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Any homebrewers/winemakers here? If so, what have you been making recently?
I have 3 gal of blackberry wine aging on oak cubes in a carboy right now. Relatively new to the hobby but my best so far have been elderberry wine (full bodied and tannic, kind of like a Cabernet), and apple wine from store-bought juice (dry and crisp). This fall I'm planning on sourcing some locally grown Pinot Noir and trying my hand at making a "real" wine for the first time.
Not a homebrewer, but I have extensive contact with local professional winemakers and the chemistry just fascinates me. I was talking with one of them yesterday about new technologies for remedying smoke taint (likely a problem on all the northern U.S. regions this year). I'll happily reach out to them if there are any questions from the home wine makers.
I do a Summer 5 gallon batch and a winter 5 gallon batch. Summer this year is an Amber Lager! and probably going to do a Chocolate Hazelnut porter in the fall since it turned out so good last time!
Best tip i ever learned was brew with like 3/5 - 3/4 your total batch size and cool it instantly with a 2 gallon spring water from the store. Instantly cools it and a lot less boil-overs when I'm not paying attention haha
All-grain home brewer here. Been brewing beer for 10 years, AG for ~3y. Not an expert, as life/family means I don't drink or brew a tonne anymore.
Also dabbling in distilling, made some nice Gin so far and planning a bourbon next.
Want to give Mead a go but still have to work out when and where that is getting put down, as well as hunting down some local honey if I can.
My friend just gifted me a bottle of honey mead she made. Very few ingredients I think. Yeast, honey, not sure what else she said, but it's really tasty. Kind of vaguely fizzy, like the smallest hint of a fizz. Tastes a bit like wine, but much less aggressive than grapes.
I have heard that I can make a cider from the manzanita tree berries in my yard, so I'm excited to harvest some of those.
I'd never heard of manzanita before - what do they taste like? Maybe I should get a tree, since it seems like it'd thrive in my climate (western Oregon)
I don't know! I only just found out they are enjoyed by people and not just birds. They are big red berries, and I saw at least 4 different bird species enjoying them last time they fruited. I still haven't figured out what the season is, they were abundant in December but maybe the unusual rain had an effect? There are a handful forming now but not many. It is a lovely tree.
Have you aged with the oak cubes before? How long do you leave them in the secondary? I have a bag of them sitting on my shelf that I plan to tackle in my next batch.
I just started a new batch of mead on the first. I usually use 6 lbs of honey in 1.5 gal for a sweeter mead with an advised amount of 1 tbsp of nutrients. This time around I'll be adding vanilla beans and malodextrin to the secondary.
I use an EC-1118 strain because I've found it's pretty hearty for a high honey content start. Recently I read a thread where someone suggested adding 4 lbs to start, then later adding 2 lbs near the end of primary. Might give that a shot next time just to see how it changes the flavor.
This current batch has me a little worried since I'm using a new fermenter (Ss brewtech 3.5 gal). I'm always paranoid that I haven't sterilized my equipment enough, but it always turns out fine. Doesn't stop me from worrying though.
My elderberry wine I aged on oak chips, which are like the cubes but with more surface area so they impart the flavor faster. It definitely improved the wine a ton. I used 2 oz chips for 5 gallons. This time with the blackberry wine is my first time using the cubes, which supposedly are smoother than the chips but it takes longer, suggested 2-3 month minimum contact time. I'm using just under 1 oz for the 3 gallons. Just added the cubes last week so I've got awhile to go but I'll be curious to see how it compares.
What is the maltodextrin for? Sweetness or body I assume? If you want to get more creative you could try out some of the different wine yeasts and additives. There's an additive called Opti-Red that is yeast-derived polysaccharides that is supposed to help mouthfeel, or yeast strains like BM 4x4 that are supposed to release a lot of polysaccharides during fermentation to accomplish the same goal.
Maltodextrin, thanks. Typo on my part.
I'm hoping it will give it a thicker mouth feel. Stolen from the advice in this thread: https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/adding-body-to-mead.46634/ which has some good ideas.
I'll have to try the BM 4x4 - one poster in the linked thread mentioned that leftover sugars will help thicken it up a bit, so I'll give a shot and compare results.
Other yeasts I've tried are K1-V116 and 71B. With the K1 stain the mead was very thin and almost flavorless. I went through a couple batches that way with different honey (locally sourced and online bulk). Something I did wrong, I'm sure, just not sure what. Also gave me a headache after drinking it. Another batch was just...really off. Hard to describe it. Not quite sour, but also not something that I would share with others. I drink a glass occasionally because I don't want to waste it but it's also not something I'm pleased with.
This was before I started using nutrients and reading about step-feeding. I'm still learning. I might go back and rerty those strains
I'm a recovered alcoholic so I dont drink, but when I was 20 I made an apple wine once
We have two crabapple trees in my backyard, so I collected a bunch and bought a juicer
I soon figured out this is going to take too long to juice, like it felt like I was jucing forever and not getting much juice
So once I got to the 2 liter point I said screw this and I got my mom to drive me to the store and I bought 20 litres of normal apple juice
So I made the wine with 2L of crab apple juice and the rest normal apple juice
It was pretty good I thought, at least for making it myself, I dont remember if anyone liked it except my brother, he said it was actually okay
My grandmother still has a bottle sitting in her cellar, its like 12 years old now lol, I would say thats expired, but the truth is I kinda want to taste it, not to get drunk, literally just a sip because I put effort into making it and I forget what it taste like
15 years beer homebrewer here!, just recently I brewed a batch of American Wheat with Verdant IPA, I think I found a good yeast for this underated style. Also I was gifted some Cosmic Punch by a friend he did not like it, I'm still thinking what recipe to come up.