Fermentation Updates

As of right now there is nothing new brewing in the kitchen.  I have my dandelion wine from 2013 bottled, and there are four bottles left of about 14.  Many of them were Christmas gifts and I have to say that this was much better than my first attempt at dandelion wine.   I am considering going from 3 to 5 gallons this Spring.

The concord grape wine is bulk aging in a carboy and is very clear and it has a sour taste which is not unlike the grapes.  The concord grapes are more of a table grape than a wine grape, but still it is not bad wine.  I did have to add sugars to the recipe and I am thinking of back sweetening it with some concord grape juice. I would love to hear from anyone with some ideas on that.

Then there is the pumpkin wine which I tried in a 1 gallon batch.  You can see it here:

   

There is definitely a pumpkin taste to the wine and it is a little on the sweet side.  If that is not to your taste I'm sure you could cut back on the sugars in the recipe I used.  I'm thinking of switching it to a pumpkin mead recipe I have found if I do another pumpkin wine this fall.  It's still aging and I'm waiting to create some pumpkin bottles to bottle it.  My wife really likes this idea:  http://www.instructables.com/id/Wine-bottle-jack-o-lanterns/  and it does look nice.  I think the wine could use some more aging so creating some of these and saving them for this Autumn will be nice.  

yeast starters and pitching amounts

 When I first started brewing I never cared much for the more technical, scientific side of the process and a lot of things like yeast pitching amounts were not even on my radar.  Eventually like many brewers I have come to realize that although you can brew a good beer at home in your kitchen very easily, the small details can add up to an even better beer.

 That lag time between the pitching of the yeast and the time the fermentation actually starts can be a little distressing.  There are things you can do to get a fermentation going if it hasn't started at all but it's nice to know (as soon as possible) that your yeast is at work and happy.  There are a lot of different brewing calculators online that are very helpful but I've found this yest caculator to be the best one I've come across so far:  http://yeastcalc.com/

This will point you in the right direction for getting your brew going, or at least if it's too late it may help you understand why your fermentation has taken so long to start.  I've always stuck with using White Labs liquid yeasts when possible.  http://www.whitelabs.com/

They've always been very helpful when contacting them about any yeast questions I have.  If you've got a few minutes to spare you may find this video about their yeasts interesting:  http://youtu.be/2vELwUsBmWQ