I think that's what I'm going to put on the labels when I bottle this in a couple more years.
Recipe:
5 lbs highbush cranberries
1 can apple juice (1.5 litres)
7 lbs sugar
juice from 2 lemons
1 cup strong tetley decaf
Lalvin 1116 yeast
2 tsp pectic enzyme
2 tsp yeast nutrient
2-1/4 gallons water + 1/4 gal water
Method (keep in mind this was exactly the tenth time I'd fermented anything and I was still of the "dump it all in together and let it fight itself out" mentality, which has given me some pretty good wines):
Boil berries with 1/4 gallon water, pour into mesh bag with lemon juice (I wanted to boil them because 1) there were so many bugs in my berry-bucket that I gor creeped out about all those little bug feet walking all over my berries - I'm sure I played catch-ahd-release with half a dozen baby preying mantises and 2) they're small enough to avoid my potato masher so I hoped boiling would pop them).
Boil sugar with 2-1/4 gallons water, pour over bag.
When cool, add nutrient and pectic enzyme.
36 hours later, pitch yeast (intended to be 24 h but life happens)
Initial PA = 1.092
After a week it didn't seem to be fermenting so I added some mead overage from racking another recipe and some violently active day 2 pear must from SG test of my first pear wine recipe, both using Lalvin 1118 yeast.
Then it took off, removed fruit after a week, racked around 2 months later SG = 1.005 and bitter as all hell, topped off with excess from primary fermentation that I kept in a honey jar with the lid on loosely.
Racked it a couple of times, approximately once a year thereafter, topping it off with more canned apple juice and spitting it out each time I tasted it. The smell was (still is) soooo nice that I couldn't bear to just toss it down the drain...
It's now been almost six years in the carboy, it's not at all oxidized (so at least I did that much correctly), and I think the tannins are finally starting to drop out (leaving a very thin brownish-red film on all carboy surfaces), because when I racked it today, it was almost drinkable, SG = .990. Just finished the last of the excess (apparently not all 3 gallon carboys hold exactly 3 gallons) and the aftertaste isn't bad either, some of the lovely aroma is finally coming through in the taste.
Lessons learned then:
1) When a must won't take off, feed it something active.
2) Highbush cranberries (they grow on a large bush, are about the size of red currants and have a single flat stone like a wild raisin rather than small edible seeds) are NOT AT ALL like regular cranberries. DO NOT follow a cranberry wine recipe with them, do not add tannin or acid.
Lessons learned now:
1) Use a yeast starter if it doesn't catch the first time.
2) Figure out how to check pH... add acid based on that.
3) Apparently patience DOES pay off. Eventually.
Corollory to 3): there is hope yet for the recently bottled rowanberry and soon to be bottled wild cherry wines that are also very bitter right now.
Recipe:
5 lbs highbush cranberries
1 can apple juice (1.5 litres)
7 lbs sugar
juice from 2 lemons
1 cup strong tetley decaf
Lalvin 1116 yeast
2 tsp pectic enzyme
2 tsp yeast nutrient
2-1/4 gallons water + 1/4 gal water
Method (keep in mind this was exactly the tenth time I'd fermented anything and I was still of the "dump it all in together and let it fight itself out" mentality, which has given me some pretty good wines):
Boil berries with 1/4 gallon water, pour into mesh bag with lemon juice (I wanted to boil them because 1) there were so many bugs in my berry-bucket that I gor creeped out about all those little bug feet walking all over my berries - I'm sure I played catch-ahd-release with half a dozen baby preying mantises and 2) they're small enough to avoid my potato masher so I hoped boiling would pop them).
Boil sugar with 2-1/4 gallons water, pour over bag.
When cool, add nutrient and pectic enzyme.
36 hours later, pitch yeast (intended to be 24 h but life happens)
Initial PA = 1.092
After a week it didn't seem to be fermenting so I added some mead overage from racking another recipe and some violently active day 2 pear must from SG test of my first pear wine recipe, both using Lalvin 1118 yeast.
Then it took off, removed fruit after a week, racked around 2 months later SG = 1.005 and bitter as all hell, topped off with excess from primary fermentation that I kept in a honey jar with the lid on loosely.
Racked it a couple of times, approximately once a year thereafter, topping it off with more canned apple juice and spitting it out each time I tasted it. The smell was (still is) soooo nice that I couldn't bear to just toss it down the drain...
It's now been almost six years in the carboy, it's not at all oxidized (so at least I did that much correctly), and I think the tannins are finally starting to drop out (leaving a very thin brownish-red film on all carboy surfaces), because when I racked it today, it was almost drinkable, SG = .990. Just finished the last of the excess (apparently not all 3 gallon carboys hold exactly 3 gallons) and the aftertaste isn't bad either, some of the lovely aroma is finally coming through in the taste.
Lessons learned then:
1) When a must won't take off, feed it something active.
2) Highbush cranberries (they grow on a large bush, are about the size of red currants and have a single flat stone like a wild raisin rather than small edible seeds) are NOT AT ALL like regular cranberries. DO NOT follow a cranberry wine recipe with them, do not add tannin or acid.
Lessons learned now:
1) Use a yeast starter if it doesn't catch the first time.
2) Figure out how to check pH... add acid based on that.
3) Apparently patience DOES pay off. Eventually.
Corollory to 3): there is hope yet for the recently bottled rowanberry and soon to be bottled wild cherry wines that are also very bitter right now.
(did I mention I've made over 80 recipes...)
