Some rookie questions - I've think I made a Pyment?

[Adrenalized]

So.. Well I was gonna make a small batch of blackberry melomel, but I had only about 1.7kg (3.7 pounds) of berries in my freezer and the grapes in my greenhouse were about to be overly ripe.

So I thought I'd do grape - blackberry mix.
But once I started picking grapes I realized that I had alot more grapes than I thought. About 15kg (33 pounds).

Well here's my recipe.
6.8kg (15 pounds) Of white grapes unknown sort.
8.8kg (19.4 pounds) Of red grapes unknown sort
1.7kg (3.7 pounds) Of Black berries.

5Kg of autumn honey.
(this honey was not meant to be sold, this is some leftovers from when th beekeepers steamed out the wax!?! So I was told. I dont know how it works? It was given to me for free, But they told me that they cannot sell this honey as it contains to much water.)

I ran all of my berries through my juicer. All pulp from the white grapes were discarded.
The pulp from the red grapes + blackberries went into the fermentation bucket.

Juice + fruit pulp = 12 Liters mark (3.17 gallons)
I dumped in the honey and filled up the bucket to about 28L (7.4 gallons) with water.

My plan is, Ferment on skins about 2 weeks. Daily push down of pulp.
Rack to new carboy let sit about 3 months.
Rack to new carboy with some toasted american oak. maybe even chared?
let sit for about 1 year.

Does it sound about right?

Now to my question. My hydrometer showed 1.080 OG. I do feel that this is really low? Could all the fruit pulp be making my hydrometer show some funny values?

I do live in Sweden, so I realize that my grapes dont have the same amount of sugar that from some warm and sunny country. But only the amount of honey should make about that same gravity?

Maybe I'ts my "feeling" that is off. I have no idea how to calculate what it should have been. As both honey and fruit are unknown sugar value to me.

What do you guys think? Should I trust my hydrometer? And add some honey?
My goal is somewhere around 14-15% ABV and dry character. I dont want like 18% ABV.

My Yeast are from some DIY wine making kit, dont know it's ABV Tolerance,

This is my first attempt of a colored full bodied mead. I have only made some white one's before. (Neutral meads, and Elderflower-citrus ) And they did turned out great.

This whole batch, it's kinda lol'd as there was no planning at all. But in the end it has been somewhat labor intence, and now I feel that I do want to make the best of it.
So all help is very much welcome.

 

[Srimmey]

Did you do anything with the juice to pasteurize it?

Freeze the grapes, heat the juice, use campden tablets, ect? Curious because I don’t know a whole lore about using fresh fruit and have been contemplating doing similar experiments.

Also do forget to pitch some pectin enzymes to deal with any possible pectin haze.

 

[Adrenalized]

No the grapes used were fresh from the vines.

In previous experiments with fresh garden fruits, I have alwas covered the fruits with boiling water. Mix it around and then top up with cold water before adding my yeast and that have worked fine.

This is my first time using using grapes, and from what I remember from seeing wine making from ex. france or italy, they dont treat their grape juice?? I might be wrong though.

pectin enzymes and yeast nutrients was pre mixed with the yeast in the DIY-Kit.
Starting to regret that I did not buy some "real" yeast but so far it's bubbling on.

 

[Ty520]

atmospheric temperature and pressure can throw it off.

test your hydrometer to see if it is calibrated properly

put it in distilled water: if it reads 1.000, it's accurate

 

[Adrenalized]

atmospheric temperature and pressure can throw it off.

test your hydrometer to see if it is calibrated properly

put it in distilled water: if it reads 1.000, it's accurate

So, I take it as the hydrometer is not affected by particals and a thick mash.

(I did not have distilled water to test my hydrometer but with tapwater @ 20°C it showed 1.000)

Yesterday I did filter off the grape pulp. It left me with 23L in the fermenter.
I ended up with pouring in 1kg of cut up rasin to up the OG somewhat.
And also top up with water to 25L mark, as i suspect that the rasins will swell and soak up some of my wine.
And also to ( what I hope to) give it a deeper/darker red color and taste.

I'll give it another week with the rasins. And then rack it to secondary.

Cheers

 

[Ty520]

So, I take it as the hydrometer is not affected by particals and a thick mash.

(I did not have distilled water to test my hydrometer but with tapwater @ 20°C it showed 1.000)

Yesterday I did filter off the grape pulp. It left me with 23L in the fermenter.
I ended up with pouring in 1kg of cut up rasin to up the OG somewhat.
And also top up with water to 25L mark, as i suspect that the rasins will swell and soak up some of my wine.
And also to ( what I hope to) give it a deeper/darker red color and taste.

I'll give it another week with the rasins. And then rack it to secondary.

Cheers

particles can affect it if buoyant. Also, it cannot be done while fermentation is active - the CO2 bubbles can cling on to it and raise it up.

looking back, the low gravity doesn't appear to be off the mark.

 

[Adrenalized]

looking back, the low gravity doesn't appear to be off the mark.

Well maybe its not. I did add alot of water, It just felt like the grapes should have added more sugar.

Anyway. Today I did another racking to get rid of the raisins. And also I toasted some American white oak, 30 min @ 210C

Some calculations.
My starting mash was about 28L @ OG 1.080
Racking of the pulp left me with 23L.

23L @ 1.080
Then I added 1KG of raisins = 714g of sugar (according to the package)
I Also added another 1L of water to top up to my 25L mark.

23L @ 1.080 diluted to 24L @ 1.077

24L @ 1.077 + 714g of sugar = 25L @ 1.088 As in Calculated OG.

OG=1.088
FG=0.998
ABV = 11.8%

That is a bit low. But that is okey. Color is much lighter than I was hoping for.
The taste is yeasty, I know that this will fade away, but my main issue is that it has no body at all.
Tastes like a fruity white wine.

Maybe that will come later on? or should I try to fix this early? Any thoughts on how to add more body?

My stick of oak is about 2.5x2.5x25 cm

 

[Ty520]

Could add some tannins straight up; aging on oak should give you some; mlf is an option. Some people like to use glycerin - never used it myself

 

[Adrenalized]

Thank you. Im gonna read up on mlf.

 

[MightyMosin]

MLF converts Malic acid to Lactic acid. Depending on the temperature and pH it can take from 1 to many months to finish. The bacteria that do the conversion also like to chew on Potassium Sorbate and leave what is described as a Germanium flavor when finished... You don't want to have stabilized with that prior to MLF.

If you back sweeten after MLF and are going to use K-Sorbate, you want to make sure that there has been plenty of time to ensure that MLF is finished.

If you will be doing a variety of ML, there is a chroma development test kit that can be used to determine if MLF is completed. Look on MoreWine for that test kit which is above $100 if I remember correctly.