Raspberry Country Wine

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

AS12987

New Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
I am just getting into making wine at home. I want to make a raspberry country wine to later turn into a vinegar. I bought a book "The Mini Farming Guide to Fermenting" which I have more than enough information on how to make both the wine and vinegar, but I was wondering how long a raspberry wine would take from start to end of the second fermentation. If anyone could give me a ballpark range of how long it would take, or any suggestions on how to improve my wine, that would be greatly appreciated!
 
Others may have a different understanding but the amount of time a wine needs largely depends on the starting gravity - the higher the SG the longer it needs to age - the size and health of the yeast culture - underpitching and pitching the yeast with poor nutrient load creates stress and stress results in the yeast producing compounds that take time to clear (if ever).
Primary fermentation might take 10 days to two weeks to reach close enough to 1.005 when you want to rack the wine into a vessel with no head room and sealed with bung and airlock (your primary can be a food grade bucket loosely covered with a tea towel... ). Secondary can take 2 -4 months or longer. What you want (I think) is the wine to clear bright so that you can read small print through the carboy. I might rack the wine off the lees every 2 months - but you really don't want any headroom during aging - to minimize oxidation.
Since you are asking about how to improve your wine I would suggest that most "recipes" for country wines are crap. You want the best fruit you can find. You want to add as little water as possible - so you are fermenting fruit juice and not making wine from water... Miracles are not for wine makers. The only possible good reason to add water is if the juice is inherently too acidic (like orange juice). Not sure that this applies to raspberries.
Best to freeze the fruit and then allow it to thaw. The freezing damages the cell structure of the fruit and allows more juice to be expressed. You want then to add pectic enzyme to the fruit about 12- 24 hours before you add (pitch) the yeast. That removes any haze that the pectins in the fruit can produce and helps extract even more juice. Heat is an absolute no no. You are making wine, yes? Not jam.
My go to yeasts for fruit wines are 71B, D47 and DV10 but you can use any wine yeast. The one you perhaps should not use (and I know brewers who make wine swear by this yeast ) - is a champagne yeast: EC 1118 for example. But this yeast is like using a bulldozer to crack a walnut. It will blow off 99% of your raspeberry aroma and flavor. But if that is not a concern then use it. It is cultivated to prime wines to transform still wines into sparkling AFTER all the fermentation has ceased and BEFORE bottling... but hey! brewers love it (wine makers use it as a last resort to repair a stalled fermentation).
 
I am just getting into making wine at home. I want to make a raspberry country wine to later turn into a vinegar. I bought a book "The Mini Farming Guide to Fermenting" which I have more than enough information on how to make both the wine and vinegar, but I was wondering how long a raspberry wine would take from start to end of the second fermentation. If anyone could give me a ballpark range of how long it would take, or any suggestions on how to improve my wine, that would be greatly appreciated!

The raspberry wine that I started early August last year, with EC-1118, went from SG 1.092 to SG 0.989 in 28 days. With a couple of rackings it was almost completely clear by mid November.
 
Back
Top