-meshed nylon straining bag and tie closed. Do not mash.

Measure the Dutched cocoa powder (see Dutched Cocoa Powder, my February 5th, 2012 WineBlog entry for background on Dutched cocoa powder) in dry ounces and add to one pint of warm water in a blender, pulsing until thoroughly mixed. Add tannin, acid blend and yeast nutrient and pulse again to ensure all are well mixed and then set aside.

Pour the sugar over the strawberries and pour the boiling water over the sugar. Stir very well to dissolve sugar. Add the thawed grape concentrate and stir again to integrate. Finally, add the cocoa water while stirring and continue stirring for a full minute. Cover the primary and set aside to cool to room temperature.

When cooled, add activated yeast in a starter solution and cover primary. Punch down the bag of strawberries several times a day, checking their condition after several days. When they start looking thoroughly ravaged by the yeast (about 4-5 days), remove the bag and hang to drip (do NOT squeeze) to extract readily available liquid (I hang the bag from a kitchen cabinet door handle with a bowl underneath for about 20-30 minutes). Add dripped liquid back to primary and cover primary. Discard the strawberry pulp.

When the vigorous fermentation slows, transfer to secondary and attach an airlock. Do not top up. Allow fermentation to finish and rack, adding the finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet and then top up. Set aside in dark place for 60 days and rack again; top up with distilled water (this will not noticeably affect the flavor or alcohol level). Return to darkness another 60 days and rack again, topping up as before. Set aside in darkness 4-6 months to bulk age. Rack if required, bottle and age an additional 6 months before tasting. Yes, it is a protracted process, but well worth it. [Jack Keller's own recipe]

The resulting wine is full-bodied and delicious, the marriage of strawberry and chocolate perfect. To retain color, this wine is best bottled in dark glass and cellared in darkness or very low light. It should be consumed within a year -- two years at most."

I know that his chocolate addition is pre-fermentation, but you could probably adapt it for your needs x



use raspberry in place of strawberry

This looks awesome. Thanks so much for responding to my request. This place seems very friendly and informative. Glad i found it. Im somewhat of an organic guy and like to try to score fruit from friends or farmers in know who dont use sprays and poisons on their crops. Residues not only unhealthy but ive been reading it also kills yeast. I can live with chemical fertilizers but rather get the full on organic thing which is why i like to grow my own fruits etc. when i can.

I love raspberries and strawberries so maybe ill try both with chocolate. I need to split some plants, pop up runners and probably buy some more plants to get extra for making wine now. Just cant grow enough fruit lol.

Im really looking forward to exploring this new hobby and sharing with my friends. Also looking forward to making new friends here. Cant believe all the response im getting on my introduction post, wow. Thanks again for that recipe, much appreciated!

 

[wetneck]

Welcome to WMT!
Skeeter Pee and Dragon Blood are quick wines you could try. We're talking a month or less. MANY posts here about them.
Forget the "sophisticated palate" idea. If it tastes good that's all that matters. If you want to educate your mouth you can - or not.
I recently made a banana wine that I'm excited about. Have some bad news for you, though - it's supposed to be good in about a year, but REALLY good in 2 years. I hope I can wait.
Best hobby in the world! Have fun!

Ive actually been thinking about doing up some skeeter pee for the summer. It sounds refreshing and ridiculously simple to make, not to mention inexpensive. Ill probably squeeze lemons instead of just using concentrate though. Thanks for the advice. I have to refresh my mind cuz i forgot what dragon blood is. Thinking about doing a tea wine too, shouldn't need to add any tanins to that one lol. It also sounds refreshing...

 

[wetneck]

Welcome to WMT!

Thank you!

 

[wetneck]

Welcome to WMT. Yooper or Lower? Lots is midwesterners here and from around the globe.

Hello, im a troll lol. Hope that dont freak people out cuz i don't troll people on the internet and im sure you know that means i live on the south side of the bridge. Thanks for the welcome.

 

[ChuckD]

Hello, im a troll lol. Hope that dont freak people out cuz i don't troll people on the internet and im sure you know that means i live on the south side of the bridge. Thanks for the welcome.

I could have just as easily asked Packers or Lions? It seems packer fans outnumber Lions fans by a lot in Da UP. I’m just south of the border in WI.

 

[wetneck]

I could have just as easily asked Packers or Lions? It seems packer fans outnumber Lions fans by a lot in Da UP. I’m just south of the border in WI.

Being a Lions fan means dealing with more dissapointment than i want to deal with lol

 

[BigDaveK]

Ive actually been thinking about doing up some skeeter pee for the summer. It sounds refreshing and ridiculously simple to make, not to mention inexpensive. Ill probably squeeze lemons instead of just using concentrate though. Thanks for the advice. I have to refresh my mind cuz i forgot what dragon blood is. Thinking about doing a tea wine too, shouldn't need to add any tanins to that one lol. It also sounds refreshing...

If you go to Costco they carry the Italian Volcano brand of lemon juice made from juice not concentrate. That would save some work. Read the thread on skeeter pee - many simple tweaks to make it even better.

Many wines start as a tea. What kind were you thinking about? I put together a sassafras wine two days ago that starts as a gallon of strong tea diluted with 2 gallons of water. For a fraction of a second I thought about downsizing the recipe to make just 1 gallon but quickly discarded that idea - that's crazy talk!

 

[wetneck]

If you go to Costco they carry the Italian Volcano brand of lemon juice made from juice not concentrate. That would save some work. Read the thread on skeeter pee - many simple tweaks to make it even better.

Many wines start as a tea. What kind were you thinking about? I put together a sassafras wine two days ago that starts as a gallon of strong tea diluted with 2 gallons of water. For a fraction of a second I thought about downsizing the recipe to make just 1 gallon but quickly discarded that idea - that's crazy talk!

I hear that. Why do all the work for just 1 gallon lol. I was just going to make regular old tea from tea leaves and ferment it.

Sassafras wine sounds interesting. Get the impression you are very ambitious at making wine. I appreciate your enthusiasm. Wont be long and there will be fresh fruit everywhere.

 

[winemaker81]

Get the impression you are very ambitious at making wine. I appreciate your enthusiasm.

I'm a ringleader in razzing @BigDaveK about making wine from any and everything, but that's all in fun. My personal opinion is that he's a great example of experimentation and (as you said) enthusiasm. Not that I expect others to be like him, as everyone has their own needs and tastes. I personally enjoy the banter and look forward to what he (and others) will make next.

Which reminds me, I need to get rolling and make cold brewed coffee for a coffee mead ...

 

[wetneck]

This is so cool. Coffee mead, i love coffee but never had mead. If i start making mead, next thing ill have bee hives. Just because i really enjoy trying new things and have entertained the idea more than once. Have way too many hobbies because of this lol.

Post up a thread so we can watch your coffee mead project.