Pith
Well-Known Member
Hi,
I'm making a mulberry wine using Jack Keller's recipe:
6 lb. ripe mulberries
2 lb. granulated sugar
1 lb. chopped or minced raisins
¾ tsp. pectic enzyme
½ tsp. acid blend
6 pts. water
Bordeaux wine yeast and nutrient
Bring water to boil and dissolve sugar in it, stirring until completely clear. Meanwhile, wash the mulberries after removing the stems and pour into primary fermentation vessel. Add raisins, chopped or minced. Pour boiling sugar-water over fruit and allow to cool to 75-80 degrees F. Add pectic enzyme, acid blend, and yeast nutrient. Stir well, cover and set aside 12 hours. Add yeast, stir, recover, and allow to ferment four days on the pulp, stirring twice daily after punching down the cap. Strain through nylon sieve, pressing lightly to extract juice and then pour into dark secondary fermentation vessel or clear one wrapped with brown paper, topping up if necessary, and fit fermentation trap. Rack after two months and again two months later. Stabilize and set aside 2-3 weeks. Bottle, store in a dark place and taste after six months to a year. A full-bodied wine, it tastes better after two years.
So anyway, my LHBS didn't have Bordeaux, so we decided that this Vintner's Harvest VR21 would be appropriate, due to being recommended for red country wines and preserving fruit flavours. The brochure I got says that it is a killer strain that is capable of fermenting to 15% abv. ethanol.
So, I doubled the recipe and did not put any acid blend at all (since the mulberries we get here in Oz are more tart than Texas mulberries) and took OG and it was at 1.072, potential abv ~9.5%. I felt it necessary to give my yeast a run for it's money, so I decided 1.100 (~13.89%) would be an appropriate way to do that.
1.072 = ~9.5%pot.abv = ~157g/L sugar
1.100 = ~13.89%pot.abv = ~233.7g/L sugar.
That means I would have to add 76.7g/L sugar, right? I looked at the mark on the side of my fermenter to discern how many litres my must was, and the line was up to 13, so 13L x 76.7g = 999.7g. So I added a kilo of honey (82% sugar), figuring that it would get me up to around about 13.12%pot.abv
(820 / 13 = 63g/L added;
63g/L + 157gL = 220g/L
= ~13.12%pot.abv
Now, it's all well and good to be a mathemagician, but when you get some of the original numbers wrong, it's a pain in the ass. I had not taken into account the fact that the mulberries were accounting for a good percentage of the 13L mark on my carboy. So after stirring in all the honey, the OG actually read much higher, at 1.119, ~16.5%pot.abv.
Upon recent inspection, the mulberries are taking up 6L and the CO2 is pushing them up to the 16L mark; ie approx 10L must underneath. It would be wishful thinking to think that there is approximately the same amount of sugar in the mulberries as there is in the must, but how to work out exactly how "wishful" this thinking is, I have no idea.
I need someone else's eyes and math-brain to see if I'm ever going to be able to tell the proper OG and therefore final abv. If you help me out, I'll thumbs you up, or prost your threads, or do whatever you want. If you're in the greater Sydney area, I'll crack open the first bottle with you (after it's aged).
Sincerely,
Caleb.
PS - As I post this, it's about 32 hours since pitching yeast.
PPS - Easier question: how would I alter the procedure due to the much higher gravity? Strain a day or two later than instructed? Change time before and between rackings? Age for a different amount of time before tasting?
I'm making a mulberry wine using Jack Keller's recipe:
6 lb. ripe mulberries
2 lb. granulated sugar
1 lb. chopped or minced raisins
¾ tsp. pectic enzyme
½ tsp. acid blend
6 pts. water
Bordeaux wine yeast and nutrient
Bring water to boil and dissolve sugar in it, stirring until completely clear. Meanwhile, wash the mulberries after removing the stems and pour into primary fermentation vessel. Add raisins, chopped or minced. Pour boiling sugar-water over fruit and allow to cool to 75-80 degrees F. Add pectic enzyme, acid blend, and yeast nutrient. Stir well, cover and set aside 12 hours. Add yeast, stir, recover, and allow to ferment four days on the pulp, stirring twice daily after punching down the cap. Strain through nylon sieve, pressing lightly to extract juice and then pour into dark secondary fermentation vessel or clear one wrapped with brown paper, topping up if necessary, and fit fermentation trap. Rack after two months and again two months later. Stabilize and set aside 2-3 weeks. Bottle, store in a dark place and taste after six months to a year. A full-bodied wine, it tastes better after two years.
So anyway, my LHBS didn't have Bordeaux, so we decided that this Vintner's Harvest VR21 would be appropriate, due to being recommended for red country wines and preserving fruit flavours. The brochure I got says that it is a killer strain that is capable of fermenting to 15% abv. ethanol.
So, I doubled the recipe and did not put any acid blend at all (since the mulberries we get here in Oz are more tart than Texas mulberries) and took OG and it was at 1.072, potential abv ~9.5%. I felt it necessary to give my yeast a run for it's money, so I decided 1.100 (~13.89%) would be an appropriate way to do that.
1.072 = ~9.5%pot.abv = ~157g/L sugar
1.100 = ~13.89%pot.abv = ~233.7g/L sugar.
That means I would have to add 76.7g/L sugar, right? I looked at the mark on the side of my fermenter to discern how many litres my must was, and the line was up to 13, so 13L x 76.7g = 999.7g. So I added a kilo of honey (82% sugar), figuring that it would get me up to around about 13.12%pot.abv
(820 / 13 = 63g/L added;
63g/L + 157gL = 220g/L
= ~13.12%pot.abv
Now, it's all well and good to be a mathemagician, but when you get some of the original numbers wrong, it's a pain in the ass. I had not taken into account the fact that the mulberries were accounting for a good percentage of the 13L mark on my carboy. So after stirring in all the honey, the OG actually read much higher, at 1.119, ~16.5%pot.abv.
Upon recent inspection, the mulberries are taking up 6L and the CO2 is pushing them up to the 16L mark; ie approx 10L must underneath. It would be wishful thinking to think that there is approximately the same amount of sugar in the mulberries as there is in the must, but how to work out exactly how "wishful" this thinking is, I have no idea.
I need someone else's eyes and math-brain to see if I'm ever going to be able to tell the proper OG and therefore final abv. If you help me out, I'll thumbs you up, or prost your threads, or do whatever you want. If you're in the greater Sydney area, I'll crack open the first bottle with you (after it's aged).
Sincerely,
Caleb.
PS - As I post this, it's about 32 hours since pitching yeast.
PPS - Easier question: how would I alter the procedure due to the much higher gravity? Strain a day or two later than instructed? Change time before and between rackings? Age for a different amount of time before tasting?
