|
FrogMachine
Bacon based life form


Registered: 12/16/13
Posts: 31
Loc: BC
Last seen: 10 years, 7 days
|
Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc
#19290639 - 12/17/13 09:14 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
First I'll clarify that by wine making I don't mean taking a kit and following the directions. No no no no no. I mean more like the amateur alchemist end of wine making "Hey man I wanna ferment some peaches!!!" "No man, ferment some pruuuuunes." Basically, my angle is to put random fruits together and hope for the best. The professionals can make a better chardonnay or merlot or whatever, so I'm just gonna go for the unblazed trails, make things you can't find in the liquor store...
At this moment in time I have 5 gallons of pineapple wine. Wellllll more like 3 by now... Once I find that my latest project is drinkable it gets smaller and smaller every day. 
But so far this has been my tastiest "brew" if I can use that word for a wine.
Contents were as follows: 5 x 1L cartons of Dole pineapple juice (no additives besides Vitamin C and water; from concentrate), 1 x California white generic wine kit made for a 5 gallon wine batch (minus all the additive packs), 1 packet of Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast, room-temp tap water to top to 5 gallon line.
Conveniently, I used the 1L cartons to see just where 5 gallons was on my carboy... 
Tested for density, came out saying 12% potential alcohol content, so I didn't bother adding sugar. Last time I added sugar to try to get it to 18% (K1-V1116 can do 18% sometimes...) I ended up with wine that was just plain way too sweet...
3 weeks after inoculation, wine came out very tart, not sweet, and quite capable of getting me drunk. Success.
Nothing like my first batch of wine made with various frozen fruits and chopped raisins over the period of 2 months, to 18% alcohol, which got me TOTALLY SLOSHED with 2 nice tall glasses full. But all in all, my easiest wine yet, and really tasty too.
Easy + tasty + drunk. That's all I needed.
In the name of further experimentation, I'm hoping others have some ideas for other fruits, juices, techniques, whatnot that either have worked for them or just sound tasty. I'm always looking for flavour ideas most of all...
On a side note, I have frozen peaches and frozen pears waiting for mini experimental batches when I bother to get around to it.
Anyone got ideas? Fruits they think should be turned to booze? Anyone got projects? Fruits they ARE turning to booze? Share share share, I'd love to hear it all!
|
farmerb


Registered: 10/31/12
Posts: 112
Loc: Central Coast California
|
Re: Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc [Re: FrogMachine]
#19291163 - 12/17/13 11:53 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
I've been making wine for a while but mostly with wine grape from local vineyards. I have also made cherry, strawberry and lavender.
You should check out Jack Keller's page. A lots of unique wine recipes. http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request.asp
-------------------- Like us on Facebook
|
FrogMachine
Bacon based life form



Registered: 12/16/13
Posts: 31
Loc: BC
Last seen: 10 years, 7 days
|
Re: Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc [Re: farmerb]
#19291185 - 12/17/13 11:58 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Quote:
farmerb said: I've been making wine for a while but mostly with wine grape from local vineyards. I have also made cherry, strawberry and lavender.
You should check out Jack Keller's page. A lots of unique wine recipes. http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request.asp
I've always loved Jack Keller's page. Probably the best resource on the internet aside from browsing brewing forums.
How did you go about making lavender wine?
|
farmerb


Registered: 10/31/12
Posts: 112
Loc: Central Coast California
|
Re: Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc [Re: FrogMachine]
#19291259 - 12/18/13 12:17 AM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
I steep the lavender in boiling water. Then I added sugar, white grape juice concentrate and other additives. After fermentation I back sweetened it.
-------------------- Like us on Facebook
|
FrogMachine
Bacon based life form



Registered: 12/16/13
Posts: 31
Loc: BC
Last seen: 10 years, 7 days
|
Re: Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc [Re: farmerb]
#19291275 - 12/18/13 12:22 AM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Ohhh okay.
If I were to add, saaaay...
Catnip, chamomile, and hops for their psychoactive effects, would I want to add it to something on the white end of the spectrum?
It's what I was expecting to do anyways. Probably put them (and a certain other psychoactive "herb") into my pineapple wine and call it pineapple express...
|
Horizon
Stranger
Registered: 08/15/13
Posts: 229
Last seen: 9 years, 7 months
|
Re: Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc [Re: FrogMachine]
#19299390 - 12/19/13 06:43 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
I've made plenty of decent wines in my day (never have the patience to let it age very long ) I like where you are coming from by experimenting with various fruits for fermentation, I personally have fermented grapes, oranges(with a melomel), black raspberries, mulberries, apples, and possibly a couple I have forgotten about, a lot of my early experiments ultimately met their demise down the drain. I can say though that black raspberries have made some of the tastiest wines and melomels I've made, I pick them during the summer and it feels much better when you drink something that you foraged and processed yourself. You get the smells and aromas of the area that they were harvested from. I should have saved a bottle from this summer 
I might post some of my recipes tomorrow
-------------------- Stanhope is right
|
FrogMachine
Bacon based life form



Registered: 12/16/13
Posts: 31
Loc: BC
Last seen: 10 years, 7 days
|
Re: Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc [Re: Horizon]
#19300545 - 12/19/13 11:22 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
I did a blackberry wine and a blueberry wine this summer. The blackberries were hand picked. But I think I liked the blueberry wine better. However... The blackberries were free.
And I can definitely say some of my early experiments went down the drain also. Some ideas are just bad judgement.
Got any advice on an affordable yet easy way to press/crush fruit? Currently I'm pretty much stuck with a big drawstring sack and my hands.
|
Horizon
Stranger
Registered: 08/15/13
Posts: 229
Last seen: 9 years, 7 months
|
Re: Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc [Re: FrogMachine]
#19301677 - 12/20/13 07:15 AM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Quote:
FrogMachine said: I did a blackberry wine and a blueberry wine this summer. The blackberries were hand picked. But I think I liked the blueberry wine better. However... The blackberries were free.
And I can definitely say some of my early experiments went down the drain also. Some ideas are just bad judgement.
Got any advice on an affordable yet easy way to press/crush fruit? Currently I'm pretty much stuck with a big drawstring sack and my hands.
For some reason I've always assumed that blueberries would not ferment well, I'm going to try fermenting some. And sorry I don't have a method better than simply crushing the fruit myself.
-------------------- Stanhope is right
|
kingboomer
smurfhouse archetect



Registered: 06/15/04
Posts: 739
Loc: Rocky Mountain High!!!!
Last seen: 2 days, 3 hours
|
Re: Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc [Re: Horizon]
#19308557 - 12/21/13 04:03 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Blueberries do great! I made a blueberry melomel a few years ago that turned out fantastic.
As far as juice extraction, I generally put mine in a ziplock bag, then freeze/thaw a few times. The freezing ruptures the cells and makes juice extraction much easier. Then I break out ye olde potato masher and cloth bag Also another tip for fruits is to add some to primary, then do a secondary with more.
-Kingboomer
-------------------- Hole in the sky/ take me to heaven.. window in time/ through it I'll fly... -Black Sabbath
|
FrogMachine
Bacon based life form



Registered: 12/16/13
Posts: 31
Loc: BC
Last seen: 10 years, 7 days
|
Re: Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc [Re: kingboomer]
#19314205 - 12/22/13 11:40 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Right, potato masher... I was regretting not having a good one of those when I last used whole fruits.
|
homegrown99.9

Registered: 01/30/14
Posts: 201
Last seen: 6 years, 1 month
|
Re: Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc [Re: FrogMachine]
#19497961 - 01/30/14 06:34 PM (10 years, 17 hours ago) |
|
|
Just getting into the art of wine brewing. Have a pretty good mentor to ask questions to and he gave me a big curve on the competition. My dad's been brewing wine for almost 10 years and the first few batches he made didn't turn out right. His most recent batch of Tea Wine he let ferment for a long time and the end product, well...I don't think is alcohol at all. You can still taste the yeast in the wine but the effects of drinking it do not feel like that of any alcohol. When we were bottling it up I tried a couple drinks of it and everything on the floor started to spin in little spirals..does anyone have an idea that this might not be wine but a form of a psychedelic? I know that you can make LSD by brewing beer and the types of yeast you use, but am not sure if you could do the same by brewing wine..? The Dead family had to make LSD on tour somehow and still make it at home without an Orgo Chem degree, other than buying it from Owsley's suppliers. any help to guide me in the right path would help me in my own brewing. I have a grape batch going right now and that's fermenting nicely, should be down in about 2-3weeks.
|
ak1308
Stranger

Registered: 01/28/14
Posts: 58
Last seen: 9 years, 3 days
|
Re: Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc [Re: homegrown99.9]
#19502764 - 01/31/14 06:52 PM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
|
|
Banana wine. Delicious if you get it right. Pretty common in africa. I couldn't get it to work when I tried. Think I might have gotten a contamination of some sort, it just smelled a bit off.
|
ak1308
Stranger

Registered: 01/28/14
Posts: 58
Last seen: 9 years, 3 days
|
Re: Wine making projects: Ideas, current project, etc [Re: FrogMachine]
#19502783 - 01/31/14 06:56 PM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
FrogMachine said: Got any advice on an affordable yet easy way to press/crush fruit? Currently I'm pretty much stuck with a big drawstring sack and my hands.
I use a hand blender, just add some water to the fruit in a bucket and go to town. Then I just strain it later on.
|
|