Hi folks - I'm new to these groups, but not _totally_ new to brewing. If you would be so kind and are able, could you answer a couple of q's for me? TIA!
Firstly, I just made/am making about 4 gal. of a mixed fruit and flower wine, not from a recipe, rather from an 'idea'.
In the wine flavour-wise are (seasonal) redcurrants, blackcurrants, whitecurrents, raspberries, and (not seasonal or local!) a few semi-dried figs (for added body/balance), flower-wise (again seasonal) are (wild) elderflowers, (wild) rose petals, and a few sprigs of (cultivated) lavender. I used a 'super yeast' and extra sugar, as I wanted a strong wine - I fermented it completely on the pulp. I know the best way would have been to serially feed the wine with the sugar, but I didn't have the time to access it regularly enough (planning a wedding and other things).
When fermentation appeared to have finished, I 'orally' checked the wine for sweetness, and it appeared to be to my taste (dry), also, even at this stage, the flavour was _exquisite_ - clean, crisp, strong(ish) and fruity - the flower notes just there enough to back up the fruit, and not overpower it, excellent acid/tannin balance (IMHO).
So, I set up a jam sieve-on-stand over a beer fermenting bucket and proceeded to separate out the wine and pulp, squeezed the bag when finished, added camden tablets, and racked into glass demijohns to clear.
Whe the wine appeared clear, I tasted it, and it was alcoholic syrup (my worst nightmare!). Slowly it dawned on me - there must have been a lot of sugar left in the fruit pulp ;-(
So, anyway, I left the wine/syrup/thing there and went on my honeymoon.
Arrived back to find, to my pleasant surprise, the wine had started fermenting again! Whoo-hooo!
It has since stopped and cleared, and while it is now somewhat drier, it is still more than a little too sweet for my tastes. My question is, is there a way to ferment some of the remaining sugar out of it even though I used a high tolerance yeast in the first place that appears to have reached its limit?And if so, how the hell do I do it?!?!?
This wine has a gorgeous colour and flavour, and I'd truly love to be able to rescue it from it's sugary hell.
My other q, a brief one is, do any of you good folks possess a recipe for a spicy weiss beer, along the lines of Hoegarden/Heffeweissen?
My wife is looking at the possibility of brewing one as her next project.
Again, TIA for you help, if you are able to offer any! ',;~}~
Shaun aRe