Strawberry 1090

[CrealCritter]

Still blowing bubbles after 8 days. I see some tiny seeds made it past my filters that are floating on the top now. Smells so good coming out of the air lock. I guess when I rack for the first time I'll have to figure out some kind of filtration. I'm very surprised to see seeds floating on top.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm very surprised to see seeds floating on top.

What? You don't like crunchies in your wine?

 

[CrealCritter]

I racked the Hootenanny Hooch. Daughter, son in law & daughter in law all came in for dinner as I was racking. I had 2 gallons plus a 1/2 gallon mason jar to cold crash for topping off. But once everyone, including my wife had to have a little glass I ended up with less than a quart to cold crash.

Hydrometer reading was about 1.025, so it is still pretty sweet and we all agreed it tastes a lot like spiked punch. It's fermented to about 8.5% alcohol right now. I capped and air locked the gallon jugs and placed in a dark area to finish fermenting and clear some. I will take another hydrometer reading and taste test, in about a month.

Anyways... So far, so good, fingers remained crossed.

 

[CrealCritter]

What? You don't like crunchies in your wine?

no sure don't.

 

[CrealCritter]

Video of secondary fermentation. Not knowing any better when I made up this wine. I was supposed to add pectin enzyme, Potassium Metabisulfite (campden tablets) and yeast energizer. Thankfully I have a buddy who knows about this stuff and he set me straight. I added all that when I racked into the secondary and the yeast took off chowing down again. Yeasts are such interesting creatures.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BynXZeQHU7x/?igshid=knhxu53ol08a

 

[CrealCritter]

I did an experiment cold crashing the quart jar by sticking in the refrigerator. The quart was from the bottom of the primary so it was the worst as far as cloudy goes. But after several days it cleared out pretty nicely.

The two gallon jugs are still fermenting nicely. I can see lots of bubbles rising and blowing bubbles through the air lock. Its hard to tell how long it will take for fermentation to complete. Once they stop, i'll pull a hydrometer reading to ensure the gravity is 1.000 or below and then I'll need to rack it again, top off and let it sit to clear more.

Instead of using finings, I may just just add potassium sorbate to sterilize the yeast and cold crash, then bottle. I don't know exactly how, I'll approach this next step before bottling. I have more reading to do. Thankfully I have a friend who can help guide me along. I do know the more its racked, the clearer it becomes naturally. But this is hootenanny hooch (not so fine wine)