Wine no1 experiments- Body

[Leon]

Leon, something I was planning in for the summer was comparing different ways of improving bouquet; flower- dried, fresh; cordial, essential oil, etc. Another experiment would be making the tastiest strawberry wine; canned, fresh, cooked, mashed, put in at end, etc. Or maybe- making the strongest red; red concentrate, adding red juice, elderberries, etc. I'm sure whatever you decide to do, there will be plenty of people to advise you on the journey. I'll be looking forward to your findings

I think the bouquet improving one will have to wait until the summer, not sure what flowers are out there this time of year: one with holly, one with twigs, one with, um, parsnips?
I'm not sure I want five gallons of strawberry wine either, but the red experiment, I'm liking the sound of that. I was going to attempt my first ever five gallons of wine as a wine #2 with all red grape juice, but this way hmmmmm. I'm in.

Sooo, provisionally:
1. Control, as per wine#2 but all red grape juice,
2. Adding red grape concentrate,
3. Um, blood?
4. Letterboxes.

Ok, might need some help here. Could you add actual grapes to the ferment to add depth? Not unheard of. Or boiled bannana water for body?

Ok, please help.

[goldseal]

If you are going to buy glycerine, you might want to consider this:

http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Value-Health-Glycerin-B-P-200ml_852418/

- FAR more economical than buying from a HBS.

[malcmackenzie]

I think the bouquet improving one will have to wait until the summer, not sure what flowers are out there this time of year: one with holly, one with twigs, one with, um, parsnips?
I'm not sure I want five gallons of strawberry wine either, but the red experiment, I'm liking the sound of that. I was going to attempt my first ever five gallons of wine as a wine #2 with all red grape juice, but this way hmmmmm. I'm in.

Sooo, provisionally:
1. Control, as per wine#2 but all red grape juice,
2. Adding red grape concentrate,
3. Um, blood?
4. Letterboxes.

Ok, might need some help here. Could you add actual grapes to the ferment to add depth? Not unheard of. Or boiled bannana water for body?

Ok, please help.

I have wondered how to make a red with depth but the easy way like a wine number 2.

You mention elderberrys. I made some a few months ago and over did it extracting juice and it is so deep in red and tannin that I feel it may never be drinkable.

I have decided as an experiment to add some to my next breew and see it it goes well as an ingredient to add deep red colour and a little depth to a red.

I will let you know how it goes.

But as an experimnet you could buy some elderberrys and go for max juice extraction and ferment out a gallon and see if it may make an ingredient.

Otherwise C JJ Berry had a nice recipe for elderberry wine.

Good luck

[krakowmike]

If you are going to buy glycerine, you might want to consider this:

http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Value-Health-Glycerin-B-P-200ml_852418/

- FAR more economical than buying from a HBS.

Thats the one I bought The one bottle will probably last several years- other uses-

sore throat- add a teaspoon to honey lemon tea. Thats all I could think of now hehe

[krakowmike]

I think the bouquet improving one will have to wait until the summer, not sure what flowers are out there this time of year: one with holly, one with twigs, one with, um, parsnips?
I'm not sure I want five gallons of strawberry wine either, but the red experiment, I'm liking the sound of that. I was going to attempt my first ever five gallons of wine as a wine #2 with all red grape juice, but this way hmmmmm. I'm in.

Sooo, provisionally:
1. Control, as per wine#2 but all red grape juice,
2. Adding red grape concentrate,
3. Um, blood?
4. Letterboxes.

Ok, might need some help here. Could you add actual grapes to the ferment to add depth? Not unheard of. Or boiled bannana water for body?

Ok, please help.

Maybe blueberry juice, tea, elderberries, raisins, food colouring, beet root, grape tannin? just some ideas.

For Christmas my family makes borscht- a red beet soup that is dark red and tasty. Might be worth while exploring this option.

[Delmonteman]

I've done the wine number 2 with just red grape juice and it was OK. Back-sweeten very cautiously though as even though I only went to 1.004 it went very syrupy very quickly...

[krakowmike]

I've done the wine number 2 with just red grape juice and it was OK. Back-sweeten very cautiously though as even though I only went to 1.004 it went very syrupy very quickly...

Did you use 100% juice or juice with sweetner?

[malcmackenzie]

If you are going to buy glycerine, you might want to consider this:

http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Value-Health-Glycerin-B-P-200ml_852418/

- FAR more economical than buying from a HBS.

Good tip ..... bought some. So now what do I do with it? Any suggestions for how much to use and when? On one gallon of Number 1.

[Leon]

The problem I'm going to have carrying out this experiment is getting five empty DJs at the same time. As soon as one is empty I want to fill it. I like the elderberries suggestion, so maybe:
Control,
Red grape concentrate,
Sultanas
Elderberries.

What thinks the great minds?


Talking of body, I'm just starting a pumpkin wine, with sultanas, grape juice and the boiled bannana water trick, hopefully that should have quite the figure.

[krakowmike]

Sultana after bottling

Unfortunately the Mrs and the sister in law opened the bottle while I was on-call. They really enjoyed it.

The following day, the wine had slightly more body than the control but not as much as the glycerine. It tasted similar to a Greek straw wine, but a watered down version of it. This wine has slightly more depth than the control. I think it failed at added body. Maybe next time, I'll try adding a little more sultanas. I do want to avoid the oxidised taste some posts have mentioned after too much sultanas.

Nonetheless, it was a hit-

[krakowmike]

The problem I'm going to have carrying out this experiment is getting five empty DJs at the same time. As soon as one is empty I want to fill it. I like the elderberries suggestion, so maybe:
Control,
Red grape concentrate,
Sultanas
Elderberries.

What thinks the great minds?


Talking of body, I'm just starting a pumpkin wine, with sultanas, grape juice and the boiled bannana water trick, hopefully that should have quite the figure.

Easy- buy (5) 1 gallon still water from the store and convert the bottles to DJs. Drill a hole in the cap and insert the water seal and airlock. Use the water for the recipe and when you are done, you can just recycle the used plastic bottles. Just keep the caps and next time, buy the same bottles so you don't need to re-drill any holes since you can use the old ones.

[krakowmike]

Banana after bottling

We opened up the banana wine no1 today. It wasn't as clear as the others, despite being filtered. It had bouquet that the others lacked. However, the addition of the banana added nothing for the body. Wonder if should've added some pectolase before filtering-

I utilised the banana wrong. Instead of boiling etc, I just added it into the dj.

It does have a nice smell (not banana, not tropical as I mentioned before) that reminds of supermarket Italian wine.

The wine tasted very fresh. Tickles the back of your throat a little, more so than the control. Maybe aging will mellow things out a little bit.

In the end, the banana added bouquet but not body. I wonder if using the banana appropriately would give me a better 'body' result.

Finally, the WGC to try and that's it for round 1

[bickerton]

My lessons over 40 batches

Ive done a yeast trial, with a selection of 5 'young's' yeasts (all purpose, bordeaux, red and white versions) and some lalvin EC-1118 and 71B-1122

All of the Lalvin are great. The only Young's yeast I now use is burgundy Red. It is by far the best even fantastic in Apple No1. and was my best yeast for white wine and compares very well to the Lalvin EC-1118.

Ive tried mixing the number of liters of fruit to water to grape juice. Ive settled on 6 liters of fruit and 6 liters of grape juice with water to top up to 23 liters. using 6 L fruit juice and 12 liters of grape was not much better and the wine tasted a little thick on the palate.

Ive tried adding sultanas, and raisins (to white and red) and also added honey as an alternative to them. Honey gave a real flavour enhancement, but I used 1.25Kg and think that was probably too much. It really gave the wines body though. Honey is a lot easier than squashing and squishing the sultanas, then pressing and all of that...

Hope this helps...

[krakowmike]

Ive done a yeast trial, with a selection of 5 'young's' yeasts (all purpose, bordeaux, red and white versions) and some lalvin EC-1118 and 71B-1122

All of the Lalvin are great. The only Young's yeast I now use is burgundy Red. It is by far the best even fantastic in Apple No1. and was my best yeast for white wine and compares very well to the Lalvin EC-1118.

Ive tried mixing the number of liters of fruit to water to grape juice. Ive settled on 6 liters of fruit and 6 liters of grape juice with water to top up to 23 liters. using 6 L fruit juice and 12 liters of grape was not much better and the wine tasted a little thick on the palate.

Ive tried adding sultanas, and raisins (to white and red) and also added honey as an alternative to them. Honey gave a real flavour enhancement, but I used 1.25Kg and think that was probably too much. It really gave the wines body though. Honey is a lot easier than squashing and squishing the sultanas, then pressing and all of that...

Hope this helps...

That's brilliant on your experiences! Thank you for sharing. How did you use the honey, to back sweeten or at the start? Did you see any benefit to aging as well?

[bickerton]

That's brilliant on your experiences! Thank you for sharing. How did you use the honey, to back sweeten or at the start? Did you see any benefit to aging as well?

I used it at the start. I check the specific gravity and add the honey dissolved in water. check it again and add the required amount of sugar dissolved in water to bring it to 1.090 or thereabouts. It is important to work out how many grams of sugar are in the liquid at each addition and to calculate the final amount required as the volume increases to 23L or 5 gallons

nearly all wines are better after aging for a few months. I seldom manage to keep them for longer. must make more often! Gallons.