I finally got around to kegging the Philly sour wine. I was going to bottle and cork it as usual.. but after having a quick taste on rack day, I decided this would be great carbonated.
I’d say moderately sour with good body. The Concord really played with the Blackberry nicely. 1.096 OG to 0.996 FG is what.. 13%?
Gonna give it a week or so of the gas and see how it feels. But right now is friggin great. Better tasting notes coming up soon.
I won a bottle of wine base at one of our meetings a ways back. And I’m looking to do more “experiments” so I grabbed a packet of Philly Sour yeast to use with it.
I guess my plan is to let the Philly yeast do it’s souring, then pitch the 1118 to chew it down.
Doing the full 5 gallons. So thats the gallon of base plus 4 gallons of water. But I subbed out 3/4 gallons of the water for 3/4 gallons of grape juice. Just for another layer of flavor..plus it might help the souring part of the Philly.
I did do some nutrient at pitch. But there is usually some decent lag time with the Philly because it does two phases. Phase one is the souring, then after that the yeast part takes over and starts the fermenting. And that might take a day…. Or two. So I won’t start the rest of the nutrient program until the ferment actually starts.
My water out of the tap is 50F right now, so I warmed it up to 75F where I will be fermenting at. After getting everything mixed I had an OG of 23 Brix or 1.096. So if everything goes as planned we should be looking at a 12%ish wine.
Cider mead and wines need a bit of help in the nutrient dept to both get started and finish out. Luckily any homebrew store with have just what you need.
The approach is similar in wine, cider and mead. But because of differences in gravity and the varieties of yeast chosen, there are sometimes slight changes in procedure.
Ideally you would use both Fermaid-K and DAP (diammonium phosphate) But that can be hard to find. If you cannot find Fermaid-K, doubling the amount of DAP will greatly help.
These amounts are for 5 gallons
(currently working on a standard plan for using Kviek yeast which is a whole other animal)
Wine and Mead
Day 1- Pitch yeast as normal. After 8 hours stir in ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
Day 2- Stir 5-10 minutes to release Co2. (be careful if using a carboy. Think mentos here)
Day 3- Stir in ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
Day 4- Stir to release more Co2
Day 5- Another ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
Day 6- Stir
Day 7 One more ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
-Your yeast is now on its own to finish its primary ferment. 2-5 weeks is normal
Cider basically the same just shorter (ale/cider/wine yeast..Not Kviek)
Day 1- Pitch yeast as normal. After 8 hours stir in ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
Day 2- A good stir and ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
Day 3- Another stir and ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
Kviek yeast Cider– (in progress) The thing with Kviek is the speed at which it works and the amount of nutrient it requires.
Kviek can take a 1.080 cider down to .999 in 3 days. But it needs much more nutrients to stay clean.
In 3 gallon batches I have been using 2 teaspoons of DAP at pitch, and then another teaspoon 8-10 hours later. Even only 8 hours after pitching you are at full on, violent ferment with Kviek. So just chucking dry DAP into a carboy would not be advisable unless you have a mop ready. A bucket type fermenter or something with a wide mouth or a few gallons headspace is your friend here.
I have not seen a reason to try and stir this because its so fast. I am thinking any stirring after the first day would probably start to cause oxidation. So I am already questioning that 8th hour addition. But I have had no ill effects yet.
I will be starting a Wine made with Kviek this week as well. This 2 teaspoon at the start and another a few hours later will be my starting point as well.
Stay tuned
9stripe Brewing 