Huckleberry wine/liqueur

**jotakah** · 12-11-2011, 02:30 AM

Hey, I have a mini-batch of huckleberry wine fermenting on the side of my beer operation. I used 2cups huckleberries to 1.25cups of corn sugar, boiled up together with enough water to fill up most of a 64oz growler. The next day I hydrated some champagne yeast and pitched it.

It's been fermenting quite well!

My intention is to ferment this to completion, then strain it and freeze-concentrate it a few times to get some huckleberry liqueur.

My question is how long should I let it ferment for? I feel like the whole packet of champagne yeast should be able to take care of 64oz in not too much time.

Any other comments would be appreciated too (:

hopheaded · 12-11-2011, 03:56 AM

sounds like a great idea, please keep us posted on the results. cant be much help to your questions though...

DoctorCAD · 12-11-2011, 03:02 PM

More yeast will not make it ferment any faster.

I've had wines go complete in 5 days and wines that took 60 days to go to the tolerance of the yeast. All you can do is check the SG. When it quits going down, it is ready to sit for a while more!

**jotakah** · 12-11-2011, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoctorCAD

When it quits going down, it is ready to sit for a while more!

But if I'm just planning on freeze-concentrating it into a liqueur, is aging it still necessary?

DoctorCAD · 12-12-2011, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jotakah

But if I'm just planning on freeze-concentrating it into a liqueur, is aging it still necessary?

The aging is to let the yeast finish fermenting. Starting with 8% ABV vs. starting with 13% ABV would make your finished product easier to work with, although I think what you are doing MAY be illegal.

hopheaded · 12-13-2011, 02:56 AM

Thinking of making this with persimons

**jotakah** · 12-13-2011, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hopheaded

Thinking of making this with persimons

Depending on how this turns out, I will try to do this with all the fresh fruits growing in my area next spring-summer. Huckleberry, raspberry, blackberry, chokecherry, thimbleberry, yum!!!

Still fermenting wildly over here, kinda wishing I'd filtered before fermentation but oh well.

hopheaded · 12-13-2011, 04:41 PM

good thing for me to keep in mind. what do you think youll freeze it in? id hate to have a glass bottle bust open and lose everything.

**jotakah** · 02-01-2012, 03:31 PM

Hey guys. This was a total success. I'll give you pictures to illustrate

Figure A: Ferment your wine.

Figure B: Freeze your wine

It should all be frozen if your freezer is as cold as mine, but the good stuff will melt first. Since I had a 64oz to start with I assumed I had 10-13%ABV so I could max have about 8oz of hooch. To make sure I got it all though I took the first 16oz, since I can always freeze again. See figure C:

Yum!

Jim-wy · 02-03-2012, 01:09 AM

Impressive! Your heading caught my attention, I pictured somebody with the crazy patience to pick 18# of huckleberries or something like that. This looks doable - glad it turned out.

... shouldn't stir the pot, but am curious how this 'may' be illegal if it's not for sale ...