Wine making time! Fifteen pounds (give or take) of honeyberries were thawed and ready to use so into my primary fermentor bucket they went. (This is basically a white plastic garbage can purchased in a wine supply store but I suspect any plastic garbage can never used for anything else would work fine.) I use a recipe for raspberry wine, originally from the "Wine Art Recipe Booklet, Metric Addition, but with adjustments and notes to self I've made over the past three years. The original recipe was metric, which I have a hard time coping with, so I re-wrote it using my conversion calculator into pounds, quarts, cups, teaspoons, etc.
To the fruit I added 22 cups of sugar; 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast nutrient; 10 crushed Campden tablets; 2 1/2 teaspoons of strong steeped black tea (substitute for grape tannin); 5, oops, 2 1/2 teaspoons of Vinacid (acid blend for fruit wines - a combo of citric, malic, and tartaric acids); and 11 quarts of hot water - then stirred to dissolve the sugar. The "oops" on the Vinacid occurred because I didn't have enough, needed 5 t, had 2 1/2, so I improvised and added one Tablespoon of lemon juice. This was the first of several glitches that came my way.
My recipe calls for 22 quarts of water, the second 11 to be added cold. But I like to check the specific gravity after the 16th quart of water is added. Starting specific gravity should be from 1.085-1.090. To increase specific gravity add more sugar, to decrease add more water. Here's where I ran into my second glitch, I simply could not remember how to read a hygrometer! So off to the internet where I found a very clear explanation at this site.
How To Use Hygrometer To Check Specific Gravity Of ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cy53yhOk8c
Now honeyberries are quite tart so when I read the hygrometer I wasn't surprised that I needed to add more sugar so I did until the hygrometer reading was 1.090. Then I noticed that the sugar wasn't totally stirred in! Stirred it in and the reading changed so I had to add more water to get the reading correct again. Now satisfied, I added 2 1/2 teaspoons of peptic enzyme powder. The mash was still too hot to add the yeast so I went to a friend's house to borrow some Vinacid, came home and added it so hopefully the lemon juice I added won't cause an imbalance.
So I looked at my wine mash and began thinking the berries were not sufficiently crushed. I wanted to get as much juice as possible from the berries, after all that's where the flavour comes from, so I washed up to my elbows and plunged in, squeezing berries with my hands (previous practice from goat milking) - and guess what! The hygrometer reading changed once again! Had to add more sugar. Yeast is supposed to be added when the thermometer reads from 21 - 23C. This just wasn't going to happen. It was over 28 outside and nearly as hot inside so no wonder. Finally I sprinkled 2 packets of wine yeast on top. I felt pretty safe doing this because it felt cool to the touch, much cooler than the liquid for bread making when I add yeast to it. I put a plastic bag over the top, stirred it daily, and began checking the hygrometer reading at day 4. By day 5 the reading was 1.030. Time to strain out the pulp into a fine mesh bag and squeeze out as much juice as possible. This was a big chore, husband not at home to help with lifting, holding, pouring so I did the dip with a sieve into the mash, dump into the bag, squeeze, empty bag, and repeat until it was done. This proved to be quite messy and a lot of clean-up was required. They must use honeyberries in natural dyes cause it's sure hard to get off walls and floors!
I discovered a part missing from one of my fermentation locks so could only use the big carboy and one jug, had to dump about 3 quarts of starter wine that wouldn't fit. But it's all working now! Will rack in 10 days (siphon off and dump the sludge at the bottom, wash the carboy and re-fill - the wine reduces in quantity as the sludge is removed eliminating the extra jug). I'll rack again in a month, then wait until it clears and stops fermenting. Then I'll wash the bottles with a sterilizing solution, rinse, and siphon the wine from the carboy into the bottles and cork. I'll taste some then but a little age is better so down into the root cellar it will go until, well .... until I can't wait any more.
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