RJ Cole Winery

Insights into the world of an amateur home winemaker.

Name:
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

Cole Wines anagrams to Senile Cow.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Blackberry - more info

I went home and did some more tests on the must and pitched the yeast. The SG turned out to be the average from last night - 1.098. I added another pound of sugar, which brought it up to about 1.100 exactly. I may try to stop the fermentation early in order to preserve some residual sugar, but that's usually pretty tough to do. I should probably just backsweeten after fermentation is complete.

The TA was just slightly low for what I wanted, so I added about 3 more teaspoons of acid blend. That should make it around .60.

I did use a minimal amount of water to dissolve the sugar in, and that got the volume maybe slightly higher than 6 gallons. Of course, the displacement caused by the fruit bag is included in that volume.

I rehydrated the yeast per the instructions on the packet and pitched it, then remembered I hadn't added any yeast nutrient yet! I quickly added 6 teaspoons of that (which was all I had!) and did a couple of quick stirs of the must - I didn't want to stir too much, because the yeast usually start off better when near the oxygen on top of the must.

Here is the recipe:

28.5 lbs Super Fresh Blackberries
11 3/4 lbs sugar (to 1.100)
Acid Blend to .60
1 1/4 tsp Liquid Pectic Enzyme
6 tsp yeast nutrient
Water to 6 gallons
RC-212 Yeast

1. Freeze the blackberries in freezer bags.
2. Thaw berries in mesh straining bag in primary fermenter with the pectic enzyme.
3. Tie the top of the bag, then crush the berries to get out as much juice as possible.
4. Check SG of the pure juice to determine how much sugar to add.
5. Check volume of juice in fermenter to determine how much water to add.
6. Take about half the volume of water needed and boil on stove, add enough sugar to reach 1.100 SG. Dissolve.
7. Cool Sugar Syrop and stir into primary. Once must has cooled, check SG.
8. If more sugar is needed repeat step 6 - keep in mind that the dilution by water will lower the actual SG, so you may need to add a bit more sugar. Continue until desired SG is reached.
9. Use titrets to test for TA. Normal range for fruit wines is .55 to .65. Add acid blend to reach desired TA. Once acid blend is added, test again to confirm TA.
10. Stir must well.
11. Stir in yeast nutrient.
12. Make yeast starter by adding packet of yeast to 50mL of warm water. Wait 15 minutes, then stir starter, and pitch into must.
13. Cover and sit back and wait for wine to happen!

Be sure to stir the must and check SG daily. Once SG is down to about 1.010 - 1.020, transfer to secondary vessel.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home