First Wine Progress Report



There's no escaping the fact that, at this stage in its development, fermenting fruit is entirely unattractive. The grapes are the greenish ones, strawberries, naturally, reddish.

Herself doesn't like the smell, and she has a point, in a flat as small as ours. It's a smell reminiscent of very ripe bananas. When I stir the must, it fizzes like anything.

There's already just a hint of alcohol from the smell of the strawberries - which is a day ahead of the grapes. That's because after the first 24 hours, the grape must was frothing of its own accord, that is sans yeast: this meant there was some kind of wild yeast present. I had researched campden tablets meanwhile and found that their job is to kill off unwanted naturally ocurring yeast, so I crushed up 5 and stirred them in, and waited a night and a day for it to do its stuff afore adding the 'true wine yeast'. Now they're both on their way. Another week and they go into demi-johns. According to the research, drinkable in 6 months, at their best in a year... I'll keep an anxious world posted.

Comments

  1. DanoThu Jul 28, 05:30:00 pm BST

    Im gonna be makin wine soon too!
    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Garry NixonThu Jul 28, 11:23:00 pm BST

    Good for you! It's great fun.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ApprenticeFri Jul 29, 10:42:00 am BST

    I'm wondering why you killed the yeast? There's often a bloom on the surface of fruit, grapes and soft fruit have it, you can often see it. That's the natural fruit yeast which afair is why lots of Belgian fruit beers taste so fabulous.

    Good luck, I love the idea of strawberry wine, it's slightly decadent. I'll be doing elderberry soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Garry NixonFri Jul 29, 10:56:00 am BST

    Yes, I agonised about this: it seemed prima facie to be better to let nature do its own thing. That would be the case for intentionally grown grapes, perhaps, but with these fruit shop rejects, you can't be sure exactly what kind of yeast it is (there are many varieties, apparently) and some kinds aren't good. So you kill off the unknown yeast and use a 'true' wine yeast from the nice people in the shop in Shakespeare St.

    Or something.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ApprenticeThu Aug 04, 11:55:00 pm BST

    Yes, I agonise too, but I left it in, the past 3 demis. They seem to be doing okay, although they need racking again. Three years old come September, they are like fruit brandy.

    We'll see if I make elderberry what I'll do.:)

    ReplyDelete

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