I have a "NEW" experiment going that was 10 years in the making. You may have seen me talk about parts of this before, about 10 years ago I had started a wine making project with my brother. We had access to tons of free fresh fruit and had started over 50 gallons all in 1 gallon batches. well life happened and one day added to the next and before we new it 10 years had passed. Some of the bottles employed the old handy wrap and a rubber-band trick and others had airlocks, but the airlocks had been neglected and many of the rubber bands holding the handy wrap on had broken. Even though most of it was exposed to some air it was all still covered which significantly limited the possibility of contamination. The final result after 10 years was that half of it was bad, BUT the half that was good was really good.
One of the wines that was good was an apricot. It had a strong apricot flavor and a decent ABV but was cloyingly sweet. When I made it I was collage age and was a bit misguided. At the time my goal was a high ABV and I wanted a sweet wine with out the use of chemicals. My "solution" was to add so much sugar (like 4 pounds per gallon) to the wine that the yeast would max out the ABV and make the wine sweet.
What I didn't know then but I do know now is that is a sure fire recipe for a stuck fermentation and that was exactly what I got.
Now fast forward 10 years I assumed the wine was done and bottled it. (no SG reading taken) Drank some and It was quite good but as I said before cloyingly sweet with a very strong apricot flavor. I used my hydrometer on a sample and realized the SG was still at 1.075 which, based on the amount of sugar I originally added gave me an ABV of 10% not the 15% I was going for. I decided to dilute a sample of it with water 1:1 and see how it tasted. Still had a great apricot flavor and of course was less sweet and less ABV. This gave me the idea rather than trying to unstick the fermentation what if I got a gallon going again half water half apricot and ferment it out dry. It has been going for about 2 months with no signs of slowing. I will let you know how it turns out. I am thinking I will carbonate it when it is done, should make a great sparkling wine.
One of the wines that was good was an apricot. It had a strong apricot flavor and a decent ABV but was cloyingly sweet. When I made it I was collage age and was a bit misguided. At the time my goal was a high ABV and I wanted a sweet wine with out the use of chemicals. My "solution" was to add so much sugar (like 4 pounds per gallon) to the wine that the yeast would max out the ABV and make the wine sweet.
What I didn't know then but I do know now is that is a sure fire recipe for a stuck fermentation and that was exactly what I got.
Now fast forward 10 years I assumed the wine was done and bottled it. (no SG reading taken) Drank some and It was quite good but as I said before cloyingly sweet with a very strong apricot flavor. I used my hydrometer on a sample and realized the SG was still at 1.075 which, based on the amount of sugar I originally added gave me an ABV of 10% not the 15% I was going for. I decided to dilute a sample of it with water 1:1 and see how it tasted. Still had a great apricot flavor and of course was less sweet and less ABV. This gave me the idea rather than trying to unstick the fermentation what if I got a gallon going again half water half apricot and ferment it out dry. It has been going for about 2 months with no signs of slowing. I will let you know how it turns out. I am thinking I will carbonate it when it is done, should make a great sparkling wine.
