Wild Berry Wine

[TrevorM]

That sure is an awesome color! I've not really ever messed with filters, I assume it's one of those plate type you put the mesh pad in. What micron did you use? I know normally you start larger and work down. I'd expect you to still have residual yeast unless you went right for the .5, but maybe the shock of the filtering process (and probably a temp change too) stalled the fermentation process.

Do you have a pH meter or strips? You could always test how much change you'd get a different pH's.

So I've got to ask, is doing a secondary as debated a subject in wine making as it is in beer? I'm sure there are several different considerations, but if that were beer I'd tell you to stop messing with it 

[le0n]

^^ thanks. i too, like the color.

no pH strips. i may pick some strips before it's all said and done though.

oh, and it was just a cheap coffee filter placed in a funnel. i don't do filters either, but i wanted to see the color without the chunks of pulp in there.

and you're right, i think it just stalled for a bit or only allowed a small amount of yeast through.

i unscrewed the top a day later and it was carbonated. i through an airlock on the vial because it fit, hah hah. it's still bubbling this morning. a little top-heavy, but it hasn't gotten knocked over yet.

the secondary vessel is really to get the wine away from the decaying yeast that can potentially produce flavors/aromas if left in contact with the wine. because of the alcohol content, this will not happen right away; but it will happen over time.

This morning 1.038 SG Corrected:


I don't know beer making at all. This still has some sugars in there that I want to get converted, but if you wanted to, you could definitely stop it here. It's at 8.12% ABV and would be on the sweet side of things. I'll sneak a raw glassful to enjoy when I rack in a couple of days and let you know what it's like

[TrevorM]

You should be able to find fairly cheap meters and/or strips at a pet store, people use them for fish tanks. You could of course find them online too, but you'll probably find they're more from a beer/wine store.

Ah OK, wow I would have thought that would have been much quicker. I googled it and coffee filters tend to be in the 10 - 20 micron range, so it would have only really taken out the pulp. It might have shocked it some, I think by draining through the filter all the CO2 that was in suspension would have been knocked out (which would have to build up again) and since fermentation would be slowing at this point as well that might take a bit of time. For future reference if you don't have an airlock that fits or one spare you can just use foil, just lay a piece over the top and smush it down around the edge. As long as there aren't wild temp changes nothing will get in.

Remember how I said I had some mead waiting? After several years it's still on it's yeast cake, and I'm not worried about it at all. Infact Mead makers do that frequently.  Autolysis really is one of boogie men of brewing. Can it happen? Sure, but in healthy cultured yeast that you're keeping in a fairly temp controlled environment and nothing else to interfere it'd take a very long time to have enough that you'd even be able to detect it. There are lots of other reasons brewers give for doing a secondary, I can shoot those down for you too if you want...  I know I know I'm starting to rant 

[le0n]

yeah, the strips are about $6 at the supply store down the road from my office. better off visiting them because they have their craft brews and wines on tap to "test" while you shop. much more tastier than an online or pet store purchase

i'm not in a hurry for it to finish and i'm kind of glad the conversion rate isn't so quick too. it leads me to believe that the kitchen counter temps are not too warm for the "moderate speed" yeast i've chosen. i keep wondering if i should add enough sugar to have a final 16% ABV. supposedly the yeast can handle it, however, i don't know if the temperature conditions in my house would maintain a desirable environment for it to achieve this.

some wine makers do leave the yeast like you say for the desired flavors that come from doing so. the wine in its current state already tastes good to me and will seemingly taste even better when it dries out. i'm going for clarity on this batch in hopes that it can present itself nicely in a glass.

[le0n]

tonight 1.034 SG Corrected:


hah hah:



clarity of the filtered vial (tonight):

[TrevorM]

Good plan! I'm sure if my local home brew store had testing I'd go there a lot more, but sadly my state is pretty backwards on Alcohol. Heck home brewing only became legal here a couple of years ago...

LOL that vial does look funny with that airlock on it. If you ever want to take up yeast culturing that would be perfect for slants though. Especially with the flat bottom like that, all mine are round ended so I have to stand them in something when I cook them.

Since you're planning on transferring it anyway why not pickup a 1 or 2 gallon jug and add the extra sugar to that for a high gravity "reserve" batch? That way if the yeast can't get through it all at least you haven't ruined it all.

[le0n]

because i don't have any smaller carboys, i'll just leave it. if i end up with too much head space in my carboy tonight i'll be forced to make some calculations to add some cooked sugar/water. i'll calculate it for 15%.

i found those vials at "The Container Store". they have three different sizes 10, 4 & 2 dram. although it sounds interesting, i probably won't start any cultures like that with these cheaper yeasts. perhaps if i began sampling the expensive stuff, then i'd look into experimenting with the cultures. thanks for the tip!

this morning 1.032 SG Corrected:

[TrevorM]

A good source of 1 gal glass jugs are those 'fancy' apple ciders you can get at the grocery stores (at least around here). The standard small stopper fits them too so they're great for small batches/tests/over runnings. Even if you don't want to do that with this batch something to keep in mind for next. My kids love the cider too so I've got quite a few over the years.

I'll have to check those out, they don't have a store near me so I might have to order online. It says they're made of glass on the site, but doesn't mention anything else so I'm guessing they're not borosilicate. They should still work fine, just got to be careful about thermal shock. Yeah the cheaper ones wouldn't be worth it, although where I used to live was over an hour drive each way to the closest brew store so I did my favorite then just for convenience.

[le0n]

i'll get a few from somewhere for next time.

those little bottles are expensive at that store, but i like the tops. they have this shallow cone shape plastic insert that really seals the contents in. i doubt they are borosilicate. if those features don't matter, you can get loads of them for cheap online with free shipping.

[TrevorM]

Well borosilicate would definitely be better because you work over a flame to keep everything sterile, but as long as it doesn't heat up or cool down to fast it should be OK. The seal is obviously very important, and is actually the bigger issue I had with my current tubes. They have screw on caps but there's a loose plastic seal inside it, and 9 times out of 10 it'll fall out at the worst time possible. I thought about replacing them with stoppers, but they really need to be air tight and would also have to withstand the flame.

[le0n]

here's a shot of what the caps are like:


i use them for our condensate samples

even the 2 dram vial caps are the same.

how much flame are you introducing?

[le0n]

right before racking tonight Sept. 20th, 1.028 SG Corrected:


racking time


i ended up getting 1.5" of lees on the bottom of the carboy:




That's fine, because I'm having to top-off because of the head space. I dissolved 2.5 cups of sugar in 1.75 quarts of 160°F RO water, let it cool and added it to the carboy. This should bring the potential alcohol closer to 15%.


Also, I drank the stuff sitting next to the carboy. That stuff is really good; even with all of the not-so-settled lees.

Here is how it's going to sit for a while:

(except it will be upstairs in a dark place)

edit: here's a video i took of the action.

https://youtu.be/HXVPTdpZAcU

[TrevorM]

Not very long, just a few seconds directly under the flame to sterilize the top then you work several inches above within the heat convection which so you keep it sterile while you work. What could also cause an issue is when you first make your slants before you introduce the yeast you want to store you have to run them through an autoclave (or for the crazy home scientist like me a pressure cooker). I remember trying it with a couple of the white labs yeast vials, they didn't make it

That's looking great! Is being so close to the airlock not going to be an issue, since you've added sugar and are expecting active fermentation again? I'll have to remember to check out that video when I get home (my work blocks YouTube )

[le0n]

that doesn't sound too harsh for these bottles. let me see if i have a clean one and i'll ship it to you for flame testing. just pm me your address.

it shouldn't be a problem. the rest of the fermentation will finish just the way you see it in the photograph/video. no foaming at this point, just nice clean bubbles. even when the primary was going there was very little foam (if any at all). the way it looked in those first photos is how it looked the entire time. it was a little cleaner at the end of the primary run, because most of the pulp had finally broken down and fallen to the bottom of the bag/vessel. it had to have a 3" fluffy cake on the bottom. the cane was snagging it even when i wasn't very close to the bottom, so i just let it grab some when it got down to the bottom. it'll be easier to see/rack out of the clear carboy so i can keep the cane out of the lees easier.

[le0n]

it's beginning to clear up, however, fermentation is still moving along very nicely:

(i through a flashlight behind the carboy)

i'll take a gravity reading this weekend.