6gal Rasberry... dead??

[mrchaos101]

After my first Rack. I noticed the smell was a tad off from my first batch of wine (pure grape). Took it the smell was that way because of real fruit in there.

I uncovered and can see a LOT of crap at bottom of the carboy.....time to rack again... BUT I also notice a lil bit of foam at the top. Foam is not growing...or shrinking....its just there. Did not see anything like this on my Grape wine.

Did I kill this batch? ON my first rack I crushed 6 campden tablets and dropped it. I was NOT going to put any more campden in tis batch of wine if I could help it. Seems to have given my Grape an off taste.

Please advise?

 

[mrchaos101]

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[Yooper]

I'm not sure what your question is but do you have a photo or a specific issue that seems to be a problem? I assume it's in a carboy properly topped up, so you should be ok as long as you rack whenever you have lees 1/4" thick or after 60 days if you have any lees at all, and then top up appropriately.

I use campden (sulfites) at every other racking, as they dissipate. They are used as an antioxidant by winemakers, since racking and handling the wine exposes it to oxygen. Sulfites bind to the wine, so oxygen can't, and then they dissipate.

 

[mrchaos101]

Im worried about it being ruined....fact that there us a tad of foam. I see more than 1/4 inch at bottom....I will rack again tomorrow.

 

[WVMJ]

Do you have any gravity readings? A recipe? A picture? You think its ruined because of a little bit of foam??? Does is smell funny? What yeast did you use? You dont give anyone much in the way of info to even guess here. WVMJ

 

[mrchaos101]

Do you have any gravity readings? A recipe? A picture? You think its ruined because of a little bit of foam??? Does is smell funny? What yeast did you use? You don't give anyone much in the way of info to even guess here. WVMJ

No on the gravity reading sorry.
Recipe was kind of a Frankenstein deal. I mixed White Grape along with Grape/Raspberry juice cans. I seem to remember I used about 4-5 cans of the White Grape/Raspberry and like 4/5 cans of White Grape. I also took 5 lbs. of frozen raspberries and put them in a large pot on the stove. I added a very small tad of water and warmed them up. I stirred them till they thawed and warmed up. This broke them down very nice. I did NOT BOIL the fruit. I did enough juice to do a 6 gallon batch. After 3-4 days I removed the fruit by straining it from the 6.5 gal mark on my bucket to my 6 gallon glass carboy. Taste at that point was great. I had enough left over that I had put some in an old wine bottle ( this may be my issue). I thought I had cleaned that bottle good. I racked wine later. Taste in 6gal was good. Taste in the bottle was not the same. DON’T ASK ME WHY. I used that wine bottle to top it off.
I had about 1/4" lees last night. I racked the win removed the lees. Wine is starting to clear. Lees stunk. I am not sure how to describe the off smell there as this is only the 2nd batch of win I have made.
I drank a glass of the green wine last night. There is an astringency to it. Get that puckering sting on the sides and back of tongue.... kind of a tart...like if you bite into a green appel. I almost think that is from tartness of raspberries. The overall taste…I liked it but had a hint of something I am just not sure about….I want to think it is because it is the berries and the green wine yeast.

What I think I want to do is finish this off and the Shipp a bottle to somebody willing to look, smell, taste and give me an analysis of what they think. I may just pull a bottle off before I "bottle" the batch. And see what they think before I go and finish it all the way out.

 

[jensmith]

Ship a bottle to me. I will tast it for you !! I am enjoying a glass of almost done rasberry right now. Very dry, very tart. Unless you backsweeten, it will be tart. The rasberry flavor mellows and smoth out with suger. I do not backsweeten with suger( gives me migrains). I will leave it dry or backsweeten with fruit juice ( no migrain!).
Also, the more rasberries per galleon the more tart and longer age time is needed for any mellowing.
If there is any yeast left in suspention that will effect flavor. Yeasty, sweet, or a coating on the tounge. Or all three


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[mrchaos101]

Jensmith PM me your address