Brewkowski
Well-Known Member
I just finished bottling my raspberry wine and I had about a 1/2 gal left over with no corks or bottles, but I had a growler so I reserved it for something to play with. I saw several recipes for port style wines with chocolate and various berries, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.
So far this is what I've done.
I added about a cup of sugar, 2oz cocoa nibs and a cup of water to a pan and brought to a simmer, let it cool a bit and added a 12oz package of frozen raspberries and brought back to a simmer. Let it cool and tasted it the next day. The chocolate was very subtle and I thought once I added it to the very flavorful 1/2 gal of raspberry wine, it would lose all notes of chocolate, so I added another 2 oz of cocoa nibs and then poured about 1/2 a bottle of brandy on top of the fruit-nib mixture. I planned on reserving the other 1/2 bottle to put on the wine with the liquid from fruit-nib mix. My thinking was that the alcohol will extract alot of the chocolate flavor, but I wonder if I over did it. So, some questions I'm asking myself:
1) Did I overdo the cocoa nibs, I won't know until I taste them after work today I guess? How long should I expect to soak them, 3-5 days?
2) Did I make a mistake by heating the raspberries (pectin related haze)?
3) I now how have a quart jar full of mashed raspberries, seeds, nibs, and brandy, what is the best way to keep the plup from going into the wine? (French press with paper coffee filter?)
4) By heating the nibs should I be worried about any oils creating additional sediment in the wine.
So far this is what I've done.
I added about a cup of sugar, 2oz cocoa nibs and a cup of water to a pan and brought to a simmer, let it cool a bit and added a 12oz package of frozen raspberries and brought back to a simmer. Let it cool and tasted it the next day. The chocolate was very subtle and I thought once I added it to the very flavorful 1/2 gal of raspberry wine, it would lose all notes of chocolate, so I added another 2 oz of cocoa nibs and then poured about 1/2 a bottle of brandy on top of the fruit-nib mixture. I planned on reserving the other 1/2 bottle to put on the wine with the liquid from fruit-nib mix. My thinking was that the alcohol will extract alot of the chocolate flavor, but I wonder if I over did it. So, some questions I'm asking myself:
1) Did I overdo the cocoa nibs, I won't know until I taste them after work today I guess? How long should I expect to soak them, 3-5 days?
2) Did I make a mistake by heating the raspberries (pectin related haze)?
3) I now how have a quart jar full of mashed raspberries, seeds, nibs, and brandy, what is the best way to keep the plup from going into the wine? (French press with paper coffee filter?)
4) By heating the nibs should I be worried about any oils creating additional sediment in the wine.