Watermelon wine

I'm making a wine from Rubicon Watermelon Juice, it's not 100% organic but I've already checked and there are no chemicals that will affect fermentation...



Any ideas for what I should add in terms of tannin, pectin enzyme, etc?

Well, we have an awesome watermelon wine... but we made it from fresh watermelon juice, so I'm not sure how it compares. Is that stuff 100% juice, or does it have sugar added?

Here's what we used:

4-5 gallons of fresh juice (was 6 gallons worth of chunks that we boiled down)
18 lbs white sugar
5 tsp acid blend
5 tsp nutrient
Champagne yeast

OG: 1.16

This made a really nice dessert wine, with a final gravity of 1.012. Very tasty, even when young.

NerdyMarie, how long did you age yours? I cracked open a 3 month old bottle of mine (fermented from fresh fruit) and it smelled and tasted funky. But I don't think it was spoiled.

Hrm, not very long. I think the last one we put on in late summer.. maybe August? We bottled it the other day, drinking it now.

Could be the watermelon you used. Did you use seedless? I find that seedless watermelon has a sort of funky taste compared to the normal ones.

Also, how dry is yours? Because of the flavor of watermelon, I don't think it would work as a drier wine - the sugar really brings out the melon flavor.

RobWalker said:

I'm making a wine from Rubicon Watermelon Juice, it's not 100% organic but I've already checked and there are no chemicals that will affect fermentation...

Any ideas for what I should add in terms of tannin, pectin enzyme, etc?

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You don't really need '100% organic' but I do recommend using '100% juice' The juice listed is only '20% juice' It may be good for 6% ABV but I would worry about it tasting watery above that. I wouldn't add tannin or enzymes to it. The natural flavor seems to work best.

Rubicon Watermelon Drink 1 L £1.50

A refreshing juice drink.

Ingredients:

Water,watermelon juice from concentrate (20%),sugar,citric acid, flavourings, stabilisers (pectin) ,Vitamin C ,colour (Anthocyanin), lycopene.

Country Of Origin - UK (fruit pulp from various countries around the globe).

http://www.fairessentials.com/produ...d=570&osCsid=1b476df2211cfb3a1db8e54b8aa743b1

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NerdyMarie said:

Could be the watermelon you used. Did you use seedless? I find that seedless watermelon has a sort of funky taste compared to the normal ones.

Also, how dry is yours? Because of the flavor of watermelon, I don't think it would work as a drier wine - the sugar really brings out the melon flavor.

Click to expand...

It was seedless and is very dry. Probably both, then. Oh well, that's what test batches are for. :)