Noob bit off more than he could chew.

[HarrysHomeBrew]

I started collecting ingredients for different batches and 1 kit. Boom I had enough stuff to do 22 gallons. So I did it.
6 gal Fontana Pinot Noir
6 gal dragons blood
6 gal apricot
Frozen store bought fruits
1 gal blueberry
1 gal tropical
1 gal strawberry lemonade
1 gal blueberry limeade
My dragons blood made 6.75 gallons so I put the rest in another gallon jug and added more lemon juice.

My blueberry limeade never started. My apricot was to full so I made an extra gallon jug of that with a lot more sugar and added raisins. It should be pretty stout. I started all these a week ago. The fruit wines let sit for 24 hrs before pitching yeast.
I racked and strained them all today. I can't wait for these to be finished. Before I started these I did order the all in one wine pump. That thang rocks.

Lessons learned so far.
Always bag your fruit. Way less to clean up later.
For 1 gal batches and fresh fruit use a plastic bucket up to 2 gallons for primary.
When doing a lot of batches don't drink too much while you are trying to keep track what you have done.

If you have a dollar store and they have a frozen section you can get real cheap frozen fruits.

That's about it. I really don't know what my blueberry limeade never started.

 

[dralarms]

Check the ingredient list for the limeaide, I'll bet it has potassium sorbate as a preservative.

 

[Donatelo]

Wow! How are you going to keep track of all those? Keep a log book . Write every single thing down as it is done. Best of luck to you on your new hobby.

 

[HarrysHomeBrew]

I really need to keep a log!
6 gallon of Pinot Noir just racked the second time. Not even kidding I could drank this one right now. It was awesome. I can't wait to bottle it

6 gallon dragons blood is doing well. Degassed and added sparkoloid

6 gallon of apricot still had a lot of apricot sediment so I racked degassed and added one 1 gallon of extra apricot to it. I don't have any concerns. This should rock. This is my second batch.

1 gal blueberry, tropical, strawberry lemonade racked and add water to full. Doing well.
I think I will leave these set a while and then back sweeten.

After degassing, I used a drill and degassing stick, I thought I had all the gas out. Instead of going strait to the airlock in the 6 gal batches, I used the headspace eliminator. There are still a lot of bubbles coming up. I will leave those on there a few days and refresh them with the all in one pump.

I did order an Italian floor corker. I don't know if my arm would out to do that many bottles.

 

[Stressbaby]

Man talk about jumping off into the deep end of the pool! Good for you keep us posted. We like pics.

 

[Noontime]

Sounds like your chewing everything just fine. You've certainly shortened your learning curve drastically. Good for you my friend!

 

[HarrysHomeBrew]

Just letting them age now for a bit

 

[gitmo234]

Is that headspace going to be alright? That is what I used to do/have...right about the same as the two reds in the large carboys. Had mixed results and unsure if that was possibly why.

 

[Noontime]

Is that headspace going to be alright? That is what I used to do/have...right about the same as the two reds in the large carboys. Had mixed results and unsure if that was possibly why.

Definitely too much head space. That's way too much surface area being exposed to air. You can get away with that while there's still active fermentation, but once there's no longer CO2 saturating the wine (protecting it) the headspace needs to be reduced to what the yellow one on the right is or less. It's not a sure thing that it WILL go bad, but you are giving it every opportunity to do so.

 

[Stressbaby]

Is that headspace going to be alright? That is what I used to do/have...right about the same as the two reds in the large carboys. Had mixed results and unsure if that was possibly why.

He's got Headspace Eliminators on the larger carboys, so that helps. But my opinion, discussed in this thread, is that on average, in a degassed wine, they only eliminate about 1/2 of the oxygen, assuming they don't leak. If you can reduce the headspace by more than that by topping up, that is better. Wines with CO2 are a little different, as you will be pulling the CO2 from the wine with the [average 50%] vacuum but of course that degassing happens without the vacuum as well, just slower. And if it leaks, all bets are off.

 

[HarrysHomeBrew]

Thanks for the advice. I plan on bottleing in the next couple weeks I thought the eliminator a would work for that long. If I decide to age any longer I will add water or a like wine. The dragons blood and apricot I could add water but the wine kit Piont on the left I would add a like wine.
I am retired and check on my wine a couple times a day because it is cool to me. I see no signs of leaks so far. The headspace eliminator under vacuum was nice to see bubbles all day.

 

[gitmo234]

Thanks for the advice. I plan on bottleing in the next couple weeks I thought the eliminator a would work for that long. If I decide to age any longer I will add water or a like wine. The dragons blood and apricot I could add water but the wine kit Piont on the left I would add a like wine.
I am retired and check on my wine a couple times a day because it is cool to me. I see no signs of leaks so far. The headspace eliminator under vacuum was nice to see bubbles all day.

I'm not retired and still wish I could just watch stuff ferment all day. I would spend my entire day punching down caps, inoculating, etc. Love it

 

[dralarms]

Thanks for the advice. I plan on bottleing in the next couple weeks I thought the eliminator a would work for that long. If I decide to age any longer I will add water or a like wine. The dragons blood and apricot I could add water but the wine kit Piont on the left I would add a like wine.
I am retired and check on my wine a couple times a day because it is cool to me. I see no signs of leaks so far. The headspace eliminator under vacuum was nice to see bubbles all day.

I've used a headspace eliminator for months. I just keep a check on it to make sure it's still holding a vacuum.

 

[HarrysHomeBrew]

I'm not retired and still wish I could just watch stuff ferment all day. I would spend my entire day punching down caps, inoculating, etc. Love it

My apricot I did not put in a bag. I can't believe the cap on that. When I got up in the morning I would lift the lid and could hear it trying to escape. Then punch the cap and boom a bad smell for a minute all that gass coming up. So fun. During the day I would do it all day long.


Dralarms, thanks. That is what I as hoping to use till I bottle.

 

[HarrysHomeBrew]

Update...

My Pinot Noir is doing great. I added the last clearing stuff and will bottle next week
Apricot is clear and back sweetened it last night. I made it really sweet.
Dragons blood is clear and back sweetened it last night. I did not sweeten it as much as the apricot and had a huge glass left over that did not fit. Tasted really good like the fruity red sangria box wine.
My fruit wines are doing well except for the blueberry. It is still bubbling really slow. I will just let them go for a couple more weeks then sweeten them and bottle

I am going to buy a notebook just to keep track of all my future batches.

I did buy 10, 1 gallon small batch kits from master vintner. It was on sale. I looked on here and it did not get great reviews. I got 5 different kinds 2 of each. I might take 2 kits of the Shiraz and just make 1 gallon out of it. Whatever I do I will keep track of what I am doing from now on.

I am worried about over sweetening my DB and apricot. My DB went to about 5 brix and Apricot was about 7 brix.

 

[Tess]

really? I sweetened my DB per the original recipe. It was perfect. This is a whole lot going on at the same time. Best of luck

 

[Tess]

No sense in worrying about it. You already pulled the trigger. It comes down to taste and what you like. Dont worry about it. If it's to sweet for you someone will drink it lol

 

[meadmaker1]

Time line.
I have wines I started with last years fresh fruit, still in carboys. Settling, and aging nicely.
One of the best learned lessons, I lived through, and a common comment ive read as well as been told, is time is your friend. There are far too many posts about sediment in bottles and putting cases of wine back into carboys to settle. If you have sediment in a car boy dont bottle. Rack and wait.
I dont see any thing said about treating the wine you sweetened, K meta and K sorbate are absolutely necessary. If you didnt treat get those bottles out of your house, now, today, or promise to tell us what happens, so we feel better about the lessons too many of us have suffered though. My favorite post was titled purple pantry.
And notes. Even if you follow a protocol each wine each time, you will loose track of what youve done and were you are at, sence each wine will develope at its own pace.
It seems you are equiping your self for the long hall with good equipment, looking forward to your future posts.

 

[HarrysHomeBrew]

I did use kmeta and ksorbate about 2 weeks before I back sweetened.

I need to not be so greedy with my racking. I bring a lot with it. Each time I rack I do get better at leaving everything behind. The kit of Pinot Noir barley had anything in the bottom when I racked and added my last clearing agent.

I wonder if I missed k meta and k sorbate in my blueberry? I need to take a reading.

 

[willie]

I did use kmeta and ksorbate about 2 weeks before I back sweetened.

I need to not be so greedy with my racking. I bring a lot with it. Each time I rack I do get better at leaving everything behind. The kit of Pinot Noir barley had anything in the bottom when I racked and added my last clearing agent.

I wonder if I missed k meta and k sorbate in my blueberry? I need to take a reading.

Hey Harry if you keep a running log on all your batches and be detailed with it you will have the info. to fall back on as to what you did instead of guessing from memory. Now me I have CRS lol, so I absolutely have to keep good notes as to everything I do with each batch. I keep track of the temp. of the wine each day and the SG readings during the ferment.

Will