Corn Cob Wine

I have mine racked off the lees now. I stabilized with Camden and sorbate. I topped up with about 8-10 fl oz of must from pre-yeast pitch. And then added 2 tsp bentonite mixed in with a cup of hot water in my blender. She is now resting in the fridge to clear. I will be out of town till the 27th so I will check it then

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Hoping tomorrow I can start mine. Of anyone knows how to post pics I'll be more then happy to share photos of the process.

Jeremy_84 said:

Hoping tomorrow I can start mine. Of anyone knows how to post pics I'll be more then happy to share photos of the process.

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When you go to make your post, click the icon in the top tool menu that looks like a paper clip. You upload the photos first then you can click the same paper clip icon and then it gives you links to add in each photo. I can do this both on PC and my IPhone just fine.

Ok so I said I ill be out if town but my plane does not leave till 1700 today. I know the wine is still really young and the sulfites probably have not even all gassed off. But I dipped a shot glass into the now crystal clear portion of wine. Lees should compress a bit more over the next couple weeks and I think I can bottle then. The wine is a nice pale yellow in color. Aroma is not really impressive. Basically smelling the alcohol mostly and possibly a hint of something but with my stuffed up nose this morning I can't give a good description. The taste is smooth in alcohol, very silky in body just adding to the cool smoothness. A hint of sweet is there from the back sweetening must. But nothing screams corn. I guess that is a good thing. The acid content is refreshing but i could see some wanting less. so cutting my original recipes acid blend in half is a really good idea i think. It tastes like a cheap white wine. Nothing I am amazed at right now but damn I could drink a couple glasses easy. We will see how this ages and evolves over time. I am curious to see if any different yeast choices bring out more corn flavor.

Arpolis said:

I have mine racked off the lees now. I stabilized with Camden and sorbate. I topped up with about 8-10 fl oz of must from pre-yeast pitch. And then added 2 tsp bentonite mixed in with a cup of hot water in my blender. She is now resting in the fridge to clear. I will be out of town till the 27th so I will check it then

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So I take it you're not going to bottle carb and pasteurize this one after all?

Yea I am really lazy right now and don't feel like going through with that. I think this wine will be nice carbed but so far it looks like it will be nice still as well.

Ok I racked it off the sediment today. Good god there was a lot! I was only able to get 3 perfectly clear 750ml bottles and half another that did suck up some of the sediment. I placed the hazy one in the fridge and ill give it a good tall glass check and see how it tastes once sediment drops out. I added 1/2 tbs of sugar to the other 3. Once they hit room temp ill check the gravity and see where they ended up. They look a lot like the color of my lemon mead if not a little more yellow. Ill mark the 3 bottles in the calendar and check them every 3 months for some good tasting notes.

Hmmmmm I think I might have been a bad brewer. I can't remember now... When I racked off the lees the first time I could have sworn I took a gravity reading and it was at about 1.000. But I did not write that down anywhere and it is not in this thread so I might not have checked the gravity. Well I was curious because I checked the back sweetened wine bottles and they are at 1.025ish! The one partial bottle not back sweetened is at 1.020. 1/2 a tbsp in 750ml bottle should be about 1.004 increase so the difference makes sense. Hmmmmmm. Did the 1116 run dry in that time or did I interrupt it too soon? If it did run dry then my only explanation could be that there was some active amalyse enzyme that transferred the starter to the must. My starter had some in it to try and break down some of the leftover sake lees filled with unconverted rice that I used to get my yeast. So any starches leftover in the wine after I sulfites and sorbate s may have converted to sugar? But man 1.02 points of increase is a lot. I think I messed up and stabilized too soon.

Hower I am enjoying a glass of the non back sweetened cob wine and it is nice. There is no real decernable flavor there lack the flavor "random white wine" but it is super smooth on the mouthfeel. I think the mouthfeel is the best thing about this wine. It is just damn enjoyable. Almost no alcohol bite at all. Probably could deal with a little less on the acid blend. But it is not too much to pucker at. I have a party I am going to this Thursday and I may take a bottle.

So between finishing my PhD and starting a new job, you can imagine that I've been busy. But with my wide hanging out with her sister and me at home, I've had time to put this together finally!

Since the smallest vessel I have is a 3 glass carboy, I'm doing 3 gallons of this stuff. Here's what I've done thus far. Took 4.7lbs of corn cobs (frozen with kernels off), chopped them and boiled for 45 min in 1 gal of water.

Now I've finished the boil, and it is currently cooling. Plan is to add the following:

96oz light corn syrup
3t tartaric acid
9oz raisins
3t yeast nutrient
3t liquid tannin
1/2t pectic enzyme

Let sit for an hour then pitch the red star champagne yeast.

Then we'll see how it goes! I'll let you know how it turns out.

I just wanted to update. I pored a glass tonite and it is much better than I remember it. It really is a nice little wine. I am all smiles now.

Glad to hear! I just tested mine now (sg) and it is at 1.035. Still has a ways to go but I can see it still fermenting. Hopefully this weekend I will see how it tastes and that it will be done fermenting. Odd question but do the ferm temps have an effect on making wine? Mine is at 68 now.

Often it depends most on the strain of yeast you use as to what temps effect. For instance lalvin d47 if fermented too hight in the high 60*F and especially above 70*F it will give off terrible fusel alchohols which are hot tasting and don't age out well. When lalvin k1v-1116 is fermented below 60*F then it gives off floral notes to a wine. I like to keep ferments below 70*F for most all brews.

Good to know. It seems to be chugging away but I'm considering adding some yeast energizer. I didn't add that initially.

Ugh.... I'm having some troubles. It's still at 1.035 5 days later. I added 1.5t yeast energizer, and another packet of yeast. This was almost three days ago and it hasn't budged... I've heated it up to 70 deg. And I'm out of ideas of how to make the gravity drop....

Any suggestions?