1st time country wine questions

[Redron]

Hi,
As a relatively seasoned beer brewer I have recently made some rhubarb and gorse flower wine.
Gorse flower- og was 1098, now been in the demijohns for two months and racked twice and very nearly clear. Last time I racked the sg was down to 1014 but still with a bit of fizz on the tongue. What should I be expecting the fg to be before I bottle ?

Rhubarb- og was 1094. Again, been in demijohns for two months and racked twice. Sg now 1024 . It tastes quite pleasant but is a bit 'thin'. Same as above , what fg can I expect before bottling and is there anything I can do to 'beef' it up at this stage ?

Thanks, in anticipation .

 

[terrym]

Redron
I'm probably like you. Plenty of beer brewed but little or no wine, except, if it's any help, I made up a gooseberry wine recently. Never done any before. It started at just over 1090, was down to 1020 after a week, and was at 0996 at the end of the second week, at which point I racked it off and added the campden tablets. I used a GV9 yeast, and didn't use campden tablets in the initial must. The fermentation now seems to have finished i.e no movement at the airlock.
So my only comments (with a wealth of inexperience behind me!) would be:- did you put campden tablets in at the beginning which might have made the yeast lazy, and, what yeast did you use, a 'proper' wine yeast or something else? And, you could try topping up each batch with grape juice and adding some fresh wine yeast to see if that gets things going again and get down to something approaching 1000, which is probably nearer where you should be.

 

[Redron]

Thanks for the informative reply Terry.
The recipes are from the Dorset home brew newsletter. I used youngs white wine wine yeast and if I remember' probably omitted the grape juice in the beginning.... No campden tabs added as yet, though I did add a vitamin B yeast nutrient tablet and a teaspoon of wine tannin, supposed to add 'zest' and preserve.
I'll take your advice and add some grape juice and a tad more yeast and see if I can get the fg down.

 

[cornyandy]

In your original recipe was there any inclusion of Grapes, Grape Juice or Dried Grapes. Most country winemakers would include one ore more of these in the must to up the "vinosity" of the finished wine. A posh way of saying mouth feel richness and a bit of texture to the wine.

 

[Redron]

Thanks for the input folks.
The gorse flower wine is really quite pallatable at the moment so I will leave that be but I think I will add some grape juice to the rhubarb wine along with some rehydrated yeast and see if I can kick it along a bit, as you mention cornyandy, it lacks that fullness and mouthfeel at the moment though I reckon if it was chilled it would make quite a refreshing, if not particularly alcoholic wine.:

 

[Gorty]

Hi Redron,

Rhubarb tends to make a rather nondescript wine, CJJ Berry suggests it is good for blending to add strength to those wines that have plenty of flavour but a tad low on the falling down content.

As you said the recipe included some grape juice, Terry's suggestion of adding grape juice and some more yeast is good advice, I don't know if you used yeast nutrient, if not a teaspoonful per gallon and mix well wouldn't hurt it.

My personal favourite is 'Tronozymol' around £2.50 for 100g enough for about 20 gallons. If that fails to kick the b***** back into life you could try the 'nuclear' method, bung in some Youngs Restart yeast and stand back......

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Redron]

Thanks for the input Gorty and some sound advice there.
Nondescript is probably a good description! It's certainly not unpleasant, just lacks .......... I did add a crushed vit B yeast nutrient tablet at the start.
I will add the grape juice and some more yeast and in the interest of experimentation I will do it to one gallon and leave the other one 'as is'.
That's on top of getting myself all giddy about venturing onto brewing all grain beer !
It's all go...

 

[Redron]

Ok, update.

Added the additional yeast and Youngs concentrated grape juice two months ago when the sg was at 1016. It's never stopped fermenting since and is now down to 990 !
Is this normal ? It tastes quite nice but has gone from a sweet brew to one which is potentially getting a bit 'dry'. It also packs a bit of a punch, my figures suggest 12.5% but I think it is more....
Should I be concerned it is still fermenting ? When will it stop ? Do I have wild yeast doing things ? Should I try and stop it fermenting before it becomes too dry and unpalatable, if so, how ?
Help, I think....?

 

[chewie]

990 is around where it should stop fermenting and is as you say "dry" as virtually all of the sugar will have been consumed, add some fermentation stopper to kill of any further fermentation. If the wine is to dry for you you can always backsweeten it until you hit the desired taste/feel you want. Be sure to degas it and add a campden tablet when you rack.