Having another try at brewing this time it is wine

[rossscottnz]

Ok I tried to make beer a number of years ago and after two failed attempts I gave up and got rid of my equipment and now I have purchased more stuff and this time having a try at making wine seeing I have an abundace of feijoas (pineapple guavas) on the ground, so I currently have 4kg of pulp steeping in a covered bin that has been sterilized with sodium metabisulfate which will be getting strained off into the fermenter in 3 to 6 days now I could not find campden tablets so hopefully this won't get ruined by not using them but there was sterilizing solution residue left in the bin that would have mixed into the pulp anyway. looking forward to seeing if I can get some success with it.

This is the recipe I followed
http://howto.yellow.co.nz/food-drink/wine-and-beer/how-to-make-feijoa-wine/

 

[S-Met]

Are you in NZ? I had a great Feijoa liquor from Hahei when I visited. Think they said they used fresh, ripe unbruised fruit.

And Sodium Metabusulfite is the active ingredient in campden. Should be fine.

 

[rossscottnz]

Yes I certainly am in New Zealand I live in a town called Te Awamutu

 

[rossscottnz]

The must is due to be strained into the fermenter tomorrow night so I will also get an OG reading with the hydrometer (aiming for 12 to 14% alcohol), so far progress has been going good tons of flavour followed by a very slight acidic bite from the tartaric acid and malic acid which I am happy about I ended up finding a measuring spoon that measures 1/16th of a teaspoon in the wife's kitchen drawer so ended up adding two of those of the sodium metabisulfate powder to the must to make sure that nothing funky happens before I get a chance to put it in the fermenter, the must has been getting stirred with my brewing spoon in the mornings and then it gets hit with my cordless drill and paint stirrer on the evening stir up.

 

[rossscottnz]

Just strained the must into the fermenter OG came out at 1070 which will give me approximately 10% alcohol added some wine nutrient then pitched the yeast which is CL23 wine yeast. Now to wait 6 days till I can rack it off to the second fermenter.

 

[rossscottnz]

So far so good it has been 4 days so far and the airlock is going crazy due to be racked off into the next fermenter on monday night.

 

[rossscottnz]

Ok one lesson learnt so far and that is not to use CL23 yeast if you want to keep the flavor of the fruit you used and you don't want a dry wine only discovered this when I had a taste while racking into the secondary fermenter that the yeast had stripped out the flavour but the wine still tastes good though.

 

[rossscottnz]

Just a progress update with my first ever batch of wine it is currently in secondary fermentation for the next 21 days (already been in secondary for 9 days) I just bought myself a pH tester and did a pH test on the wine and it came in at 3.1 on the tester which is within range so this is going very successfully, the wine is starting to taste really good and the flavor of the fruit is returning it is going to be a dry white. I am currently getting ready to start another batch with the same fruit but this time a country wine so we can also enjoy a nice sweet wine as an alternative to the dry white. really looking forward to the completion of the fermentation as I am going to rack this off to a bulk container after all the fermentaiton steps have been completed (next racking will be a 90 day period in the fermenter before racking to bulk container) and it will be oaked for the first few weeks of aging with an oak spiral before I bottle it.

 

[rossscottnz]

I just racked the feijoa (pineapple guava) wine off its lees after 30 days of secondary fermentation and into a carboy where it will sit for another 90 days before I can bottle it , so far it is looking and tasting good has a very crisp bite to it

 

[bernardsmith]

So two quick thoughts: any yeast worth the name "yeast" will ferment fruit bone dry. The trick is to find a yeast that will highlight the flavors of the fruit you want and a yeast that will provide you with the mouthfeel you want and you can work to stabilize the wine and if that level of dryness and flavor is too dry for you then sweeten the wine in a way so that any remaining yeast cannot further ferment that added sweetness. Another trick is to add so much fermentable sugar up front that the ABV is beyond the tolerance of the strain of yeast you have selected so that it quits (literally) leaving unfermented sugars in the wine - but here's the rub: a) over time yeast cells may still reproduce and some may be able to further ferment that sugar and b) if you simply add table sugar to up the potential ABV then you are upping the alcohol but you are not doing anything to balance that increased level of alcohol with more flavor.
So that is one thought.
The other thought is that your carboy has an enormous amount of headroom. That headroom is - unless you are filling it with a noble gas - filled with air, and air is full of oxygen and oxygen in such large volumes is bad for any wine. You should look for a smaller carboy so that you can fill it right up into the neck - Either that or find some way to fill the headroom with something to force out the air. Glass marbles or even a balloon filled with air and weighted so that it sinks and forces the liquid up towards the neck...

 

[Yooper]

As bernard said, you have to get it out of there and into an appropriately sized carboy. ASAP.

I didn't understand earlier about the must and not pitching yeast right away, but that is probably just me.

 

[rossscottnz]

As bernard said, you have to get it out of there and into an appropriately sized carboy. ASAP.

I didn't understand earlier about the must and not pitching yeast right away, but that is probably just me.

I understand what you and Bernard are saying it is a 3 gallon carboy and is the only one my LHBS had in stock if i was able to get all the wine off the lees it would have been full as i had 12 litres in the 30 litre fermenter that it spent the last month in i will be adding some oak chips to it to oak the wine hopefully that closes up some of the headroom and i will also empty the bottle i had saved for the occasional glass back into it.

Also with not pitching the yeast straight away I was following the instructions on the recipe I found to let the fruit and other ingredients sit for 3 days before straining into fermenter and pitching the yeast.

 

[Yooper]

I understand what you and Bernard are saying it is a 3 gallon carboy and is the only one my LHBS had in stock if i was able to get all the wine off the lees it would have been full as i had 12 litres in the 30 litre fermenter that it spent the last month in i will be adding some oak chips to it to oak the wine hopefully that closes up some of the headroom and i will also empty the bottle i had saved for the occasional glass back into it.

Also with not pitching the yeast straight away I was following the instructions on the recipe I found to let the fruit and other ingredients sit for 3 days before straining into fermenter and pitching the yeast.

Gotcha!

I'd try two one gallon jugs, with the rest in a wine bottle or growler so the headspace issue is resolved. I'd also make sure to use sulfites (campden tablets) at every other racking since the wine is so exposed to oxygen.

Let us know how it turns out!

 

[rossscottnz]

Gotcha!

I'd try two one gallon jugs, with the rest in a wine bottle or growler so the headspace issue is resolved. I'd also make sure to use sulfites (campden tablets) at every other racking since the wine is so exposed to oxygen.

Let us know how it turns out!

I did forget to mention i sanitized the carboy with 10 litres of water with 1 teaspoon per litre of sodium metabisulphite. As soon as i can find a couple of 5 litre carboys at one of the LHBS i will buy them and transfer i can't get plastic ones that are smaller than what i have got and refuse to mail order anything made from glass

 

[bernardsmith]

The issue is not sanitation but oxidation. Oxygen and alcohol are never good bed mates - at best, the oxygen makes the wine vulnerable to aceto-bacter and they can transform wine into vinegar - still usable but not so much as a drink unless you are into shrubs - Those used to be popular in the 18th Century. At worst, oxygen can oxidize your mead and make it taste like sherry (or cardboard), discolor it and make it altogether a very undesirable drink. Yeast love and need oxygen (though they can operate anaerobically) but wine does not need oxygen.

 

[rossscottnz]

Time to update this thread the wine is being bottled this weekend it is still in the carboy that is in the picture it was stored in a dark cool place over winter it has turned out pretty good the acidity is not as bad as what it was after giving it time to sit (in fact I nearly forgot about that wine) and the dryness is very mild, my partner loved it when she took a taste. Have added some campden tablets to it and will be adding some wine stabilizer tomorrow night roll on Christmas when I get to share some with my family.