After 4 weeks the fermentation process seems to have stopped. This was using baking yeast so my expectations are low. I poured it off the sediment into a smaller bottle which went into the fridge to ensure that fermentation is stopped and to give it a chance to clear a little more. Having tasted a snifter of the surplus from the larger bottle I'd say that there is some alcohol there, which is a result. As for taste, probably the most charitable thing that can be said for this first effort is that there is plenty of room for improvement.
Hang in there. You'll have some tasty product after a bit of trial and error.
@shutree - congrats! Let the racked wine sit for 1 or 2 weeks (or even months) - it's said to taste better. Keep on experimenting. I haven't tried the "months" part, but yes, for some of my older wines, 1 or 2 weeks of sitting in a glass bottle made them taste better. I use baking yeast for all my wines and they make me nicely tipsy - but then I have low alcohol tolerance (and I water down my homemade wines - mix them in the glass). Tonight my choice is "whispers of summer", a tropical fruit blend. Not my favourite, but it does the job. Faves are still cranberry, apple and grape. Cheers!
Time has passed and wine has been made.
I made some apple the some red grape and some red berry. All turned out alcoholic fruit drinks, still a bit sweet. They mixed well enough with soda, although not the result I was hoping for.
The sweetness sat better on the apple wine.
I moved to a Lalvin champagne yeast which seems to work pretty well on the apple. The reds get very frothy and difficult to manage.
I left more space for frothing in the top of the demijohns. It didn't stop it all frothing over.
The latest batch I made two at the same time. One is red grape, the other is a Tipco apple/white grape 80/20 mixture. The latter looks promising. This time I have reduced the sugar to see if I can get a drier finish.
Yet again the red is bubbling over, attracting flies and making a sticky mess about the place, despite my having left more air space in the demijohn.
Maybe I'll investigate the use of a different yeast for future reds.
Currently there are 4 gallons fermenting. Only three bottles remain from my earlier experiments. It would all be gone already were it not for my efforts to keep a couple of bottles back to see if they improve with age. When I say age, I am thinking weeks rather than months.
:-)
I am now in a cycle with my four demijohns, each 1 US gallon, that is about 5 standard bottles. I drink it faster than I should, a cycle of 6 demijohns might work better.
I decided to settle on 2 juices as benchmarks, a Tipco apple/white grape (80/20) and a Tipco red grape. I also settled on the Lalvin EC1118 wine yeast, it seems to be very versatile.
Then I tried different yeast and different juices, still I haven't found any combinations better than my original choices. I haven't found any pure white grape juice locally and Makro sell the juices I want in a 3L pack, which is just about right. I can buy the same juices in individual small boxes if I need to top up.
Next I tried reducing the sugar and I am down to a point now where the white is bordering dry. The red is still a little sweet. So I tried leaving them longer in the demijohn and I tried decanting them for a longer period in a demijohn before bottling. Extra work and it didn't seem to make a big difference.
My main problem is that the red still foams furiously from about day 2 to day 5. (I happened upon a Lazada customer who posted a pic of exactly the same problem.) It makes a mess and attracts flies and is a pain to clean up. I tried some pectin, maybe that would make it less viscous, without any improvement. Last time I used 2 demijohns, each half full, to start it off. I got two sticky volcanoes instead of one. Maybe I should start it off in a large steel pan?
On the plus side, I have not had any complete failures. It has all been drinkable, better with a splash of soda, and at least I know exactly what is in there, which is not something that can be said for some of the supermarket boxed stuff.
So far as the alcohol content is concerned, I don't have a hydrometer, that would just be something else to clean and make things more complicated. The Lalvin yeast claims to be good for 18% v/v. My finely tuned palate suggests I am probably getting about 14 to 16. Good enough.
I have a bottle of red to hand for Friday night. (Every night is Friday night, post-retirement.) Meanwhile, a white for drinking early June has just started. I have some spare juice and will top it up once the fermentation eases a little in a couple of days.
Very nice!
Umm...wouldn't filling them only three quarters full solve the problem of bubbling over?
You're still not leaving that much space there.
Still, 14% is not to be sniffed at.
The whites are fine. Fill to the bottom of the neck and then top up after 2 or 3 days. They are never a problem.
The reds are different. I have tried Malee as well as Tipco, I have tried different wine yeasts and I have tried some pectin. The last time around I made one lot of wine using two demijohns, so each would have started a little under half fulll. On day 2 or 3 both of them were bubbling over. I might buy a large and cheap stainless steel pan and try that to start things off, or I might give up on the reds.
I could do more web research to see if others have resolved this problem. I thought about starting with less yeast. Might that make a difference and if it did would I still arrive at a full strength wine or would I need to add yeast during the process?
Last edited by Shutree; 26-04-2021 at 04:10 PM.
My efforts some time ago didn't get anywhere near the strength you are getting, so I'm not qualified to advise, I'm afraid.
Probably because I just used ordinary baking yeast.
I do remember leaving much more space at the top than you do, though.
Then I moved to somewhere I could buy decent wine.
Good luck in your winemaking efforts & refinement process, shutree.
I still have some wines currently fermenting - I think one is red grape, the other is apple. After trying most of the flavours available in my supermarket, I've decided to stick to the consistently good ones. I only make 1.5 liters at a time, using the contents of 1-liter carton of juice.
I've also been a bit lazy, since the liquor ban was lifted last year & I was able to buy Tanduay rhum. I just mix a little rhum with juice if I want to get a bit tipsy in the evenings.
Re: yeast, I've also only used baking yeast. Sometimes, after 1 week when the bubbles have stopped, I add more yeast and/ or soaked raisins. My BF has used brewers yeast & got a higher alcohol % with it. He bought a hydrometer 'cuz he wanted to be scientific about it.
Was talking to old fella in the pub tonight.
His hot tip from working on boats in 1959: The usual yeast, sugar and a jar of something that's not made anymore. But the real secret: top it up with high alcohol aftershave. Apparently after the 3rd glass you will barely notice. Might even smell better.
Can one of you guys give it a go and report back?
Some people think it don't, but it be.
This might be my last attempt with reds. I have tried different juices and different yeasts, with and without pectin. They all, without fail, bubble out of the top, even when I make each demijohn only half full. It gets messy and attracts insects and I just cannot be bothered with it.
The whites from mixed apple/grape juice have all been drinkable, if a little sweet despite my reducing the sugar and using yeast with high alcohol tolerance. I don't have a hydrometer although I am sure that the alcohol content is well short of the 18% that the yeast claims to manage. So I don't know what I have to do differently to get a drier final product. That said, one or two batches have turned out a little drier than the rest and I have no idea why.
Bottom line, it is cheaper than the boxed stuff that contains goodness only knows what and with a splash of soda it is quaffable. A qualified success. More research is required to get this to the next level.
That doesn't look fun...
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