what to do with country wine?

[bigbob]

right this afternoon saw me very bored once again and so after sterilising the demi i threw anything that looked fermentable into a pan and boiled away before sieving and throwing in the demi, topping up with water and chucking in some bread yeast (worked well enough for the tc). ingredients were (as far as i can remember) loads of homemade rasberry jam, generous amount of honey, bit of marmalade, slug of maple syrup, lemon juice, orange juice, apple and mango juice, one mashed up plum, demerara sugar, white sugar, that dark sticky brown sugar, a load of big crystals of unrefined sugar, one cup of really stewed tea and alot of hope. I didnt measure out anything at all, just did what looked ok. sg came out at 1085 so shouldnt be unreasonable. anyways my question is more what should i do with it once it's fermented out (which i fear may take a few weeks if not months) i don't know whether to bottle into my collection of 75cl swing tops and carbonate into a strange conserve/fruit champagne, or whether to continually rack off and then stabilise (which i believe is to stop the yeast working using campden and potassium sorbate......never done anything like this before, just a couple of turbociders and a kit brewer really) before bottling, obviously now without priming. or ofcourse trying a couple of each. i've done probably 3.5-4litres. anyways, any advice would be much appreciated. cheers

[EoinMag]

If it's gonna be high in alcohol then it'll take a year or so for the alcohol to not be so warm and to meld in with the other flavours. Rerack every three months or so and add some campden, only add sobate if you want to finally stop it fermenting completely to sweeten, if you wish to let it ferment out to dryness then don't bother with stabilising.

[bigbob]

cool cool, so i think i'll just re-rack a few times and let it ferment out. i suppose that gives me more time to figure out whether to leave still of fizzy......also for conditioning would this high alcohol country wine type thing do better in the fridge or at room/garage temperature?

[simple one]

Cool temps are best for conditioning wines. Around 14C, but a few degrees either side is not going to be bad news.

I would rack only to remove yeast and lees. Once the build up of yeast is greater than 5-6mm then rack. Then a final rack once it appears the yeast is no longer falling out of solution, Then replace airlock with solid bung and bulk mature for about another 4 months or longer before degassing bottling. Keep checking on it though as a burst of activity might make your demijohn go bang.
Personally I don't use campden tabs or pot sorb, but thats more to do with sticking stubornly to the way I have been taught, rather than it being of much/any benifit.

[bigbob]

without trying to sound too clueless...how exactly do i degass the bottle?

[simple one]

There is some good posts on youtube. Its all about being either inventive and cheap, or going and getting a wine saver for a few quid. There are loads of methods.

This is a good summary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMwq3TpkqCE

These are a few good methods:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjL80hXk ... re=related

There are other stronger pumps that can be used. They tend to come from Sweden and come delivered in brown paper bags.

[bigbob]

fair doos, those videos are pretty good. still not sure whether to make it sparkling to make life easier. probably do a couple of bottles still and a couple sparkling.......as for the swedish pump i think thats more appropriate for the 'cock' ale thread.....

[EoinMag]

Time is the best way to degas a wine, if left under airlock bulk aging you won't need to degas, but if you want to drink it fast like a kit wine then degas. I say don't bother, just leave it bulk aging for longer.

[simple one]

Agreed with above.

[bigbob]

fair doos, the trub thats come out of this stuff is bloody massive already! looks like i'll lose nearly a litre to that alone. i think with this one i'm going to rack off soon ish (because of all the yeast poo) and then bottle half in swing tops and prime before stashing away somewhere that i'll forget about them then i'll wait and bottle the other half when it dropped almost all of the yeast and again forget about it until the latest moment possible. cheers for your help guys

[simple one]

Your probaby better off racking to another large vessel. It seems odd but usually if there is a lot of crap at the bottom of the demijon there will be a lot more in solution. If you rack to bottles there will be a lot of non compacted yeast in the bottom of your bottles. You should rack at least twice really. Top up with water or a wine of similar colour.

edit- not a sweet wine.