Indygunworks
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- Joined
- Apr 22, 2014
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So I have possibly made a few mistakes but I don't think its anything to major. I just want to put my mind at ease that I am still on the right track.
Here is what I have done so far. I picked a little over half of a 5 gallon bucket. Trimmed all the petals off and boiled them. Steeped them for three days, and boiled them again to make sure nothing nasty made its way into the tea. This was about 5 gallons worth. I poured it into the primary through a sock which pulled out almost all of the petals.
I initially added around 8 pounds of sugar, some yeast nutrient, a few teaspoons of acid blend. the juice of 4 oranges and 3 lemons. This gave me an approx. reading of 1.060 but I don't know what temp that was at. I let it go in the primary for about two weeks with a "red star" white wine yeast I got from amazon.
After that I racked it off into the glass carboy. and attempted to degass it although I don't know how successful that was. When I tasted it here it tasted very dry, but had a pretty decent flavor but it was somewhat carbonated, and I think some of the suspended yeast flavor was still coming through but it tasted like it had lots of potential. that "carbonation" is why I decided to try and degass. However against my better judgment I began second guessing my original amount of sugar because it was WAY under what most of the recipe's I made had called for, so I mixed up another approximately 2 pounds in some water, and added it. Capped it, and it bubbled about 5 bubbles a minute for another week or two, now its down to less than a bubble a minute and I can see an obvious accumulation of lees.
I am debating what my next step is. rack it off back into the bucket clean the lees out then put the wine back so it can age w/out being on the lees?
A lot of what I have read also talks about this wine only needing to age a week or two. I am not sure how long I REALLY need to leave it in the secondary before I bottle.
I do plan on back sweetening before I bottle. With proper stuff added of course.
So in summary.
Did I mess anything up by my attemps to degass or when I added the extra sugar? Should I rerack and remove the lees. What should my aging process be?
Here is what I have done so far. I picked a little over half of a 5 gallon bucket. Trimmed all the petals off and boiled them. Steeped them for three days, and boiled them again to make sure nothing nasty made its way into the tea. This was about 5 gallons worth. I poured it into the primary through a sock which pulled out almost all of the petals.
I initially added around 8 pounds of sugar, some yeast nutrient, a few teaspoons of acid blend. the juice of 4 oranges and 3 lemons. This gave me an approx. reading of 1.060 but I don't know what temp that was at. I let it go in the primary for about two weeks with a "red star" white wine yeast I got from amazon.
After that I racked it off into the glass carboy. and attempted to degass it although I don't know how successful that was. When I tasted it here it tasted very dry, but had a pretty decent flavor but it was somewhat carbonated, and I think some of the suspended yeast flavor was still coming through but it tasted like it had lots of potential. that "carbonation" is why I decided to try and degass. However against my better judgment I began second guessing my original amount of sugar because it was WAY under what most of the recipe's I made had called for, so I mixed up another approximately 2 pounds in some water, and added it. Capped it, and it bubbled about 5 bubbles a minute for another week or two, now its down to less than a bubble a minute and I can see an obvious accumulation of lees.
I am debating what my next step is. rack it off back into the bucket clean the lees out then put the wine back so it can age w/out being on the lees?
A lot of what I have read also talks about this wine only needing to age a week or two. I am not sure how long I REALLY need to leave it in the secondary before I bottle.
I do plan on back sweetening before I bottle. With proper stuff added of course.
So in summary.
Did I mess anything up by my attemps to degass or when I added the extra sugar? Should I rerack and remove the lees. What should my aging process be?
