I finished my first batch of Lemon Wine the other day and have been drinking a few bottles (hic). Man that stuff is good! Actually it is a hard lemonade, but it is really good. Took a month from start to finish.

I started another 5 gallon batch today--30 lemons, 12 C sugar, 5 tsp nutrient, 5 tsp tannin, 2.5 tsp pectinase---Montrachet yeast.

Skeet,

I've contracted my friends to harvest for me, two 5-gallon pails of lemons from my trees on January 9th, to make some lemon wines for them.

I use a 5-gallon pail full of lemon fruits to make 5 gallon batch of lemon wine. The soluble solids are quite variable, so I use my hydrometer to achieve 1.095 specific gravity by slowly adding sugar. I can compute exactly how much sugar to add to a given volume of liquid, with its initial SG reading to achieve the desire SG before I start fermentation.

I will start clarifying my Yuzu wine soon, the fermentation is done. The Calamondin broth is still bubbling away. Started two 5 gallon batches of pomegranate wines, still bubbling away at the moment. Also started honey-cinnamon wine, this one takes forever to finish, started in October and still bubbling away. Will also clarify my Chardonnay, Cabernet, and Merlot, 5 gallon batches each. Will still have to make 2 batches of lemon wine. Will soon scoot over to CostCo to buy a cartload of pineapples to make two 5 gallon batches of Pineapple wine. Pineapple wine is being craved for by my office mates, especially the ladies. Will make lemon-pineapple wine too.

Can't believe that I won't have enough blood oranges again for wine making! My wife and kids warned me not to touch those. Will have to graft more blood oranges.

Joe

Wow! You are a busy winemaker. I have 5 & 6 gal batches of blueberry wine pretty much finished. I am already drinking my first batch of lemon wine (actually hard lemonade--about 7% ABV)--I love it! I have my 1 gal batch of kumquat bulk aging now along with 3 gal of muscadine wine. I may have to make a 5 gal batch of kumquat since my wife cannot keep up with production.

For your lemon wine, you use a 5 gal bucket of lemons--to make 5 gal of wine? Do you peel the lemons (saving the zest of course)?

I zested, peeled and quartered 30 for the recipe I am using. I have not made but about 30 to 40 gallons in the past year, but I will probably make more in the coming year--it is so much better than what I have been buying. I too am limited by space--I only have 3 carboys.

Joe, do you have a yeast preference for citrus wines? Do you make your calamondin/kumquat wines dry or sweet?

Skeet,

It depends on what style of wine that I plan to make. Port style wines, i would use the heavy duty yeast like EC1118 or liquid Wyeast that have tolerances of greater than 18% ABV. The making of port style wines are perfect during the winter when citrus abounds, the cooler temperature increases the tolerances of yeasts to alcohol. So I make most of my port style wines during the winter season, at least one batch is headed that way and another is the regular wine, so you always read my posts about a couple of batches of wine, simply because it is also the season for port. Having the heavy duty yeast would extremely reduce my addition of brandy to make port style wines, and thus not lose a lot of money.

Mostly for the regular wines, and the final wine is light colored, I prefer to use Montrachet yeast. For the other fruits, I would use Lalvin 71B, D47, or 1122. Sometimes, I go visit a friend at UC Davis enology and ask for a still un-named settling yeast and use those for cherries and peaches. I love the settling or sedimentary yeast as they form very compact lees and very clear wines that don't need clarifying. My problem is that I can't maintain those yeast culture indefinitely as I have some big time gaps when making wine during the course of the season. But I have also a standby of several other yeast types in the standard dry packets, waiting for experimentation. I don't fix myself with one particular yeast, I love to see the interaction that is outside of the regular recommendations, and see what the real problems are, and what can be done about them if I encounter such problems. But that would require me to dig my computerized notes on the more than 150 kinds of wine that I already made.

At any rate, for beginners and novices wanting to start wine making as a hobby, I always recommend the EC1118 as they seldom fail. And I use it too for very unfamiliar special type of fruits or plants. then I readjust what yeast to use the next time around. One of these days, I might publish the results of the wine making hobby from my perspective, and the taste test results from my friends, which I always conduct every year.

The main thing is that if you consume your fruit wines within one to two years, you can detect differences in the type of yeast used (excepting the obvious ones such as the Flor sherry which imparts unique flavor). But after 3 years or more, the differences in the wine taste that can be attributed to yeasts disappears. Beyond 7 years, the varietal differences disappears, you wouldn't be able to differentiate between a merlot and cabernet for example. Beyond ten years, you wouldn't be able to differentiate the taste between fruits, such as a zinfandel wine and a pomegranate wine. White wines tend to converge to almost the same flavor, regardless of fruit types, the same with blush and red wines, the original fruit flavors would only become subtle hints, if the wines haven't oxidized by then. Only the port style wines maintain their unique fruit flavors, even for more than 100 years.

If you intend to store wine for a long time, increase the acidity and alcohol content in your recipe, and for that you would need to adjust the yeast or use a series of yeast culture, ie, montrachet then followed by premier cuvee after a week of fermentation, then adding sugar to push the ABV higher. So that's why most of my wines are above 14% abv.

Always, have fun, even when making wine.

Joe

Thanks Joe, I think I'll try the EC-1118 on the batch of kumquat wine I am starting.

Making wine seems like a great (and fun) way to use up extra fruit. I've made a fermenter and water lock using a 1 gallon apple juice container but that really doesn't make much (perhaps good for experimentation). I'm curious what equipment the winemakers here use.

brad, it is great to know others like you that love to make wine. Yes, one of the main purpose is to not waste the fruits produced. Most fruit wines, if they have the proper acidity and ABV, would become better the longer they age. So that is one excellent way to store your fruits.

Most of my equipments include four 6-gallon food-grade quality primary fermentation buckets. At most I ferment three at a time, always leaving one empty for the transfer. I have about 20 pieces of 5-gallon glass carboys which serves as my secondary fermenter and aging containers, settling, and racking. I always have a couple of them empty. I also have a floor corker for the bottling, a ferrari model wine bottle filler, and have several filtration setups, from the VinBrite gravity filters to whole house filters that I got from Home Depot or eBay. And of course, some nice quality printers for the labeling. I have several decanters and food grade siphon tubings. Some wine chillers, Erlenmeyer flasks for the yeast culture or rapid multiplication. I also have several models of hyrdometers, acid titration kits. Many containers for various wine additives, yeast nutrients, etc. I also have three 55-gallon oak barrels for the times when several friends have excess grape juice from Napa valley and I ferment for them and produce the boring style commercial quality dry wines. Mind you, the easiest thing to do is to make grape wines, and it speaks for itself, as it is the most profitable commercially. Fruit wines are more challenging, especially the citrus wines. But the regular grape wine drinkers, I think they are missing out on all the REAL fruit flavors out there. The fruit wines have real flavor while the poor grape wine drinkers have to contend with "imagining" the citrus flavors... Taste my fruit wines, its the real thing! Anyway, I love grape wines equally as well, but have enjoyed equally well all the other real fruit flavors that fruits have to offer.

From experience, two one-gallon glass jugs, a bucket, some stainless steel cookware, stove, an air bubble trap, a strainer, siphon, weighing scale are probably the minimalist things you need to make high quality wines.

I can scale my production to using several thousand gallon fermentation vats, and have designs for them already. But I don't think I'll ever get there, so many things to do, so little time.

Skeet
How did that 5-gallon batch of lemon wine turn out? I plan to make lemon wine this week ,so would you recommend any changes in your recipe?
Karl

I had a glass of lemon wine last night! It is still good and I will be making another batch soon! I will use the same recipe.

I actually made mine only about 7% alcohol and I like it (I can drink more). I like mine sweetened a little. You can do this by killing all yeast and adding sugar before bottling, but I just let it go to completion and add a little sweetener when I open it--I use splenda most of the time.

> You can do this by killing all yeast and adding sugar before bottling,
If you don't kill the yeast, it makes lemon champagne!

Wheres my bottle ?