Spring in the Vineyard

Spring has sprung in the Vineyard.  In the vineyard you will find 3 Muscadine Noble, 2 Muscadine Magnolia, 4 Blanc Du Bois (Florida Hybrid), 7 Black Spanish, 4 Concord and 1 Thompson seedless.  All the bunch grapes have taken off especially the Blanc Du Bois.  The Muscadine are just now starting show signs of life.

View of Vineyard

Blanc Du Bois Blooms

I added 4 more Black Spanish to the vineyard since I found out during the second growing season the the first 4 (supposed) Black Spanish were actually Concord. So they replaced them at no charge.  I only left a total of 2 clusters on the Blanc Du Bois since this only their second growing season.  These vines are growing like crazy.

"Year of the Blueberry" (August update)

First I must apologize to any  ignore any possible followers I might actually have for not keeping the Blog updated.

Trust me, I have been a a little busy little Wine/Beer maker.  I finished up several Beer project with some good success.  Currently it is all about Blueberry Wine.  It all started back in May when a friend of the families dropped off a bucket of Blueberries (6lbs).  The bucket turn into a 3 gallon batch of Blueberry Mead. Which is still in carboy aging.  Later this summer just cruising Walmart for groceries, they had Blueberries for $1.00 for 11oz.  heavily stocked on 9 lbs and started a batch of Blueberry wine.  Later in  the summer the price dropped to $0.75/pint(11-12oz).  Bought even more (16lb).  This was just turned into a 5gal batch of pure blueberry which was transferred/pressed on 8/11/11.  

The Muscadine grapes in the home vineyard are slowly being harvested as they ripen.  Should be able achieve a 1gal batch this year.

 BLUEBERRY WINE

5g (yield)

• 16 lb. blueberries
• 10 lbs. granulated sugar Adjust to SG of 1.094
• 50 drops. pectic enzyme
• 7 tsp. acid blend
• 6 tsp. yeast nutrient
• 3/4 tsp. yeast energizer
• water to 6 gallon
• 2 pkgs Pasteur Champagne wine yeast

Wash and crush blueberries and put in primary fermentation vessel with all ingredients except yeast. Check SG and make simple syrup and add mixture to adjust to SG of 1.094. Cover well and allow cooling to 70-75 degrees F., and then adding an activated yeast starter. Stir daily for 5-6 days or until specific gravity is below 1.030. Strain out fruit pulp and press. Siphon into secondary fermentation vessel and fit fermentation trap. Rack and sulfite in three weeks, and again in two months. When wine is clear, rack and stabilize. Sweeten to taste, set aside 30 days, and bottle. Allow a year to mature. Improves with age. 

Mead update

My 5 gal batch is still fermenting very slow.  The SG 2 days ago was at 1.020.  Still dropping but very slow.  I am thinking that it is a character of the yeast.  So I added 2 lbs of honey (total 14 now) some yeast nutrient and energizer.  Mixed it in good.  After a day the Fermentation seams to be more active today.

Blueberry Melomel (Mead)

I was planning on making a Blueberry Melomel (Mead) this summer after I picked all my Blueberries.  I would have to add some frozen ones as well to have enough.  But a wonderful present appeared on the door step yesterday.  A 1 gallon bucket of Blueberries (a little over 6 lbs.) dropped off by some friends of ours that have a 15 acre Blueberry patch .  Just the right amount I needed for a 3 gallon batch.  So I proceeded to wash and crush the berries.  Heated up some water and dissolved 6 lbs of honey into it. Stretched a 5 gallon paint strainer bag over the mouth of the 5g fermenting bucket and started pouring in the crushed Blueberries.

Blueberry Melomel

• 6-7lbs honey
• 6 lbs Blueberries
• 30 drops Pectic Enzyme
• 3 tsp Yeast Nutrient
• 1 1/2 Tsp Yeast Energizer
• 4 Campden tablets to sanitize must
• EC-1118 Yeast in a starter

Initially only added 6 lbs honey, but after checking the SG 18 hours later it was 1.072.  I added another 1 lbs or so of honey to get an SG of 1.082.  I want it to have no trouble fermenting since it is in an open fermenter.  So I decided to us EC-1118. I will ferment it dry and after stabilizing back sweeten to about 1.010 using honey.  

Mead Recipe

My Current Mead Recipe for 5 gal

• 12 lbs quality varietal honey
• 5 tsp yeast nutrient
• 7 tsp acid Blend
• 1 1/4 tsp yeast energizer
• 4 gallons water  (about 5g total must)
• 1 sachet Lavlin ID-47 yeast

Put everything in a 6g Carboy to ferment.

After stabilizing add 2- 3lbs honey to approx  SG of 1.012

And on Day 3 Fermenting nicely.  Airlock very active.

Mead

I started a batch of Mead on Friday.  And now 36 hours later it is fermenting nicely.  I also bottled up some more Beer on Friday.  This was my forth batch, it is a 2.5g batch of American Style Wheat.  Drier finish, less fruiter and more hops than a German or Belgian style. It tasted pretty good but flat.  I actually had for a short time on Friday where nothing was being fermented or aging.  All my wine/beer projects had been bottled.  That was the perfect time to start some mead.  I plan to start concentrating more of my wine making efforts of my home grown grapes.  Which are growing quite nicely, including the vines I added this year.  I should have a real good crop of Muscadine Grapes.  Next year I expect to have 3 times the amount as my vines mature.

Dabbling in Beer

My wife got me the Coopers Brewery Micro-Brew kit for Christmas.  So I have been doing some dabbling into beer making.  Started with a simple Can kit the was supplied with the kit.  Then I made an Extract W/Specialty grains version of a Dunkelweizen. and than another Canned Kit but added some extra flavoring Hops. The first batch came out real well.  The Big battle in making beer in Florida is the Temperature.  Since most ales light to be fermented at 68F it does make it a little more difficult with temp control.  Nothing like a fermentation swamp cooler

(tub with water and a towel wrapped around the fermenter and frozen water bottles to help control the temp).  A little Ghetto, but it works.  I use the same thing when fermenting White Wines.