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.

Spring in the Vineyard.

Looks like it is going to be good year in the Vineyard.  These are a couple of pics of my Black Spanish Grapes.  I have expanded my Vineyard as seen in some previous posts.  All my more mature vine have grapes, except for my largest Magnolia.  It is just now waking up.

Total of 18 vines 17 of which are for Wine Making:

7 Black Spanish, 3 new this year

5 Blanc du Bois, new this year

2 Muscadine Noble

2 Muscadine Magnolia

1 What was suppose to be Muscadine Carlos

And

1 for eating, Thompson Seedless, new this year

Been Busy

This past couple of Weeks I have been busy bottling some of my wines.
A List of what I have bottled:
1 gal- Blackberry/Concord
1 gal- Red Muscadine finished dry
3 gal- Red Muscadine back sweetened with 12 oz Concord Grape concentrate
5 gal- Elderberry/Concord blend. 48oz Concord Grape concentrate was added to help with body
6 gal- Pinot Chardonnay Kit

Still waiting to bottle is the Cranberry Juice blend I got from ALDI Market, 5 gal pure Apple and 1 gal dry mead.

The new grape vines that were added to my vineyard are already taking to their new home and starting to grow.

New additions to the Vineyard

I received my new Vines today.  5 Blanc Du Bois and 3 additional Black Spanish to give me a total of 8.  I added an additional row for the Blanc Du Bois and integrated the Black Spanish into the existing row to space them 5 feet apart.

Blanc Du Bois is a Hybrid that was developed by the University of Florida.  It is capable of producing a nice White Wine.  The Black Spanish has been around since the Spanish settle the New World.  Supposedly the Catholic Priest brought the from Spain and planted them in Texas.  They thrive in the southern Gulf climate.

Bottled the White Muscadine (Scuppernong) blend

After spending a couple weeks in cold stabilization, a large amount of tartaric acid crystals (wine diamonds) had fallen out.  I removed it from the fridge and let it come back up to cellar temp for a few days.  The wine is extremely clear, so I decided to bottle it.  The flavor is pretty good,  Still young tasting but with lots of promise to be good wine.

The cellar is filling back up

After a few bottlings, the cellar was getting a little bare of batches under-construction. I just added a couple of new batches. My 100% Apple from Fresh, but pasteurized Apple Cider. and a 3g batch from a juice concentrate Cranberry Blend.  I basically followed the same recipe for Welch's Concentrate since it is very similar.

Here is what I did

Cranberry From concentrate

7 cans (12 oz) Cranberry juice blend frozen concentrate
4 1/2lbs granulated sugar (starting SG was 1.094)
3 tsp acid blend
15 drops pectic enzyme
3 tsp yeast nutrient
water to make 3.25 gallon
wine yeast 71B-1122


The rest of what is in the Cellar is: Elderberry 5g (3g no-oak, 2g oak'd), Red Muscadine 4g, Blackberry/Concord 1g, Mead (dry) 1g, and in the Fridge: White Muscadine 1g ( Fridge, cold stabilizing)

Apple Wine update

After averting the near MESS.  I noticed on Thursday that the activity has seemed to have slowed down.  So I check the Specific Gravity and it was down to 1.005.  Time to rack,  put into a 1 gal and 5 gal with a little head space for foaming since it is still fermenting.

November Update

In the past months I have continued to Rack and monitor the following Wines.  Red Muscadine, I racked and Stabilized.  White Muscadine/Scuppernong was racked and sweetened just a little off-dry.  The Elderberry was racked and seperated into 3g and 2-1gal.  In the 1gal I added light toasted American Oak.  After 2months i will evaluated both wines and decide on a blend.  By the way the Elderberry, even being very young, tastes great.  The Elderberry Rose is completely clear and stable so I bottled it today (pictured to the right).

During the last 2 months I started and completed a Wine Expert VR Liebfraumilch  Kit.

Apple Wine batch #3 5 gal.

I started a batch of 100% apple Yesterday and in less than 24 hours I am getting foaming in the airlock.  I even had over 2 1/2" of space in the fermenter. So, I added a blow-off assembly help eliminate a possible disaster. The ferment was also creating a lot of heat. So I placed it in a tub of water and added ice to cool the ferment down a little.  I will try to keep the water between 60-68deg.

Here is the Recipe for what is in the bucket.

Apple Wine (Full Body)

5 gal seasonal Apple Cider with lots of pulp. (pasteurized)
5.75lbs sugar dissolved in 5 cups hot water. Achieved a starting SG of 1.085
1.25oz. Tartaric Acid to get .6TA
5tsp Yeast Nutrient
2tsp. Yeast Energizer
1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1 pkg. Montrachet Yeast in a starter.

I have had mixed results using Montrachet.  But I have real good results with the first Apple Wine I made.  It did require some aging but it came out great.  I actually still have 2 bottles left.  going open one at Christmas time.

I have had troubles in the past getting my Sugar additions correct until I found Fermcalc .  It is a fabulous tool.  There is an online version as well as a Downloadable standalone application.   If you enter accurate information it will return extremely accurate numbers.

October Updates

I bottle the Welch's White Grape a couple weeks back.  I needed to add some Bentonite to get it to clear completely.  I racked and bottled right off the Bentonite.  The wine turned very good.  It made a very nice light White wine.  I have had $5 - $10 bottles that were not as good.  At about $1.00 a bottle including the cork I cannot complain.  I have racked the Muscadine a my Elderberry wines.  The Elderberry Rose is already clearing and stable at an SG of 1.008.  Added more Pot Sorbate and 2 Campden tablets.  I also started a Wine Expert Liebfraumilch kit I purchased a while back.

Elderberry update

On the 4th day I checked the SG was at 1.010.  Decided to move the berries and give a light squeeze.  Transfered to a 5 gal carboy and topped up with 500ml of red grape wine I made.  Big mistake topping up, it started to foam and right out through the airlock and down the side. (luckily I placed the carboy in a large tub). Removed some of the wine and after a couple days the foam decreased.  Cleaned up carboy and replaced the airlock again.

I did keep the left over pulp and started a 3g batch of second run Elderberry Rose'.
I used this recipe:


Elderberry Rose’
3gal

Elderberry pulp from first wine
3.0 lb. (0.45 kg) fully ripe bananas
3-12-oz. (355-mL) can white grape concentrate (Welch’s, Old Orchard, etc.)
6.0 lbs. (0.91 kg) granulated sugar
6 Campden tablets
1-1⁄2 tsp. potassium sorbate
3 tsp. yeast nutrient
6  tsp. citric acid  (i will check level and add later)
Cote des Blanc

Step by Step
Bring 6 quarts (6 L) of water to boil. Meanwhile, place elderberry pulp (in nylon straining bag) in the primary fermentation vessel and add sugar and grape concentrate in primary. Pour boiling water over contents of primary and stir until sugar is dissolved. Cover primary. Put another 4-quarts plus 1 pint of water on to boil. Cut bananas, skins and all, into 1⁄2 inch slices and add to boiling water. Cover pot and boil for 25 minutes. Skim any scum off water and strain to remove fruit. Add banana liquid to primary and re-cover primary. When cooled to room temperature, stir in citric acid and yeast nutrients and activated yeast, re-cover primary, and set aside. Stir twice daily for 2 days – 3 if additional color requires it. Remove straining bag, squeeze lightly, transfer to secondary, add one finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet, top up if required, and fit airlock. Rack every 60 days until wine falls clear and no sediments form during 30-day period. Stabilize with potassium sorbate and one finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet and bottle this wine dry. Allow to age one year.

The starting SG was 1.100, I will try to stop the fermentation at 1.005 for a semi-dry finish.

9/22/10  Update.  Remove the pulp this afternoon and checked SG= 1.042

9/24/10  Update:  SG reach the target of 1.010. Racked to Carboy, added Pot Sorbate and  3 Campden Tablets.  Placed in Refrigerator to cold stabilize for 2-3 weeks.

New Batches

I know it has been a while since I updated my Blog.  Don't worry I have been still making and bottling lots of wines.
I have started 3 new batches in the past couple weeks.  Red Muscadine, White Muscadine, and an Elderberry.  A couple weeks back I pick a bunch of Muscadine grapes at Shady Oaks U-Pick.  And I have been collecting Wild Elderberries since July and it is now time to start it.  Below are the recipes used.

Muscadine 5 gal batch (4g yield)

32 lbs Muscadine (red) Grapes  (mix of about 30% Noble and other red varieties)
7.2 lbs sugar.  Water to bring level 5.5 gal on primary
10 drops pectic enzyme. (stir well)

Doing a cold Maceration for 6 days to extract color from the skins.
After 6 days removed from frig.  Checked sg of room temp juice 1.094, made a starter with water and juice.  The juice was sweet, smelled and tasted good.  Could feel a little tannins in the mouth.

Lavlin 71b-1122 yeast
Added 5 tsp Yeast nutrient
Notes: Separated from seeds and Skins after 5 days and SG =1.000.  11 days later racked off the heavy sediment (about 1.5" deep in 5gal glass). to 4gal and 750ml  SG=0.994.

White Muscadine (1g)

6+lbs White Muscadine (scuppernong)
1 can white grape concentrate (Welch’s)
4 drops Pectic enzyme
Sugar to 1.088 (less than 1 lb)
Water level to 5.5 qts (including Crushed grapes)
1tsp Yeast Nutrient
Campden
Champagne Yeast in a starter

Crushed the grapes and placed in a strainer bag.  Checked SG after a little water had been added.  1.030 added a can of White Grape concentrate and raise the level to 3.5qts SG was better but still a little low.  Created simple syrup with a 1lb of sugar adding slowly along with water until the SG was 1.088. Added 1 campden tablet and set aside for 24 hrs.

Note:  I have no press so to extract more of the flavor and juice I need to ferment with the skins.  The juice taste very fruity with the taste of the original grapes maintained, but sweeter.

Elderberry

15 lbs elderberries
8.0 lbs. granulated sugar, approx. (adjust to SG of 1.095)
4-12-oz. (355-mL) can red grape concentrate (Welch’s, Old Orchard)
30 drops Liquid Pectic Enzyme
5 tsp. yeast nutrient
14 tsp Acid blend (TA=0.60%)
Oak Chips (optional)
1 sachet Red Star Pasteur Red, wine yeast in a starter

Simmered berries to extract liquid and attempt to fix the color better.  Dissolve about 6lbs sugars in the simmering berries. Adjusted to 1.095 at 5.5gal, added 1-3/4lb sugar.  Placed the simmered berries in a strainer bag and added the cans of concentrate.  Check acid level was at about .2% added 14 tsp acid blend and now at .60%  Let cool to room temp.  Adjusted the liquid level to the 5.5gal mark with berries, while adjusting to an SG of 1.095

Mead...

Bottle the Mead Thursday.  I am very happy with the Mead.  I turned out exactly as I thought it would.  I actually like it better than the commercial Mead I had last year.  It ended up a Semi-Sweet with an SG of about 1.012 and at about 11-11.5%abv. It is a nice balance between sweetness, acidity and Alcohol.  Very nice, but also very young.  It has only been 5 months since it was started.  After few months in the bottle it may actually improve a little more.  If it lasts that long.

June Updates

Started 3 new batches this month.
Peach Wine from my neighbors peaches.
Blueberry Burgundy
Welch's White Grape (from Concentrate)

Existing batches:
Racked the Cabernet kit of the heavy sediment and added more oak since the oak powder supplied did not seem to leave much of an impact.
The Porto Corinto sat on some additional oak after stabilizing and clearing for 1 month and has now been bottled.
My Semi-Dry Muscat has been bottled.
The Grapefruit and Apple Wines are stable, clear and sweetened a bit.  And are now aging
The Clean out Freezer Berry is finished fermentation and is just aging and clearing.
The Mead is just waiting to be bottled.