- Joined
- Oct 4, 2022
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- 446
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Funny you should mention books as I got the recipe for this here wine from a book - the first time I have done a wine from scratch - started early September. The ingredients were basically what is available in your cupboard and a carton of fruit juice. Pineapple juice, raisins & sultanas which I added to the pieces of apple in a muslin bag from a fermented batch of cider extract kit which came with dried fruits to add (a bit like when they direct to add dry hops on day 4 of a beer). The sugar side of it had me seriously doubting.
Looked, smelled and tasted pretty bad at every stage up to putting it away in store room for 3 months literally just up at the weekend but I forgot until I read the post here from Zambezi Special. Cheers buddy, I owe you one there as I wasn't planning much wine making this year after 2022's marathon production so could have been a while before I picked up my notes again.
I was too tired so left it to today for the next stage - sweetening. Well blow me if this stuff doesn't now look, smell and taste quite good all round. I really did not have any confidence this wine was going to pull round so well and might just end up taking valuable space. Running low on Sauternes which is quite expensive even at aldi so decided to do this 1 galllon batch as a dessert wine. Half dextrose, half Acacia Honey something I have never used in brewing before but as it is good quality stuff and had been opened a while seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Recipe calls for the use of sugar solution at all stages which I found a real pain producing and storing in the inital stage so have sweetened as per when I sweeten kit wines. My bad if it screws up now. Took a while to dissolve and had to give it a degas but it wasn't far off acceptable already which the advice did point out such for those making their first ever wine - I remember how impatient I used to be. Note in diary now for another three months time.
If this works I'll be seeing if there are recipes for blackberries as I have an abundance of those where I live and that would make it seriously cheap. Plenty ifs and buts but here is a photo at four and a half months taken just before I sweetened today.
Looked, smelled and tasted pretty bad at every stage up to putting it away in store room for 3 months literally just up at the weekend but I forgot until I read the post here from Zambezi Special. Cheers buddy, I owe you one there as I wasn't planning much wine making this year after 2022's marathon production so could have been a while before I picked up my notes again.
I was too tired so left it to today for the next stage - sweetening. Well blow me if this stuff doesn't now look, smell and taste quite good all round. I really did not have any confidence this wine was going to pull round so well and might just end up taking valuable space. Running low on Sauternes which is quite expensive even at aldi so decided to do this 1 galllon batch as a dessert wine. Half dextrose, half Acacia Honey something I have never used in brewing before but as it is good quality stuff and had been opened a while seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Recipe calls for the use of sugar solution at all stages which I found a real pain producing and storing in the inital stage so have sweetened as per when I sweeten kit wines. My bad if it screws up now. Took a while to dissolve and had to give it a degas but it wasn't far off acceptable already which the advice did point out such for those making their first ever wine - I remember how impatient I used to be. Note in diary now for another three months time.
If this works I'll be seeing if there are recipes for blackberries as I have an abundance of those where I live and that would make it seriously cheap. Plenty ifs and buts but here is a photo at four and a half months taken just before I sweetened today.
