raspberry-honey wine with wild ferment

[GeneDaniels1963]

I am on my third wild ferment, this time with raspberries (since my bushes are loaded). This is day 3 and it smells wonderful! My recipe is below:

6lb frozen raspberries
3lb honey
2 1/2 lb cane sugar
handful chopped raisins.
water as required (about 16-18 cups)

All in a 2gal brew bucket (also, I saved a qt of the must in the fridge for topping up with when I rack).

SG was 26 BRIX (1.110)
Today down to 19 (1.080)

Today I removed the berry krasen and stirred in another pound of freshly picked berries. My logic is that they will add more flavor, esp since the most volatile part of the ferment is over.

I am going to rack these next week into two 1gal jugs. One I will ferment to dry, the other I will keep feeding honey until it stops. I have read this is the old time way to make a sweet wine, just keep feeding sugar (or honey) til the yeast max out and then just a little bit more.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Miraculix]

The problem is that wild yeast is not typically highly alcohol tolerant and that it does not stop abruptly at one point to ferment.

That means that you might be fine with adding some sugar after it looks like the yeast did stop, but it might still continue slowly after bottling for whatever reason.

In other words, could work but better be careful and maybe bottle one little soft pet bottle together with the Glas bottles. Than you can squeeze it from time to time and feel if pressure inside is building up.

If not, everything is fine. If pressure builds up, make sure to release it from the other bottles, as otherwise you might create bottle bombs.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

My blackberry wild ferment seemed to stop at about 15%. I am thinking that is about what the raspberry will do. I guess the main thing is, if I step-feed it, I need to let it sit in the secondary for a long time, 3-4 months after I think it has stopped. Do you think that would give me a good safety margin?

 

[Miraculix]

Yes, three to four months should do the job. Just make sure to take some gravity readings from time to time to see if there is still some change going on, meaning ongoing fermentation.

However, there is still the small risk that the small amount of oxygen introduced when botteling might "wake up" some of the yeasts so I would still also bottle a small pet bottle, just to be completely on the safe side.

 

[madscientist451]

My suggestions:
-"punch down" the floating raspberries like you would do with wine twice a day.
-Don't top up with must, throw that in now, when its done, rack to appropriate size containers.
-If it seems to stall out, you can add some wine yeast.
-with that much sugar and a wild yeast ferment, I'd figure on aging this for a while. Using more than 5-10% refined sugar produces a "hot" alcohol flavor (that's my perception, your taste is probably different) but those hot alcohol notes will mellow with time.
-You may want to try a commercial yeast next time and use yeast nutrient and leave out the refined sugar, basically make a lower ABV version with fruit and honey that you can drink sooner.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I just racked to secondary. It was about 9.5% abv at the time.

My wife loved it so much, as is, that half of it went into the fridge to drink now like cider. So 1 gal will ferment out, the other gallon will get drunk now. All I did was strain out the solids and bottle it in plastic.

Actually it was not just my wife. We both like the 9.5% must, it tastes like a sweet, raspberry -honey cider. I am going to make another batch soon, and plan to cold crash it about about 8-9% abv and drink it. Really nice stuff!

 

[Miraculix]

I just racked to secondary. It was about 9.5% abv at the time.

My wife loved it so much, as is, that half of it went into the fridge to drink now like cider. So 1 gal will ferment out, the other gallon will get drunk now. All I did was strain out the solids and bottle it in plastic.

Actually it was not just my wife. We both like the 9.5% must, it tastes like a sweet, raspberry -honey cider. I am going to make another batch soon, and plan to cold crash it about about 8-9% abv and drink it. Really nice stuff!

Planing to do the same with wild blackberries soon

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I finished up and bottled this wine today. I backsweetened with some reserved must. There was a small glass leftover after filling 5 bottles, so I am trying it now. It is surprisingly good. Tastes like a semi-sweet with lots of raspberry flavor. In a year or so this is going to be great!