Asking for trouble

[RPh_Guy]

Cherry wine primary with R-HST, set to 60°F.

How full is too full?

 

[Blacksmith1]

You're fine. I measured that on the expanded view and there is an easy 2" between the liquid and the top of your cap. And my ruler is a Stanley so you know it's accurate.

 

[DoctorCAD]

You better get a blow off tube on that...pronto!

 

[hamiltonkiler]

It looks like a great batch of wine.

 

[Maylar]

Got cherries?

 

[Yooper]

Once a piece of cherry plugs the airlock piece, the whole carboy could blow. Good thing it's plastic!

 

[madscientist451]

Yup, Its Gonna Blow!

 

[RPh_Guy]

Recipe:

• 20lbs of tart cherries.
• 9.2 lbs sugar to hit 1.105
• RO water to 6.2 gallons (total)
  
• 4.2g CaCl2 for 46ppm Ca2+, 81ppm Cl-
• 1oz medium toast French oak cubes, boiled 1-2 minutes to remove harshness (water discarded).
• 6g Booster Blanc
• 2 tsp pectinase
• 1.32g FT Blanc Soft tannin
• 12.54g Opti-White
• 3.4 measured pH
• 1.63g K-metabisulfite x48 hours (1ppm molecular SO2 not accounting for binding)
• 8g R-HST rehydrated at 104°F with 10g Go-Ferm. Temp maintained in a water bath, then slowly attemporated with must.
• Pitched at 74°F, chilled to 60°F.

Aerated thoroughly with drill stirrer, which also did wonders to mash the cherries.

Jeez, did I add enough stuff?
No. I still need to add 3g/gal dry bentonite during fermentation. I should probably add some Fermaid O per its basic instructions.

Here it was after sulfite but before stirring:
Sulfite dulled the color for some reason.

Just the cherries

No preservatives had been added to the cherries. They were pitted and packaged near freezing, but not frozen. They taste great, exactly like cherries in pie.
I'm sure there's some wild microbes in there. It was starting to show a tiny bit of activity after the sulfite.

Wish me luck!

P.S. it did overflow the airlock, as expected. We all have to do something stupid every once in a while! At least it wasn't catastrophic.

 

[RPh_Guy]

What now?

My plan is to rack, add sulfite, fine with Super Kleer, rack, add sorbate and sugar, and then bottle.

Questions:
What's the best way to rack? I'm thinking I shouldn't use the spigot because it will probably clog from the cherries. I don't actually have a racking cane long enough to transfer, but I could use some tubing. I can put some steel wool on the end of it to filter out all the fruit. Or maybe should I just but a racking cane or auto siphon (and put the steel wool on the end of that).

How should I avoid oxidation? I don't want to burn through all the sulfite while fining. Should I top up the second vessel with de-oxygenated water while the Super Kleer does its thing?

 

[Hayden123982]

How did you manage racking?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Hah, it's still in primary.
It's brilliantly clear without any additional fining, so what I think I'll do is rack the clear wine straight to my bottling bucket onto sugar and stabilizers. After that I'll transfer the remaining wine into a smaller carboy with no headspace so it can clear.

 

[passedpawn]

P.S. it did overflow the airlock, as expected. We all have to do something stupid every once in a while! At least it wasn't catastrophic.

I've patented stupid. With wine and beer.

Here's what I attempted to do when I put too much in my wine fermentor. Shoved part of my autosiphon in there. That sucker shot to the ceiling later - SpaceX style. Wife wasn't pleased with the result. Texas chainsaw massacre in there.

 

[RPh_Guy]

What an adventure!

• I pulled out a sample to measure FG. It was sitting at 0.992. Tastes pretty dry, but no off-flavors. Pretty decent fruit flavor.
• I made a 50% w/v sucrose solution (boiled and chilled) using a calibrated 0.01g x 500g scale, graduated cylinder, and RO water.
• Next I pulled out 50mL samples into taster glasses using a turkey baster, measuring with a 100mL graduated cylinder.
• I had calculated amounts of sugar solution to add based on guesses of what might be good.
• I then added measured amounts of the sugar solution with a 10mL syringe and chilled with stainless steel cubes from the freezer.
• It took a few samples to dial in exactly how much I wanted.
• It was tasting pretty good but still missing something.
• I added one drop of vanilla extract (whole vanilla beans steeped in bourbon). Wow that made a big difference. However it was a little much. I know from previously calibrating that my dropper delivers 22 drops per mL.
• There was still kind of a weird minerally off flavor that I wasn't tasting in the dry wine ... I realized the taste was from the sugar.
• I mixed up another 50% w/v sugar solution, this time with pure dextrose (same technique as before).
• I added the dialed in amount to another 50mL sample. The taste was way more clean, no weird minerally flavor. However the sweetness wasn't right, so I had to dial in (increase) the amount with another sample or two.
• It was tasting nice and clean, but maybe a little too clean/chemically (if you've tasted pure dextrose solution you might know what I mean).
• I had some Turbinado (partially refined cane sugar) on hand, so I created a third 50% w/v sugar solution, this time with half dextrose and half Turbinado.
• Once again I dialed in a measured amount (7mL) to a 50mL sample using a syringe. And the drop of vanilla. I decided that was perfect.
• Acidity was present but fairly low. Definitely cherry flavor and aroma like cherry pie. I don't detect any of the oak. Pretty good mouthfeel, light to medium body. The vanilla/bourbon and Turbinado were adding dimension as well.
• Next I needed to decide what volume I was going to bottle. I figured I could pull out about 3-4 gallons of clear wine. A quick calculation showed that if I pulled out 3.5 gal of wine, my sugar solution would need to be almost exactly a half gallon. Perfect!
• Now that I know my final volume of wine to be bottled, I calibrated my pH meter after allowing the calibration solutions to come to room temp (I store them in the fridge) and tested pH (3.45) and calculated how much k-meta I would need to achieve 0.8ppm molecular SO2 (I don't expect this to age a long time). It came out to about 35ppm free SO2.
• Then I needed to calculate the amount of potassium sorbate. Blending calculation showed my wine would be 13.5% ABV after sweetening, so that puts the target sorbic acid at 62.5ppm. I converted that to the amount of potassium sorbate needed for 4 gallons. Easy Peasy.
• Scaling the vanilla to 4 gallons called for about 13mL, I figured about 10mL would be fine
• On a whim I decided to add some acid. Malic acid is the main acid in cherries, so I'll use that. I never measured TA, so I was just shooting in the dark. I figured 0.25g/L would be a reasonable/conservative increase so I just rolled with it. I might have added more but at that point I was tired and I didn't want to have to pull yet another sample and acidify it properly, measure pH again, and re-do my sulfite calculations.
• I had to make the priming sugar in two batches because I didn't have a good way to make it all together (I only have 1L erhlenmeyer flasks)
• That went into the bottling bucket after heating to dissolve.
• I dissolved and quantitatively transferred the sorbate, sulfite, and malic acid into the bottling bucket (added the sulfite right before racking). I used a syringe for the vanilla extract. I have various sizes of borosilicate glass beakers, stainless scoopulas, and glass stir rods.
• For racking I put a stainless scrubby over the end of my auto siphon and put a long narrow hop sock over that. It did a great job of pulling out clear wine without getting clogged from all the fruit (some of which never dropped). I stopped when it hit 4 gal in the bottling bucket. I transferred an additional 1 gallon into a glass 1 gal carboy (completely full), applied a solid bung, and set that aside.
• Bottled in 750mL Flint Bordeaux style bottles, and finished with natural corks (well, "colmated"). I didn't do anything to the corks before use. My floor corker makes easy work of them.
• I'll also be applying silver heat shrink sleeves for a professional look.

It's a beautiful red color and very clear.
Now it tastes really good, just maybe too alcoholic. I think 10% ABV would be better. The acid I added definitely helped, I'm glad I did.

Cheers

 

[lukebuz]

LOL, I remember when I was that new with winemaking, and took such notes and planned it as so. 45 batches later, you'll look back at that post and laugh.

 

[RPh_Guy]

LOL, I remember when I was that new with winemaking, and took such notes and planned it as so. 45 batches later, you'll look back at that post and laugh.

What do you differently now? Any advice?

This turned out great. Zero off-flavors, good flavor, and sweetness tuned to my taste. I'd make it again with only minor changes.