New Fermenter

[Austin Willoughby]

Alright so I just got my hands on the fermzilla 3.2 and I have to say first impressions it's pretty sweet. I started up a pear wine with some black berries for body and color. Also golden raisens for nutrients and body also. Add in around a gallon of 100 percent apple juice. Currently at about 14 gallons in fermenter and pitcher yeast about 30 mins ago so the fun begins!

My goal is to get a really good process down to start using honey only to make mead and melenols. I figure sugar is way cheaper to experiment with. My dad has bees so ill be using his honey in the future

 

[beren]

Pear wine? Like Perry? Good stuff.

 

[Austin Willoughby]

Pear wine? Like Perry? Good stuff.

Yes sir. This 1 should be fun. I didn't add any acids or anything so hopefully the flavor turns out good.

 

[Austin Willoughby]

It's off to a good bubble 12 hours later

 

[fluketamer]

Wait a minute can I just keep my hydrometer inside my fermzilla. I have never seen that before

 

[beren]

Wait a minute can I just keep my hydrometer inside my fermzilla. I have never seen that before

It’ll get yeast stuck to it and throw the reading off.

 

[fluketamer]

thanks that looked different and when i searched it in the forums your responce was the general consensus. i think a work around was to drop it in after kreusen falls that might work.

anyway getting back to the op

i have a flat bottom fermzilla and i love it.
as to your pear wine what was your recipe exactly?

100 percent pear juice with white grape 2:1 makes a great white wine with pear accents.

100 percent apple juice with 100 percent pear juice at bottling after killing the yeast makes a great perry.

i had trouble making perry from 100 percent fresh pear juice . the taste is weird. i think most people arent used to drinking real perry.

or at least im not. juice wines are much easier than fresh fruit wines.


i see you got fresh sliced pears in there and fresh blackberries. and i see all the raisens sunk to the bottom. i forget the last time i used raisens i think they plump up then float then eventually sink again .

whats your base juice in there? is it apple white grape pear , honey/ water or just water and sugar? sugar water may produce fusil alcohols.

did you freeze your berries or otherwise kills the bugs on them.

what yeast did you use?
pectinase is good in fruit wines
also for tannins try a cup of strong black tea.
glycerol is good for body
acid blend helps a lot of wines.
fining agents also work very well for meads and wines.
meads also defiantely need a stepped nutrient addition.
ciders and juice wines are easier. wines will need degassing etc.
whats your package plan?
i love your fewrmzilla
that looks great good luck

 

[Austin Willoughby]

Wait a minute can I just keep my hydrometer inside my fermzilla. I have never seen that before

Lmao that was by mistake and I figured it won't hurt for now. I'm gonna do 3 months in the fermenter 1 for primary 1 secondary 1 for basic clearing. After that I'll age for a few months to clear it up more and then I'll transfer to bottles for aging only. I'm curious to see how the hydrometer does though after I get all fruit out at around week 2. More to leave it in there to make sure it's fully finished fermentation by month 3 before I transfer for aging.

 

[Austin Willoughby]

thanks that looked different and when i searched it in the forums your responce was the general consensus. i think a work around was to drop it in after kreusen falls that might work.

anyway getting back to the op

i have a flat bottom fermzilla and i love it.
as to your pear wine what was your recipe exactly?

100 percent pear juice with white grape 2:1 makes a great white wine with pear accents.

100 percent apple juice with 100 percent pear juice at bottling after killing the yeast makes a great perry.

i had trouble making perry from 100 percent fresh pear juice . the taste is weird. i think most people arent used to drinking real perry.

or at least im not. juice wines are much easier than fresh fruit wines.


i see you got fresh sliced pears in there and fresh blackberries. and i see all the raisens sunk to the bottom. i forget the last time i used raisens i think they plump up then float then eventually sink again .

whats your base juice in there? is it apple white grape pear , honey/ water or just water and sugar? sugar water may produce fusil alcohols.

did you freeze your berries or otherwise kills the bugs on them.

what yeast did you use?
pectinase is good in fruit wines
also for tannins try a cup of strong black tea.
glycerol is good for body
acid blend helps a lot of wines.
fining agents also work very well for meads and wines.
meads also defiantely need a stepped nutrient addition.
ciders and juice wines are easier. wines will need degassing etc.
whats your package plan?
i love your fewrmzilla
that looks great good luck

So this is a test batch of a large quantity.

It's like 9 gallons water 12 pounds sugar 3 quarts apple juice and 8.5 pounds of fresh pears. Also 1 bag of frozen blueberries plus 1 pack of golden raisens just bc everyone swears raisenswork majic lol. I realized I goofed up and didn't freeze my pears first but im impatient lol.

After 1 week of the pears being in there I'll pull the bag and crush the pears and reinsert for 1 more week. Of course I'll get all the other fruit out of the way also.

After 2 weeks I will probably add 1 gallon of fresh pear juice and apple after juice once I pull the pears/ other fruit and get some space back in the fermenter.

 

[Austin Willoughby]

If the results turn out decent I'll use honey and way more fruit but I have to know my process for large quantity is working first.

I've done numerous 2.5 gallon batches as you can see my other fermenter in the background on the left. It took me like 5 batches to get it down pat and I'm thinking this 1 batch of large quantity I'll have it down to start spending more on fruit and all.

I learned my lesson to go cheap on the first batch for sure lol

 

[Austin Willoughby]

It’ll get yeast stuck to it and throw the reading off.

Well my thought was after the yeast falls down and fruit I should get a decently accurate reading just to know whether fermentation has stopped is all. I'll get a true reading after the fact.

 

[Austin Willoughby]

what yeast did you use?
pectinase is good in fruit wines
also for tannins try a cup of strong black tea.
glycerol is good for body
acid blend helps a lot of wines.
fining agents also work very well for meads and wines.
meads also defiantely need a stepped nutrient addition.
ciders and juice wines are easier. wines will need degassing etc.
whats your package plan?
i love your fewrmzilla
that looks great good luck

I used red star cotes de blanc

I'm trying to stay away from additives of any sort even acids and all bc of the processing bs. Also just to keep it simple

I have a sweet degassing/ mixer I'll make a video of my process on my next batch. It's a drill attachment mixer hehe.

I have no plan just purely experimental with all my brews but I need to start a log for recipes for sure.

Thanks! Yea im pumped the fermizalla was on sell and man is it so much easier making 14 gallons at a time vs 2 do to the size. So much more room to work.

What would you suggest to use in place of additives? Like what fruits or peelings? I understand orange zest works like an acid addictive or did I read that wrong somewhere lol

 

[fluketamer]

yeah citrus works great i usually use the juice of half a lemon for every gallon of fruit juice wine i may. for citric. but ihave found limes add a little somehthing in stead of lemons. carefull with orange skins make sure you leave out any pith becasue citrus pith overpowers everything. and the bitter flavor takes forever to dropout . i would only do zest plus juice and even then becare full. golight on the zest.
i have started ot add lime juice to ciders after doing grahams cider whcih is absolutely delicioucs.
chopped raisens for nutrients.
althougth i have switched to DAP yeast nutrient. although others here may chime in i find it superior to anythng you can add naturally unfortunatly.
but im a beer maker ( or at least i think i am) . not a wine guy, i only make juice wines and ciders.
sounds like you got a plan
nice
btw the fermzillas are amazing i think they are the best plastic feremnters.

although thinking about getting off that lid keeps me awake at night lol

 

[beren]

chopped raisens for nutrients.

I saw someone do the math for that and concluded that they were basically worthless and on top of that are now treated to stop fermenting on their own. https://gotmead.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Raisins-are-NOT-nutrients.pdf

 

[Austin Willoughby]

yeah citrus works great i usually use the juice of half a lemon for every gallon of fruit juice wine i may. for citric. but ihave found limes add a little somehthing in stead of lemons. carefull with orange skins make sure you leave out any pith becasue citrus pith overpowers everything. and the bitter flavor takes forever to dropout . i would only do zest plus juice and even then becare full. golight on the zest.
i have started ot add lime juice to ciders after doing grahams cider whcih is absolutely delicioucs.
chopped raisens for nutrients.
althougth i have switched to DAP yeast nutrient. although others here may chime in i find it superior to anythng you can add naturally unfortunatly.
but im a beer maker ( or at least i think i am) . not a wine guy, i only make juice wines and ciders.
sounds like you got a plan
nice
btw the fermzillas are amazing i think they are the best plastic feremnters.

although thinking about getting off that lid keeps me awake at night lol

The lid is a biatch I will say lol.
Yea with wines I'm trying to keep it as natural as it was 2000 years ago with the exception of the plastic fermenter lol. I'm glad to know lemon is a good additive. I will defiantely try that! Dude that fast fermenter I have is ok with the firmzilla really shines as far as a plastic fermenter goes and I agree I belive it is the best of the plastic fermenters.

 

[Austin Willoughby]

So I added a few nice simple and cheap features to make things simpler.
The blowtie keeps the brew at whatever pressure I want which should help push the sediment down. Not only that The yellow cap on the right allows me to close transfer my brew for testing and bottle aging. I use gravity so no extra peices needed other than a beer tap hose which I keep attached to a star san 2 liter bottle hehe. Also the hose in the fermenter is connected to a float with a filter end so I only transfer the cleanest stuff off the top. In theory when my brew really starts to clear I'll be able to rack off the top way easier and I've tested it for transferring to my test tube and it works great.

 

[Austin Willoughby]

By the way things are brewing up great. I removed most of the grapes and berries. I then took advantage of the pears being nice and soft so I pulled them out still in the bavk and pressed smashed then up real well with a meat tenderizer while still in the bag. I reinserted for 1 more week of brewing before I pull all front and let it sit 2 more weeks. Then I'll get the Lee's out and some sediment. I'll add bentonite to clear it and I'll repeat that process for 2 more months before bucket aging.