Cranberry Fruit Wine Base -

Ok, so I'm not ready yet to crush my own fruit. Forgive me. I have successfully done 27 bottles of Shiraz from a wine kit, and the Pinot Noir is ready for stage 2. So as my primary fermentor is empty, I started wondering around and ended up with Cranberry Fruit Wine Base from Homebrew Heaven. 96 ounces makes 5 gallons.

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What I don't know - I have a 6 gallon carboy. Can I make 5 gallons in it, and all will work out? Or should I buy 2 wine bases, and use 1 1/6 of them to fill the 6 gallons up? Any thoughts?

My neighbor is giving me 4-5 pounds of figs soon, so that will be my real first experiment. Using Jack Keller's website for recipes. I have a

2 gallon primary and 1 gallon carboy ready to go.

Again, you'all are just great for offering suggestions. It helps us novices.

Learned a lot in this forum, DAve

Reply to
DAve Allison
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For fermentation, there is no problem with fermenting 5 gal's in a 6 gallon carboy. The head space will be filled with CO2. After you rack it to bulk storage is where you will have to decide what to do. You will need to put it in something that is close to it's volume. Probably get some one gallon jugs or a 3 and a couple of 1's.

Another option: Cranberry makes a great wine but it can be overpowering by itself. You might consider making it up to 6 gallons by adding 2 cans of frozen Welch's Niagara white grape juice (not more than that) in a gallon of water to make up the 6th gallon. This would add some vinuosity and slightly cut the sharpness of the cranberry without distracting from the cranberry character. Just a thought.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

Reply to
DAve Allison

Dave - Maybe I'm missing something obvious here, but wouldn't it be simpler to just buy a 5-gallon carboy? I have some of each -- I use the

6-gallon size for kits, and the 5-gallon size for the 5-gallon pails of frozen juice from Brehm, as well as the occasional batch of fruit wine. That makes more sense to me than buying a second tin of cranberry, and using just a small part of it. It may be possible to be too rich or too thin (not that I'm at risk for either) but you can't have too many carboys!

Doug

Reply to
Doug

I have started the cranberry wine from 2 - 96 oz cans of cranberries (juice and fruit) and making 6 gallons (doubled the 3 gallon recipe on the can). I added the two white grape concentrate cans as suggested below. The primary fermenter is bubbling nicely. I noticed in the instructions when the specific gravity reaches 1.010 or

1.000 (originally at 1.100 and now in 4 days down to 1.080) I am to add 6 tsp Bisulfite solution (6 tsp Sodium Bisulfite in 1 cup of water). Reading Jack's website, it appears potassium metabisulfite works just as well, and I have that. Any one know if you use the same proportions? 6 teaspoons just like the Sodium bisulfite? I think what I'm doing in this step is stopping the fermenting process. Am I correct in that thinking?

learn> Thanks, Ray, for the ideas.

Reply to
DAve Allison

Reply to
DAve Allison

Reply to
A. J. Rawls

Reply to
A. J. Rawls

One other comment, commercial wineries are not allowed to use Sodium Bisulfite as a wine addative. The must use Potasium Bisulfite. The difference is that we really do not need to add more Sodium to our diet. Sodium Bisulfite is a little cheaper but when you are only using 1/4 tsp per

5 gallons that really is irrelevant. But you may want to keep the Sodium Bisulfite around for sanitizing. They both work but it is cheaper.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

Thanks, Joel and Ray. I am much smarter now. I am off to find proportion of Sorbate i will need. thanks to all.

DAve

Ray Calvert wrote:

Reply to
DAve Allison

Happy I could help.

And because user here is annoying me by continuing to whine, I took the time to find the answer for you, as I'd rather spend my time helping you than rushing down to help someone with an annoying habit of whining about stuff that isn't work related. :)

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Jack suggest 1/2 tsp of Potassium Sorbate per gallon of wine. This needs to be added with potassium metabisulfite(or sodium metabisulfite).

Joel

Reply to
Joel Sprague

Thanks so much, Joel. I am reading and re-reading the link below. Very very helpful. I am now set. Gosh, this is cool to know what it is I am doing. Not just doing kits!

the > Happy I could help.

Reply to
DAve Allison

One of the great things about this hoby (besides the wine that is) is that after 30 years you will still be learning. It never gets old.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

That is true. I just realized I cut the oxygen off the must and the yeast has stopped - the hydrometer reading is staying at 1.080 and not dropping after 5 days (originally 1.100). I re-read the instructions to find I was to cover with a cloth, not a lid. sigh. So I am using Jack's website to "restart fermentation". I'll the newsgroup know how it goes. smile. DAve

Ray Calvert wrote:

Reply to
DAve Allison

Reply to
DAve Allison

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