Rasberry Wine

Hi, There are a bunch of different approaches to Raspberry wine and most have their advantages. I personally dont shoot for the "correct" TA benchmark for Raspberries. Some purists have argued against adding any water whatsoever, others have argued for and against pouring hot or boiling water over the berries is to set the color. So to get to a point in case you didnt think I had one.... One of the more important steps to me is the initial handling of the berries. I put the berries into a fine meshed nylon bag that is fine enough to keep in the seeds on the berries unless you are squeezing them out. I mash up the berries which I have poured hot water over. (mostly because mine are frozen most of the time) Make whatever adjustments you think are necessary, add sulphite and pitch the yeast the next day. Stir and gently "massage" the straining bag daily until you remove it in about a week. When you remove the bag let it just hang over the must for a couple of hours and dont squeeze it out and force seeds into your must. My basic recipe calls for 3 1/2-4 lbs of Raspberries per gallon and it is quite flavorful and there is no problem getting good long lasting color. I generally finish my Raspberry semi-sweet which helps to balance the high acid. Ending TA last batch if I recall was around .9 TA. Just use the very best fruit you can get, and if you have never had a true Raspberry wine- dont expect it to taste like a fresh picked Raspberry. It is nice wine that gets better with age HTH John Dixon

"BooBoo" wrote in message news:euKKb.102169$pY.51976@fed1read04...

One more thing, I have been looking at country wine receipes and see that they say to add things like Energizer, peptic enzyme, nutrient, tannin, sugar and acid blend. They call for exact amounts of each. Don't most of these depend on the fruit you are using. A rasberry from the grocery store would be very different from a fresh picked one. I would think this would mean you should use different amount of these ingredients for the different fruits.

Is there a site that explains each of these ingreedients and tells when to add them and how to test to see how much of them to add. All of the wine making site I have found assume you understand this stuff.

You are getting into a very large area. It is one thing to blindly follow a recipe and yes the quantities are based on the fruit used by the person who developed the recipe. It is another to modify or design you own recipes. If you want to modify recipes you can do it equally blind or you can pick up several books that go more than superficially deep into the art of wine making and learn things like titration and pH and other topics.

As winemaking is an art, not a science, recipes only go so far. I would recommend you pick up some basic books on wine making such as those by C.J.J. Berry, digest them. This will help you understand what is really meant when things are discussed on a site like this. Then if you want to move ahead you look at books like that of Duncan and Action.

As I look over the above it sounds rather pedagogical. I don't mean it that way.

Ray

Yes, and this is the problem with the recipe approach, rather than a stylistic approach (see

for more). If you're just interested in making a bit of wine or you have a lot of experience with a particular fruit then recipes are fine, but a stylistic approach would ensure better consistency and reliability otherwise. It's important to remember that recipes should be seen as guidelines only. Once you go beyond "roughing it" you start to get into more tasting (verifying results through taste and past experience) and technical analysis (acid titration, pH, potential alcohol, residual sweetness, etc). (This is where the science comes into wine - contrary to Ray I think winemaking is *both* a science and an art and I think it's pretty clear that the entire winemaking establishment verifies this, particularly the last 20-50 years of scientific work that has furthered wine quality and knowledge considerably.)

Yeast nutrient and pectin destroying enzymes are generally used at particular levels unless conditions indicate otherwise (e.g. poor fruit quality, high pectin fruit). Most times you can just add the rough amounts recipes ask for and get away with it.

Sugar addition is dependant on the current sugar level within the fruit, the desired alcohol level in the wine, and the desired residual sweetness of the wine. Most winemaking websites and many books (including those Ray helpfully suggested) have info on this. See

for example.

Acid measurements can be made by acid titration (search for "acid titration" threads on this ng and you should find plenty of info). Additions are made based on the level desired.

Since it's not easy for home winemakers to measure tannins, additions are usually made based on taste (including previous taste experiences).

Desired levels are based on experience and an understanding of the way in which acid (and other components) influences wine character. In all cases it's a good idea to taste the fruit and the must and adjust to taste. With experience, this kind of adjustment can become reasonably accurate.

For an example of a stylistic approach (including info on such things as acid levels) try

(Scroll down to the Blackberry for e.g.).

HTH! Ben

Ben,

Thanks, lots of good info here. I think this is exactly what I was looking for. I prited all of this out and will read it tonight.

Mike

for more). If you're