Kiwi wine???

Eric, go to

and scroll down to "Kiwi Fruit Wines" for two recipes.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

try

for recipes Get a good basic book (stanley anderson, the art of making wine; or c.j.j. berry) and read it. Rule #1 everything must be clean (dishwashing soap & hot water) and sanitized (SO2) at every step.

Eric Deaver wrote:

"Rack after 3 months, top up and refit airlock, and repeat after additional 3 months."

I am planning on 5 gallons in a glass carbouy for my secondary fermentation vessel. My primary is a plastic 5 gallon bucket. DO I really leave it for 6 months in the carbouy? No problem just wanted to confirm. Also it says "top up" does that mean bring it back to 5 gallons with boiled, cooled water?

TIA,

Eric

Always a guideline, not a directive. In general, when the primary dies down to a gentle bubble, or 1.020 SG (whatever comes first), rack and strain into a carboy within an inch of the bung. The idea is to protect the wine from oxygen. Prior to this point, the intense CO2 from active fermentation kept O2 away. You will also strain out any pulp or solids at this point, leaving you with a nearly liquid must. For the time being, leave the carboy alone. Feel free to obsess over it by checking it twice (or more) each day.

When the wine reaches dryness and fermentation ceases, you will eventually see no bubbles in the airlock or at the surface of the wine. Yeast will begin to die and drop to the bottom. You will notice a compact layer of lees, probably about 1/2" thick. When you think it's at that point, wait a week. Sometimes a very small yeast population is left to eat up the tiny remaining sugar. Takes a while. If you see ANY bubbles, it's still working.

After the above, rack it off the compact yeast lees. If you are careful, you will only lose a tiny amount of liquid in racking. It takes practice though. The best way to not worry about top-up materials (i.e. water dilution) is to make more than 5 gallons (or whatever your target amount is). I make 5 gallons plus a 3L container. At the racking I'm discussing here, I have plenty of top-up liquid from the same batch. I end up with a racked 5 gallons that can be topped up perfectly. Whatever is left in the extra container, I transfer to a smaller one (1/2 gal, quart, 750mL, 375mL) and use it the next time.

Topping up is a big issue for me. You can either plan ahead that you will dilute by a certain percentage, and start with extra sugar and acid accordingly, or you can try at all costs to avoid dilution as described above. Anyhow, once your wine is in the carboy, racked and topped up, just find a new hobby for a while (or make more wine). My last batch of kiwi took a few months to *almost* clear, and I had to fine it. But that's another story.

Roger Quinta do Placer

How do you handle the 3L batch? do you have completely separate fermentation vessels and do you add yeast to this batch as well or is this simply 3L of fruit juice? That being said, would it hurt to just juice up 3L of kiwi juice from additional fruit and freeze in small batches after sterilizing it (with heat??)? You could then add just the pure juice as a top off and not worry about dilution. How do you handle this aspect? Do you basically have a parrallel batch of wine fermenting along side the 5 gallon carbouy for topping off purposes?

I would love to hear it as I suspect I will have to deal with this issue as well. When I made the apple wine batch, it took forever to clear. Tried bentonite and that did not work. Finally threw in some pectinzyme and viola! cleared overnight. Still had a little sediment in the bottles but I think I will wait a lot longer with this batch before bottling.

Thanks again.

Eric

The goal is to have all of the must undergo the same process and be identical. It all starts life together in a big enough primary. It gets separated into two containers only when it is strained into secondary. I have done the "withhold pure juice to top up" method and I don't recommend it. You will introduce more sugar to a declining yeast population, which can extend the fermentation greatly. Just have the secondary take place in 2 or more containers, that's all. It's the subsequent rackings that need the topping up, and you'll have the reserve to deal with it.

Essentially, your total must volume shrinks as you move along, but you deplete the 'extra' container to fill the 'main' container. Anything left over gets put into smaller containers. The final "resting place" for aging is the main container (5gal, 3gal, whatever). That is also your final volume of wine. It's a pain only when you don't have the containers! I learned that eventually, and now have 5 gal, 3 gal, 2.8 gal, lots of 3L, 1/2 gal, quart, and of course wine bottles to draw upon.

Regarding the clearing, a dose of "Claro KC" finings worked great. The kiwi is the only batch I have ever had to fine, and I don't quite know why. We'll see if that happens again. I was sure to dose it well with pectic enzyme this time.

Regards, Roger Quinta do Placer

Aaaaaack! Boiled water??!!! Unless you have serious biological issues with your tap water, you don't need to boil the water! Just use regular tap water. No, you don't need to use distilled or bottled water unless you have serious mineral problems with iron in your tap water. Yeasts are like teenagers, they like lots of junk food....... Joanne

Roger, I suspect this is why you had a clearing problem, but can't confirm it. It would be nice if you made two side-by-side batches, chopping one and pulping the other and see if you get the same results.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Paqge

Actually, the citrus juicer product hasn't cleared yet, but that's THIS year's effort. It was the simply hand-squeezed version from last year that was the troublemaker. I used a mesh bag too, so who knows. It remains to be seen whether the juiced product will clear better; that's at least a month out at this point.

R