On Mar 30, 3:36*pm, Billy wrote:
In article ,
*Tim wrote:
Ok, here is the recipe as given to me :
3 gallons water
3 lemons, sliced
1 large cake of yeast
10 lbs sugar
2 quarts fruit of choice, pitted, sliced
4 box's white raisins
Boil water for 5 minutes, let cool completely.
Add all ingredients, except raisins.
Stir once a day, for seven days.
Add raisins.
Let set for 21 days, strain, bottle.
Now, I have seen other recipes similar to this on the net,
some have said to cover (airtight) after adding the raisins,
some not....I know enough that I should cover with something
to keep the fruit-flies out, but will the fermenting be done
after only seven days?
Thanks to all for any hints, tips, or experiences......
Tim
Rats, it's always something isn't it?
The faster the wines ferments, the less flavorful it will be. For a
fruity wine 60F - 70F would be sufficient. If you can get it to go at
50F, even better but the fermentation will drag on for a while. For
god's sake, don't let it get near 90F, or it will taste like old inner
tubes.
Try to find an old 5 gallon glass water bottle for your fermenter and a
second one to rack (decant) into. Brewing shops will have plugs and caps
to put on them, with and without an opening for a fermentation lock. Air
(O2) is your enemy. If you have to, use a large garbag bag over the top
of a neutral container (Rubber Maid food grade garbage cans come to
mind) and secure with rubber bands laced together or a bungee cord. Push
down slowly once it is inflated to drive out the O2 (CO2 is heavier than
air and will rest on the surface of the ferment). Make sure that you
don't use a lead enamel pot or lead glazed crock for fermentation
because the acid in the wine will leach out the lead. Once the
fermentation trap stops bubbling actively (garbag bag collapes),
fermentation will be mostly over. Gas receiving vessel with CO2 (dry
ice: you'll probably need to rack some wine into the vessel first, if it
is *glass, to keep from cracking the glass) or better a cylinder of CO2,
or much better yet, Argon (inert). CO2 will dissolve into the wine
creating a partial vacuum (I destroyed a 5 gal. bottle this way once.).
Argon won't.
At this point, I'd add some SO2 (sulfur dioxide). Try for about 45 parts
per million. The sugar will suck most (if not all) of it up. Free,
unbound sulfur is bacteriostatic, and inhibits enzymes that may cause
browning. If you are going to do much wine making, you should invest in
a 25 ml burette, 25 ml volumetric pipette, 250 erlynmeyer flask, .02N
iodine (I2) solution, and 1% starch solution.http://www.mbhes.com/so2_in_wine.htm
solution.http://books.google.com/books?id=LHH...A280&lpg=PA280
&dq=SO2,+Ripper+method&source=bl&ots=Zc3JeK7nNR&si g=ZZPHr7BXSkSVi3Xk9rWh1
cRuvmc&hl=en&ei=kRzRSZedNpq6sgPk26mgAw&sa=X&oi=boo k_result&resnum=5&ct=re
sult#PPA281,M1
In any event, it is probably best to keep wine cool (refrigerator).
--
- Billy
"For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is
now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of
conception until death." *- Rachel Carson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI29wVQN8Go
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072040.html- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
When I used to make wine, I'd run the primary fermentation in food
grade plastic pails with loose lids and after a few days rack over to
a glass container with an air lock (bubbler). I used wine yeast which
is tolerant of a few ppm sulfur dioxide which keeps out the wild
stuff. Sodium meta bisulfite was used to sterilize containers and as
source of sulfur dioxide in the must. A sweet wine would need more
sulfur dioxide to prevent further fermentation. Wine making stuff was
available at a local shop, "Wine Hobby", no longer in business. I
would look for someplace like that for yeast, chemicals and
containers. Good idea to also buy wine making books.