Thursday, September 24, 2015

Dry Strawberry Watermelon

I read somewhere that watermelon should be back sweetened or used with another fruit.  I think both could not hurt.  Either way you should read what you can about it, and then experiment for yourself.  The best writers in the world can't tell you how it tasted in such a way that you taste the exact same thing.  This is why I like taking notes when I make a wine, especially a new recipe.  By the time it's ready to drink I want to make sure I have an account of what I did so I know how to adjust the recipe for the future.
I think the Strawberry Watermelon is definitely one to make again in the future, but it is a little on the dry side.  I'm considering adding in some rhubarb to balance the additional back sweetening that I would do next time around.  There is definitely a pronounced watermelon flavor, but it I think there is so much sugar in watermelon that there is not much left when fermentation is over.  Maybe more strawberry too.  Looking back I see that my starting gravity was 1.090; maybe I need to aim a little higher and let the remaining sugars stay in the wine.
Overall I would say this is a good wine, but I think it could be better with more sugar from some source.  I definitely plan on making it again and letting it sit longer before bottling.  There is a lot of pulp left over from the watermelon that is now collecting in the bottom of the wine bottles.  The lighting in my kitichen threw the coloring off a little, but you see what it looks like here:

It's actually a pink color, but the kitchen lighting gives it a different shade.  

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Clearing your Wine

Many people I know just don't like floaties in their drink.  There's the pulp in orange juice; at least we know what is floating in there.  Then there is the bottle of water someone just took a sip out of, and I think that's the worst.  I never minded a little cloudiness in a beer, but wine is really meant to be very clear.

I started out in this brewing endeavor by making beer.  I just took a chance and tried some wines and now I've bee hooked.  What I have been doing is just putting as little as possible (ingredient wise) into my wines.  If I can let the sediment drop, why add something else to do it for me?  I've sometimes bottled wines a little too soon and had problems.  It looks a lot clearer than it started, the fermentation has stopped, so I bottle it.  Then a week or so later I see sediment in all the bottles, and this is why I like to just wait.  I've had my pumpkin mead in a carboy for a long time now.  I don't even think I can remember how long.  It might have been since January.  The fermentation is definitely over and it has cleared up very nicely.  This, however, is what happened with my watermelon/strawberry wine:

So what is your take on clearing a wine?  Have you had better luck using findings or some other method?