mgc
Well-Known Member
I just moved to New Brunswick, Canada, and to celebrate I am making a wine with two of the biggest products from the province. Now I am typically a mead maker and have never done a maple wine, but I figure the chemistry is similar so why not. I would like some comments before I brew up this batch sometime in the next week or two. Here is the 1Gal test recipe I am working with:
1L of maple syrup
2 lbs of blueberries for primary
2 lbs of blueberries for seconday
1 tsp DAP
pectic enzyme
Yeast, Lat D47 or Lat 1117 (most common two to come across here)
No heat, maybe sterilize the blueberries in vodka first, then save the vodka for later consumption.
everything in primary, but the 2lbs of blueberries for the secondary. With my calculations this should have an OG around 1.110, and a potential for ABV ~14%. Therefore maybe D47 is a better yeast choice for its ability to preserve fruity characters over something like 1117 which could make it rocket fuel if my calculations are off.
Then primary ferment, secondary on fruit, and rack and rack until clear every 2-4 months. I might top up the rackings with some really dry, not overly flavorful, blueberry honey mead I have around. If it works out, I'll do a bigger batch with an extra gallon of pure maple wine going alongside to top up with.
Blueberries are free around here so why not use more, other then dwarfing out the maple. On that note, is this too much blue? I have never used pectic enzyme, so any advice on its use would be great. I plan on freezing the blues first, to break up the cell walls, but isn't that what pectic enzyme does? Any advice on maple grades would be great, my understanding is the darker the more they had to cook it down, and therefore the more caramel/burnt it tastes. The lighter the more woody or sappy it tastes. I want a strong maple flavor to come across, but I don't want it to taste like chewing on a branch of a tree, more like faint memories of snowy Vermont mornings.
Thanks!
-Graham
1L of maple syrup
2 lbs of blueberries for primary
2 lbs of blueberries for seconday
1 tsp DAP
pectic enzyme
Yeast, Lat D47 or Lat 1117 (most common two to come across here)
No heat, maybe sterilize the blueberries in vodka first, then save the vodka for later consumption.
everything in primary, but the 2lbs of blueberries for the secondary. With my calculations this should have an OG around 1.110, and a potential for ABV ~14%. Therefore maybe D47 is a better yeast choice for its ability to preserve fruity characters over something like 1117 which could make it rocket fuel if my calculations are off.
Then primary ferment, secondary on fruit, and rack and rack until clear every 2-4 months. I might top up the rackings with some really dry, not overly flavorful, blueberry honey mead I have around. If it works out, I'll do a bigger batch with an extra gallon of pure maple wine going alongside to top up with.
Blueberries are free around here so why not use more, other then dwarfing out the maple. On that note, is this too much blue? I have never used pectic enzyme, so any advice on its use would be great. I plan on freezing the blues first, to break up the cell walls, but isn't that what pectic enzyme does? Any advice on maple grades would be great, my understanding is the darker the more they had to cook it down, and therefore the more caramel/burnt it tastes. The lighter the more woody or sappy it tastes. I want a strong maple flavor to come across, but I don't want it to taste like chewing on a branch of a tree, more like faint memories of snowy Vermont mornings.
Thanks!
-Graham