watermelon wine

[bull44]

I just recentlystarted making wine, we'vedone a couple of wine packs, seem to be working out well. Started a pure watermelon wine added campden tablets, yeast nutrient, acid, sugar and yeast. Set for ten days and didnt top up, after ten days topped up with more fresh juice. Wine started to clear ten days later fermentation started againis this normal?

 

[grapeman]

It probably began fermenting again after you added the juice to top up. That is normal. Add sugar=fermentation begins again unless you added the proper amount of sulfite and sorbate to prevent the fermentation. It will go dry again. At that time add the sulfite and sorbate, add a bit of juice to sweeten if you want let it reclear, rack and bottle.

 

[AlFulchino]

ooooooooooooo...let me know how this one tastes when you are done!

 

[gaudet]

I hear its tough to make this one.... The juice likes to spoil quickly.......

Or so I've read

 

[Julie]

yes, watermelon juice will spoil quickly but once you have fermentation going you are fine. The flavor will not come into play until the wine is about a year old so do not get discouraged by the smell or the taste. It has a strong rind smell and taste at first but that all calms down. If you have the ability to cold stablize, that would help it out. You can also blend this with other wines, I blend mine with strawberry and call it strawmelon, it is very tasty.

 

[Waldo]

Had a bottle of Watermelon this past weekend that a friend in Florida had sent me back the 1st of the year. It had a nice watermelon nose and initial taste but the finish was very disappointing in that it was much too sweet and almost syrupy tasting.

 

[bull44]

thanks for the info. rine taste and smell is what we had before we top up with fresh juice.Very dry,with high alc. content little over 14%. even though we used only 4 1/2 lbof sugar.wonder how much fresh juice per gallon of wine,I will need to sweeten justalittle

 

[Julie]

You need to take a hydrometer reading and work from there. In the future when you start, take an sg reading before adding sugar. This will give you more of an idea of how much sugar to add. Watermelon should only have an abv of 10% Anything higher than that takes away from the flavor.

 

[bull44]

thanks Julie
the receipe I was using said to use between 5 and 7 1/2 lbs of sugar. I took the hydrometer reading after adding 4 1/2 lbs. of sugar and had a reading of abv 14%. Since then we've added more fresh juice and frementation has started again. Im hoping the abv will come down. Still wondering how much juice to sweeten or what to sweeten with? Thanx for any help

 

[gaudet]

You should stabilize it before adding any more sugar (backsweetening) or you will have rocket fuel. Use Potassium Sorbate (k-sorb, add 1/2 tsp per gallon) and Potassium Meta Bisulfate/campden tablets to stabilize( 1/8 tsp for 3 gallons 1/4 tsp for 5-6 gallons or 1 tablet per gallon)

 

[Julie]

I used 100% Juicey Juice, they have a watermelon. Warmed it up added more sugar and backsweetened or you can take some of the wine out of the carboy and warm that up. I backsweetened to 1.010.

 

[intoxicating]

You would need to do some of the math, but when it goes dry this time, and after you add sulfite and sorbate you could use reconstituted Juicey Juice to back sweeten, and dilute the hot wine. This will drop the alcohol level. Some one can direct you to the equation to figure out how much juice to add to drop the ABV to more reasonable.

 

[bull44]

Thanks for info. Being new to this , just getting started, after the wine cleared the first time I thought I was sweeting it with fresh watermellon juice. I didn't know I needed to stabilize first with the sulfite and sorbate. I was surprised when it formented for the second time. When it clears again, which it almost is, I think I will try the juciy juicy as a back sweetiner. Thanks again, I'll let you know how it turns out...

 

[peaches9324]

hey bull my 1st watrmellon wine is fermenting. How did yours turn out? If you have or would make this again what steps would you do differently?
thanks
bonnie