[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Fermentation on the homestead (Page 2 of 2)
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Quoted: Thanks man! Glad to share. Y'all know how I mentioned the airlocks show Helene passed close to me? Well, I'm logging pressure with an rPi and finally thought to actually look at the data in Grafana*. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/pressureDrop.jpg For perspective, here is the 8 days surrounding it: https://turtle2472.com/ar15/pressureDrop8Days.jpg Yeah, we had a bit of a pressure drop. I should have had a camera watching the carboys venting when the storm passed over. * This is uncorrected "raw" pressure, not adjusted for sea level or anything. Wow. That's a helluva drop. I started my first little ferment--FOOD fermenting--last week. Mine turned out really weird. (I made up the recipe myself, so that's why.  )
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Quoted: Wow. That's a helluva drop. I started my first little ferment--FOOD fermenting--last week. Mine turned out really weird. (I made up the recipe myself, so that's why. )It really was a massive drop when looked at by the raw data. I don't know how close the eye (or what was left of it by the time it got here) passed by us, but clearly it was CLOSE. Tell us about your food fermenting attempts? I'm genuinely curious what you were trying to do and any the process you did. I bought the lids I would need to be able to ferment in Mason/Ball jars so I hope to get there one day. For my wine, I did secondary racking last night. I didn't really want to... it just kinda went from, let me clean this thing, then I'll clean this thing... heck just fill the sink and clean all the things and remove labels from the last of the bottles. Might as well sanitize the third carboy so I'll be ready for then I do secondary racking on the first carboy of peach wine.... So after getting the third carboy and the transfer tools sanitized, I commenced to re-rack the first batch.  As normal, I try to minimize how much any sediment is pulled into the siphon. There was a pretty good bit of solids clumped up at the bottom of the carboy when all was said and done with the first batch. I don't normally need to do secondary racking, but with real fruit wines it is pretty much a must do thing.   While that was going I was also washing the dishes and stripping the labels off the last batch of old bottles I had stashed.  I cleaned the now-empty carboy from the first batch and sanitized it. Right before I did that though, I moved the second batch to my drain pan and stuck a board under it to help get the right angle to leave behind the least amount of wine.  Time to re-rack the second batch.   Done. I did wash, rinse and sanitize the second airlock this time though. It had SO MANY dead gnats in it. I didn't put vodka in the airlock this time, just sanitizing solution since it shouldn't really matter and I could get away with just plugging it, I figured I would give the chance for the carboys to vent if they want to. Some times, agitation kicks it up a little again.  Hours later, done. All bottles, tools and extra carboy were cleaned, labels removed, rinsed and sanitized.  I did manage to get a sip of the wine from the siphon after completing the transfer and it tasted amazing. It will be better once back sweetened, but even as dry as it was it was awesome. The aroma from both was delectable. |
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Quoted: It really was a massive drop when looked at by the raw data. I don't know how close the eye (or what was left of it by the time it got here) passed by us, but clearly it was CLOSE. Tell us about your food fermenting attempts? I'm genuinely curious what you were trying to do and any the process you did. I bought the lids I would need to be able to ferment in Mason/Ball jars so I hope to get there one day. For my wine, I did secondary racking last night. I didn't really want to... it just kinda went from, let me clean this thing, then I'll clean this thing... heck just fill the sink and clean all the things and remove labels from the last of the bottles. Might as well sanitize the third carboy so I'll be ready for then I do secondary racking on the first carboy of peach wine.... So after getting the third carboy and the transfer tools sanitized, I commenced to re-rack the first batch. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3881.jpeg As normal, I try to minimize how much any sediment is pulled into the siphon. There was a pretty good bit of solids clumped up at the bottom of the carboy when all was said and done with the first batch. I don't normally need to do secondary racking, but with real fruit wines it is pretty much a must do thing. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3883.jpeg https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3885.jpeg While that was going I was also washing the dishes and stripping the labels off the last batch of old bottles I had stashed. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3886.jpeg I cleaned the now-empty carboy from the first batch and sanitized it. Right before I did that though, I moved the second batch to my drain pan and stuck a board under it to help get the right angle to leave behind the least amount of wine. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3887.jpeg Time to re-rack the second batch. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3888.jpeg https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3891.jpeg Done. I did wash, rinse and sanitize the second airlock this time though. It had SO MANY dead gnats in it. I didn't put vodka in the airlock this time, just sanitizing solution since it shouldn't really matter and I could get away with just plugging it, I figured I would give the chance for the carboys to vent if they want to. Some times, agitation kicks it up a little again. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3889.jpeg Hours later, done. All bottles, tools and extra carboy were cleaned, labels removed, rinsed and sanitized. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3893.jpeg I did manage to get a sip of the wine from the siphon after completing the transfer and it tasted amazing. It will be better once back sweetened, but even as dry as it was it was awesome. The aroma from both was delectable. Ohhhh...I'd probably love the dry! |
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So this was some cucumbers. I had a few at the end of the season. Very late. And some of them had gotten pithy on the ends. Online I found a recipe for a sweet-ish relish using oversize cucumbers, and I did open-kettle canning with those. That turned out wonderful. I had a pint of chopped cucumbers left from that, and I tried a ferment. Basically salt and water. I don't have the correct lids to off-gas, so I just left the lid loose and set it on a paper towel in the cabinet. That worked fine. the *weird* part was my attempt at a spice mixture. DISCLAIMER: This was very late at night, I was tired, and there might have been wine involved. I put in some sugar, some peppercorns, and a few other spices that might go in a "sweet pickle" mix. ( We don't eat a lot of pickles cuz uxb won't eat them. So making a canning of, say, traditional dill-type flavoring would be a waste, and I don't have a "pickling" recipe other than my grandmother's--which I love but he won't even try. None of this is directly relevant cuz the ferment is not really "pickles" but that's why I was flying into the mist with regard to flavoring.) Anyway... So these cucumbers were peeled cuz of the age. And that's the thing. I had no idea whether they would be edible and was mostly just trying the technique to see if I understood how to ferment. I follow a homesteading channel online that did a series on ferments this past summer, and I basically did what she said. It worked. I got fermented cucumber weirdness. They were/are edible for certain. Do I hate them? No not really. Do I like them? No not really. BUT...By gum I fermented something other than sourdough. 
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I bottled the first batch of peach wine tonight. It went overall smooth, though I did end up with one "oops" in there. Not a real problem, just not sure how I'm going to solve it. I started off with sanitized gear and containers. I then added the Campden Tablets (crushed), Potassium Sorbate and cane sugar to a bucket.   Then transferred the wine into the bucket.   Since this was heavy on the sediment, I paid close attention on the end of the transfer to minimize solids more than normal. Thankfully, the racking did a great job and it wasn't bad at all. Very little had to be left behind!   I then mixed it all in really well with the paddle bit.  Now bottle with the bottler tip.   The oops was I managed to run the corker down hard enough to send the cork into the wine. I have no idea how I'll be able to get the cork out without losing the bottle. I'm not going to expect to get the cork out at this point and assume I'm losing the bottle. For now though, the finished product!  I did sample it and it is amazing! I mean, REALLY amazing. I have the partially full bottle in the fridge now so my wife and I can enjoy it tonight. After the wine settles in the bottle from the agitation I'll get a picture of the clarity and share it here. |
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Quoted: I finished my last bottle of cherry mead a couple of weeks ago. That last bottle was about 1 year old and it was the smoothest of the batch. This thread really makes me want to start another big batch to be ready for next year's holiday season. That's the issue with mead...I always want last year's mead
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I haven't bottled the second batch of peach wine yet but I will say that it is great. It will be better agin a little. It needs that time to mellow out a tad bit. We are still working through the Apple Wine batches so we aren't in a rush to drink the peach stuff. Tomorrow I might go ahead and bottle the second batch. I need to count my bottles and make sure I have enough first though. 1Andy2, you should totally make another batch! Ferment all the things! :D |
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Quoted: I haven't bottled the second batch of peach wine yet but I will say that it is great. It will be better agin a little. It needs that time to mellow out a tad bit. We are still working through the Apple Wine batches so we aren't in a rush to drink the peach stuff. Tomorrow I might go ahead and bottle the second batch. I need to count my bottles and make sure I have enough first though. 1Andy2, you should totally make another batch! Ferment all the things! :D Yep, going to. Need to get some more wine bottles. I'd like to make about a 6 gallon batch this time (I've got a couple of 3 gallon carboys, I want to try separate yeasts side by side to see if I can tell a difference). I've got a bunch of swing tops but I don't really like using them for anything but cider. I had a few go flat within a couple of months. |
I forgot to add the picture of the first batch of peach wine. Today I grabbed a bottle out of my wine cellar and got a picture: It is really clear! I can't wait for this to age... but we really should. It is great now, but it will be even more amazing after a month or more. |
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Quoted: I forgot to add the picture of the first batch of peach wine. Today I grabbed a bottle out of my wine cellar and got a picture: https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_4215.jpeg It is really clear! I can't wait for this to age... but we really should. It is great now, but it will be even more amazing after a month or more. Looks really good, man. I've never tried to make peach wine but I might have to put that on my list. I planted some apple trees a few years ago just to see if it would work in South Texas. First harvest this summer so I turned it into hard cider. They also had a smoking sale on cosmic crisps at HEB so I bought a bunch of those for a single variety batch. Link so as not to hijack your own thread: https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Cider-from-whole-apples-/171-2732360/ |
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Quoted: Looks really good, man. I've never tried to make peach wine but I might have to put that on my list. I planted some apple trees a few years ago just to see if it would work in South Texas. First harvest this summer so I turned it into hard cider. They also had a smoking sale on cosmic crisps at HEB so I bought a bunch of those for a single variety batch. Link so as not to hijack your own thread: https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Cider-from-whole-apples-/171-2732360/ Thanks! I looked through your thread and subscribed to it too. Good info in there. We have a few apple trees, but not enough to get good fruit for a real batch of wine. We aren't far from Hendersonville NC that is something of the Apple Orchard king of the hill. I could go get fruit or juice from them, but I'll stick with the stuff more locally from the store for now. Eventually our trees will be better producing, we just aren't there yet. For my second batch of peach wine, I'm having to hold off on bottling it until next week. The flu seems to be passing through here. While I can sanitize everything, it just isn't worth it when I can wait it out. |
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I finally bottled the last batch of the peach wine tonight. I feel like I was over the flu enough that I wasn't coughing and snotting up the place. I started by doing dishes again and then figured I might as well go ahead and bottle also.  Then crushed the tablets and added the Potassium Sorbate and cane sugar to the transfer bucket.    From there it was just siphon out from the carboy into the bucket and mix. I couldn't find my drill so my son had to bring me his. That was annoying, but not really a problem.  I left most of the sediment, but thankfully there wasn't much left when I got done siphoning.  After mixing in the bucket, siphon to the bottles and cork. This went smooth with no issues again.   This batch is really clear even though it is still a little aerated from the mixing. I'm very pleased especially considering the peaches it came from.  The flavor is awesome. I actually think this batch might be a tad better than the first batch even though all the peaches came from the farm at the same time. |
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Yeah, I' do hope this one doesn't fade into the archives. I was just talking to my wife about getting some more supplies so we can do a regular batch of Apple Wine again. It will be well aged by the time we get to it. It really is so much better with some age to it. In the past I've made it as we ran out so it never really gets to age. I actually have one bottle I made back in Va Beach still. We were going to have it when we had another baby, but that didn't happen (yet), is now it will likely be for our first grand baby. We aren't even close to that, so it will be REALLY aged by the time we get to it. I actually need to re-cork it I think. It is a real cork, not synthetic. It is starting to crumble. |
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Quoted: Forgive me if a silly question, but can a florida guy make a dry wine? Sweet wines and sangria have never done it for me. Absolutely. Don't back sweeten is the first thing that comes to mind. You can also limit the amount of sugar used in the initial fermentation process. My first batches were not sweetened and I fermented with only 1/4 cup per gallon instead of a pound per gallon. If you want to test it, get some one gallon jugs to ferment with and start small. Even a kit like this one would have everything you needed to get started with two one gallon jugs and airlocks. |
| I got my wife to buy more juice for my next batch of apple wine. I'm going to be letting it age for a bit and then start the process on it. Right now I still have something like 8 dozen bottles that are aging. My thought is, they always taste better when aged a bit, so if I keep my stock up, then they can all age more. |
So I just bought a set of 1.5 Gallon glass jugs for testing out fermenting different types of wine. I work in gallon increments so it will make the conversion math for upscaling simple. Going with 1.5gal also gives room for additives and venting without impacting the airlock! 
They are on sale ($38.99), but not a great sale though they are exactly what I had in mind. Airlock included for anyone who doesn't have one already. |