This week's wines

This week I started 3 new batches of wine: Raspberry jam, persimmon, and apple.

My wife was wanting some champagne and so I thought I would make half of the 5 gallons of apple as still and the other half sparkling.

We have two wild persimmon trees in our yard which still had some ripe persimmons above deer height and so I picked about 3lbs to try my first gallon of persimmon wine.

Lastly, I had been wanting to try a raspberry for some time and so decided to make a gallon of that as well. The jam prices are quite a bit higher than the blackberry jam prices but it may be worth it if it is as good or better than the blackberry wine.

Reverse Seared Burger

Grilling burgers the other night and decided to try a new method that I had been reading about..."reverse sear". The reverse sear method is exactly what it implies, searing at the end of the cook instead of the beginning. I have to say that this method produced the juiciest burger that I have ever cooked on my big green egg.

This method can be used for both burgers and steak and utilizes the "low and slow" method of cooking which tenderizes and holds in most of the juices during the cook and the sear at the end creates that beautiful caramelizing of flavors that everyone loves so much. From what I have read and contrary to popular thought, searing does nothing to seal the meat and hold in juices and in fact extracts juices from the meat.

1/4 tsp of fresh ground pepper

1/4 tsp of garlic powder

1/4 tsp of onion powder

1/4 tsp of basil

Mix all of the above into the burger and form patties. Cook burgers at 225 F for approximately 10 mins. per side or until the internal temperature is approximately 140 F. Remove burgers to rest and open all vents so that temp gets up to searing temperature of approximately 600 F. Brush with oil and then salt and place burgers back on grill to sear for approximately 3 minutes per side.

Credit to amazingribs.com and meathead for this recipe which I adapted to the Big Green Egg.

Blackberry Muscadine #005

Blackberry/Muscadine Blend Batch

• (7lbs) of Muscadines frozen
• (9) 18oz. jars of Great Value seedless blackberry preserves

1. Place frozen muscadines in 5 gallon bucket
2. Cover with water and add 1/4 tsp of k-meta
3. Let muscadines soak in k-meta for 10 hours

Following Morning....

1. SG reads 1.040
2. Added enough sugar to bring SG to 1.090
3. Added yeast nutrient for 5 gallons.
4. Added 2 tsp of Acid Blend
5. Create yeast starter and feed every 4 hours

Around Midnight added yeast starter to must

Continued...

Blackberry Batch #004

Blackberry Jam Wine Batch

• (16) 18oz jars of Great Value seedless blackberry preserves
• (2) tsp of Pectic Enzyme
• (5) gal of Well water

1. Empty Jars into 5 gal pail and rinse jar by shaking half jar of cold water and dump into pail.
2. Add Pectin and let sit for 10 hours

Following Morning...

1. SG reads 1.80
2. Added enough sugar to bring SG to 1.095
3. Added yeast nutrient for 5 gal.
4. Created yeast starter and feed every 4 hours

Around midnight added yeast starter to must

Continued...

Blueberry and Mojito racked

Racked the Blueberry and Mojito today. The blueberry has turned out excellent and has a character much like a cabernet or merlot. SG tested 1.000 and no sweetening will be necessary at all. I will let it clear one final time and bottle.

The Mojito turned out very nice too and will be a good summer wine but doesn't hold a candle to the Blackberry or Blueberry.

Blackberry Bottled

Today I bottled the blackberry and also racked the blueberry. Blackberry is another keeper; I think the blueberry will be as well but it is still a bit young and needs to age a bit. Also I am thinking a little sweetening will bring out more blueberry flavor.

Blackberry degassing

Degassed, Sorbated, and SO2'd the bulk aging blackberry wine today.
1/4 tsp of k-meta
1/2 tsp of Sorbate per gallon (minus 1/2 tsp for the 5th gallon)
Stirred and vacumed the carboy

Blueberry wine

Started a blueberry wine using 15lbs of frozen blueberries purchased at Sams:
Makes 5 gallons

• 15 lbs.  blueberries  (frozen in 3lb bags)
• approximately 9 lbs. sugar (1.090 SG)
• 1 can white grape concentrate to add extra body
• 2 tsp. acid blend
• 2.5 tsp. pectic enzyme
• 3 tsp. yeast nutrient 
• 1 tsp. yeast energizer (blueberries can be difficult to start the ferment)
• 1 tablet per gal. potassium metabisulfite
• 2 tsp. potassium sorbate (at finish if sweetening)
• 1 tsp. tannin
• Yeast (Montrachet)

1. Added frozen berries to 5 gallon primary and covered with enough water to cover berries and crushed
2. dissolved about 8 pounds of sugar in a small amount of water and added to primary then added water to just short of the 5 gallon mark (stirred well and tested SG)
3. Added 1 can of Frozen grape concentrate and dissolved another pound of sugar to bring SG up to 1.090
4. Added K-meta , stirred well, covered and let sit over night
5. Next day stirred again and added pectic enzyme, tannin, acid blend, YN, and YE.
6. After 5 hours I poured the yeast slurry/starter onto the blueberry must which had been sitting covered.
  Used the yeast slurry from the mojito that I racked that morning to make a starter. I added a 1/4 tsp. of Yeast nutrient and 1/8 tsp. of energizer and a tbs. of sugar to the slurry and sprinkled new yeast as well. The idea was to avoid a stuck ferment caused from the blueberries natural anti-yeast characteristics.
   I had about 3/4 gallon of fresh steamed blueberry juice in the fridge that I had used part of to flavor a Melomel and so I will use this for topping off after the first racking as well as a flavor pack addition to the finished wine.

Sub-lime Mojito

Started a Mojito style wine which will be labeled "Sub-lime". This will be a mint/lime flavored takeoff on Lon's famous skeeter pee lemon wine but with 60 oz. of 100% lime and 32 oz. of lemon concentrate along with a little mint for a light summer drink.

I decided to prepare this wine with a yeast starter instead of a slurry: Hydrate yeast in 1/4cup water and in a separate container mix 2.5 cup water with 1 tablespoon sugar and a pinch of nutrient and a dash of the lime sugar syrup.

1. Invert 16 cups sugar in 30 oz of lime juice for 30 minutes.
2. Allow inverted syrup to cool and add to primary along with other 30 oz of lime juice and water to 5.5 gallons.
3. Stir and check SG (I am looking for alcohol on the light side so 1.055-1.060)
4. Add 3 tsp of nutrient, 1 tsp of energizer, 3/4 tsp of tannin. (Same amount to be added again later)
5. Let sit for 24 hours stir and whip in oxygen and add yeast starter.
6. The remaining 32oz of lemon juice will be added when SG is approximately 1.040 along with the remaining nutrient and energizer.

I have decided there is probably little benefit to ferment the mint in the primary and so have decided to make a mint sugar syrup which can be used for back sweetening as well as mint flavor at the time of bottling. In this way the mint flavor can be controlled.

New Batch of Blackberry Jam

Just started a new batch of blackberry jam wine: 16 18oz jars seedless preserves 4 of 8 tsp Acid Blend 5 1/8 tsp Tannin 5 tsp Nutrient SG read 1.095 without any sugar so none was added. 3 tsp of pectic liquid was added night before. Water to 6 gallons. Montrachet.