1 Gallon Cranberry (October 31, 2011)

[jeskremer]

Day 1
3# frozen cranberries (they have been sitting in the bags in the freezer for a year...if there are any off flavors, this may cause it)
1/2 c white grape concentrate (also quite old and in the refrigerator for a couple of years. The recipe calls for red concentrate)
7 pts boiled water
5 c sugar (slightly less than the 5 1/2c called for in the recipe so alcohol content is a bit lower)
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/2 tsp energizer
1/2 campden crushed

Note: I boiled the cranberries inside of the straining bag so that they would pop or be easier to mash.

[jeskremer]

24 Hours
Tested the SG. It was at 1.090 (This was even with 1/2 c less sugar than called for!)
Tested acid content - 0.6%

Added 1/4 packet of Red Star Pasteur Red yeast.

[jeskremer]

DAY 10
Finally, ten days after adding the yeast, the SG was 1.035. Transferred into the secondary and added 1 1/4 c cold tap water.

[jeskremer]

One Week after Transfer to Secondary
Racked and added three cups cold water because of all the sediment that was removed with the lees. Very sweet and granular - almost like the sugar was not dissolved.

After reviewing wine problems for homemakers online, this seems to be a common problem. The following information is from http://www.howtomakehomemadewine.info:

Another problem is overly sweet wine, this is the most common problem experienced by winemakers, old and new. You can correct the problems of an overly sweet wine in two ways. One way to fix a wine is to restart fermentation and let the yeast convert your residual sugar into more alcohol. Another way to fix this problem is to blend your sweet wine with a wine that may be a little too dry. To restart fermentation you can add water and yeast nutrient to the must, and let it dissolve. Then use some fresh yeast that has a higher alcohol tolerance and sprinkle it on a sample amount of wine, ½ a cup is good. When fermentation starts on your sample, you do this process to another glass of wine, about three times. When fermentation is going strong, add your samples to the overly sweet wine, stir in another ½ teaspoon of yeast nutrient and put on the airlock. You will want to rack when the fermentation process has stopped and let it sit for 30 days with the airlock back in place. You will rack yet again, and then you should re-bottle your wine. This wine will have higher alcohol content but the sweetness will be gone. Another cause of sweet wine is the lack of nutrition for the yeast, it is a good idea to put ½ teaspoon of yeast nutrient for every gallon of wine you are making, and you want to do this even if the recipe didn’t tell you to. Another note is that if you correct the sweetness of the wine using the bottle of dry wine, you will have two sweet wines. If you are not a fan of sweet wine you can give it away to someone who likes sweet wine or you should consider the restart fermentation system.

[jeskremer]

3 Months After Starting
Wine was very "fizzy" on the tongue. Degassed with the plastic drill beater and then a manual bottle degasser. Added 2T Wine Conditioner to sweeten just a bit. Wine tastes OK. Maybe just a bit of a rubbery flavor.

Added 3/4 c cold tap water (non-softened, city water) to top off.

[jeskremer]

Seven Months After Starting
Tastes OK - difficult to distinguish cranberry flavor...a stronger alcohol odor. Degassed extremely well. There was quite a bit of CO2 in the wine. Added 3/4 cup cold tap water. Airlocked.

[jeskremer]

Seven and a Half Months After Starting
Bottled. Alcohol flavor was gone. Tastes of cranberry. Degassed with bottle degasser.

[jeskremer]

Six Months After Bottling
Tart wine. Added two tsp sugar in the bottle. Shook/degassed. Still tart/sour, but do not want to sweeten further. Will set in fridge for a week and may add some cranberry extract/juice.