Watermelon Wine

[akardcd]

Guys and gals....I have began a batch of watermelon wine...from what I can read it is very hard, but spoilage is my main Concern. I juiced the mellons added the juice to my bucket and pitched the yeast. It was spewing red froth and slime the next day. I racked it into a glass carboy and airlocked it...should I worry about the temp? It is currently setting at about 70 degrees. Also, will it spoil before fermenting is done?

 

[scumbuster]

Interesting question. Maybe the alcohol will stop the spoiling. If its foaming a lot its producing alcohol. Red froth I would expect but I don't like the sound of the slime though. I think all you can do is let it go and see what happens. Keep us updated because I had actually thought about trying watermelon wine too.
Temp sounds about right for most fermenting.

 

[Arpolis]

Sounds like you did not have much of a lag time. So that is good. What yeast did you use?

Once the yeast start going the cooler you can ferment the better. You want it to start fast and then go cold and slow after that for best flavor retension. But do not worry about it too much if it is a hassle. It can still come out good.

 

[akardcd]

Thanks guys....it was a lavlin dc112 I think....I will keep you updated...the air lock is bubbling so we have action..heard a lot of bad stories though

 

[Arpolis]

It sounds like lalvin 71b-1112. For delicate berry wines I like RC212 from lalvin but 71b is my go to for most wines due to its easy nature and versatility in making well rounded wines that need little aging.

Sounds great so far so yes keep us posted. Lots of people really like the idea of watermellon wine but few actually try it and even fewer talk about results due to the stigma of it being a difficult wine to get right. So you rock.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

You've got good timing. I just got mine in the carboy last week too (after a failed batch a few years ago).

I have something that looks like slime too, but I'm fairly certain it's just krausen (which I had less than 5 hours after attaching the airlock).

It sounds like our process was mostly the same (full volume of juice, no campden, pitch and hope it ferments as quickly as possible, so I used a starter with Montrachet), except I added a box of golden raisins to the primary.

One concern I have is you started in a bucket. Usually that's par for the course, but as you mentioned watermelon spoils quickly, so I put everything in a carboy and let it work with an airlock from the get-go.

What's your color like at this point?

 

[akardcd]

Right now I looks like a bottle full of bubble gum...the yeast seems to have stopped...no foam on top and the air lock isn't bubbling

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Mine's about to the bubble gum stage too. Still getting bubbles but that doesn't mean much of anything.

I also added yeast nutrient, but still got rhino farts something fierce. Stunk up the whole house.

 

[scumbuster]

Well it may be early to call it a failure but do you think next time try maybe 50/50 juice water? Being dilute might reduce the chance for spoilage. How big of batch did you make? I hope just a 1 gallon experiment.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Well it may be early to call it a failure but do you think next time try maybe 50/50 juice water? Being dilute might reduce the chance for spoilage. How big of batch did you make? I hope just a 1 gallon experiment.

The problem with watermelon is twofold (from what I understand anyway).
First is the spoilage issue, but secondly, watermelon juice doesn't have much in the way of flavor on its own. So if you dilute it even a little, there's a big hit to your ending flavor.

 

[scumbuster]

Only throwing things out there but maybe as soon as you see signs of fermentation move it to the basement and get the temperature as cool as you can without completely stopping the fermentation. Although it will add maybe weeks to your fermentation it may slow the spoilage enough to let it ferment without spoilage. Now I am curious and will have to do some searching and reading.
How does it look now? Checked the SG lately?

 

[akardcd]

No movement I. The last three days....as easy as it is to spoil, not looking good. I may try a smaller batch

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Only throwing things out there but maybe as soon as you see signs of fermentation move it to the basement and get the temperature as cool as you can without completely stopping the fermentation. Although it will add maybe weeks to your fermentation it may slow the spoilage enough to let it ferment without spoilage. Now I am curious and will have to do some searching and reading.
How does it look now? Checked the SG lately?

My thought (keller's really) was to get a STRONG starter pitched to get fermentation done before spoilage happens.
I'm curious about mine too. I'll try for a reading today.

 

[scumbuster]

OK.. So its been a week to 10 days on the wine. How is it going? Should be in secondary now. Did it spoil? I just picked up a watermelon and strawberries today and thought I would make a batch watermelon/strawberry.

 

[akardcd]

It didn't make. Will have to start smaller

 

[wildozarkwine]

I made a watermelon wine years ago. lost all my notes but if I rember correctly I fermented on the pulp for about a week before putting in a secondary. Came out tasting exactly like a watermelon Jolly Rancher. Evey one loved it but the wife but she hates watermelon candy. Been thinking of trying it again. The first time I didn't know it was supposed to be hard to do, maybe ignorance is bliss.

 

[scumbuster]

Yesterday I started a watermelon/strawberry and all is well so far. Woke up this morning and it was foaming. The bags that I put the chunked watermelon and sliced strawberries in had lost about 50% on its volume. The SG was 1.080 yesterday but down to 1.062 this morning. I think most of the drop is due to the juice in the bags being released and if all goes well will add some br. sugar when the SG gets down to about 1.040. No signs of slime but it does seem to be a pretty concentrated juice. The melon was really sweet and ripe. Almost wondering if when I add sugar I need to thin it with some water too. I guess I will play it by ear when the time comes based on the taste.

 

[fbird55]

I've got a batch of watermelon in secondary right now as well. This is my first batch of wine (didn't realize it was such a difficult one. Watermelon was just cheap! Lol) I sulfited and then used Red Star champagne yeast which probably wasn't the best for preserving flavor and color, but shot through fermentation quickly at 65 degrees, so I made it through primary without spoilage.

Acid content has been the most difficult variable for me. I didn't have a pH meter when I started, so I used a TA titration kit to get acid in the ball park. I had to add what I thought was an awful lot of acid blend (don't have my notebook handy) to get in an acceptable range. I ordered a pH meter and was prepared to have to readjust it back up after primary since I figured I over did it. When I checked pH while racking about a month after primary, it was 4.0.... This kind of blew me away. I corrected it back to 3.5 with tartaric to a taste just a bit more tart than I want in a final product. The pH change made an amazing difference in taste. It's still not fantastic as is, but in a few months and with a bit of back sweetening, I'm hoping for something descent for a first attempt.

I used super kleer to clear and it looks brilliant now. There isn't really any pink color to it, but I think I have my yeast to thank for that. Next time I'll use a different one or add watermelon to secondary. Next week, I'll add sorbate, backsweeten, and prep for bottling.. I'll have a glass or two then and update.

 

[Arpolis]

Yes please keep us updated. Finnings of any sort will strip color from a wine. I try to not use any finnings unless I absolutely can not get a mead/wine to clear over time or I am in a hurry. But yes that yeast is also aggressive and probably did not help. But even though it sounds like you are on to a winner.

 

[fbird55]

The color fell out with the lees in the secondary before finings were added. Next time I'll be more patient, but I work overseas and was trying to get this first batch finished up and in bottles on a schedule (which I know isn't ideal). Hoping to have a couple more carboys soon so I can have more time to let the wine take its own sweet time.

 

[RegarRenill]

About how much watermelon is needed for a 5 gal batch? I can get watermelon for cheap...as in probably free, if I pick them

 

[scumbuster]

My batch was 2 gallons and is just finishing fermentation. Maybe another day or two max. SG 1.006 yesterday. Tastes very good. I added 3 lbs of strawberries to the 2 gallons of watermelon. I also used brown sugar so the color now is pretty deep red, but not much has settled out yet so I am curious how it will look after I kill the yeast and things drop out.

RegarRenill. I used all juice on mine. I think about 1 quart of water just so I could fill my secondary. The SG of the watermelon and strawberries was only 1.030 so you will need to add lots of sugar if you want a good alcohol content. And my watermelons were sweet ones.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

About how much watermelon is needed for a 5 gal batch? I can get watermelon for cheap...as in probably free, if I pick them

I used 6 pretty good sized melons and got a bit more than 5 gallons. They were fairly big and a deep green (sweet) color.
Get more than you think you'll need. I've never opened up the fridge and angrily thought "WHO PUT THIS DELICIOUS SNACK IN HERE!?!?"

 

[scumbuster]

You might also juice the watermelon rather than chunking it and putting it in a bag in your primary. I crushed a lot but there were still lots of chunks in the bag and as the watermelon juice released it changed the SG quite a bit leaving me with no way of knowing the alcohol content of the finished product. The first night my SG dropped about .020 and I wouldn't have expected to see much of a drop normally. I have subsequently added some sugar because I felt the final product was much lower alcohol content than my original calculation. You can try to go by taste, after all that's what is the most important.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

+1

I ran my chunks through a blender (seedless melons), then put them all in a straining bag to squeeze out the good stuff.

I just racked mine this morning too. Gravity was right at 1.000, OG was 1.12, making it nearly 16%. Sample tasted bad, but it's very young still. There was some watermelon flavor there though, which I can't say was true of my last attempt at this.

Will keep posted.

 

[fbird55]

Mines about two months old and looks like this. It started out red, went pinkish during ferment, and all the color pretty much came out during clarification.

This is my first watermelon batch. Used red star champagne yeast. I had to correct pH A LOT. I don't have my notes, but I used TA in the beginning as I did not have a pH meter. Used a lot more acid than the Jack Keller recipe to get into an acceptable range. Got a pH meter after primary was done. Checked pH and it was still 4.0 corrected down to 3.6 with tartaric acid until it was just a bit more tart than I want in a finished wine. Aging another month, then I'll back sweeten.

As it stands now, it tastes much better than it used to. The acid correction helped a lot. The flavor is still not amazing. I'm hoping a small amount of sweetening or a bit more aging brings it to life. A different yeast may have preserved flavor better, but I was worried about rot as I've read it's common with watermelon.

 

[fbird55]

Here are the other pics of the progression.

 

[fbird55]

Took me 5 large watermelons to make 6 gallons of juice..... They were monsters though.

 

[mythbustingpyro]

My buddy wants to try a version of this putting a hole in the melon and sloshing it up, adding some sugar and actually fermenting inside it. What are yalls thoughts on this?

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Could be a fun experiment, but I wouldn't expect anything good to come out of it. There are far too many variables that could result in a bad-undrinkable product.

 

[Arpolis]

My buddy wants to try a version of this putting a hole in the melon and sloshing it up, adding some sugar and actually fermenting inside it. What are yalls thoughts on this?

I have heard this done with pumpkins and I think it has good results. But with pumpkins you get your flavor from the rind. The middle is not that desirable. For watermelons it is the opposite. The rind is not very pleasant and the middle is what you want. So will the rind give some nasty off flavors? Not sure. It could still be worth a go though.

 

[buckeyebuckeyebuckeye]

Hello everyone, hope you can help me out. I've got a watermelon wine recipe that is 1 gallon, but all I have are 5 and 6 gallon car boys and fermenters. I will try to bump the recipe up to 2 or 3 gallons, but any advice on storage for primary and secondary?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Assuming the most volume you could possibly have is 2-3 gallons, you should probably be ok for primary fermentation. Your issue is going to be when you rack to secondary when headspace is more of a concern.

I'd spend a few extra bucks on 1-2 one gallon fermentors. I don't know how your LHBS is pricing wise, but I can pick up one for about 5 bucks at mine.

Good luck!

 

[fbird55]

Finally bottled my watermelon wine. It turned out really nice! I was pleasantly surprised. I'll post pics later.

A couple of things I learned:

1) Watermelon is not an acidic fruit, you will have to adjust acid content A LOT: get a pH meter. I can't remember how much acid blend I used to start my 6 gallon batch, but it was whatever was suggested in the jack Keller recipe. It wasn't nearly enough to get the pH down to a reasonable level so I used tartaric acid to get it the rest of the way so I could cold crash later if needed.

2) My batch needed to cold crash. I let it bulk age for six months, and the taste was still very off when kept at a decent pH. As this is one of my first wine attempts, I didn't know what to expect from cold crashing, but figured I had nothing to lose because it tasted awful. A ton of tartaric acid precipitated during cold crash and I was left with a nice, crisp, dry white watermelon wine. I actually really enjoy it.

3) Give it time to age: it needs it. Mine is probably still a bit young at 6 months.

4) it's not going to taste like watermelon or watermelon candy. As I said, this is my first batch, and I knew it wouldn't taste like watermelon, but 99.9% of the people I have let try the wine are expecting boons farm. Haha. Just thought I'd leave a word of warning.

5) Use a fast acting yeast if you're not an expert. I had no problems, but I didn't want to have a rancid disaster for my first batch so I played it safe.

6) I don't have my notes in front of me, but my potential alcohol reading started at somewhere near 13%. I'd tone it down closer to 11.5% if I make another batch although it's actually quite nice chilled.

7) I didn't add fruit to the secondary. I would try that next time if only for color.

All-in-all a very successful first run with (what I found out after buying 6 large watermelons) a difficult fruit. I left half dry and sweetened the last 3 gallons with 1 can Apple juice concentrate. I'm going to enjoy it for the next few years!