To celebrate the new year (and fit in one last hurrah for our holiday break) The Wife and I made the short drive over to Dry Comal Creek winery on Sunday. There was a surprising number of people there for a Sunday afternoon, and they'd expanded considerably since we were last there several years ago. The Wife kept ogling one customer there, who was walking around with a Canon 5D II and EF 24-70 2.8 L held very conspicuously. This guy was there with some friends who were taking photos with Canon Rebels and point-and-shoots, but we never once saw this fellow take a single shot. Yet he walked around with it held like he was about to start firing away. A poseur? Maybe. The Wife still wanted his lens.
We each had a full tasting, and I generally liked their whites better than their reds, although I normally prefer red wines. The exception was their $30 Spanish Black, which has an unusual, intriguing flavor for a red. Another fun wine was their Frizzante Rose, which was essentially their popular White Spanish Black which had undergone an unexpected bottle fermentation. This dried out the normally semi-dry wine considerably and made it very light and fruity. We eventually came away with a case of 2008 Savignon Blanc (at a steep discount!) along with assorted odds and ends. Suffice to say, our wine racks at home are brimming over.
Upon our return home, I turned my sights toward the 5 gallons of plum wine I've had fermenting since early December. For those of you keeping score at home, my last attempt at plum wine didn't go so well. This time, however, I was determined not to let the stuff oxidize. The wine needed to be racked off the old, spent fruit, so I devised a clever plan in which I'd drain the wine into one of my 6-gallon fermenting buckets, then back into the original 6-gallon fermenter once I'd cleaned it out (it was in one of the buckets, you see, that my last attempt oxidized in. So I wasn't taking any chances). Alas, such a well-laid plan had no hope of succeeding. My fermenter has a bung spigot, and when I rack or bottle mead and beer, this works great. However, with the plum wine, the spigot clogged in about 1.3 seconds. Hrm. Okay, I've got a racking cane designed specifically for racking wine. And this fool-proof design proved its worth by lasting 8.6 seconds before it too was clogged. I cleaned it out. The next go lasted 5.2 seconds. After much futile struggle (all the while acutely aware of the nasty atmospheric oxygen coming into contact with my virgin wine) I gave up. Brute force was my only option.
I got a colander and laid cheesecloth in it. Then I poured the wine through it, into the bucket. Not great for preventing oxidation, I know, but what choice did I have? I ultimately had to break it down into four pours, as the cloth would quickly become fully clogged with decomposed, fermented plum matter. Then I cleaned out the original fermenter and into I added roughly a quarter pound of sugar and a couple teaspoons of yeast energizer before returning the wine to the container (this time, thankfully, the bung spigot and hose from the bucket worked fine, with no clogs!). My concern for oxidation is such that I wanted to spur another, secondary fermentation to force out all the oxygen from the vessel and wine, replacing it with a shield of protective carbon dioxide. I hadn't seen any activity in the airlock for several weeks, and worried that the original Lavin 71B-1122 yeast had gone dormant (tasting the proto-wine revealed an alcoholic and pleasantly fruity taste, but more residual sweetness than should be present after a month of fermenting). So for insurance, I took a straw and siphoned up some active yeast from the sediment of my apfelwein. This second yeast introduced is Montrachet, a versatile yeast good for fruits with a high alcohol tolerance. It won't be able to out-compete any of the 71B still active, but it will ensure the wine ferments dry and drives out the oxygen.
Horror of horrors, thought, once I closed the vessel back up and installed the airlock, I saw no activity. None. Wait, that's not right. At this stage of a wine's fermentation, it's not unusual to see little activity, even with added sugar. What I saw was the opposite. The vodka-filled airlock (normally I use water, but because of the disaster last time, I chose to use vodka this time. Bacteria and other things that do bad things to wine can't live in vodka, and again, I'm taking no chances), when I pressed the sides of the vessel, bubbled and the fluid level changed due to the change in pressure. But as I watched, it slowly returned to equilibrium. Which is good, if yeast is producing CO2, this is what you want. But once it reached equilibrium, it stopped. No positive pressure came from inside the container. Which meant I had an air leak--the seal wasn't good. I wrestled with that thing for an hour, and slowed it, but didn't stop it. This meant that my wine would continue to be vulnerable to oxygen! Finally, desperate, I took a second 6-inch circular gasket from my 1.5 gallon fermenter and layered it inside the lid, doubling the gaskets, then screwing that down. Guess what? That did the trick. Positive pressure built up, and the air lock began to bubble. Yay! Let's see if we can maintain that airlock integrity for another couple of months, and (fingers crossed) the wine clears enough for bottling without another racking.
Now Playing: Jimmy Buffett Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads
Showing posts with label plum wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plum wine. Show all posts
Monday, January 03, 2011
Monday, December 06, 2010
Once more unto the breach: Homebrew edition
Although my last attempt at making plum wine didn't turn out so well, I still have a deep freeze stocked with many, many frozen plums, quartered and pitted, so I had to give it another shot. This time, however, my intent is to be more careful and not repeat the errors that doomed the last batch. First off, I had major blowout issues with the first fermentation, stemming directly from using an insane 30 pounds of plums in a six-gallon batch of wine. Learning from my mistakes, I drew up a batch using 16 pounds of plums in five gallons--thus allowing more head space for the foam and cap. We'll see. I pulled the freezer bags of plums (roughly a 75/25 mix of juicy purple Methleys and yellow flesh, tart Santa Rosas) out on Saturday and let them thaw overnight. I have to say I'm a fan of freezing fruit for homebrew, because the juice gushed from the fruit and needed little additional mashing. The juice/pulp mixture was syrupy thick, incredibly fruity in scent and very sweet and fruity to taste.
I squeezed the juice from two large oranges and added a couple straw's worth of plum juice and cut the mix with an equal amount of water to make a yeast starter. I emptied a packet of Lavin 71B-1122 yeast--particularly well-suited for fruity wines. I covered this and set it aside to let it do its thing.
The recipe I'm attempting is a hybrid from Pattie Vargas & Rich Gulling's Making Wild Wines and Meads. Scaling up their one-gallons recipes for my 5-gallon effort, I put in:
I put the plums into my 6 gallon fermenter, and dissolved the rest in heated pots of water on the stove, then added that to the fermenter, which brought the total volume up to around 4 gallons. I topped up with cold water and stirred vigorously to oxygenate the must. It was about 90 degrees at this point. So I waited until the temperature had dropped to 80 degrees and pitched the yeast. One thing I learned in recent months is that wine yeasts don't like high temperatures. Well, they like it just fine, but ferment faster and produce harsh fusel alcohols in the process, which is why all my meads up to this point tend to taste like Listerine. Years of homebrewing ales have spoiled me this way. Lavin 71B-1122 yeast, specifically, like temperatures in the 50-70 degree range, preferably 55-60. To get around the problem, or at least minimize it, I've set up a water bath in my office--a shallow plastic tub which holds the six-gallon fermenter. I've wrapped a towel around the fermenter, and filled the tub with ice water. I soak the towel, and keep the ceiling fan in my office running. This, in theory at any rate, keeps the plum wine must fermenting at a lower temperature to produce a higher-quality beverage. We'll see. It was bubbling happily when I left this morning, but I may well find a blowout when I return home.
In other brewing news, I bottled the six gallon batch of Coopers Dark Ale I started way back in November. It took more than three weeks for it to fully ferment out, which my be a result of my belated addition of the brown sugar after the initial vigorous fermentation had peaked. In any event, the beer is a pretty, rich, dark color. I double-checked each bottle to make sure I added priming sugar (an embarrassing omission from some bottles in my last batch of beer) and they've been aging for a little more than a week and a half. All told, I filled 36 24-ounce bottles. They'll benefit from more aging, obviously, but curiosity is getting the better of me and I might try one tonight.
My other homebrew projects--both meads--are producing mixed results. After the plum wine oxidized, with grim resolve I decided not to chance it and bottled the plum melomel I'd started at the same time. The color wasn't quite so bright as I remembered, so the fear of losing another batch (albeit only 2.5 gallons) was too much to bear. I dosed it with potassium sorbate and campden tablets to knock out the yeast, then back-sweetened with a little more than a pound of honey before bottling. I opened a bottle several days later, just to check if there was any quality to it at all, and was happy to find it surprisingly drinkable. I think, yes, that a tiny bit of oxidation had occurred, but nothing tragic. It's extremely fruity, and the honey isn't apparent. It's also sweeter than I expected--before back-sweetening it was very, very dry--but not port wine sweet. It's not perfect, but entirely drinkable, which I consider a success. Aging may or may not help, and in any event, fruit wines generally don't age as well as grape wines. Not sure how all the honey in the mix will impact things, as meads generally benefit more from aging.
The other experiment, the 1.5 gallon braggot with smoked malt and jalapeño is still a work in progress. I back-sweetened with the remaining honey from the plum melomel back-sweetening attempt, added clarifying agents and was disappointed to see that it's being stubborn. Clearing is coming very, very slowly. A sample revealed the flavors to still be very harsh, with little blending. I expect I'll bottle this stuff up in a few days and hope aging will sort it out, otherwise I risk oxidation (which I'm now paranoid about, although I've gone 10 years without ever having that happen before).
I've got several empty fermentation vessels available now, but nothing cooking. I wonder what I'll try next--time to start another mead.
Now Playing: Dave Davies Rock Bottom
I squeezed the juice from two large oranges and added a couple straw's worth of plum juice and cut the mix with an equal amount of water to make a yeast starter. I emptied a packet of Lavin 71B-1122 yeast--particularly well-suited for fruity wines. I covered this and set it aside to let it do its thing.
The recipe I'm attempting is a hybrid from Pattie Vargas & Rich Gulling's Making Wild Wines and Meads. Scaling up their one-gallons recipes for my 5-gallon effort, I put in:
- 16 pounds of plums
- 12 pounds of sugar
- 1.25 tsp of grape tannin
- 5 tsp pectic enzyme
- 3 tsp acid blend
- 5 tsp yeast nutrient
- 1.25 tsp yeast energizer
I put the plums into my 6 gallon fermenter, and dissolved the rest in heated pots of water on the stove, then added that to the fermenter, which brought the total volume up to around 4 gallons. I topped up with cold water and stirred vigorously to oxygenate the must. It was about 90 degrees at this point. So I waited until the temperature had dropped to 80 degrees and pitched the yeast. One thing I learned in recent months is that wine yeasts don't like high temperatures. Well, they like it just fine, but ferment faster and produce harsh fusel alcohols in the process, which is why all my meads up to this point tend to taste like Listerine. Years of homebrewing ales have spoiled me this way. Lavin 71B-1122 yeast, specifically, like temperatures in the 50-70 degree range, preferably 55-60. To get around the problem, or at least minimize it, I've set up a water bath in my office--a shallow plastic tub which holds the six-gallon fermenter. I've wrapped a towel around the fermenter, and filled the tub with ice water. I soak the towel, and keep the ceiling fan in my office running. This, in theory at any rate, keeps the plum wine must fermenting at a lower temperature to produce a higher-quality beverage. We'll see. It was bubbling happily when I left this morning, but I may well find a blowout when I return home.
In other brewing news, I bottled the six gallon batch of Coopers Dark Ale I started way back in November. It took more than three weeks for it to fully ferment out, which my be a result of my belated addition of the brown sugar after the initial vigorous fermentation had peaked. In any event, the beer is a pretty, rich, dark color. I double-checked each bottle to make sure I added priming sugar (an embarrassing omission from some bottles in my last batch of beer) and they've been aging for a little more than a week and a half. All told, I filled 36 24-ounce bottles. They'll benefit from more aging, obviously, but curiosity is getting the better of me and I might try one tonight.
My other homebrew projects--both meads--are producing mixed results. After the plum wine oxidized, with grim resolve I decided not to chance it and bottled the plum melomel I'd started at the same time. The color wasn't quite so bright as I remembered, so the fear of losing another batch (albeit only 2.5 gallons) was too much to bear. I dosed it with potassium sorbate and campden tablets to knock out the yeast, then back-sweetened with a little more than a pound of honey before bottling. I opened a bottle several days later, just to check if there was any quality to it at all, and was happy to find it surprisingly drinkable. I think, yes, that a tiny bit of oxidation had occurred, but nothing tragic. It's extremely fruity, and the honey isn't apparent. It's also sweeter than I expected--before back-sweetening it was very, very dry--but not port wine sweet. It's not perfect, but entirely drinkable, which I consider a success. Aging may or may not help, and in any event, fruit wines generally don't age as well as grape wines. Not sure how all the honey in the mix will impact things, as meads generally benefit more from aging.
The other experiment, the 1.5 gallon braggot with smoked malt and jalapeño is still a work in progress. I back-sweetened with the remaining honey from the plum melomel back-sweetening attempt, added clarifying agents and was disappointed to see that it's being stubborn. Clearing is coming very, very slowly. A sample revealed the flavors to still be very harsh, with little blending. I expect I'll bottle this stuff up in a few days and hope aging will sort it out, otherwise I risk oxidation (which I'm now paranoid about, although I've gone 10 years without ever having that happen before).
I've got several empty fermentation vessels available now, but nothing cooking. I wonder what I'll try next--time to start another mead.
Now Playing: Dave Davies Rock Bottom
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Six gallons of regret
Saturday, prior to the Aggies taking on the Sooners in a Big 12 showdown of interesting, if not epic, proportions, I figured it was high time I attend to my various fermentables sitting in my office for far too long. I started with my smallest batches first, the smoked malt braggot and plum melomel. The smoked malt braggot, in the smaller 1.5 gallon container, remains quite hazy. I tasted a sample, and was initially disappointed in that it seemed a plain show mead, quite dry, but then a distinct smoky aftertaste presented itself. Not a total disaster yet, at least. I racked it off the sediments and added a campden tablet to knock out the yeast to stop any further fermentation. At that point, I added a single jalapeño sliced lengthwise with the seeds removed. I'd thrown the slices in a frying pan to sear briefly, the intent being that the heat would take some of the sharp edges off the raw taste. I dropped the slices into the mead once they cooled, and will rack again in a week. It's slightly too dry, and after tasting it with the added jalapeño, I'll back sweeten with honey (which is why I put in the campden tablet). My previous attempt at a jalapeño metheglin, which I called "Liquid Heat" was exactly that, not unlike drinking raw, liquid chili peppers with a sweet chaser. I'm going for more subtlety this time, hence the removal of the seeds.
My 2.5 gallon fermentation vessel held my plum melomel attempt. I'd left 4 pounds of chopped plums in there to ferment out dry, and I was nervous as to the result. I drew off a full glass, and was amazed by the clarity. There were some suspended particles, yes (lots of fruit bodies in there, after all) but this stuff was very, very clear and a gorgeous crimson color. And the scent was fantastically powerful, fruity plum. One taste was all it too to convince me I have a winner. Very fruity and tart, with a hint of acidity. The only negative was that it'd fermented out all the way. It was dry. Super-dry. This melomel was so dry it actually sucked the sugars out of your body and beat them into submission. Wow. Whereas the smoked braggot needed a slight amount of sweetening to bring it into balance, this one is going to need a lot more honey. And I'm not trying for a syrupy-sweet dessert wine, either, just enough honey to balance all the flavors and bring the sweetness up to neutral. But I really am looking forward to the end result.
Thus inspired by the success of my various meads, I turned to the six gallons of plum wine I had aging in a secondary container. I was quite excited, because during the racking it had boasted a rich, burgundy color and a very strong fruity aroma and taste. I couldn't wait to see how it'd cleared out, and how the flavor may have mellowed. Imagine my horror when muddy brown muck filled my glass. At first I thought it was some sediment from the bottom, but no, the entire batch had that same dark, sludgy look. And, sad to say, a flavor that matched. Six gallons of plum wine had oxidized somehow, and was utterly ruined. I'm not sure how that happened. Carelessness on my part, I supposed, but thinking back I can't recall any "smoking gun." I'll try again, since I have plenty of plums chopped up and frozen in the deep freeze, but this was very disappointing.
There's only one thing to do when you have to dispose of six gallons of ruined wine, and that's start another six gallon batch to replace it. Being a fan of instant gratification, I decided to make a quick batch of beer. 1) I have a single bottle of home brew left in the refrigerator, and 2) it'll ferment in a week allowing me to use the fermentation vessel for mead or wine or something else in short order. Like I said, instant gratification. Plus, I've never, ever had a batch of beer go bad on me.
Sunday afternoon I set out with the Bug to Homebrew Party in San Antonio. It's just 15 minutes from my house, and nothing has dissuaded me from my initial impression that this place compares very favorably to the excellent Austin Homebrew Supply. While there I got a bottle of potassium sorbate (to really, really make sure the fermentation stops in the mead), some wine yeast, a kit can of Cooper's Dark Ale extract and a pound of Munton's dark malt extract. What can I say? I like malty beers better than hoppy beers. I could easily have spent a thousand dollars or more in there, but I didn't (because I don't want to be divorced). Once I got home, in short order I had the wort cooked, mixed and cooled in my primary six gallon fermentation vessel. Cooper's wasn't kidding when they said it was dark ale--the stuff's black. I worked up a yeast starter with some passion fruit juice and yeast nutrient, and pitched it once the temperature of the wort hit the acceptable range. Currently, things have settled down and there's a nice layer of yeast lining the bottom, with occasional tiny bubbles rising up. I expect that by this time tomorrow the airlock will be bubbling non-stop and threatening to blow out.
So, what should I attempt next week after this beer is bottled? Try for another batch of plum wine? Or a fig or prickly pear melomel? Or even a medieval "burnt" mead with carmelized honey? Decisions, decisions...
Now Playing: The Kinks Something Else
My 2.5 gallon fermentation vessel held my plum melomel attempt. I'd left 4 pounds of chopped plums in there to ferment out dry, and I was nervous as to the result. I drew off a full glass, and was amazed by the clarity. There were some suspended particles, yes (lots of fruit bodies in there, after all) but this stuff was very, very clear and a gorgeous crimson color. And the scent was fantastically powerful, fruity plum. One taste was all it too to convince me I have a winner. Very fruity and tart, with a hint of acidity. The only negative was that it'd fermented out all the way. It was dry. Super-dry. This melomel was so dry it actually sucked the sugars out of your body and beat them into submission. Wow. Whereas the smoked braggot needed a slight amount of sweetening to bring it into balance, this one is going to need a lot more honey. And I'm not trying for a syrupy-sweet dessert wine, either, just enough honey to balance all the flavors and bring the sweetness up to neutral. But I really am looking forward to the end result.
Thus inspired by the success of my various meads, I turned to the six gallons of plum wine I had aging in a secondary container. I was quite excited, because during the racking it had boasted a rich, burgundy color and a very strong fruity aroma and taste. I couldn't wait to see how it'd cleared out, and how the flavor may have mellowed. Imagine my horror when muddy brown muck filled my glass. At first I thought it was some sediment from the bottom, but no, the entire batch had that same dark, sludgy look. And, sad to say, a flavor that matched. Six gallons of plum wine had oxidized somehow, and was utterly ruined. I'm not sure how that happened. Carelessness on my part, I supposed, but thinking back I can't recall any "smoking gun." I'll try again, since I have plenty of plums chopped up and frozen in the deep freeze, but this was very disappointing.
There's only one thing to do when you have to dispose of six gallons of ruined wine, and that's start another six gallon batch to replace it. Being a fan of instant gratification, I decided to make a quick batch of beer. 1) I have a single bottle of home brew left in the refrigerator, and 2) it'll ferment in a week allowing me to use the fermentation vessel for mead or wine or something else in short order. Like I said, instant gratification. Plus, I've never, ever had a batch of beer go bad on me.
Sunday afternoon I set out with the Bug to Homebrew Party in San Antonio. It's just 15 minutes from my house, and nothing has dissuaded me from my initial impression that this place compares very favorably to the excellent Austin Homebrew Supply. While there I got a bottle of potassium sorbate (to really, really make sure the fermentation stops in the mead), some wine yeast, a kit can of Cooper's Dark Ale extract and a pound of Munton's dark malt extract. What can I say? I like malty beers better than hoppy beers. I could easily have spent a thousand dollars or more in there, but I didn't (because I don't want to be divorced). Once I got home, in short order I had the wort cooked, mixed and cooled in my primary six gallon fermentation vessel. Cooper's wasn't kidding when they said it was dark ale--the stuff's black. I worked up a yeast starter with some passion fruit juice and yeast nutrient, and pitched it once the temperature of the wort hit the acceptable range. Currently, things have settled down and there's a nice layer of yeast lining the bottom, with occasional tiny bubbles rising up. I expect that by this time tomorrow the airlock will be bubbling non-stop and threatening to blow out.
So, what should I attempt next week after this beer is bottled? Try for another batch of plum wine? Or a fig or prickly pear melomel? Or even a medieval "burnt" mead with carmelized honey? Decisions, decisions...
Now Playing: The Kinks Something Else
Monday, July 05, 2010
Brew 4th, and drinkify
Took a road trip this weekend to Utopia to drop Monkey Girl off for horse camp. Which means there will be 98 percent less sass in the house this coming week. Yet the squabbling between Fairy Girl and Bug has exponentially expanded to fill that void. Funny that.
In a misguided effort to be productive with the remaining time available to me over the weekend, I racked the plum wine I've had fermenting since June 7, separating the plum solids from the proto-wine liquid. Which may sound simple and straightforward, but it isn't. The plums had essentially decomposed into fragments of skin and pulp, none of which had any coherence except when it came to plugging the bung spigot in my fermenter--they were plenty solid for that. So I was reduced to using a ladle to scoop out the wine and pulp and place it in a cloth-lined colander, straining the liquid from the solids. You'd be surprised how quickly those solids can plug up the weave of even a loosely-knit cloth. Eventually, I didn't even have a clearly defined mix to work with as I ladled. What I was getting out was more of a thick slurry, with the fruit and liquid indistinguishable. Out of the six gallons I started with, I ended up with four--the pulpy fruit solids thrown out on the back yard compost heap. I then dissolved four pounds of sugar in a gallon of water to top the proto-wine up to 5 gallons, and provide the yeasties with enough sweet fermentables to bring the alcohol content up to a storage-friendly 12 percent. The good news is that when I sampled a bit of the stuff--it certainly smelled like wine--I was rewarded with a dry wine that tasted very strongly of plums. I think, despite my misguided efforts, that my first attempt at winemaking may be a success.
I have to say here that my racking task was made much easier by the addition of two extra 6-gallon fermenters. My brother Chris was kind enough to loan me his, since he hasn't done any homebrew in several years and doesn't expect to return to the hobby any time soon. So, with the wine safely locked away in one of the new fermenters, I had mine available immediately for more brewing.
I had 9 pounds of honey on hand, and wanted to try some plum melomel, as well as take another crack at the infamous jalapeno metheglin, so my course was clear. I emptied all nine pounds of honey in a large pot and topped up with about a gallon of water, heating the mix gently so the honey would dissolve. Since I want the starting mead to be moderately sweet instead of dry, I decided to only make 3 gallons worth. I put the honey mix in the fermenter, then added 1.5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient and yeast energizer before stirring vigorously to oxygenate the must. I topped it up with cool water to make just over 3 gallons, and then pitched the yeast starter. This is a new yeast for me, Bourgovin. It's a Burgundy yeast, supposedly good for dark fruit wines such as plum. We'll see. I made a mix of honey water and grape juice, to which I added the dry yeast. An hour later it was fermenting vigorously, so I expect good things from it. A month from now, when primary fermentation tapers off, I'll rack the mead into a 1.5 gallon vessel to which I'll add a bit more honey, for enhanced sweetness, and a single large jalapeno. The previous results were quite striking--akin to biting a live wire--and I expect no less this time around. To the remainder I will add no less than 7 pounds of chopped plums. The resulting fruit profile in the finished melomel should be robust. If you ask nicely, I might even share some!
Now Playing:
In a misguided effort to be productive with the remaining time available to me over the weekend, I racked the plum wine I've had fermenting since June 7, separating the plum solids from the proto-wine liquid. Which may sound simple and straightforward, but it isn't. The plums had essentially decomposed into fragments of skin and pulp, none of which had any coherence except when it came to plugging the bung spigot in my fermenter--they were plenty solid for that. So I was reduced to using a ladle to scoop out the wine and pulp and place it in a cloth-lined colander, straining the liquid from the solids. You'd be surprised how quickly those solids can plug up the weave of even a loosely-knit cloth. Eventually, I didn't even have a clearly defined mix to work with as I ladled. What I was getting out was more of a thick slurry, with the fruit and liquid indistinguishable. Out of the six gallons I started with, I ended up with four--the pulpy fruit solids thrown out on the back yard compost heap. I then dissolved four pounds of sugar in a gallon of water to top the proto-wine up to 5 gallons, and provide the yeasties with enough sweet fermentables to bring the alcohol content up to a storage-friendly 12 percent. The good news is that when I sampled a bit of the stuff--it certainly smelled like wine--I was rewarded with a dry wine that tasted very strongly of plums. I think, despite my misguided efforts, that my first attempt at winemaking may be a success.
I have to say here that my racking task was made much easier by the addition of two extra 6-gallon fermenters. My brother Chris was kind enough to loan me his, since he hasn't done any homebrew in several years and doesn't expect to return to the hobby any time soon. So, with the wine safely locked away in one of the new fermenters, I had mine available immediately for more brewing.
I had 9 pounds of honey on hand, and wanted to try some plum melomel, as well as take another crack at the infamous jalapeno metheglin, so my course was clear. I emptied all nine pounds of honey in a large pot and topped up with about a gallon of water, heating the mix gently so the honey would dissolve. Since I want the starting mead to be moderately sweet instead of dry, I decided to only make 3 gallons worth. I put the honey mix in the fermenter, then added 1.5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient and yeast energizer before stirring vigorously to oxygenate the must. I topped it up with cool water to make just over 3 gallons, and then pitched the yeast starter. This is a new yeast for me, Bourgovin. It's a Burgundy yeast, supposedly good for dark fruit wines such as plum. We'll see. I made a mix of honey water and grape juice, to which I added the dry yeast. An hour later it was fermenting vigorously, so I expect good things from it. A month from now, when primary fermentation tapers off, I'll rack the mead into a 1.5 gallon vessel to which I'll add a bit more honey, for enhanced sweetness, and a single large jalapeno. The previous results were quite striking--akin to biting a live wire--and I expect no less this time around. To the remainder I will add no less than 7 pounds of chopped plums. The resulting fruit profile in the finished melomel should be robust. If you ask nicely, I might even share some!
Now Playing:
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Upon further consideration
I'm thinking 30 pounds of plums qualifies as overkill for 6 gallons of wine. And not in the good way. The fruit cap is trapping all the CO2 and swelling up, filling the fermenter and plugging the airlock. I've never had to deal with this before--beer and mead simply foam up if fermentation gets too vigorous, and that's easy to deal with. Swelling, expanding fruit is a different story entirely. I had to put some elbow grease into it this morning to get the lid off, the pressure had built up so. Mangled plum and juice splattered me and my office carpet. I've had to remove the lid entirely and replace it with a towel, and have The Wife go in every 30 minutes or so to stir the fruit cap to release the gas and settle everything back down. If she doesn't, the must will swell out and ooze down the sides like a sweet, sticky volcano. Not good.
On the bright side, the fermentation's going great. My office smells like baking bread. Sweet, fruity bread, but bread nonetheless.
Now Playing: Billy Joel My Lives
On the bright side, the fermentation's going great. My office smells like baking bread. Sweet, fruity bread, but bread nonetheless.
Now Playing: Billy Joel My Lives
Monday, June 07, 2010
Uncharted territory
So I've been homebrewing beer for 14 years now, and mead (with varying degrees of success) for about 7, give or take. In all that time, I've never tried to homebrew wine. Until now.
We've got two plum trees in the back yard--one Santa Rosa, and one Methley. This year is the first they've ever produced in significant numbers, and try as we might to harvest them all, there are many plums rotting on the ground because we can't keep up with them all. The Santa Rosas are on the smallish side, and even when fully and dropping off the tree they tend to be firm and tartish. The Methleys, on the other hand, are sweet even before turning a dark, almost black purple, and are juicy like you wouldn't believe. There're too many for eating fresh, so I initially thought I'd try a batch of plum melomel/mead. Trouble is, it soon because obvious there were too many plums--a mead would hardly put a dent in them. Plans changed, and I'm in the winemaking business.
The initial recipe I settled on--a hybrid of two plum wine recipes from Making Wild Wines & Mead--called for 3 pounds of plums per gallon. I ended up with 6 pounds of pitted, crushed plums per gallon before I realized it. That's 30 pounds of plums for the 6 gallon fermenter if you're keeping track. That's a lot of plums--and there's at least 15 pounds more in the deep freeze, bagged up for future use, not to mention many times that number still out on the tree.
To get the fermentation started, I needed yeast. I had two packets of wine yeast in the refrigerator already, but I'd picked those out for specific mead recipes and with this being my first actual attempt at wine, I wanted a yeast strain that would accentuate the fruitiness of the plums. I didn't want to drive all the way in to Austin for a few packets of yeast, but San Antonio Home Brew supply keeps erratic hours at best, and the last few times I've gone by there, the yeast selection has been sparse. I Googled them to try and get a phone number to check if they'd even be open, but to my surprise, a website for a place called Home Brew Party turned up. A new homebrew supply store in SA? And on the north east side, close to me? And open on Mondays? It was too good to be true, so I drove over with some skepticism.
I have a new favorite homebrew supply store. Folks, this place was great! It was clean, incredibly well-stocked and impeccably organized. Not only did they have my first choice for yeast, they also had my second and third choices as well, so I bought them all. They had anything you could possibly want for homebrewing beer or wine, but they also carried honey and other specific materials for mead makers. Whew! I was so giddy I picked up a new hygrometer while I was there, as my previous one had gotten broken about six month back or so.
Back home, I started the yeast in a cup of water with the juice squeezed from two oranges. Then I combined the plums and water, tannin, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient and yeast energizer to the fermentation vessel, along with a little more than 7 pounds of sugar. I actually didn't have enough sugar at first, due to a miscalculation on my part, which necessitated another trip to the store, but that's neither here nor there. I'll probably have to add a little more when I rack it to get the alcohol content up around 12 percent (which is the magic number for fruit wines, because that level kills off any bacteria or other infections that can ruin the wine as it ages).
In any event, the plums are happily fermenting now in my office. It's not an aggressive fermentation, but I've never tried this before so we'll see how fast it gets going by tomorrow. For anyone interested, in such things, here's the basics of what's in the mix at this point in time: Lavin 71B-1122 yeast, juice from 2 oranges, 30 pounds of pitted and crushed Methley and Santa Rosa plums, ~7 pounds sugar, 1.5 tsp grape tannin, 6 tsp pectic enzyme, 6 tsp. yeast nutrient, 1.5 tsp. yeast energizer and (to come after initial fermentation is complete) 6 tsp. acid blend. I don't know how this is going to turn out, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I am thinking of going back to Home Brew Party and picking up another large fermentation vessel. I've got a bunch of prickly pear fruit in the deep freeze waiting to be made into a melomel at some point, and it seems a shame to have to wait until the plums are finished before starting it...
Now Playing: Billy Joel My Lives
We've got two plum trees in the back yard--one Santa Rosa, and one Methley. This year is the first they've ever produced in significant numbers, and try as we might to harvest them all, there are many plums rotting on the ground because we can't keep up with them all. The Santa Rosas are on the smallish side, and even when fully and dropping off the tree they tend to be firm and tartish. The Methleys, on the other hand, are sweet even before turning a dark, almost black purple, and are juicy like you wouldn't believe. There're too many for eating fresh, so I initially thought I'd try a batch of plum melomel/mead. Trouble is, it soon because obvious there were too many plums--a mead would hardly put a dent in them. Plans changed, and I'm in the winemaking business.
The initial recipe I settled on--a hybrid of two plum wine recipes from Making Wild Wines & Mead--called for 3 pounds of plums per gallon. I ended up with 6 pounds of pitted, crushed plums per gallon before I realized it. That's 30 pounds of plums for the 6 gallon fermenter if you're keeping track. That's a lot of plums--and there's at least 15 pounds more in the deep freeze, bagged up for future use, not to mention many times that number still out on the tree.
To get the fermentation started, I needed yeast. I had two packets of wine yeast in the refrigerator already, but I'd picked those out for specific mead recipes and with this being my first actual attempt at wine, I wanted a yeast strain that would accentuate the fruitiness of the plums. I didn't want to drive all the way in to Austin for a few packets of yeast, but San Antonio Home Brew supply keeps erratic hours at best, and the last few times I've gone by there, the yeast selection has been sparse. I Googled them to try and get a phone number to check if they'd even be open, but to my surprise, a website for a place called Home Brew Party turned up. A new homebrew supply store in SA? And on the north east side, close to me? And open on Mondays? It was too good to be true, so I drove over with some skepticism.
I have a new favorite homebrew supply store. Folks, this place was great! It was clean, incredibly well-stocked and impeccably organized. Not only did they have my first choice for yeast, they also had my second and third choices as well, so I bought them all. They had anything you could possibly want for homebrewing beer or wine, but they also carried honey and other specific materials for mead makers. Whew! I was so giddy I picked up a new hygrometer while I was there, as my previous one had gotten broken about six month back or so.
Back home, I started the yeast in a cup of water with the juice squeezed from two oranges. Then I combined the plums and water, tannin, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient and yeast energizer to the fermentation vessel, along with a little more than 7 pounds of sugar. I actually didn't have enough sugar at first, due to a miscalculation on my part, which necessitated another trip to the store, but that's neither here nor there. I'll probably have to add a little more when I rack it to get the alcohol content up around 12 percent (which is the magic number for fruit wines, because that level kills off any bacteria or other infections that can ruin the wine as it ages).
In any event, the plums are happily fermenting now in my office. It's not an aggressive fermentation, but I've never tried this before so we'll see how fast it gets going by tomorrow. For anyone interested, in such things, here's the basics of what's in the mix at this point in time: Lavin 71B-1122 yeast, juice from 2 oranges, 30 pounds of pitted and crushed Methley and Santa Rosa plums, ~7 pounds sugar, 1.5 tsp grape tannin, 6 tsp pectic enzyme, 6 tsp. yeast nutrient, 1.5 tsp. yeast energizer and (to come after initial fermentation is complete) 6 tsp. acid blend. I don't know how this is going to turn out, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I am thinking of going back to Home Brew Party and picking up another large fermentation vessel. I've got a bunch of prickly pear fruit in the deep freeze waiting to be made into a melomel at some point, and it seems a shame to have to wait until the plums are finished before starting it...
Now Playing: Billy Joel My Lives
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)