jnoonan22
Member
From what I've read, I know my wine probably hasn't come close to maturing, but I sampled a bottle of it last night and was pretty disappointed. I made the wine from blackberries I picked last summer around july or august, following a recipee from a book.
Prior to bottling, my wine had a strong yeasty smell. I figured it was still just young, and that would subside after several months in a bottle. I bottled in January this year. Last night, I found the wine to still have the same yeasty smell. The taste was also fairly disappointing. It's very thin, no body. Apart from the yeasty smell, the taste is somewhat sweet at first, a little strong on the alcohol, and then leaves much to be desired in the aftertaste. The initial sweetness (not overly sweet, but more sweet than I was hoping for) very quickly retreats and leaves a bland and somewhat bitter taste.
So... Blackberries are ripe and I just started picking a bunch last night. I've kind of lost hope on my first batch, but I'll leave the bottles alone for more time, maybe they'll improve a little. For the next batch, I guess I'm going to try a different approach. I will probably follow one of the recipees on this site http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/blackbr2.asp.
I'm going to be much more selective in the berries i pick, as I noticed while picking them that even some berries that are nice and black can still be bland and tart, lacking sugar. I would like to use more berries with the hope of requiring less addition of granulated sugar, to hopefully retain more of the blackberry character. I didn't record everything I did last year, so unfortunately I don't recall which yeast I used.
On the recipees per the site above, the author mentions using a secondary that is dark or wrapped in brown paper. How important is this and why? I do my creating in my basement, which has a tiny half window that does let in some light, but not too much. The recipee also mentions keeping the must and secondary in 60-65 degrees F. Unfortunately, being summer, my basement is probably closer to 73 or so. Is this a poor condition? And finally, the author mentions racking only twice prior to bottling. If my last batch of wine smelled too yeasty, does this suggest maybe I should be racking more often then just 2 to 3 times?
Sorry for long post and all the newbie questions. Winemaking is such a long process, so I want to make sure I get things as close to right as possible before starting batch two. Thanks!
Prior to bottling, my wine had a strong yeasty smell. I figured it was still just young, and that would subside after several months in a bottle. I bottled in January this year. Last night, I found the wine to still have the same yeasty smell. The taste was also fairly disappointing. It's very thin, no body. Apart from the yeasty smell, the taste is somewhat sweet at first, a little strong on the alcohol, and then leaves much to be desired in the aftertaste. The initial sweetness (not overly sweet, but more sweet than I was hoping for) very quickly retreats and leaves a bland and somewhat bitter taste.
So... Blackberries are ripe and I just started picking a bunch last night. I've kind of lost hope on my first batch, but I'll leave the bottles alone for more time, maybe they'll improve a little. For the next batch, I guess I'm going to try a different approach. I will probably follow one of the recipees on this site http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/blackbr2.asp.
I'm going to be much more selective in the berries i pick, as I noticed while picking them that even some berries that are nice and black can still be bland and tart, lacking sugar. I would like to use more berries with the hope of requiring less addition of granulated sugar, to hopefully retain more of the blackberry character. I didn't record everything I did last year, so unfortunately I don't recall which yeast I used.
On the recipees per the site above, the author mentions using a secondary that is dark or wrapped in brown paper. How important is this and why? I do my creating in my basement, which has a tiny half window that does let in some light, but not too much. The recipee also mentions keeping the must and secondary in 60-65 degrees F. Unfortunately, being summer, my basement is probably closer to 73 or so. Is this a poor condition? And finally, the author mentions racking only twice prior to bottling. If my last batch of wine smelled too yeasty, does this suggest maybe I should be racking more often then just 2 to 3 times?
Sorry for long post and all the newbie questions. Winemaking is such a long process, so I want to make sure I get things as close to right as possible before starting batch two. Thanks!
