Grapefruit Wine Question

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Newbrew12

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
135
Reaction score
3
Location
Sioux Falls
I am going to start a 5g batch of grapefruit wine adapted from Jack Keller's recipe on his site. I don't know what it is, but the grapefruits that are available right now are some of the best I have ever had with absolutely no bitterness and I have always wanted to, and am very excited to get this started this weekend.

My plan is to do a master batch of 5g and then when the time to transfer to secondary comes around, break it up into three different secondaries and try a couple things. One will be standard, follow the recipe word for word, and the other two I want to oak. I was thinking of doing one batch with American oak chips and the second with French to observe the difference. My other thought was to try the same style of chips with the addition at various times. And my last option is to use the same style oak chips at the same time while back sweetening one and letting the other stay dry.

I have heard that certain fruits wines do better being oaked than others and to me, the characters that are said to be imparted sound like they'd balance well with the grapefruit flavor.

I've never oaked a wine before so I don't know the ins and outs. Does adding it at a certain time matter? Should I add at the first secondary transfer, 3rd, 4th, last, etc...? My wines have usually taken 4-5 rackings (sometimes 6) as I like to let it clear naturally. Does the amount of oak added matter? Originally I was going to put it in a couple small barrels but I don't want to mess it up with dealing with small size barrels for now so I'll definitely use the chips and I'm leaning towards the French chips instead of the American.

Anyway... any suggestions would be great! :mug:
 
Newbrew12 said:
I am going to start a 5g batch of grapefruit wine adapted from Jack Keller's recipe on his site. I don't know what it is, but the grapefruits that are available right now are some of the best I have ever had with absolutely no bitterness and I have always wanted to, and am very excited to get this started this weekend.

My plan is to do a master batch of 5g and then when the time to transfer to secondary comes around, break it up into three different secondaries and try a couple things. One will be standard, follow the recipe word for word, and the other two I want to oak. I was thinking of doing one batch with American oak chips and the second with French to observe the difference. My other thought was to try the same style of chips with the addition at various times. And my last option is to use the same style oak chips at the same time while back sweetening one and letting the other stay dry.

I have heard that certain fruits wines do better being oaked than others and to me, the characters that are said to be imparted sound like they'd balance well with the grapefruit flavor.

I've never oaked a wine before so I don't know the ins and outs. Does adding it at a certain time matter? Should I add at the first secondary transfer, 3rd, 4th, last, etc...? My wines have usually taken 4-5 rackings (sometimes 6) as I like to let it clear naturally. Does the amount of oak added matter? Originally I was going to put it in a couple small barrels but I don't want to mess it up with dealing with small size barrels for now so I'll definitely use the chips and I'm leaning towards the French chips instead of the American.

Anyway... any suggestions would be great! :mug:

Add your oak after your wine has cleared. Start by adding a small amount. Then taste weekly. Add more oak until desire level is achieved.
 
Nice! Never done grapefruit, but I love them too. I'd love to know what recepie you're using, and how it turns out.

I would oak two with the same oak, and backsweeten one. Nova is right, I would oak when you feel ready to change the wines profile. Hey, you may end up thinking its great as it is, so give it some time. Oak can be added at any time, but it needs time of its own to mellow and blend into the wine.

I would add pectic enzyme BTW. I see this as being a very crisp fruity drink. Hope it turns out great!
 
30 large grapefruit
5 lb chopped raisins
Sugar to desired specific gravity
2 1/2 tsp pectin
5/8 tsp tannin
Campden, yeast starter, and yeast. Still deciding on which yeast
 
30 large grapefruit
5 lb chopped raisins
Sugar to desired specific gravity
2 1/2 tsp pectin
5/8 tsp tannin
Campden, yeast starter, and yeast. Still deciding on which yeast

:)

Nice.
As a suggestion, I would go with Lalvins K1-1116 as its one I have used for 'non grape' environments with great results before.

Also, with that much chopped raisins adding tannins of their own, you may not need Tannin as well.
 
Ya I was wondering about that. Think the raisins will help with body? I'd rather leave em out but don't want a "thin" wine. I made a pineapple that's been in the bottle for about a year and its much thinner this far than I had hoped. Great flavor but... Idk can't explain. After more research idk about the oak at this point. I might still do a gallon of it that way just out of curiosity but it seems whites don't generally do well under oak. I will be making a bit of it a sparkling. Was drinking my carbonated apfelwein and it hit me how great that would be with a hint of grapefruit. So many ideas so little time!
 
Ya I was wondering about that. Think the raisins will help with body? I'd rather leave em out but don't want a "thin" wine. I made a pineapple that's been in the bottle for about a year and its much thinner this far than I had hoped. Great flavor but... Idk can't explain. After more research idk about the oak at this point. I might still do a gallon of it that way just out of curiosity but it seems whites don't generally do well under oak. I will be making a bit of it a sparkling. Was drinking my carbonated apfelwein and it hit me how great that would be with a hint of grapefruit. So many ideas so little time!

The raisins will give body and fermentables and tannins. But that doesn't mean they are the be all end all. They also add flavor which may or may not work for this brew! As for oaking, I stand by what I said earlier, taste it first, you may not want to oak!
 
Ok. Well I'm going with 35 pounds of grapefruit, 3 pounds of chopped golden raisins, sugar to SG with goal of 11-12% expected alcohol content. Will decide on additives based off how the fruit measures. Will add water to make total of 6 gal to siphon one off for topping up.
 
After 6.5 hours of grapefruit peeling I got the must finished yesterday. Went with the EC-1118. Sittin in the basement fermenting now around 65 F +\- 2 or 3 degrees. Only went with 3 pounds of golden raisins chopped, no tannin addition. That's the only decision I'm hoping doesn't come back to bite me. I really don't want a low body to this but we'll see. SG was sittin right at 1.08 which is exactly what I was hoping for. 30 pounds of pulp are fermenting in strainer bags along with a little under a cup of zestings. Fermentation has already blown up and smelling great!
 
X2 on tasting before oaking. A fair amount of what is extracted by oaking is tannin. Since your going to have tannic acid in the brew already, you may not want to add tannin to it as well.
 
After 6.5 hours of grapefruit peeling I got the must finished yesterday. Went with the EC-1118. Sittin in the basement fermenting now around 65 F +\- 2 or 3 degrees. Only went with 3 pounds of golden raisins chopped, no tannin addition. That's the only decision I'm hoping doesn't come back to bite me. I really don't want a low body to this but we'll see. SG was sittin right at 1.08 which is exactly what I was hoping for. 30 pounds of pulp are fermenting in strainer bags along with a little under a cup of zestings. Fermentation has already blown up and smelling great!

Just remember, you can ADD things but not take them out again. Tannin included! :)
 
That's kinda what I was thinking with waiting on the tannin. Whole house smells of fermenting grapefruit glory so at this point I'm just cracking open a bottle of some home brew and waiting :)
 
Well here it is all broken up.



image-520202320.jpg

Did one gallon lightly oaked, one gallon to be dry, one will back sweeten, and two carbed for summer time. OG was 1.080 and put in secondary at 1.014. Tasted great today, just a tad bitter but for a young wine full of grapefruit I'm impressed so far.
 
Idk nothing too different than what I saw in my last wines. Only was in primary for 5 days so I figured it would be cloudy. After a day there's already a good amount of sediment in each of the gallons. I imagine it'll take a while to clear but I've never had an issue with waiting. I imagine I won't bottle for at least 6 maybe 8 months with letting it clear naturally
 
Back
Top