Show your homebrew beer and wine

[garnede]

Last night I started a pumpkin wine and a multi-berry mulberry wine. Basically I cleaned out the freezer of berries and had enough to make a gallon batch, with mulberries being the largest single contributor. Hopefully the pumpkin wine will be ready for thanksgiving this year, if not it should be great next year.

 

[fishshocker]

Just found this thread...I've been brewing for several years now. I just did a Graff for the first time this year and WOW did it turn out awesome!!!! I actually made 2 5 gallon batches, gave one to a neighbor (they bought the fresh pressed cider) and I aged one batch for quite a while. It is definitely worth making. I haven't made the apfelwein but after I read through the thousands of posts about each type, I finally decided on the graff.....MMmmmm.....graaaaaffff......

To add to CreekChub's post on homemade chillers, I also made one, 50ft copper, but I added a bilge pump (wally world) and now I put the pump in a large cooler of ice water and I can recycle the warm water from the exit hose back into the ice water bucket. That cut my chilling time down by 60% and I save a ton of water. I have to add a couple of bags of ice through the process, but that is a heck of a lot better than running a hose wide open.
Also if you're ready to step out of the MR. BEER fermentors, I found Old Time Pottery stores will sometimes have 5 gallon glass carboys on sale for around $10. They are not the nice thick glass that you'll get from a homebrew store, but I guarantee that both types will break just the same if you drop them...which I have. I dropped an empty cheap one and it broke into hundreds of pieces, I also dropped an expensive thick glass (7 gallon) carboy that was a quarter full of sanitizer....that one went into a ba-jillion pieces!

 

[garnede]

What made you decide on the graff over the apfelwein?

 

[Capt Quirk]

Last night I started a pumpkin wine and a multi-berry mulberry wine. Basically I cleaned out the freezer of berries and had enough to make a gallon batch, with mulberries being the largest single contributor. Hopefully the pumpkin wine will be ready for thanksgiving this year, if not it should be great next year.

Let us know how the pumpkin turns out. Thought about doing a batch last year, but had already started two batches of other stuff.

 

[garnede]

Let us know how the pumpkin turns out. Thought about doing a batch last year, but had already started two batches of other stuff.

Will do. I made a 5 gallon batch that was bigger than I expected. The pumpkin gave up a lot of water and sugar and I ended up with 6.5 gallons of must. I split the batch into 2 containers for the primary and one smelled sweet while the other smelled musty (not bad just musty). So I split off 1 gallon of the sweet by it's self, 4 gallons of the mixed sweet/musty, and 3 gallons that is half sweet and half apple juice. So I will have a few different wines from this one batch.

 

[Capt Quirk]

If you don't mind, would you care to share that recipe?

 

[garnede]

If you don't mind, would you care to share that recipe?

Sorry, I missed this question. I used Jack Keller's recipe. I grated 22 lbs of long of naples winter squash, from this past summer's garden. I did not peel it before grating, just washed it with a veggie brush. I did not have a large enough fermenter for all of it, his recipe is for 1 gallon but I made a 5 gallon batch (that needed 9 gallons with the pulp and made 6.5 gallons when the pulp was removed), so I broke it into 2. one ended up smelling sweet and the other smelled musty, but not in a bad way. I strained the pulp off thru a 5 gallon nylon paint strainer and then put 1 gallon of the "sweet" juice into a fermenter to see if it would make a better product. The rest, sweet and musty, went into a 4 gallon bucket with air lock, after it was full I still had about 1 1/2 gallons left so I put it into another bucket and added a 2.25 gallons of apple juice to it.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques53.asp

PUMPKIN WINE


The sugar is high and will produce either an 18% alcohol dry wine or a lower alcohol sweet wine, depending on what yeast you use. If you want the high alcohol, use a high alcohol yeast such as Lalvin K1V-1116 (Montpellier) or Wyeast 3347 (Eau de Vie), both of which can handle the extreme sugar. If you want moderate alcohol but sweet wine, use Red Star Côte des Blancs for 13% alcohol with 5% residual sugar. For slightly less sweet, use Lalvin 71B-1122 (Narbonne), ICV-D47 (Côtes-du-Rhône), Lalvin Simi-White, or White Labs WLP730 Chardonnay White Wine for 14% alcohol and 4% residual sugar, or Lalvin AMH (Assmanshausen), Lalvin BGY (Burgundy), Lalvin CY3079, Lalvin ICV-D80 (Côte Rôtie), or White Labs WLP720 Sweet Mead/Wine for 15% alcohol and 3% residual sugar. Read the yeast descriptors at Strains of Wine Yeast for correct nutrient and temperature requirements for the strain you select. Begin this recipe in the morning so you have time to complete the tasks without having to awaken in the middle of the night.


Pumpkin Wine

5 lbs grated pumpkin flesh
3-1/4 lbs finely granulated sugar
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1/2 oz citric acid
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/4 tsp yeast energizer
1 finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet
6-1/2 pts water
wine yeast (see above)


Grate the pumpkin flesh mechanically (recommended) or by hand and set aside. Do NOT place chunks in a blender and attempt to chop them. Bring the water to a boil and stir in the sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat. Place grated pumpkin flesh in primary and pour boiling water over pumpkin. Allow to cool to room temperature and add finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet. Cover primary and allow to sit 8-10 hours. Add pectic enzyme and allow to sit overnight. Next morning add citric acid, yeast nutrient, energizer and activated yeast. Cover primary and stir twice daily for three days, submerging "cap" as necessary to keep moist. Pour through a nylon straining bag and let pumpkin drip drain. Transfer to secondary and fit airlock. If you did not recover a full gallon of liquid, wait 5 days and top up as necessary. Rack after two weeks and again after additional 30 days, topping up and refitting airlock each time. Set aside for 3 months and then rack, stabilize, sweeten if desired (unlikely you will need to but...), wait 3 weeks for dead yeast to fall out, and rack into bottles. Set aside to drink next year at Thanksgiving or Christmas. [Adapted from Leo Zanelli's Home Winemaking from A to Z with major modifications by Jack Keller]

 

[Capt Quirk]

Can't wait to try that, thanks for sharing

 

[garnede]

I took gravity readings and sampled the product on my Apfelwein, Cranberry apple wine, and the mulberry multi-berry wine today. They all taste great. The best by a long shot was the seconds from the mulberry multi-berry wine. I took the berries from the first batch and added apple juice and simple syrup. I'm going to blend the first and seconds and let it bulk age for another month before bottling.

I'll bottle the Apfelwein tomorrow, second best in my opinion. And the lees on the cranberry apple wine aren't compact yet, so I'll let it bulk age till the lees compact a little more. Even though it was the "third best", the cranapple wine taste great too.

I'll check the FG on the pumpkin wine and skeeter pee next week. I'll start another batch of skeeter pee on the lees of the apfelwein too.

PS I had to take a second "gravity sample" of the apfelwein. It is chilling right now.

 

[garnede]

Apfelwein is bottled, and skeeter pee is made on the yeast cake.

 

[Nastytater]

I made some Blueberry Wine last year that turned out great...It didn't last long though...And Now I can't remember the exact recipe that I used...LOL

 

[billyrb]

I just picked up a homebrew wine making kit off ebay a few weeks back, hope to try my hand at some muscadine wine this year, as well as blackberry, raspberry and whatever other berries we can grow in the back yard

 

[garnede]

I'm drinking a glass of the Mulberry Multi-berry, right now. Look for recipes on Jack Keller's wine making site/blog. It is a great resource for winemakers, especially those making non grape fruit or "country" wines.

 

[billyrb]

Mulberries are some good eating! I'd be darn interested to try making some wine from them, never thought about it. Thanks for the info about Jack Keller, will check out his site.

 

[garnede]

EdWort's Apfelwein: 1 bottle, this stuff is dry (tart, not sweet), but good. Bottle 2, maybe it is not too dry, and I'm buzzed. Bottle 3, I'm drunk and this stuff is great. After a few hours, bottle 4: This stuff is potent and is absolutely a keeper.

Less than 2 months from "brewing" to drinking carbonated delicious wine. Also less than $20 for 54 bottles of 10% alcohol wine, can't beat it with a stick.

 

[billyrb]

ha! I've had a few bottles that my friends made that followed similar thoughts!

 

[Sirduke]

First beer I ever brewed, but will NOT be the last ! Used the Mr Beer, gonna try an Irish Stout next, won't be using the Mr Beer this time, got a 5 gallon carboy and airlocks. I've also got 10 gallons of blueberry wine working up. I'll let you know how that turns out.

 

[garnede]

I have shared the Apfelwein with 2 neighbors, and they both love it. But that means I'm running out fast, so I "brewed" up 6 more gallons today. I also racked my skeeter pee and Cranberry Relish wine. The latter I had to top up, and since I want it for thanksgiving, I topped it up with 1 quart of apple juice and 1/2 cup of sugar mixed together. I'm pushing the yeast to it's higher range of tolerance, but it should turn out fine.

Sirduke, When you get a empty carboy, you should try a batch of Edwort's Apfelwein. It kicks butt, and if you drink 3 12oz it will knock you on your butt.

 

[bruceg]

I like Brewmasters Warehouse in Marietta - er - because I live in Marietta. If I was closer to one of the posters above who's folks have a place, I'd check them out!

Been doing extracts adn extracts with specialty grains. Haven't gone partial mash or all grain as I brew on a glasstop stove and am not sure about getting 5 gallons to a boil (or even my stovetop supporting that much weight!).

Will be doing a cream ale this weekend.

 

[bruceg]

Here's a red I did a while back

So far I've done an Amber, a Extra Special Bitter Pale Ale, a few Pale Ales, a really nice Pilsner and a Kolsch. Working on a Cream Ale for the weekend. Don't have a fridge with temp controls, so will keep it to Ales for a while. Don't want it getting too hot during fermentation (and putting ice bottles in a cooler with the fermentation bucket gets old pretty quick!).