Wine no1 experiments- Body

[krakowmike]

I've been a lurker for a while now and all I can say is this forum rocks! There is so much to learn in this great hobby. I've made several kits- all very good, improving with age. I've stumbled on the wine no1 recipe. Being a scientist and exploring my natural curiosity, I want to experiment with slight variations of the recipe- looking for the holy grail!

My first wine no1 came out brilliant, 6 bottles are gone. They aged over a month and I don't think it gave the wine justice.

I want to start several experiments, high lighting a particular aspect of wine. I figured if I make a 5 gallon batch, I'll have 5 separate gallons to test different variables. This will be a work in progress and the first attempt will be to test body.

Each gallon will produce 6 bottles, and at two month intervals, will taste test each and report my findings here. Over the course of a year, I'll grade aspects of body.

Being a relative newbie, I'm happy for anyone to contribute and hopefully we can get a great tread here.

[krakowmike]

I'm planning for some consumables to be delivered before starting. The simple idea is that I'll start one 5 gallon batch of wine no1 and once fermentation starts and the sg drops to a certain level, I will rack into 5 separate 1 gallon jugs to complete fermentation and while changing a single variable. I understand that wine tasting is a balance between different variables, but to understand this complexity, we must break things down.

Body of a wine is the mouth feel. Correct me if I'm wrong, but we can change the body by changing the amount of fruit we add. My (5) 1 gallon tests will be the wine no1 standard plus x:

1. Standard
2. 1 can of white grape concentrate
3. 1 can of red grape concentrate
4. small amount of raisins added
5. large amount of raisins added

I think this will give a nice variation and produce slightly different wines. Any thoughts, suggestions, criticism from the experienced wine buffs

I can't wait to get started. I will post my methods soon.

[krakowmike]

Methods version 1

Wine no1 recipe as follows:

1. In 5 gallon fermentator add the following:
a. 5L white grape juice
b. 5L clear apple juice
c. 5t yeast nutirent
d. 5t citric acid
e. 1TB grape tannin
f. 1TB pectolase
g. sugar to sg 1.07
h. 1 packet high quality yeast (to be determined)

2. Leave for 24 hours until fermentation begins. Put under air lock.
3. When sg falls to 1.1, rack to 5 separate 1 gallon dj.
4. Add variables in each, correct for sugar content (so total sg would be 1.8)
5. Ferment until dry.
6. Stablize
7. Clear
8. Filter
9. Bottle
10. Taste at month 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 11.
11. Report findings each month

[krakowmike]

Variables

1. Standard (wine no1 without any changes, to judge against)
2. 1 can of white grape concentrate (Young's)
3. 1 can of red grape concentrate (Young's)
4. small amount of sultanas added (50g washed, minced)
5. large amount of sultanas added (250g washed, minced)

Any suggestions? If anyone has ideas to change the variable, please share with us

I'll start posting pictures when the project comes under way.

[goldseal]

This all sounds a bit scientific .

Can I suggest sultanas instead of raisins? They are made from white grapes, wheras rasins are from red grapes. They should be more in keeping with the base wine.

[Ted.B]

Hello and welcome !

I think this thread will turn out to very informative. At least I hope so !
The only suggestion I have so far is to consider sultanas instead of raisins......

Ohh bugger .. Pete beat me to it.

[Rich]

Sounds great.

I'm hoping you forgot to add the zero in your sg readings, as 1.7 is very high indeed.


I'd go with some Lalvin K1v 1116 yeast, but there are several others to choose from.

[krakowmike]

Change the raisins to sultanas. I forgot the 0 on the sg, good spot- I wonder if I can edit the posts-

[krakowmike]

Any thoughts on how I should process the sultanas? Wash, mince and boil, or just mince?

[Rich]

Wash them and slice in half. No need to mince them right up.

[owlwithoutfeathers]

How about adding a touch of glycerine? In keeping with the thumbs up on the sultana's i'd ditch the idea of red grape concentrate and maintain the scientific logic of comparing white with white. Cant really compare White with Red can we?

Owl.

[Rich]

Good point on the glycerin. Just a teaspoon or so per gallon to start with though, or it can leave a metallic type taste.

You an also buy it from Boots, in the cough medicine bit. About £1 I think last time I bought a bottle.

[malcmackenzie]

Wine conditioner

Hi All

I recently made up a conditioner / starter as an experiment and it seems to be going very well as follows.

Sultanas 100grms
Pectolase 1tsp
yeast nutrient (some)
Youngs all purpose wine yeast (in a plastic tub)
Rohapect VR-C enzyme (Youngs) 1tsp

wash sultanas in hot but not boiling water this gets rid of vegetable oil they spray with before packing
chop sultanas put in jug top up with boiling water to 500ml let it cool
then add the rest leave it in the warm and cover for a week by which time you can here it fizzing and strain off the sultanas and pitch it in.

any comments would be usefull

[krakowmike]

How about adding a touch of glycerine? In keeping with the thumbs up on the sultana's i'd ditch the idea of red grape concentrate and maintain the scientific logic of comparing white with white. Cant really compare White with Red can we?

Owl.

Good point Owl- I was thinking about using a different variable and couldn't think of one so I thought red would be interesting. I'll try instead adding a teaspoon of glycerine to one.

So the variables are

1. standard
2. glycerine
3. white grape concentrate
4. sultanas (small amount)
5. sultanas (large amount)

I'm still waiting for the package of consumables to come, but think I'll have everything set up by the weekend.

Everyone agree?

[krakowmike]

Hi All

I recently made up a conditioner / starter as an experiment and it seems to be going very well as follows.

Sultanas 100grms
Pectolase 1tsp
yeast nutrient (some)
Youngs all purpose wine yeast (in a plastic tub)
Rohapect VR-C enzyme (Youngs) 1tsp

wash sultanas in hot but not boiling water this gets rid of vegetable oil they spray with before packing
chop sultanas put in jug top up with boiling water to 500ml let it cool
then add the rest leave it in the warm and cover for a week by which time you can here it fizzing and strain off the sultanas and pitch it in.

any comments would be usefull

Do you pitch the conditioner into a 5 gallon wine no1 recipe?