Hello! Four months ago we moved to the small island of Okinawa and had to leave some of our wine making equipment behind, I'm sad to say. Our brother-in-law has taken possession of the wine press and crusher and yesterday he reported that his numerous brews are all doing well. So the legacy continues!
We are currently planning some fruit wines from apple juice and frozen rasberries. Not exactly many wine grapes here. And we discovered that so far we are not really saki fans. But not to fear... they may not make the wine here, but we can buy it! Wine tasting has taken on international proportions!
2007-06-14 Time flies!
I can't believe how long its been since we've posted. A quick update on the wines: the Seyval is delicious, the Concord is gone... and what else? The mead is still perking along. Some of the Concord was added to the mead so that should be interesting.
Jeff filtered the Concord with a great filter he built. One little problem though. The filter was still a wee bit to large and it filtered out the sediment and not the yeast. So.. we had sparkling wine! And wine showers as the corks popped in the storage area. Delicious though!
2006-12-10 And the results...
Are in! The rasberry wine is awesome! I love it! Very yummy, as good as the store bought one that sparked the idea initially. The apple wine isn't bad either, but not at good as the rasberry. Jeff will probably try that one again, but with raw (unpastuerized) apple cider instead of apple juice (pastuerized). Will be interesting to see the results.
2006-12-10 Filtering
Jeff built a really neat wine filter out of a refrigerater filter, a hand pump, and some tubing. Worked wonderfully, he filtered the Rasberry Wine, the Apple Wine, and some of the Seyval. The fruit wines improved in taste after filtering but the Seyval did not need it. The rest of the Seval was racked into another carboy without filtering. In the future, a plate filter is preferred. This setup worked, but for the quantities and quality of the final wine, the "official" wine filters will be best.
2006-11-04 Andrea's comments...
Our home winery of off and running for sure! We have a great line up of wines coming along now. I look forward to trying them. mmmm...
2006-10-12 Concord Wine
tested the acid => 7% oak tasting => oak starting to be present, go for one more month w/ oak cubes in carboys
2006-10-29 The Apple and Rasberry Wines
added 1/2 tsp. Bentonite to each 1 gal jug. by next day the wine had about 3/4" sediment on the bottom of the jugs!
2006-10-23 and this one is just too exciting...
cleaning the carboys!
2006-10-23 close up of wine press
2006-10-23 the grape crusher
2006-10-23 New wine press!
Well new to us! Pictures will be coming soon. Jeff purchased a used wine press, a crusher, and some carboys from a parishoner Friday. Our "winery" is coming right along!
2006-10-22 Later that night...
Uh oh. A bit too much of the Camden tablets. Must have looked at the wrong table. Hopefully most or at least half will settle or precipitate right on out of the wine.
2006-10-22 First Racking of the Seyval
First racking out of the plastic fermenters into the glass carboys. Filled two 5 gal. carboys, 2 1 gal. jugs, and 1 three litre jug. Each of the 5 gal carboys got 4 camden tablets each as did the little jugs between them.
2006-10-16 And stirred...
Fermentation slowed, but still going. Sugar measured .994 SG.
2006-10-13 Stirred...
the Seyval. Fermentation continues vigorously.
2006-10-11 Fermentation...
The seyval is fermenting like crazy. The LOUD glug glug chugging attests to that. As well as the aroma of wine in process. Interesting smell to have in ones dining room... :)
2006-08-15 Dessert Wine
Jeff will have to fill in the details, but he made a delicious dessert wine. It was fortified with brandy. What was funny is that he tried it at one point and it tasted terrible. but a couple weeks later we tried it and I loved it!
2006-10-06 Seyval - white wine
Early october we were back in MI and Jeff picked lots of grapes! He brought home 15 gal. of Seyval which has always been my favorite, since I was very young. He crushed, destemmed, and pressed it at the farm.
His notes: aprox. 14 gal. of juice - picked and pressed, all equipment sanitized with bleach (crusher, press, etc.
added 4 Camden tablets
Acid measurement: .7% tartaric, added 8 g. of tartaric acid
brix/balling - 13 (SG 1.052) added 12# of sugar, 1.6 more than suggested
added 10 1/4 tsp of tannin
these are now fermenting in the big buckets
2006-09-14 Apple Wine
Experimental 1 gal. batch
aprox one gal. apple juice - pastuerized
2 lbs. raw cane sugar
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
1 g. champagne yeast EC-1118 Lalvin
Dissolved sugar in apple juice and added yeast nutrient. Activated yeast and added. Put in 1 gal. jug w/ flow/air lock.
Not much to it - will see if it works...
Question: what qualities/ingredients are lost in the pastuerization process? where does one find unpastuerized juice?
2006-09-11 Rasberry Wine
Experimental 1 gal. batch
aprox. 4.5 lbs of frozen raspberries. thawed for 24 hours at room temp (72 deg.) covered.
3 lbs organic sugar (cane; unrefined)
1 g. EC-1118 Lalvin Champgane yeast
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
1 tbs. lime juice
natural spring water - enough to top off as needed
As indicated I thawed the raspberries at room termperature in a one gallon bucket-sealed with a lid. After 24 hours, I added the sugar and enough hot spring water to make one gallon of must. Stirred until sugar was dissolved.
After the sugar was dissolved, I put must in a pressing bag and hand pressed. I placed the pressed must into a one gal. bucket with a fitted lid with a hole drilled in it for an air lock. I topped again with water.
I activated the yeast. I added yeast nutrient adn lime juice and stirred well. Finally, added yeast and stirred well.
After yeast was blended, I put fitted lid with air lock on it and placed bucket in a warm place.
Will rack in one week - 18SEP06
2006-04-01 Delaware Wine
blended each at third racking
month later (April) bottled and drank immediatly
all of it is gone now! 08SEP06.
This was really (this is Andrea now) good!
2005-10-01 Delaware Wine take two
Carboy #2:
SG zprox 1.10
added 4 lbs of sugar
Cote des blanc (Red Star) yeast
sulfite added after first racking - 3 camden tabs
added 1 gal. of water after first racking.
2005-10-01 Delaware Wine
2 - 5 gal. carboys - fermented w/o skins but fruit was picked then frozen
carboy #1: SG aprox. 1.10
added 8 lbs of sugar
Pastuer Red (Red Star) yeast 5 g.
Sulfite added after first racking - 3 camden tablets
added 1 gal of water after first racking
2006-10-14 Concord
after two weeks or so I added:
Med French Oak cubes to both. Date of Oak is 17AUG06
need to test for taste 17SEP06
very little sulfite was added and only to one 5 gal. carboy
2006-10-01 Concord, a couple months later
After a couple months racked both carboys and then blended equally.
2006-08-07 Later in August - Concord
5 gal. fermented on skins
Champagne yeast Lalvin EC-1118
Didn't check SG - should have been close to the other- grapes were picked at same time, same vineyard, etc aprox 1.09 (picked at Honeyflow Farm)
No Camden tablets
After 3 Weeks - pressed and put into carboys
2006-08-01 Sometime in August...
Concord Wine -10 galllons
5 gal. - fermented without skins.
Manhachet yeast - Red Star
added 8 lbs. of sugar
Specific Gravity aprox. 1.09
after first racking addeed about 1 gal. of natural spring water.
3 camden tablets at first racking.
Fermentation stalled, added champagne yeast.
2006-09-11 Another batch of mead
Used same recipe as on the 8th. We now have 10 gal. of mead.
Questions to research:
-How long should the must be boiled? I read somewhere that one should not boil the must, rather pasturize it at a temp slightly lower than boiling for at least 30 minutes.
-At what temp does wild yeat get killed off at?
-Is 1/3 c lemon juice enoughto add the right acid balance?
-Each batch fermented right away and have remained quite vigorous. (thats an understatement!)
2006-09-08 Mead
Mead Recipe #1: Water - aprox. 3.5 (adjusted as needed for a total of 5 gal.) used natural spring water.
Honey - 15 lbs clover honey (Honeyflow Farm)
yeast - 5 g. lalvin EC-1118
yeast nutrient - 5 tsp. food grade urea & ammonium phosphate (doesnt that sound yummy) (LD Carlson)
lemon juice - 1/3 c. (Real Lemon 100%)
Brought one gallon of water and honey to a rapid boil and maintained for approx. five minutes to dissolve honey and to kill off most of the natural yeast in the honey. After boiling - removed from heat and poured must into 5 gal. carboy. Topped off with spring water to make a total of 5 gal. must. Cooled for eight hours.
Added yeast nutrient adn lemon juice - mixed well. Started yeast according to directions and added 20 minutes later. After yeast was added, corked w/ an air lock.
Fermentation began w/in a couple hours.
Specific gravity - 1.120
Balling =27
Potential alchohol = 16%
Note: at time of adding yeast, must was slightly warm to touch.
water added to must in carboy was room tem aprox. 72 - 75 degrees.
2006-09-08 Introducing....
Candleshop Creations Wine blog! Jeff Perry will be presiding here, with Andrea Perry adding some commentary from time to time. These first few entries are from Jeff's wine record book. Since he's out of town and I'm too impatient to wait, I'm entering his data. After all, its my dining room space that's being filled with gallons and gallons and gallons and gallons... of wine... well you get the idea! :)
