Other Riesling Icewine kit ideas?

[Shurt1073]

Getting ready to "acquire" four of these kits from a family member. He tells me his taste have changed and won't make them anymore. I get what he's saying, because I liked blondes in my 20's and brunettes in my 30's. I have made this kit 2 times myself, in fact, we still have a few small 375ml full Icewine bottles left from the last batch. I've also moved on to other dessert wines like Carmel, Choc/Rasp, and look forward to making the new Choc/Cherry dessert wine this summer when released.

I've learned a lot since joining WMT but my experience is limited to kits and following instructions. If I'm gifted with these kits what are my options for a different dessert wine using these kits .... can I add another flavor? What can be done instead of making the same Riesling Icewine four times?

Thoughts? Ideas?

 

[Ohio Bob]

Mango, apricot, orange, peach, cherry, apple, raspberry, possibilities are endless.

 

[Shurt1073]

Mango, apricot, orange, peach, cherry, apple, raspberry, possibilities are endless.

Would I still add the whole riesling F pack with another flavoring or only add partial F pack with the flavoring?

 

[Ohio Bob]

I’m guessing the Fpack is sweetener, so I’ll say yes.

 

[winemaker81]

Scott, IIRC, you found the Ice Wine with the full F-Pack to be too sweet? If so, add half before fermentation, and the remainder when backsweetening.

A lot of folks recommend using frozen juice concentrate for backsweetening. If you go with raspberry, it will be different from the one you have in production.

And if the final result needs more sugar, plain 'ole table sugar works.

 

[Shurt1073]

Scott, IIRC, you found the Ice Wine with the full F-Pack to be too sweet? If so, add half before fermentation, and the remainder when backsweetening.

A lot of folks recommend using frozen juice concentrate for backsweetening. If you go with raspberry, it will be different from the one you have in production.

And if the final result needs more sugar, plain 'ole table sugar works.

Its been three years since I made the Riesling Icewine and today I looked over the instructions to refresh my memory. It helped me understand once I take the base juice bag to 3 gallons at 1.160 sg and ferment down to 1.060 sg, its possible to add as much or little of the F-Pack as I want. Guessing there will be a balance for the F-pack to create the riesling and back sweetening taste along with any of the flavorings I choose. It would still give me the dessert wine ABV and viscosity. I'm going to go with your suggestion and can't wait to get started! This reminds me of standing in our living room at Christmas looking at the tree / presents with anticipation. (not when I was little ... last year)

Here is the bigger question for taking two kits and making a Riesling non dessert wine. I think using one F-Pack and 1-2 base juice bags with however much water to get 6 gallons in the fermenter with a 1.090 sg and fermenting down to .998 sg. The second F-Pack could be used to back sweeten but I'm wondering if a dessert wine kit will work as I'm wanting it? The ice wine instructions say the base juice bag constituted to three gallons will start at 1.160 and after 14 days with two packages of 1118 yeast finish at 1.060. Will I be able to get down to .998?

BTW ... also ended up with the 1 liter of white grape concentrate.

 

[winemaker81]

Scott, you are re-purposing a dessert wine kit into a non-dessert wine, and that is a significant shift. You are going to make judgment calls, and figure things out on the fly.

What do the instructions state as an expected OG? If it's 1.100+, you're not going to make 23 liters from two kits + 1 F-Pack and get 1.090.

First, consider what the expected OG is. Then dilute 2 kits to 23 liters, and let rest overnight. Check the SG in the morning. Factoring in one F-Pack, I might dilute the kit further by 10% (2.3 liters), but beyond that the chemistry (sugar vs acid vs ABV) gets muddy, and IMO you're winging it.

Also consider if you're going to backsweeten with frozen fruit juice, which will dilute the ABV a bit, so starting with a higher SG and producing a higher ABV is less of an issue.

Me? I'd worry less about the ABV and if it's higher, it's higher. Sugar and acid balance are the greater concern.

 

[Shurt1073]

Ok ... I understand. It did help me to look at the numbers and read your comments. I'm looking forward to doing something different with these kits. I appreciate all the help and insight.

 

[Shurt1073]

I do have another thought for the Icewine. Use the Icewine base juice bag and one quart of Vintners Best base (black cherry) to three gallons since both are wine base. When it finishes, use part of the Icewine riesling F-pack to flavor and back sweeten. Should taste like a Riesling with a hint of black cherry?

Tonight I'll open a bottle of Icewine and put a few drops of the Vintners Best black cherry base to see what it taste like.

 

[vinny]

If I'm gifted with these kits what are my options for a different dessert wine using these kits .... can I add another flavor?

I am WAY late to the party, I just wanted to say a big emphatic YES!

Tonight I'll open a bottle of Icewine and put a few drops of the Vintners Best black cherry base to see what it taste like.

If you have any favorite juices in the fridge give them a try. This will give you an idea of what backsweetening with a juice with do.

You would be better off mixing a black cherry wine with the ice wine as fermentation will change the flavor of the base, but maybe you will like it as a flavor to add in secondary.

This is where it gets fun!

 

[winemaker81]

I do have another thought for the Icewine. Use the Icewine base juice bag and one quart of Vintners Best base (black cherry) to three gallons since both are wine base. When it finishes, use part of the Icewine riesling F-pack to flavor and back sweeten. Should taste like a Riesling with a hint of black cherry?

It's a good idea, but I'd ferment the Ice Wine and Black Cherry separately, and blend after 3 months. I am concerned that you'll get either too much or too little cherry flavor by field blending (by eye, before fermentation). If you wait for a few months post-fermentation, you can blend to taste.

 

[winemaker81]

You would be better off mixing a black cherry wine with the ice wine as fermentation will change the flavor of the base, but maybe you will like it as a flavor to add in secondary.

Great minds think alike, eh?

 

[Shurt1073]

At 3pm I decided to conduct my experiment with the Ice wine I already had in the bottle with a black cherry & raspberry I made last year. NOT GOOD. The riesling ice wine has an over powering sweet riesling taste and it dominates over the black cherry and raspberry in most combinations. Actually a little bitter. The advice you guys are giving is sound!

Ice wine is at 16% abv
Raspberry 11% abv
Black Cherry 11% abv

I tried a number of combinations using 20-80% riesling with the fruit flavored wines and it just didn't have that pazazzzzz taste I was looking for. I have managed to give myself a nice buzz in 90 min of testing.

 

[winemaker81]

Scott ... bench testing is your friend.

 

[winemaker81]

Just had another brain fart. My 2013 Apple-Riesling was top-of-the-heap for my fun wines. Do another bench test -- use frozen apple juice to adjust your existing ice wine. It will probably be too sweet, but the idea is sound.

Yet another thought is to make all the ice wine kits with the F-pack added pre-fermentation. The resulting wine will be too acidic, requiring backsweetening to compensate. Use of frozen apple concentrate at that time will allow you to control the RS. If the apple concentrate is not enough, you can add sugar to fix it.

 

[Khristyjeff]

FWIW, I just bottled this kit. It has a slight taste of peach if that helps. The only tweaks I made were accidentally adding too much water and adding sugar. My ABV is around 14%. My wife loves it but it’s pretty sweet so a little goes a long way for me. I predict I’ll have a lot of fans for this ice wine. Good luck with your blending!

 

[Shurt1073]

The input is amazing from you guys .... thanks Bryan! We will figure it out but it won't be tonight because I'll be headed to bed early from all these wine combinations. You are on the right track (I think) with using Apple Juice or something similar to make it different but the two wine blends I was using wasn't getting it done ..... more bitter and I'm pretty sure my butt puckered at least twice! Maybe cutting it down from 16% abv with a blend of a juice will be the answer. STAY TUNED

 

[vinny]

I have managed to give myself a nice buzz in 90 min of testing.

And THAT is why this hobby is so great. No matter the outcome of the testing, it is always a success!

 

[Shurt1073]

Fermented the Ice Wine juice and left out the flavor pack or F-pac. Used strawberry, raspberry and wild berry flavorings I purchased from WineLovers.com (on sale) and made three one gallon containers. It has cleared nicely. Based on this experiment, I need one of these to be drinkable for a whole three gallon batch! Still have three kits left. These little one gallon carboys make it no easy to experiment.

 

[Shurt1073]

Today I found out a few things about the Riesling Ice wine I've been playing with. The change I made was instead of using the Ice wine flavor pack, I used ABC Crafted Series flavor infusion to get a different flavor. My one gallon jugs with Wildberry, Raspberry, and Strawberry flavorings are going to be just fine, in fact, they might be special in a good way!

I also took one kit three gallons and reconstituted to 1.100 sg instead of the normal 1.160 which game me about 5 gallons ...... it did make the wine thin but it fermented down to .992 sg. So instead of adding the full Riesling flavor pack I only added about ½ of the flavor pack. I also added Glycerin. Now she sits for a couple months but I think the wine will be ok.

I still have 2-3 Ice wine kits.