Thread: Homemade Country Wine Production

We get together I will have at least a case under my arm.

Bon Temps' Bees produces some of the best tasting Honey. Now that all the bottling of last years wine production is complete Mead is on the Brain.



Starting with the ingredients;

6 quarts of Bon Temps' Honey (2.74 pounds per jar average)
3-1/2 gallons distilled water
1/8tsp Go-Ferm
2tsp Yeast Nutrient
1tsp Fermoplus
KV1-1116 Lalvin Yeast



I used our digital baking scale to get the exact amount of Honey so the recipe can be repeated if needed. This weight includes the jar.



The Honey was quite stiff, lots of Sucrose in this batch of Honey. The more Fructose to Sucrose the more liquid the Honey will remain. It depends of the Bees' source flowers the ratio between the two becomes. Here I'm warming the jars on the stove slowly in 150 degree water so as to not damage the Honey. The Chopstick is used to get the Honey moving so it is pourable quicker.



I also heated a gallon of Distilled Water to 120 degrees before pouring it in the fermenter to help the Honey sugars dissolve. 1 gallon of water and one quart honey.



Now I have all the Honey in the Primary Fermenter and I add enough water to get a little below 4.5 gallon mark.



Knowing the Specific Gravity of the Mead Must is needed so I do not kill the Yeast before they get to work. Measuring up I ended up needing a little over a quart of water added to get the Specific Gravity to the target weight. I predetermined the target weight using a website dedicated to making Mead. The link is below.

BatchBuildr – MeadMakr



Starting SG is 1.126 so I'm expecting a 16-16.5% ABV if all goes well. Once there I will Rack off a gallon for Bon Temps splitting this batch out so He can backsweeten to his taste then the balance will be step fed up over 20% ABV. When the alcohol level is so high the yeast die off that's where I want mine.



I like Lalvin Yeasts the best and the KV1-1116 was purchased specifically to make Mead. It has a very high alcohol tolerance but preserves more of the fruity flavor than their workhorse EC-1118. At this time the Nutrients for a healthy Yeast colony is added to the Mead Must, before I add the Yeast.



The Must was still plenty warm at 101 degrees but I needed to thin it by 1/2 with warmed water then I add the Go-Ferm. Making wine I add the Go-Ferm to the rehydration solution at a higher temperature before allowing it to cool to 104 degrees then pitch the yeast but I'm starting out cool and will be patient for the Yeast to get rolling.



Now that the Yeast has a very healthy foam going I just dump the colony in right on top of the Honey Mead Must without mixing it in. Place the Primary Fermenter in the cabinet and watch the magic happen.



The Airlock on top is filled with Vodka so anything gets in is sanitized. Now we wait about 48 hours then feed the yeast colony more nutrients. Once more at around 72 hours (I have to check how much sugars have been consumed to determine exactly when) which should take us to the first "Dirty" Racking to use on the the Guru's terms. Dirty Racking transfers a bit of solids since they settled out once it is expected they will settle out again. We don't want to throw out good Mead. This batch will end up a 5 gallon batch but I have to leave room for the head of foam which will develop in the beginning. After the first racking I will add Lemon juice to mine to lower the PH gradually conditioning the yeast to it in the process till I get the Lemon-Honey balance I'm looking for.

This batch of Peach Wine made with Meridian Mississippi's Famous Mathis Peaches is really over the top good already. I drank what I couldn't bottle already. A few months to years in the bottle should send the flavor to the Moon good. The last Peach I made with store bought Peaches and it took 2 years in the bottle before being drinkable. Not much was drank, giving it more time. The quality of the Mathis Peaches is Superb.

This is just a quick video of the Airlock bubbling within 12 hours. I have this Mead in a cool spot in the house to slow fermentation and extract as much of the Honey taste as possible. We have the house at 65 degrees and it is 63 degrees where the fermenter is sitting. The bottom temp for KV1-1116 is 57 degrees so we are close but not too close.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ic3FkDlObeU

I’ve never tried any mead. Bon Temps honey looks good.

I have the Racks just about full. This years bottling went well.



Now a little break before the fermenting of last year's fruit production begins. I've got to say the Peach I made 3 years ago is so smooth now you can hardly tell it is High Test wine. Those last 19 bottles will be very much enjoyed and I learned something, time really improves the wine quality. I hope I have enough made to get so wines aged out to 4 to 5 years. Using premium corks and good practices should get me there.

We had that bumper crop of Sweet Treat Plurreys this past year. Freezing some for winemaking was a necessity. I thawed 2-1/3 gallons out to get my first Sweet Treat Plurrey wine off the ground.



I like these fermentation buckets with the graduations on the side. I ordered some XL Nylon fermentation filter bags over the summer because Pouring the Must into a filter in another bucket after the Primary Fermentation is complete adds too much oxygen in my opinion. I will just lift the bag by the loops and let the wines drain back into the same bucket.



Adding all the fruit was first once everything was sanitized, using a potato masher I mashed the fruit up to make access easier for the Yeast.



Not very appetizing looking but good looking for a beginning wine Must.



The wine making Yeasts are Grape yeasts so I almost always use a box of Golden Raisins to support a good fermentation. Here I chopped a box before adding to the Plurreys. On the stove I heated 1-1/3 gallons distilled water and added 6 pounds of sugar to make the initial syrup. Sweet Treat Plurreys are very sweet and not knowing how much trapped sugars existed I left the Starting SG at 1.112



I added twice as much Pectic Enzyme as called for as this seems to help my wines clear pretty fast.



Now that the Must is assembled and the Campden tablets crushed and added a good stir was given before topping with the lid so the Campden tablets can do their job killing the wild Yeasts. I will have more in 48 hours.

You need to open a Winery Roj. Fix stuff, and drink wine, come on down. What a great destination. It'd be bigger than Dollywood.