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Simple healthy wild wine Options
 
MagicGing
#1 Posted : 5/25/2013 10:38:56 PM

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First off, Idk a decent way to summarize this for a subject title that describes it well

Anywas, i want to make a somewhat simple wine with the least amount of sugars possible and the least amount of added ingredients. For example: blackberrys, water, yeast (possibly?)

I would like for info to be somewhat objective to what is being fermented, as some tips that would result in a as dry and sugarless as possible wine, while still letting the yeast devour the sugars in the thing being fermented as much as possible and eventually dying from alcohol (12%?)

How could one go about making sure the yeast consumes all the sugars in the solution?
Also general tips would be helpful

I dont think i desrcibed this very well, but thanks in advance
β€œThe swans go on the path of the sun, they go through the ether by means of their miraculous power; the wise are led out of this world, when they have conquered Mara (desire) and his train" Dhammapada

"But is it probable," asked Pascal, "that probability gives assurance? Nothing gives certainty but truth; nothing gives rest but for the sincere search for truth"
 

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Mustelid
#2 Posted : 5/26/2013 6:54:15 AM

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Since I used to homebrew, I'll take a stab at this.

With beer, the vast majority of time, finish fermenting when the yeast finishes devouring the sugars that it is able to. Only a few rare varieties such as Barleycorn finish when the yeast dies from the alcohol concentration getting too high. ABV on these is around 15 to 20 percent or so, some finishing higher due to multiple strains of yeast, including often champagne yeast, being used.

Light beer is made by using enzymes that convert some of the starches into sugar, which then can be digested by yeast.

One such enzyme is called koji (Aspergillus Oryzae) an enzyme that is produced by a long domesticated strain of rice mold. Koji enzyme is available online and possibly in your local home-brew store. I have no idea what it's effect would be on fruit wine as fruits don't contain the starch like rice does.

Another is bean-no, the stuff you buy in pills to mitigate your personal greenhouse gas contribution. Added to bear it makes those extreme light "dry" and 0 carb beer styles.

I'd say just by not using too high of a fruit to water concentration, with any wine, that will yield a dryer, or dry enough product.

(Product, yield, I think I might have been reading too many extraction teks)
 
MagicGing
#3 Posted : 5/28/2013 7:34:30 PM

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Hmmm. So for honey wine, for example, if one say put 12% honey in water, the alcohol % would be around 12% if one gave the yeast enough time to ferment and the yeast strain could accomplish 12% without dying?

Also, how simple would it be to let yeast floating around inoculate the solution and not have badies floating around also inoc it?

I appreciate the help
β€œThe swans go on the path of the sun, they go through the ether by means of their miraculous power; the wise are led out of this world, when they have conquered Mara (desire) and his train" Dhammapada

"But is it probable," asked Pascal, "that probability gives assurance? Nothing gives certainty but truth; nothing gives rest but for the sincere search for truth"
 
Auxin
#4 Posted : 5/29/2013 9:53:37 AM

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In making wines its important to keep air out so it doesnt get sour and funky. It can be as simple as a large jug with a thumb-tack hole punched in the top. The yeast has a party making alcohol from the sugars. Problem is, for the yeast to function they need to have some oxygen. Thats how fermenting wines can get 'stuck' (ie. stop fermenting) while still a little sweet. Aerating a stuck wine will usually restart it, thats as simple as pouring from one jug to another.

Selection of yeast can be relevant too. Baking yeast wont make high powered wines, usually.
Once you get a good performer, tho, you can do whats been done through most of human history- a legacy culture. Simple as using the last cup of a wine thats done fermenting (or nearly so) to start the new batch. Over the generations it'll pick up new yeasts and loose others but if its fermented to high strength and completion before taking out the starter it'll retain the ability to do so.
For a guaranteed start to that process a good wine or champagne yeast can be got on ebay, its like $2 and if used to start a legacy culture it could last a lifetime.

Another handy trick is paying attention to trees and bushes. In my area its 4 weeks until parks have huge amounts of free mulberries. Then theres blackberries, etc. In the years I feel like drinking its virtually free if I plan ahead.
 
Mustelid
#5 Posted : 5/29/2013 10:58:32 PM

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To answer about percentages, not all of the honey or fruit will be converted to alcohol, some sugars not digestable to the yeast, tannins, and starches remain to give the wine it's flavor and mouth-feel. To compute the alcohol you would buy a home-brew hydrometer, and take a measurement before inoculating the yeast, and after you are finished. Subtract the two specific gravity readings, and most have instructions on using that figure to compute ABV or ABW.

Honey would be a great place to start, you'd make mead that way, mead is easier then fruit wine. Also you said the fewer ingredients the better. With mead you can go with only water, honey, and yeast. There are yeast nutrient packs used to speed up the fermentation, without them, it is impossible to predict how long until your mead will take to finish. You can tell when mead is finished when goes from cloudy to clear. One nice thing about going simple, is that the longer it for mead takes to finish, the better the mead will taste.

Fruit wine and Beer rely on waiting for fermentation to visibly slow (No more activity in your airlock) or by taking specific gravity readings, and noticing that they stop changing.

Another nice thing with mead is that you can boil it in the water, brewing it like beer to reduce contamination risk. Innoculate when it is below 70 Faranheit. Keep it where the temperature is steady and below 70 at all times if possible. With fruit you can't boil it as that will release pectin, and you'll end up with jam. Another thing that helps make mead easy is like beer, you get an accumulation of sediment on the bottom of your fermentation vessle after a few weeks. To prevent off flavors, you should have a second vessle, and siphon the wort/must (unfinished beer/wine) into the second vessle, and leaving behind the sediment to discard or reuse for future brewing.

Fruit wine requires about five transfers until the sediment production slows to negligible.

Auxin is right about the air-trap. I used a rubber stopper with a hole in it sized for the glass carboy and put a plastic tube in it, and I put the end of the tube in a bucket of water. CO2 can bubble out, but bacteria and contaminants can't bubble in. An added bonus to this method is if you fill the carboy up near the neck, it will blow the kreusen out into the bucket, so you can discard it. Kreusen is the crusty foam that forms in the beginning of fermentation. It's full of fusel oils, which add to headache and hangover. Cheap beer and wine allow it to fall back in, since it costs money on labor to remove it, increases contamination risk (unless you do it with the method I told you), and wastes some product. Since you're doing this yourself, why not go for top quality.

For yeast, you can just open a packet of champaign, ale, beer, or wine yeast when the must gets below 70 degrees. You can for higher quality use liquid yeast, or make your own by getting a stopper and smaller bottle (like a wine bottle) and heating up some malt extract or honey and addign the powder yeast, like a mini fermenter, then when it's really active in a few days, add the whole thing to the larger vessle.

As to adding fruit, or going entirely fruit, or what yeast to use (campaign,lager,ale,what style and brand of each), how much honey or fruit to add (less tends to give a dryer taste), what temperature to use (68 degrees to down as low as 50 depending on yeast, style and you'll get different flavor profiles fermentation at different temperatures) you're the brewmaster, the adventure is finding your own favorite recipe. I'd start out with something simple like mead when learning though. Here is one I found online.

http://www.epicurious.co.../views/Basic-Mead-201058

From reading this, don't boil honey either, to not lose the aroma, and I'd add to that recipe, that just before adding yeast, shake the container full of must or wart vigorously for about ten minutes to make sure it is well oxygenated, what Auxin said about stuck fermentation is correct.

Good luck on your journey into the world of zymurgy!

 
 
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