Racking Day!

[Yooper]

We got back from our "winter quarters" last night and I decided to get ready to brew later in the week by moving out all of my carboys. They all needed to be racked (the crabapple especially had thick lees after nearly two months!) so today I racked all of these:


That's 6 gallons of oaked chokecherry wine, 15 gallons of crabapple wine, 3 gallons of aged chokecherry wine with grape concentrate, 3 gallons of catawba/concord/merlot blend, and 7 gallons of chokecherry wine from last year.

I need to hurry up and start my rhubarb wine (from rhubarb picked last spring) and a kit. But otherwise, my wine chores are done!

 

[hxcpunk71]

Now Thats what I call an obsession!!! But good one at that!

 

[ashfatboy]

I need more booze

 

[chevs15]

What's chokecherry wine?

 

[Yooper]

What's chokecherry wine?

We have a ton of chokecherries up here- the taste terrible for fresh eating, but make great jam and wine!

 

[Sammyk]

That was a full day's work. I know, because I did a similar amount of raking a week or so ago.

I am a former Michigander who moved to NC in 2000 and never looked back!

 

[how1]

I guess its true when they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[Homercidal]

LOL! This reminds me that I have 1 bucket of banana wine that needs to be racked to a
carboy.

I feel so inadequate!

 

[Yooper]

LOL! This reminds me that I have 1 bucket of banana wine that needs to be racked to a
carboy.

I feel so inadequate!

Don't worry about your, um, small carboy. It's ok. Any real winemaker doesn't judge others by carboy size.

Of course I used each hydrometer sample as a test. Last night at dinner, we had about 7 glasses of wine lined up on the table to share. Believe it or not, my favorite with dinner was the catawba/Welch's/merlot skin blend. It was a dark rose' (if there IS such a thing) and very nice with our roasted chicken. I wish I would have made more than 3 gallons of that one!

 

[TyTanium]

Do you ever sour any of these? I bet that chokecherry one would be stellar soured - extra dry & tart. Or what about back blending with wort/beer? I've always wanted to try that.

 

[Yooper]

Do you ever sour any of these? I bet that chokecherry one would be stellar soured - extra dry & tart. Or what about back blending with wort/beer? I've always wanted to try that.

No, I don't. But I made some red wine vinegar (on purpose!) with some home made cabernet sauvignon. It's coming along nicely.

 

[Hummer]

That's 6 gallons of oaked chokecherry wine, 15 gallons of crabapple wine, 3 gallons of aged chokecherry wine with grape concentrate, 3 gallons of catawba/concord/merlot blend, and 7 gallons of chokecherry wine from last year.

I need to hurry up and start my rhubarb wine (from rhubarb picked last spring) and a kit. But otherwise, my wine chores are done!

Those all sound delicious! Good work. I'd like to try making chokecherry this year but will have to get netting to keep the birds off the fruit. Last year they ate most of the berries before they were ripe enough for wine.

Do you ferment to dry and then backsweeten? What yeast do you like for this?

 

[jholen]

Woah.

As someone else said, I feel so inadequate. I didn't realize how much you were into wine making Yoop, thought it was just primarily beer. This picture obviously debunks that though! Impressive!

(only non-beer thing I've made so far is Apfelwein, which turned out awesome btw)

 

[Yooper]

Those all sound delicious! Good work. I'd like to try making chokecherry this year but will have to get netting to keep the birds off the fruit. Last year they ate most of the berries before they were ripe enough for wine.

Do you ferment to dry and then backsweeten? What yeast do you like for this?

I like almost all of my wines dry- I have NO sweet tooth and all and never drink anything sweet including wine.

Woah.

As someone else said, I feel so inadequate. I didn't realize how much you were into wine making Yoop, thought it was just primarily beer. This picture obviously debunks that though! Impressive!

(only non-beer thing I've made so far is Apfelwein, which turned out awesome btw)

I actually was a winemaker long before brewing, and consider myself a more experience winemaker than brewer. Brewing is pretty new to me- I think I've been brewing beer for only about 6 years besides the early "Beer Machine" attempts.