September 2016 WOTM Club

[Jericurl]

This is the official thread for our unofficial club, open to anyone who is interested in making a one gallon (or larger) test/experimental batch and sharing the recipe, process, ups and downs with the rest of the participants.

We like:
a) full recipes with all ingredients and steps as you go along
b) pictures
c) helpful suggestions on recipe ideas, stumped members
d) thinking outside the box
e) pictures! (did I say that already?)

At the end of the month, we would appreciate a recap of the good, the bad and the ugly of the primary fermentation, as well as periodic updates throughout the year as you go along.

At the one year mark, we will all pop open a bottle of the previous year's wine and take pictures, post comments on how it turned out, and hopefully have a tried and true recipe to post in the recipes section.

Some months we have a lot of people participate, and sometimes life catches up with us and we aren't able to ferment as much as we might like. Feel free to drop in, drop by, drop a comment, whatever.
We welcome questions and suggestions from participants and casual observers alike.

If you aren't participating in this months thread, feel free to share your thoughts and ideas for any WOTM wines you have planned for this year.
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Jericurl.....Ukiyo (Plum, jujube, shiso mead)

Stressbaby.....Pink Catawba Wine

 

[Jericurl]

This year I have done a lot of focusing on herbs...growing herbs, drying herbs, making herbal teas, following herbal ingredient lore, etc.

I'm finding more and more that I want to incorporate herbs into my meadmaking, following in the path of my gran, who had an herbal tea or a superstitious/hoodoo cure for just about anything.

This month I'll be making a metheglin using red shiso, dried jujubes, ginger, and plums.
A tea made of the same ingredients is superb so I'm curious to see how it translates as a mead.

Shiso Member of the mint family. Is used as a dried leaf hot tea during winter months and used fresh and served over ice during summer months. The flavor is a bit hard to describe...sort of like a licorice/cinnamon flavor. Traditionally used for healthy skin, relieving allergies, increasing bloodflow, etc.

Dried Jujubes Traditionally boiled, along with ginger and other spices, to make a hot tea for drinking to soothe nerves or before bedtime to assist with sleeping. The dried jujubes taste incredible. We dried about 10 lbs this year. It tastes very similar to an apple pie. Seriously. Manthing didn't believe I hadn't spiced them before putting them in the dehydrator until he did a batch himself.


@ 1 packed gallon of shiso (leaves, stems, blossoms, all of it)
1.4 oz ginger, chopped into chunks
12.9 oz dried jujubes
2 gallons of water
1 stick ceylon cinnamon

Bring above ingredients to a boil, cover and let simmer until shiso leaves lose their red coloring. Turn off heat, cool, and strain into primary bucket.

Add:
1.5 gallons of water
6 lbs frozen plums (I will likely run down to the fruit stand tomorrow and up this number)
3 campden tablets.

Wait 24 hours,
then add 3 tsp pectic enzyme

Wait 24 hours, then add honey to 1.08 SG

add yeast.

(I currently have the first ingredients on the burner outside, waiting to boil. Will update recipe as I go)

eta: D47 yeast pitched 09/14/16

 

[Stressbaby]

We got some jujubes at the farmer's market last weekend. They aren't dried, they are fresh. To me, they have the flavor of a date but the consistency of an apple. Interesting.

 

[Jericurl]

We got some jujubes at the farmer's market last weekend. They aren't dried, they are fresh. To me, they have the flavor of a date but the consistency of an apple. Interesting.

It's really a very interesting fruit taste wise.
When I was gathering them, the slightly ripe ones tasted more apple-like to me. An extremely ripe one fell out of the tree and burst, and of course I had to taste it. It was like a cross between an extremely ripe grape and..maybe a kiwi? Neither of us could accurately describe it.

And of course the dried ones taste like spiced apples.

 

[Jericurl]

Ok, I've racked to secondary...sort of...

I'm out of 3 gallon carboys. So I added another 2.5 lbs of plums and 1 lb of honey to the bottom of a 5 gallon carboy and racked onto that. This morning shows my airlock bubbling away, so I should be good for another few days. I've got two batches to bottle this weekend so that will free up some carboys for me. I didn't take a picture but the color is a nice koolaid fruit punch color.

 

[drainsurgeon]

AHEM...I believe the thread starter mentioned pictures.....twice....there are rules here you know!

 

[Jericurl]

AHEM...I believe the thread starter mentioned pictures.....twice....there are rules here you know!

Quite right. I will attempt to get a good picture tomorrow. Right now the light is fairly dull and it's difficult to get a good picture.

 

[the_rayway]

Aw @jericurl you're the best! I've been off winemaking for awhile, but dying to get back to it! Maybe once the fall craziness of canning slows. I also got the official stamp of approval to build my wine lab, so that's going to be happening soon too!!

I'm super interested in this Jujube thing.

 

[Jericurl]

Aw @jericurl you're the best! I've been off winemaking for awhile, but dying to get back to it! Maybe once the fall craziness of canning slows. I also got the official stamp of approval to build my wine lab, so that's going to be happening soon too!!

I'm super interested in this Jujube thing.

Awww thanks. Can't wait to see you back! We need some company in the WOTM threads!
Did you guys get all moved?

 

[Stressbaby]

I will have a September WotM entry. Pink Catawba.

There is a vineyard a mile down the road. They grow grapes for a winery well known in our area. We know the growers, and two years ago we were invited out to pick. We got 4 buckets of Catawba and three of Vignoles. I made white Catawba instead of leaving it on the skins. I didn't adjust the acid preferment (newbie mistake) and wound up with almost undrinkable, sharp, acidic wine. Through a combination of dilution and sugar I eventually got a somewhat balanced wine which two years later is drinkable. It's strong and rich and sharp and less foxy than you would think. To be honest it benefits a lot from an ice cube.

Last year they had hardly any grapes. This year was better again, 26 tons. They called me after the winery had been through so I could pick the ends of the rows. I got 2 buckets of Chambourcin and almost a bucket of Catawba before it got dark.

The Chambourcin is another story. For the Catawba, I destemmed by hand last night, crushed, and got pH of 2.98, TA of 0.75%, SG of 1.082. I hit it with kmeta, pectic, Opti White. I adjusted the pH to 3.41 with calcium carbonate and left it on the skins for 24 hours. Tonight I pressed off about 1.5 gallons and pitched QA23. We'll try to keep the temp down with an ice bath.

Seems as if around here Pink Catawba is made semi-sweet. My goal is more of an off-dry to dry rose style wine with less foxiness. We shall see.

 

[Jericurl]

Oh, I bet that's going to be great. It's nice to see a WOTM club entry made with grapes this month, I don't think we have had one before.

What does the juice taste like right now?

And what do you mean by foxy?

 

[Jericurl]

Here is a very, very bad cell photo of my wine in secondary. I'll be bottling tomorrow and will have a 3 gallon carboy freed up so that I can rerack this batch.

I'm not too worried about headspace right now since it seems to be fermenting fairly steady.

 

[the_rayway]

Awww thanks. Can't wait to see you back! We need some company in the WOTM threads!
Did you guys get all moved?

Hey @jericurl!! We decided to stay...mostly because we couldn't find a place we really liked, or the right property. No worries, as we love our current house. If only it were out in the country!!

However, this created a terrific development, as I was given the green light to build my wine lab! Woot! Hopefully I can get back on the winemaking wagon, and post some pics of the progress.

 

[Norton]

I was invited to pick some leftover vignoles so for the first time I am making wine straight from grapes to wine. I will,say that destemming by hand for what turned into 6 gallons of juice is more trouble than it is worth!

 

[Stressbaby]

I was invited to pick some leftover vignoles so for the first time I am making wine straight from grapes to wine. I will,say that destemming by hand for what turned into 6 gallons of juice is more trouble than it is worth!

Interesting - I was at a vineyard down the road (26 tons this year) and he said Vignoles is one of the most difficult grapes to grow. Everything loves Vignoles - birds, raccoons, fungus, everything. Lost 30% of his Vignoles to birds this year despite propane cannons, etc.

However, they gave me a bottle of their Vignole which we drank last night and I will say that it can make a great wine. Post here and good luck!

 

[Stressbaby]

what do you mean by foxy?

Foxy, like Vitis labrusca, musky. Concord has it, but if you ask me Catawba could be the poster child for foxy.

 

[Jericurl]

Ok, she's been put to bed for now.

At some point I'll get some dried shiso leaves to make another tea to top off with. I harvested pretty heavily from my plants so I'm not sure if they will have time to put on adequate new growth before the first frost.

 

[mennyg19]

Isnt that a lot of headspace?

 

[Jericurl]

It is.

Mead isn't quite as quick to oxidize as wine though. Also, I've still got a lot of active bubbling going on, so I feel like I'm ok for right now. I will be getting in more dried shiso and top off with more honey/water/plums.

 

[Jericurl]

I had a good two inches of sediment that immediately formed on the bottom of this.

I topped it up with plum juice a couple of weeks ago.

I felt like the lees compacted some, so I went ahead and racked again. It may be just a bit much, but I don't want that weird bile taste that comes from leaving them in too long.
I added another two pounds of plums, so I'll likely leave this alone for at least a month. It's cooler now, so I don't think I'll run into an issue leaving the fruit in for that long.
I needed to pour off a bit to fit all my added plums in, so I got a taste for himself and I.
Surprisingly, really tasty. And it seems to be clearing fairly quickly as well.