Tomato Wine Anyone ?

[imp]

All I can recall is using a blow torch to burn off the spines, then cooling them and peeling a lot of them. Purply red hands, too! They made a great jam though.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

The picture of the prickly pear wine was taken back in Oct 2016, so the wine is much clearer now. I haven't tasted it yet. It was made basically like the tomato wine, and as all wine is made. I had to add a lot of sugar. It is no fun picking prickly pear fruit and juicing it. There are gillions of seeds in a prickly pear fruit and they are juicy like a pomegranate and make a huge mess. I hope it was worth the effort to make wine out of it.

Charley , have you used any clarifier ?
There are two kinds that I know of . One is made from seashell. t comes in liquid form. and the other is a natural clay called Bentonite. I have used both in the past. This time I have ordered Bentonite. It is much cheaper.

[Salsacharley]

I don't use clarifier. I begin with 6 gal carboys and rack 2 to 3 times, ending with 5 gal carboys which clears the wine quite well. I once used clarifier before bottling when I couldn't get the wine to clear. Ironically that was merlot grape wine from a kit.

[Worth1]

Back in the winter of 1989 I was working in a granite quarry outside Fredericksburg Texas and all I had to eat for lunch everyday was prickly pears.
That is no joke
Before that all I had to eat for lunch was pecans while harvesting them.
Today all I have had to eat is a thin sandwich and some crackers.

I am coming home from work everyday and sitting in front of this computer taking a boring OSHA 10 hour course on safety till I start to get close to failing the quizzes (SP?).
Then I go to bed get up at 4 and try to do it some more and then go to work.
While I am taking these on line tests I have to pass I am drinking sangria.
This has been the most god awful week in a long time.

Worth

[imp]

PM sent

[Gardeneer]

I got my supplies delivered .
I will get started with it in about 8 hours from now, first thing in the morning. Make it the second thing ! I will have to have my coffee and breakfast first.

I have already installed airlock adapter on the bucket lids.

[Gardeneer]

UPDATE: All systems go !

7/29, 10 pm started the fermentation.
At this moment 10 pm, 8/02/17 (, after 4 days ) it is fermenting actively.
Once the active stage is done (probably a week from today) I will filter ,to get the sediments out and then let it continue slow fermentation , maybe for 4 months, maybe longer. The I will add clarifier . I don't know yet when I will bottle it. But before that I will add Potassium Sorbate to kill the remaining yeast and I will add some Elderberry juice as flavoring.
Oh, yeah ! I will add some chunks of oak . But I have to find out what kind of oak I should use.


PS: I checked the MUST with brix indicator , before adding yeast . It showed that it will produce a wine with 10 to 11% alcohol.
That is perfect.

[Father'sDaughter]

Just curious - the way I learned is that wine is filtered right before bottling for clarifying and stabilizing purposes. If you want it to continue fermenting/developing, what's the reason for filtering everything out so early in the process?

[Worth1]

White oak.

Worth

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

Just curious - the way I learned is that wine is filtered right before bottling for clarifying and stabilizing purposes. If you want it to continue fermenting/developing, what's the reason for filtering everything out so early in the process?

The first stage of filtering, right after the active phase of fermenting is to get rid of big solids. By doing that , the wine won't be quite clear. So add clarifier before bottling , to get rid of very small floating particles.
Most Often the initial fermenting is done in a bucket (home brewers ) then transferred into carboy , to further brew and age. Some people leave it in carboy for years before bottling.

White oak.

Worth

Got lots of it. I,ve already added some very fine chips. Actually, screened saw dust , when I was making 3/8" strips , to place in the bucket/carboy at the second stage.

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

The first stage of filtering, right after the active phase of fermenting is to get rid of big solids. By doing that , the wine won't be quite clear. So add clarifier before bottling , to get rid of very small floating particles.
Most Often the initial fermenting is done in a bucket (home brewers ) then transferred into carboy , to further brew and age. Some people leave it in carboy for years before bottling.

I always just rack off the solids when going from primary to secondary, and then rack off the sediment when transferring to the bottling bucket after fermentation and clarifying is done. My friends who got more seriously into wine making invested in a filter, but filtering never happened until right before bottling. Meads never got filtered as reportedly it strips out too many of the subtle flavors. And with beer you of course want some yeast left in it if your bottle conditioning.

My last three gallon batch of Joe's Ancient Orange Mead has actually been hanging out in a carboy for about four years now. I just keep topping up the air lock (and drawing a little sample now and then). It's one of my best batches, and one of these days I'll get around to bottling it.