Watermelon wine

[hamiltonkiler]

So I am into the 16th hour of letting my must sit at room temp with the ingredients and petic enzyme. Do I really have to worry about must spoling? I'm going to pitch my yeast this afternoon. Recipe just says to sprinkle it on top of the must. The recipe doesn't say anything about it or trying to keep it cool. The only difference I am taking in the recipe is I am not using a strainer bag for the fruit and I am using d47 yeast.
Cheers

 

[NinjaBear]

Well, winemaking is basically controlled spoiling of fruits and juices.

 

[hamiltonkiler]

Pitched the yeast. Batch smells sour. But not bad. I just sprinkled the yeast on top and didn't stir so hopefully not to add unessary oxygen and help spoilage. We will see. It is 72* in the house. I hope fermentation will scoot along.

 

[jgmillr1]

The sulfites you've added are pretty efficient in knocking back spoilage organisms to allow the yeast to get through its lag stage and get moving along. That said, I usually will pitch the yeast about an hour after mixing in the additives to the must. No need that I've seen to wait 24hrs or whatever. However, it is much better to rehydrate the yeast properly and acclimate it to the must chemistry. You should mix your packet in 100'F water gently and briefly. After 20min, begin doubling the volume of the yeast solution by adding must and let set for 10min. After a couple of must additions, the yeast are ready for the temperature/sugar/pH levels of the must. This ensures as many yeast survive as possible in order to get your fermentation going ASAP.

 

[Yooper]

Yeast need oxygen in the first period of fermentation- stir it very well tomorrow to get rid of any carbon dioxide that forms (it's poisonous to yeast), and to get some oxygen in there.

 

[Blast]

Apparently this is the season for trying this. I started my watermelon wine on Saturday but I went about it completely differently than everything I have read on here. I went with a recipe I found after a very brief search and didn't do too much other research on it.
1 gallon Watermelon Juice
3 lbs Sugar
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice (it called for acid blend)
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
Champagne Yeast
I used 2 seedless watermelon and heated the pulp to get the juice out, straining out the remains. I did not use any pectin enzyme. I did pasteurize the juice before putting it directly into a 1 gallon glass jug, sprinkled on my champagne yeast and capped it. I am not expecting this to go well now that I have wandered over to this side of the forum from the Beer and Mead making sections but if this does go south I may or may not have a small pot still to dispose of the mistake properly as I have for other past mead related disasters.
Any guesses as to what I can expect?

 

[hamiltonkiler]

Apparently this is the season for trying this. I started my watermelon wine on Saturday but I went about it completely differently than everything I have read on here. I went with a recipe I found after a very brief search and didn't do too much other research on it.
1 gallon Watermelon Juice
3 lbs Sugar
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice (it called for acid blend)
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
Champagne Yeast
I used 2 seedless watermelon and heated the pulp to get the juice out, straining out the remains. I did not use any pectin enzyme. I did pasteurize the juice before putting it directly into a 1 gallon glass jug, sprinkled on my champagne yeast and capped it. I am not expecting this to go well now that I have wandered over to this side of the forum from the Beer and Mead making sections but if this does go south I may or may not have a small pot still to dispose of the mistake properly as I have for other past mead related disasters.
Any guesses as to what I can expect?

Seems like it will make wine to me.
I used
8# grandulated sugar
Lime zest 1lime
3 tbs lemon juice
2 cups white raises; body and tannin
And made a slurry no boil just hot
Then
3 big melons 2 seedless and one with seeds for tannin
1/4 tsp petic enzyme
1/4 tsp sodium bisulfiate
2tbs yeast nutrient
4lbs corn sugar
Mix all and let sit 24hr
Then pitched a packet of d47 yeast.

Seems to be brewing along nicely.

 

[hamiltonkiler]

Comming down the pipe