this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
28 points (100.0% liked)

Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider

2211 readers
31 users here now

A community dedicated to homebrewing beer, mead, wine, cider and everything in between. If it ferments, bring it over here.

Share recipes, ideas, ask for feedback or just advice.


Some starting points for beginners:

Introduction to Beer Brewing

A basic mead primer

Quick and diry guide to fermenting fruit - cider and wine

Brewing software


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
28
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

I started it in early march with the idea that I wanted a dry but fresh and somewhat complex wine for summer. I infused some oak chips with rum, but only had them in for a week something early on with the hope that the harshness would dissipate with gases and what is left behind becomes subtly integrated in the wine. I was going for notes and slight tannins as opposed to the super dry that was my autumn wine.

While fermenting it was about 19-21°C in the room with a cold draft by the floor that probably made it more like 16-18°C down there. I didn't think of picking a yeast ahead so I went with the generic one that came in the box.

It's been a very interesting ride in this relatively short period of time. The fermentation was very slow, as expected by the temperature and draft. It stopped bubbling but had plenty of sugar left in it so I racked it to oxygenate, added yeast nutrients and kept swirling it gently daily until I got it going again.

Last taste was a month ago and it was not good, hoping it would mature after bottling and otherwise make it a learning experience. Today, much to my surprise, it is young but damn delicious already. Great taste, great mouthfeel. Tannins but not overly so, hints of vanilla, oak and rum. Easy to drink and yet some interesting flavours to explore. It's all I was hoping for.

But now I have a new problem. While bottling it, I accidentally overfilled some bottles that I balanced into a glass, and then clumsy me spilled the last splash from the vessel into the glass too.

Now I'm sitting outside on a lovely warm and sunny Sunday afternoon, glass in hand, the wine is oxidized and can not be returned to the batch. I'm not sure what to do about it. Please advice.

all 3 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Nice. No advice; I’ve only ever brewed beers…

Often had the overflow issue where I have to drink up some spills.

Guess you’d better drink those extra as quality control

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

You can dump the oxidized portion, or add some vinegar mother and try to make it into wine vinegar. I'd just let that stuff go and enjoy the bottles that turned out well.