Any fruit wine you would not make again?

[keepitlow]

What was wrong with it?

I am on my 4th batch of fruit wine after getting started a week ago. So cannot reoprt on any results as yet.

I was going to try rhubarb wine. But read it is pale and dry, so did not try it.

Hope to get on meads soon. But figured to learn on the fruit wines first.

 

[Chevette Girl]

Heh, strawberry, but that's only because I made myself sick on it and can't drink it anymore

I've made rhubarb once (it's recently bottled and aging but I'll try to post review notes when I crack a bottle).

Other wines I've made once: concord grape, apple (from juice), black currant, jalapeno, raspberry, lime, banana, pomegranate juice blend, raisin sherry, sweet cherry, rowanberry, wild cherry, ginger hydromel, watermelon, one rosé port made from everything I had sitting around in the freezer, and JAO variants (bread yeast) using: strawberry, grapefruit, lemon, multi-citrus, red raspberry, black raspberry, lemon-date, lemon-cranberry.

No results yet on the jalapeno, banana or watermelon or multi-citrus, but the port seems really promising.

The ones that didn't turn out well for me (probably due to my own fault) were the lime and black raspberry JAO. The sweet cherry was tasteless but pretty and its flavour only seems to come out in cooking, I'll use sour cherries next time. The wild cherry and rowanberry wines are bitter and may well end up relegated to cooking wines but some of it may settle out in a few years. I'd definitely do the ginger, concord grape, pomegranate, raisin sherry and raspberry again if I had the opportunity, and I'll probably have another kick at most of those variations on JAO.

Wines I've made a couple of times and would do again when circumstances permit: kiwi, cranberry, blueberry, ornamental crabapple JAO variant.

Wines I've made multiple times and will continue to make as often as I can: pear, wild grape, red currant, pumpkin, crabapple, applemint, maple mead, blackberry JAO variant, standard JAO.

I also almost always do a second run if the fruit was a lot of work and I usually use honey for that if I used sugar for the first, sometimes adding spices... like re-using the bag of crabapple mush with brown sugar and apple pie spices... or trying different spices etc. with second and third runs from the port... I didn't mention most of those experiments because they're not as repeatable... Just as fun though!!

 

[AToE]

Well, as to rhubarb being "dry" - it is whatever you want it to be. Remember that almost no fruit/plant other than grapes have a high enough sugar content to be fermented by themselves, so all others require adding sugar (or even better, honey). Whether it comes out dry or sweet is 100% up to the winemaker, depending on starting SG vs yeast ABV tolerance, or fermenting dry, stabilizing then backsweetening.

Learning on fruitwine for stronger flavoured fruits is probably a good idea if you want to keep costs down.

That is pretty tart stuff though, so I imagine that at any given SG it would taste dryer than something mellower.

What would I not do again? (note, that this is for myself ONLY. I do not like sweet drinks, so many of these were failures specifically because I made them dry. I know you like sweet stuff so if you made one of these it might turn out excellent)

Pomegranate. Very little other than bitterness and acidity.
Sweet Cherry (made from juice). Just tastes like all round garbage.

Of course, these are under a year old so they will improve, maybe drastically. But right now they are so terrible I see no redemption for them!

Everything is so recipe specific though, lots of people have made great meads out of those 2 ingredients.

 

[crowquill]

The only negative experience I've had with fruit is a raisin wine we made from the recipe in "Making Wild Wines and Meads" by Vargas and Gulling. It was not good. I'm not sure how to describe it except to say that we have yet to finish a glass. There are still a couple of bottles left of a 1 gallon batch and we try it every 6 months or so hoping something magical will have happened. No luck yet.

That said, I don't think I'd say I'd never make a raisin wine again. I'd just have to find a recipe that convinced me to give it another go.

 

[Medsen Fey]

The one I wouldn't do again is 100% grapefruit juice mead. It was just too acidic and bitter and phenolic and I never could make it work. I'm not saying grapefruit shouldn't be done - far from it. Grapefruit can make some good wine/mead, but adding honey/sugar to pure grapefruit juice without amelioration is something I just wouldn't recommend.

 

[Angelic Alchemist]

Canned peaches with Cotes des Blanc yeast = epic fail. Those were worst rhino farts I've ever smelled.

 

[teejay58]

The post about canned peaches and rhino farts made me laugh out loud. Then I got to wondering... why did that combination cause the flatulence?

I recently bought a TON of peaches because they're in season here, thinking I'd make some mead with them. But I'd certainly like to avoid the rhino farts. LOL!

 

[Angelic Alchemist]

The post about canned peaches and rhino farts made me laugh out loud. Then I got to wondering... why did that combination cause the flatulence?

I recently bought a TON of peaches because they're in season here, thinking I'd make some mead with them. But I'd certainly like to avoid the rhino farts. LOL!

Cotes des Blanc is pretty well-known for causing sulfur smells in melomels. I think the combination of the preservatives in the peaches with this yeast strain just made the stank extra potent. I recommend using Cotes des Blanc for traditionals only, or meads where fruit is not a significant addition.

 

[Medsen Fey]

Cotes des Blanc is pretty well-known for causing sulfur smells in melomels... I recommend using Cotes des Blanc for traditionals only, or meads where fruit is not a significant addition.

Sorry, but I have to disagree with you on this one. Cote des Blancs (aka Epernay 2) can be great with fruit. It adds lots of fruity esters and can be good for leaving residual sugar. While I'm sure the batch you had was problematic, it isn't because Cote des Blancs doesn't work well with fruit. I bet if you tried again, you could manage that same combination of fruit and yeast to work more smoothly. If provided with temp control, plenty of nutrients (it can be a hog), pH adjustment and good management, it can give really good results with fruit. It worked beautifully in my fig melomel, and I might like to try it with the next batch of loquat mel.

 

[Angelic Alchemist]

Sorry, but I have to disagree with you on this one. Cote des Blancs (aka Epernay 2) can be great with fruit. It adds lots of fruity esters and can be good for leaving residual sugar. While I'm sure the batch you had was problematic, it isn't because Cote des Blancs doesn't work well with fruit. I bet if you tried again, you could manage that same combination of fruit and yeast to work more smoothly. If provided with temp control, plenty of nutrients (it can be a hog), pH adjustment and good management, it can give really good results with fruit. It worked beautifully in my fig melomel, and I might like to try it with the next batch of loquat mel.

I've tried Cotes des Blanc with berries, pineapple, prickly pear tunas, and (canned) peaches. Same results every time: stank. I love the results I got in my key lime and clementine mead, but the fruit addition is minimal in that recipe (16oz juice per 5gal). I agree it has wonderful fruity esters and it's great for leaving residual sugar. Not too sure where I went wrong on the other fruit batches, except (obviously) those peaches.

 

[wayneb]

I'm pretty sure that Medsen's already figured out the "rhino fart" cause. Epernay II (Cote des Blancs) does NOT like to be undernourished. It can even make stinky grape wines if not supplemented with some additional nitrogen.

 

[storm1969]

Wines I wouldn't do again....

Raspberry - Picking the darn things takes to long!

Dark cherry - came out tasting like cough syrup.

Ones I will do as often as possible -

Peach, strawberry, blackberry, blueberry, pomegranate, ginger, hot pepper...

 

[DaleP]

Elderberry. Love the jelly, but do not care for the flavor in wine or mead.

 

[Angelic Alchemist]

I'm pretty sure that Medsen's already figured out the "rhino fart" cause. Epernay II (Cote des Blancs) does NOT like to be undernourished. It can even make stinky grape wines if not supplemented with some additional nitrogen.

Clearly, if he's winning awards with that strain then he knows what he is doing. Nevertheless, those of us who are not pros can learn from each other's mistakes with yeasts that are likely to go horribly wrong if we don't baby them.

 

[Fishbone]

I doubt that I make a mango mel again - it was pretty bad.

On the opposite, the best success I have had has been with blueberry and blackberry - I can't make enough of the stuff.

 

[Medsen Fey]

I doubt that I make a mango mel again - it was pretty bad.

I find that surprising since most mango batches I have tried have been good. What was wrong with yours?

 

[Chevette Girl]

No results yet on the jalapeno, banana or watermelon or multi-citrus, but the port seems really promising.

Decided to add some bentonite to the banana wine since it's still refused to clear after 5 years. Got a taste while siphoning out enough to make room for the bentonite suspension, and it's not bad. Banana's by no means my favourite flavour but although it's definitely identifiable as banana, it's subtle enough that I would drink it, I think it's aged well too and now I'm wondering how it'll mix with strawberry wine

The jalapeno stuck at some ridiculously high SG and I'm going to repitch an acclimated starter one of these days. The multi-citrus JAO is still a little cloudy and I thought maybe it's pectic haze and so I gave it a bit of pectin and am hoping it clears up, otherwise it's getting some bentonite too.

 

[Matrix4b]

I will not do a watermellon mead again. It had the most aweful aftertaste and it only got worse with age. The last comment I got from it was that it was still alive and not happy to be in a bottle. To date, that was my one failure at mead.

Successful flavors I have made:

Lime, Strawberry, Blueberry, Standard Oaked, Pear Nutmeg, Pumpkin spice, Pineapple Lime Mint, Orange Vanilla (almost a creamcicle).

The Lime mead turned out my favorite folowed by the Pear Nutmeg, by my tastes.

The most popular from others has been the Blueberry, Strawberry, Pumpkin Spice and the Pineapple Lime Mint, although it is still young, at only 8 months aged.

I was very supprised at the Pineapple Lime Mint turn out. People loved it.

In the carboy that I can already tell is going to be a huge success: Red Raspberry Thyme and a Pumpkin Toasted Almond. The other one I have in the carboy that may be good is going to be Peach spearmint. I went light on the peach though. Oh, and a Lemon Lime Mead that is purposly low ABV%. Like around 10% rather than the 14-16% I usually get.

About to go into primary: Chocolate, Chocolate Mint. Plan on using Cacao Nibs about 1 3/4 pounds for a 5-6 gal batch with 1-2 Vanilla Beans. This fall I plan on doing a test of oaking, using same strait honey flavor with light, medium, and heavy toasted oak chips for about 3-4 weeks in a 5 gal carboy.

So my next planed batches are: Chocolate, Chocolate Mine, Oak Trinary Test, and a Pumpkin Nut (using various nuts, may just do pecan)

 

[jpeshek]

I use Cotes des Blanc quite a bit, and it has made a fantastic strawberry and blackberry wine for me, as well as mead. I'm fairly new to this, less than two years, and the only wines I made that were undrinkably bad were rose petal wine and a pyment of honey and organic white grape juice.

 

[schlapppy]

I'm pretty much 2 for 2 on making Cherry Melomel's that taste like cough syrup. I'm still letting them age.. maybe they will improve. But I don't think I'll make it again.