Oh what to do?

[TimothyChurch]

I just bought a 15 gallon carboy for my wine making and I graduate from A&M in December of 2012. WHOOP! Anyways I was trying to decide on a recipe to do that I would let age until graduation. I prefer dryer red wines or darker fruit wines. I have 3 5 gallon carboys that I will do the primary in. I might actually even be interested in making different recipes and mixing them in the secondary. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[nwaite]

That's kinda funny u ask that . I'm at work and was think to my self about an hour ago an was winding if you could do that... Very glad you posted this.

 

[WIP]

If you are doing multiple primaries, you can play with multiple yeasts. Each yeast gives a different flavor, so you can add complexity by blending them together after fermentation. Also, you may want to do more than 3 primaries. If they are 5 gallon carboys, you will be lucky to get 4 gallons out of them with foam and lees. You can do 3.5 gallon batches in the three smaller ones, and 7 gallons in the larger one. Use a yeast that accentuates the fruit in the large one and in the smaller ones you can use yeast that give flavors like earth, chocolate, etc. Then when you blend it together, it will be proportionately flavored.

What kind of fruit are you thinking? This might also be an opportunity to do a multi-berry wine. Blackberry, Cabernet, blueberry, raspberry? Ferment them separately and blend them together at the end. Just a thought.

 

[TimothyChurch]

Well the ones that I was originally looking at were: Blackberry Mead, Black Cherry Pyment, Strawberry Mead, or actually trying to buy some red wine grapes from a local vineyard. Now that I'm thinking about it those four would be quite interesting together.

 

[TimothyChurch]

I also have 2 7.9 gallon plastic fermenters. I was thinking of doing about combining these recipes

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/blackberry-mead-melomel-95583/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/black-cherry-pyment-220388/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/blueberry-mead-34038/

If I was to do one of these batches in the 15 gallon fermenter wouldn't there be far too much head room? Or is it fine since there won't be much head room in the secondary?

 

[WIP]

As long as your secondary has little to no head room, you will be fine. Your fermentation will create a pillow of co2 that protects it from oxygen. When they are all done bubbling, combine them.

 

[TimothyChurch]

Does anyone have any ideas on the ratio I should use? I'm curious if one of the wines would be too over powering. I'll be making this in 2 weeks and I still haven't decided on recipes. Any thoughts at all would be appreciated. I'll make sure to post pictures of the whole saga.

 

[WIP]

I would make the blackberry the main flavor. Maybe 1/2 blackberry and 1/4 each of the others.

 

[TimothyChurch]

I have decided to replace the blueberry mead with a Raspberry Melomel
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/ra...10-great-arizona-homebrew-competition-183027/
I am currently playing phone tag with a local bee keeper to see if I can get a deal on 40 lbs of honey. As soon as I can get ahold of him it will be time to make a lot of wine.

 

[TimothyChurch]

Well due to monetary issues this is getting pushed back till closer to christmas. I'll make sure to update it when I finally have the spare cash to start this one up.