Newby starting

[Twinstacks]

Hi folks. I bought a small wine starter kit ( 5 litres) and it has finished fermenting and now I have racked it off into another demijohn to start clearing and hopefully maturing so now I am going to make another batch from scratch and need help from the wise and informed .
I want to make something difference like either pear or peach wine and need to know what I need. Do I make it from raw fruit or concentrated juice from supermarket. What yeast and how much do I need. Do I use ordinary sugar or a special brewing sugar and how much. I am hoping to make a bigger batch this time of around 33 litres in a plastic tub. I have read all about taking sg readings before and after to determine the abv so I can do this but any help and guidance would be very much appreciated. Sorry if this question has been asked before. Thank you.

 

[Arne]

You can make it either from fruit or concentrate. Peach and pear are pretty light fruits, that is the flavor is not very strong. I would use all juice from fruit or one of the concentrates. Get the juice out of the fruit, freeze then squeeze, press the fruit with some kind of a press, or steam juice. Go to your brew store and get some wine yeast. One pkg. should be enough. Use regular sugar or honey. Probably start out with sugar as it is less expensive, use the honey after you get a bit of experience. Get your juice ready, take a s.g. reading and add sugar to get your starting gravity up to 1.085 or so. I would probably add a quarter tsp of k-meta, wait 12 hrs, add pectic enzime according to the package, wait another 12 hours or so, pitch your yeast. When the ferment gets going good, add half of the nutrient (according to the package) when it gets down to 1.060 or so add the other half. Let it ferment down to 1.010 or so, rack to a carboy and let it sit til it ferments out. Now rack, add k-meta and let it sit and clear or use finings to hurry it along. If you run into any snags, ask another question. Someone will jump on and help. Arne.

 

[bkisel]

I started making fruit/country wines using this recipe... http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41825&highlight=dangerdave%27s

I continue to use this same basic recipe for all my country wines. I'll almost always use bentonite which is not in the recipe and will often use acid blend in place of the lemon juice.

I'll sometimes use brown sugar, honey and concentrates for back sweetening but have stuck, so far, with regular sugar and in the primary.

Good luck!

 

[bandit33]

Danger Dave's Dragon Blood recipe will work for almost any fruit, I believe. I have a mango/peach on the go right now!

 

[Twinstacks]

Oh so many questions. I am in the U.K. And not sure what kmeta is over here. I have purchased wine yeast in sachet form and will buy normal sugar from supermarket. I have campden tablets as well although I thought they were for sterilising. So if I am making either pear or peach wine do I use the whole concentrate from the container I buy at supermarket or do I mix it with water. What nutrients do I add. As I originally started with a kit I don't have any pectin enzime but can get that. I have been reading about the pectin enzime and this only seems to be used when extracting juice from fruit so do I still need to use it if I am using concentrated juice from a carton. Thanks for more help yet again.

 

[bkisel]

You can think of k-meta (Potassium Metabisulfite) as powdered Campden Tablets.

Sorry, can't help you on whether or not pectin enzyme is necessary or advisable for making wine from fruit juice concentrate.

 

[Twinstacks]

You can think of k-meta (Potassium Metabisulfite) as powdered Campden Tablets.

Sorry, can't help you on whether or not pectin enzyme is necessary or advisable for making wine from fruit juice concentrate.

Thanks very much. I have Campden tablets which are indeed potassium metabisulfite so can use those instead of kmeta. Says in packet to crush one tablet per gallon of wine. Now only need to find out about the pectin enzyme.

 

[Twinstacks]

You can make it either from fruit or concentrate. Peach and pear are pretty light fruits, that is the flavor is not very strong. I would use all juice from fruit or one of the concentrates. Get the juice out of the fruit, freeze then squeeze, press the fruit with some kind of a press, or steam juice. Go to your brew store and get some wine yeast. One pkg. should be enough. Use regular sugar or honey. Probably start out with sugar as it is less expensive, use the honey after you get a bit of experience. Get your juice ready, take a s.g. reading and add sugar to get your starting gravity up to 1.085 or so. I would probably add a quarter tsp of k-meta, wait 12 hrs, add pectic enzime according to the package, wait another 12 hours or so, pitch your yeast. When the ferment gets going good, add half of the nutrient (according to the package) when it gets down to 1.060 or so add the other half. Let it ferment down to 1.010 or so, rack to a carboy and let it sit til it ferments out. Now rack, add k-meta and let it sit and clear or use finings to hurry it along. If you run into any snags, ask another question. Someone will jump on and help. Arne.

Thanks for this. Can you give me any idea what nutrient to use and if I need to use pectin when using concentrate juice.

 

[Arne]

I just use wine nutrient. You can buy it at brew stores. You can use the pectic enzime for most any wines. It doesn't hurt anything and helps stop hazy wine. You don't want pectin in there, that is for making jelly as far as I know. The enzimes help the pectin fall out of your wines and help clear it. Arne.

 

[Twinstacks]

Thanks very much for your help.

 

[muggy]

sorry dont know if im replying to someone. as trying to ask a question about my demijon. i coulnt fill it to the top with my rhubard wine, its about half a pint short. will it be ok

 

[muggy]

demijohn

hello all. im a half a pint short with my rhubarb wine in my demijohn. instructions said imust fill the demijohn to the top. why is this and what will happen to my wine because its short. oh its also a little cloudy, can i clear it? look forward to you professionals for guidance in the future. cheers

 

[dcbrown73]

Thanks very much. I have Campden tablets which are indeed potassium metabisulfite so can use those instead of kmeta. Says in packet to crush one tablet per gallon of wine. Now only need to find out about the pectin enzyme.

Potassium Metabisulfite *IS* k-meta. In the periodic table, the elemnt "Potassium" is symbolized as the letter "K" Meta is short for Metabisulfite. So K-Meta is short for Potassium Metabisulfite.

 

[cintipam]

Hi muggy

I don't know the shape of your demijohn but if it is only a pint short you should be in good shape. If your wine is very young, like just out of priimary, you are fine. If this is later on, like 10 days out of primary, then it would be a good idea to top it up. The wine should reach whatever point in your vessel that is the skinniest. That limits how much oxygen is touching your wine. Young wine is cloudy. As long as you used enough Pectic Enzyme to break down the pectins it should clear all by itself if given enough time. I enjoy watching wine clear, like a clear band up top and then a couple inches that look hazy and the rest looks like a smoothie.

By the way if you do need to top up if it were my wine I'd use apple juice concentrate or something like that. Rhubarb needs sweetening to balance the flavor anyway, so using straight concentrate plus a bit of water to top off will only help your flavor down the road.

Welcome to Wine Making talk.

Pam in cinti

 

[cintipam]

Forgot to explain why you should top off. When wine is aging, it needs to have as little air contact as you can give it. Air (oxygen) causes wine to oxydize which changes both the color and flavor of the wine. The color darkens towards brown, and the taste looses freshness. A little oxydation doesn't really spoil a wine, but it is best to limit it as much as we can.

Last year I had a wine I didn't care much for so I decided to use it just for topping off. I put it in 3 1 gallon jugs on my shelf. the first gallon I used about 1/2 topping off a couple of large batches I made, and put the rest back on the shelf and forgot about them till I needed to top off again about 9 months later. Half empty jug was now brown. Totally full jug looked golden yellow it was supposed to look. Last gallon (which wasn't totally full when I filled it with the last of that batch of wine more than a year before) now looked several shades more brown than the full jug. It really proved to me how much just a little too much headspace can affect the wine.

I hope this explains why your demijon should be full to the narrow part of the neck to help wine have as little contact with air as possible.

Pam in cinti

 

[Scooter68]

My 2 Cents worth - PEACH. And From real peaches if available. Better yet peaches from a fruit stand that are over-ripe. The sugar content will have peaked. The flavor great! All you have to do is separate out the pits/stones and any moldy spots. Dark parts are bad - yet. This past summer I bought 36lbs of fresh (Over-ripe) peaches for $15.00 After de-stoning and remove a handful of moldy spots I ended up with 32 lbs of peaches. 4lbs saved for making smoothies 28lbs for 4 gallons of wine. Think that was a perfect qty per gallon at 7lbs per. Previous batch was made with 4lb fresh (not fully ripened) peaches, a medium can peaches in syrup, and 3 lbs of frozen peaches for 2 gallons (Oh and I used a white grape peach juice to add liquid to it.) Flavor was very good BUT this current batch already has it beat and it's still aging (From July 2016)

Again just my 2 cents worth. Everyone has an opinion and personal preference should lead your way in most cases.