extra light DME and Portwine

[seth8530]

Hey, Im more of a wine/mead maker, but from time to time our different styles cross paths. That is why I have decided to make a post on the beer board about DME


As you have most likely gatherdI intend on making a black currant port wine ( as the title implies)

Ok so here is the proposed method/ingredient list.

This is for a 7 gallon batch

#1 3 cans of black currant concentrate add fermaid k and possibly pectic enzyme and


http://www.midwestsupplies.com/winem...uit-bases.html

add water Extra light DME and sugar untill at 6.4 gallons and 1.12 sg

#2 let ferment untill sg drops down to 1.030 add .6 gal ie 2.5L of ever-clear at 95 percent alcohol to raise volume to little over 7 gallons and put alcohol level to 21 percent.

# 3 rack the port and let it sit for about 6 months.

My big thing is, I want to use the extra light DME to add mostly body to the black currant but a little bit of flavor is also ok, as long as the port remains mostly wine and not so much high octane beer. How far do you think 2 lbs of extra light DME will take me? Any advice on using DME?


How does my plan sound? any thoughts or recommendations?

 

[seth8530]

I guess a better question would be, Just how much would 2 lbs of Extra light DME show through in the finished product?

 

[Calder]

1 lb DME will add about 45 gravity points. In 7 gallons, that would contribute about .0066 to the gravity, or about 1% abv potential.

I think you would notice it, but I really don't think it would give you too much flavor. You could use a pound of Malto-dextrin to give it body instead of the DME. Malto-dextrin contributes no flavor.

 

[seth8530]

Well, I dont care if it adds a little flavour, and its not for body only, I just dont want it to be beery, But i would not mind an interesting side flavour to accompany the black currant.. BTW what does extra light malt extract taste like?

 

[Calder]

Malty, a light beer without hops ....... something like a light American lager.

 

[seth8530]

ahh, well thanks for that

Ok 3/24/12 Today I started fermentation,

-I used 3 96 oz cans of black currant concentrate (they had a sg of 1.025 and no pulp)

15 lb sugar

enough water to hit about 6.4 gallons

a cap full of fermaid k
cap full of wine tannin
half cap of acidblend
cap full of yeast energizer

2 packets of 71B-1122

when all was said and done the sg hit my target of 1.100 which will get boosted by aprox .0125 pts when i add the extra light dry malt extract when it gets here.

So total gravity is 1.125.. Hope-full finishing gravity is 1.030 at which 2.5 liters of everclear at 95 percent will be added.

 

[Machalel]

I can almost guarantee it wont beery.
I've added 1 lb to 1 gal Mead, from 1.139 to 1.030 and it doesn't taste beery at all (although it's quite complex / strong in other flavours).

 

[seth8530]

Wonderfull! Did it add any kind of discernible flavor to it?

 

[Machalel]

I can't really give a definite answer, as it's still young (~2 months), but there is a malty / caramel / toffee taste to it. I used dark DME as well as some caramelised raw cane sugar.