HOME BREWING

[stuhan]

On 10/11/2021 at 11:44 PM, JamesE said:

The answers to all your yeast questions...

https://www.piwine.com/media/pdf/yeast-selection-chart.pdf

Saved that link , thanks

 

[stuhan]

Just was thinking this morning at 4am, [i don't always think about wines at 4am] but thought i might go over batch sizes when fermenting in bottles rather than buckets.

This might be of help for newbies to home wine making.

For a 4L -6L batch you should use a 8L bottle to allow enough headroom for a lively fermentation, otherwise you might end up  with foaming in your airlock and a messy bottle.Having a lot of headroom in the primary is not a problem,it's only when you rack to the secondary that you need to fill to the neck of your bottle/carboy.

So a rule of thumb,use a bottle at a minimum 2L larger than the batch amount your making to save any mess.

Here is a very handy calculator for sugar wash, it will tell you how much water you need depending on your batch size and desired O.G.

https://chasethecraft.com/calculators

[WilliamG]

17 hours ago, Faraday said:

I used:

2kg of frozen blackberries from Makro  

2.3 kg white sugar

6 litres water 

Lalvin 118 yeast 

That gave me a starting Brix of 25.

I bought an 8 litre container from Makro, which was 130 baht I think.

After 7 days, I removed the Blackberries. After 14 days, even though it was a bit cloudy, most of it got drunk.

I just need some willpower, to keep my wines longer...

I take it you mashed the berries first.

[Faraday]

24 minutes ago, WilliamG said:

I take it you mashed the berries first.

Yes I did. It's a bit messy, but a spud masher makes it easier.

[Marble-eye]

20 hours ago, WilliamG said:

Thanks, Stuhan did post a list on Tuesday, just before that photo of your wonderful looking Port. I am starting some today using 1 litre Jamago Shiraz concentrate and 4 litres of water, adding sugar until it is at the correct SG. 

Hi William, I am interested in buying a litre of the Jamago concentrate but just cannot get my head around the idea diluting the stuff. I have read it where it is possible to go down as far as 25:1, surely that must be pretty tasteless at that level.

How did you find the 1 litre of Jamago with 4 litres of water, do you think it would go down much further than that.

[stuhan]

53 minutes ago, Marble-eye said:

Hi William, I am interested in buying a litre of the Jamago concentrate but just cannot get my head around the idea diluting the stuff. I have read it where it is possible to go down as far as 25:1, surely that must be pretty tasteless at that level.

How did you find the 1 litre of Jamago with 4 litres of water, do you think it would go down much further than that.

8:1 is tops for jamago 4:1 would make a nice wine, so i am interested how wills 4:1 will turn out too.

[stuhan]

I have just had a small taste of my recent 3 wines at day 8 in primarys, still another week to go i'm guessing ,but they are all strong in alc now and can smell the alc in the room. Sometimes i find your taste buds are as good as a hydrometer at telling you when your wine is done or when it tastes right for you so you can stop it fermenting further.

Just a thought

[Marble-eye]

15 minutes ago, stuhan said:

8:1 is tops for jamago 4:1 would make a nice wine, so i am interested how wills 4:1 will turn out too.

If the grape juice is what they claim it is, in Wills case authentic Shiraz that would be good value for money I suppose, whether it is shipped from the wine growing regions of France and repacked here in Thailand I am none to sure. But if it is Thai grapes and they are calling it Shiraz that would be misleading, baring in mind that 12 litres of grape juice here works out at about the same price of 1 litre of Jamago.

Suffice to say if it was the real McCoy I would give it a try.

Edited October 15, 2021 by Marble-eye

[stuhan]

43 minutes ago, Marble-eye said:

If the grape juice is what they claim it is, in Wills case authentic Shiraz that would be good value for money I suppose, whether it is shipped from the wine growing regions of France and repacked here in Thailand I am none to sure. But if it is Thai grapes and they are calling it Shiraz that would be misleading, baring in mind that 12 litres of grape juice here works out at about the same price of 1 litre of Jamago.

Suffice to say if it was the real McCoy I would give it a try.

True, it's something new i would try maybe once and see how it goes, it's still a bit expensive to do all the time but i will be happy to try it if wills turns out to be good.

[WilliamG]

1 hour ago, Marble-eye said:

If the grape juice is what they claim it is, in Wills case authentic Shiraz that would be good value for money I suppose, whether it is shipped from the wine growing regions of France and repacked here in Thailand I am none to sure. But if it is Thai grapes and they are calling it Shiraz that would be misleading, baring in mind that 12 litres of grape juice here works out at about the same price of 1 litre of Jamago.

Suffice to say if it was the real McCoy I would give it a try.

The label says Premium European Quality, bottled in Thailand. 

[stuhan]

18 hours ago, WilliamG said:

The label says Premium European Quality, bottled in Thailand. 

That's good enough for me, another thing to try next year.

[Marble-eye]

44 minutes ago, stuhan said:

That's good enough for me, another thing to try next year.

Has anyone else noticed that with the Jamago there are two choices, one 'premier' and one 'superior'

I just wondered if anyone knew the difference, there seems to be nothing on the internet to explain this?

[WilliamG]

16 minutes ago, Marble-eye said:

Has anyone else noticed that with the Jamago there are two choices, one 'premier' and one 'superior'

I just wondered if anyone knew the difference, there seems to be nothing on the internet to explain this?

I did the Cabernet Sauvignon Red @ 600 and it tastes good. Now I have the 750 Shiraz on the go. I was going to do this as Port but have changed my mind, will just let it go full distance.

[stuhan]

Here is recipe/method for using fresh grapes if anyone wants to give it a try, but for me buying grapes is a bit expensive, i think Jamago juice would work out cheaper than 5-6kg of fresh grapes for 1 gall of wine.

[Faraday]

Just started 5 litres of Anchan wine - Butterfly Pea.

I'm sure most of us are familiar with this lovely plant & the gorgeous dark blue drink made from the flowers.

I used 50gms of dried Anchan flowers

Juice of 5 small manao 

1.5kg Sugar 

QA23 yeast 

Brix 23

Bought 3 X 100 gm packs of Anchan from Lazada for 209 baht cod.

Boiled up 100 gm with 7 litres of water, to make a lovely refreshing drink. It can be diluted around 100% add a tsp of sugar & half a manao, or use schweppes sparkling lemon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[stuhan]

16 hours ago, Faraday said:

Just started 5 litres of Anchan wine - Butterfly Pea.

I'm sure most of us are familiar with this lovely plant & the gorgeous dark blue drink made from the flowers.

I used 50gms of dried Anchan flowers

Juice of 5 small manao 

1.5kg Sugar 

QA23 yeast 

Brix 23

Bought 3 X 100 gm packs of Anchan from Lazada for 209 baht cod.

Boiled up 100 gm with 7 litres of water, to make a lovely refreshing drink. It can be diluted around 100% add a tsp of sugar & half a manao, or use schweppes sparkling lemon.

That's different and sounds interesting,saved your recipe to my list. We have a plant growing in our garden that has deep blue flowers on it,my wife say's they eat it for curing cancer, wonder if it's butterfly pea.

[Faraday]

20 minutes ago, stuhan said:

That's different and sounds interesting,saved your recipe to my list. We have a plant growing in our garden that has deep blue flowers on it,my wife say's they eat it for curing cancer, wonder if it's butterfly pea.

It's allegedly good for eyesight, having a cup of it right now.

Much better than faffing around making a cup of tea or coffee; seemed to get caffeine sensitive over the last few years.

 

[JamesE]

2 hours ago, Faraday said:

It's allegedly good for eyesight, having a cup of it right now.

Much better than faffing around making a cup of tea or coffee; seemed to get caffeine sensitive over the last few years.

You need to drop a bit of lemon in it for the color change.

[Faraday]

17 minutes ago, JamesE said:

You need to drop a bit of lemon in it for the color change.

Yes, it balances the flavour also.

[stuhan]

The weather at the moment is better for wine, the lower temps are keeping the fermentation much more stable, in my province now about 25-27c and next week lower to, wish i had prepared more now, next month pomegranite and a strawberry melomel maybe. After 10 days my apple/grape/cinnamon is at 1.030 and the red grape/cinnamon is at 1.045 so another 7 days i guess. The other red grape is an experiment with no airlock, so i will test it when the others are done to compare it. All 3 have not been racked to any secondary fermentor, they will all finish completely in primary before racking to clear.

Edited October 17, 2021 by stuhan

[stuhan]

1 hour ago, stuhan said:

The weather at the moment is better for wine, the lower temps are keeping the fermentation much more stable, in my province now about 25-27c and next week lower to, wish i had prepared more now, next month pomegranite and a strawberry melomel maybe. After 10 days my apple/grape/cinnamon is at 1.030 and the red grape/cinnamon is at 1.045 so another 7 days i guess. The other red grape is an experiment with no airlock, so i will test it when the others are done to compare it. All 3 have not been racked to any secondary fermentor, they will all finish completely in primary before racking to clear.

After 10 days,the no airlock one is still very messy.

[Marble-eye]

The port is ready for labeling, didn't add any Bentonite to the brew but clearing up quite nicely, still has a slight haze to it. Very drinkable though.

The Red has cleared up but still not chrystal clear, I did add Bentonite to this. Tried a drop last night and it was very crispy dry, much too dry for me so added a touch of honey and it tasted wonderful. Might have to rack it yet again and add some potassium sorbate as I am hoping to sweeten the wine before bottling.

 

Edited October 18, 2021 by Marble-eye

[Marble-eye]

The peach wine seems to have a lot of pulp in it, reracked yesterday and degassed it but in all honesty not a lot of gas was released, added the Bentonite, did do a taste test prior to all the degassing etc and this one was ultra dry also. OG was 1.090 and the FG is 0.998, with an abv of about 12%.

It is yellow but with being in a blue bottle it gives the impression of being a toxic green colour.

 

[JamesE]

1 hour ago, Marble-eye said:

The peach wine seems to have a lot of pulp in it, reracked yesterday and degassed it but in all honesty not a lot of gas was released, added the Bentonite, did do a taste test prior to all the degassing etc and this one was ultra dry also. OG was 1.090 and the FG is 0.998, with an abv of about 12%.

It is yellow but with being in a blue bottle it gives the impression of being a toxic green colour.

Romulan Ale!

[stuhan]

1 hour ago, Marble-eye said:

The port is ready for labeling, didn't add any Bentonite to the brew but clearing up quite nicely, still has a slight haze to it. Very drinkable though.

The Red has cleared up but still not chrystal clear, I did add Bentonite to this. Tried a drop last night and it was very crispy dry, much too dry for me so added a touch of honey and it tasted wonderful. Might have to rack it yet again and add some potassium sorbate as I am hoping to sweeten the wine before bottling.

Good job done.