Black forest wine

[Mikes1992]

I'm attempting to make a black forest fruit wine. Although I am going to put a jar of Spanish forest honey in, I've never made mead before so I'm not sure how honey tastes fermented. I was also thinking once it's finished fermenting I might rack it with some raisins (rinsed in hot water to remove oils) to add more colour and fruit sweetness

2kg of black forest fruit (half Aldi, half Asda)
1L welches purple grape juice
340g Spanish black forest honey
Sugar additions to bring SG upto ~1.1
Campden tablet
Pectolase
Lalvin 71b-1122 yeast
1/2 Tsp yeast nutrient

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

I'm attempting to make a black forest fruit wine. Although I am going to put a jar of Spanish forest honey in, I've never made mead before so I'm not sure how honey tastes fermented. I was also thinking once it's finished fermenting I might rack it with some raisins (rinsed in hot water to remove oils) to add more colour and fruit sweetness
View attachment 42040

2kg of black forest fruit (half Aldi, half Asda)
1L welches purple grape juice
340g Spanish black forest honey
Sugar additions to bring SG upto ~1.1
Campden tablet
Pectolase
Lalvin 71b-1122 yeast
1/2 Tsp yeast nutrient
View attachment 42041

I make lots of wine like this and honestly you don’t need the juice as well as the fruit. The flavour will be too overpowering and possibly acidic. Try it the way you have it and you’ll see what I mean. I did this when I first started and I had to water it down. I have a Blackforest wine maturing and I put in it some ‘little pod chocolate extract’ and some vanilla. Really lifted it.

P.S. it can’t be mead with that amount of honey in it. Mead needs to have at least half the fermentables as honey for it to be a mead.

 

[johncrobinson]

You should chop the raisins,Also they are best added at the start of fermentation.
Free sugar in a finished wine is generally not a good idea unless the wine is treated with sorbate,As at a future date the wine is likely to re-ferment and you really don't want that happening if the wine is in glass bottles.

 

[Mikes1992]

I make lots of wine like this and honestly you don’t need the juice as well as the fruit. The flavour will be too overpowering and possibly acidic. Try it the way you have it and you’ll see what I mean. I did this when I first started and I had to water it down. I have a Blackforest wine maturing and I put in it some ‘little pod chocolate extract’ and some vanilla. Really lifted it.

P.S. it can’t be mead with that amount of honey in it. Mead needs to have at least half the fermentables as honey for it to be a mead.

I'm hoping for a bit of malic acid fermentation in secondary. Whether It will work I'm not sure but apparently if you don't kill the yeast it will start converting malic acid into lactic acid which theoretically should soften the wine. I can imagine I'll have to leave it in the demijohn for a few weeks or even a few months to achieve this. I guess this is me learning... and I'm also guessing wine making is much like gardening, you have to wait months before you can actually see the results of stuff you do, which also means it's a slow process gaining experience.

I know it isn't mead, it's definitely something I'd like to try in the future but I was more saying that I don't know what flavours honey has when it's fermented so it's a bit of an unknown to me what the honey will actually do in the finished wine.

 

[Mikes1992]

You should chop the raisins,Also they are best added at the start of fermentation.
Free sugar in a finished wine is generally not a good idea unless the wine is treated with sorbate,As at a future date the wine is likely to re-ferment and you really don't want that happening if the wine is in glass bottles.

I'm still undecided about the raisins, although I will be using stabiliser before I bottle it.

 

[johncrobinson]

Hi Mikes 1992

Its a strain of malo-lactic bacteria that convert malic to lactic acid.I use malic acid all the time and have never been lucky enough to get a natural fermentation.

I do see however that online retailers now sell this bacteria.

I am tempted to get some myself,As it makes the wine semi sparkling as well as you say softer.( a la Mateus Rose.)

The bacteria might be on some of that frozen fruit but its very,very sensitive to sulphite so no campden tablets allowed.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Will look forward to updates on this.

 

[Mikes1992]

I definitely need a larger fermenter for the fruit bag. The bag is pushing up against the lid and causing pressure pockets to form, I've temporarily fixed this with a straw xD

Also the yeast claims to convert malic acid to lactic acid so I'm not sure if the claim is true

 

[Mikes1992]

Is it a bad time to change the container? I just got a free 10L bucket with a lid from work originally used to hold oil, it's currently in the dish washer (to do a final clean in the nooks and crannies). The wine is currently at 1.058 and thanks to the fruit bag the wine is currently carbonated xD.

 

[Mikes1992]

I think I may be mistaken about malic acid - lactic acid... I think the yeast just consumes malic acid but doesn't turn it into lactic acid.
"Lalvin 71B also softens high acid musts by partially metabolizing malic acid (20%-30%)."

 

[johncrobinson]

Mikes don't have a meltdown
For me the pleasure is that you have taken up the hobby.

Rock on Mikes 1992

 

[johncrobinson]

Anything above about 16% requires very carefull planning.

 

[Mikes1992]

I racked this off a couple days ago and added raisins it was at 1.0 ~13%

I estimate the raisins could raise the SG by about .006, I also added a bit of sugar and raised it to 1.01 and its been bubbling away slowly since and seems to be settling just above 1.002. I am a bit worried it might be a bit bitter but I suppose I'll have to wait to see how it turns out and hopefully when I sweeten it it wont start re-fermenting since since it is on the edge of the 14% yeast tolerance

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Yes, I think you might have too much acid in it like I mentioned earlier. Live and learn. At the end if it's too acidic for you and you don't want to back-sweeten it to death I would add 1 tbsp of glycerine and wait a couple of days for it to infuse.

 

[Mikes1992]

To be honest I generally aim for 1.006 to 1.008 for sweetness in a wine... I find anything over 1.01 tends to be overpowered by the sweetness. It's still not finished yet so hopefully it's ok. It's not as acidic as my first from scratch brew which I stupidly decided to add citric acid into.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Best of luck with it.

 

[Mikes1992]

I backsweetened it to 1.014 and it has dropped to 1.01 in 5 days. It still looks active though and is producing 1 bubble every 20 seconds. I calculate it to currently be at 13.9% and the yeast claims upto 14% tolerance.

The sugar I said I added on the previous comment was actually sugar/water mixed at the OG of 1.102 to replace the volume the fruit was taking in the original container and I expected it to ferment that back out to 1.0 (which it did) and it wasn't added into the percentage calculations

I think it is actually going to be quite a nice wine. It's started to taste a bit smoother, less bitter and more fruity and gives a nice warm feeling at the back of my throat (although my samples are 25mls or less so a full glass may be different)

 

[johncrobinson]

What you have actually been doing is a technique known as "sugar feeding" which allows the yeast to exceed its normal alcohol tolerance.
I think the wine will turn out nice,You cant beat a bit of real fruit in a wine.

 

[Mikes1992]

The black forest fruit wine is finally bottled. I got 5 bottles and 3/4. The smell is amazing and it tastes almost as good. There's a mild acidity but it's nothing too overpowering. The wine finished at 1.004 and is about 14.7% but it doesn't taste that strong alcohol wise.

I can't wait to see what it tastes like with some age on it.

 

[johncrobinson]

Lovely bottles of wine.