Hi all,
Winemaking is a new hobby for me this year and over the summer I started four 'county' wines off (plum, elderberry, blackberry and vine prunings), following recipes in Berry's 1st steps in winemaking. All four are now 2 or 3 months on and have virtually come to a standstill in terms of observable fermentation (having all had very excitable early stages, particularly the darker ones which made numerous bids for freedom over the initial week or so). I've had a quick taste of each this weekend...
...without exception they are all undrinkably sweet. Now, having read a few of the posts on this forum and it quickly became clear that the BErry book is infamous for recommending too much sugar in recipes. So, it may be that this is how they're supposed to taste. However, I felt my teeth disolving just bringing the glass to my lips - the blackberry tasted not disimilar to undiluted ribena. My question is: is there anything I can do at this stage to reduce the similarity to kiddie's squash...or am I going to have to put this down to experience and start again next year? Each recipe I think called for 1.5kg per gallon. What quantities should I be using in the future? a kilo? less? Any advice gratefully received! Thanks.
Winemaking is a new hobby for me this year and over the summer I started four 'county' wines off (plum, elderberry, blackberry and vine prunings), following recipes in Berry's 1st steps in winemaking. All four are now 2 or 3 months on and have virtually come to a standstill in terms of observable fermentation (having all had very excitable early stages, particularly the darker ones which made numerous bids for freedom over the initial week or so). I've had a quick taste of each this weekend...
...without exception they are all undrinkably sweet. Now, having read a few of the posts on this forum and it quickly became clear that the BErry book is infamous for recommending too much sugar in recipes. So, it may be that this is how they're supposed to taste. However, I felt my teeth disolving just bringing the glass to my lips - the blackberry tasted not disimilar to undiluted ribena. My question is: is there anything I can do at this stage to reduce the similarity to kiddie's squash...or am I going to have to put this down to experience and start again next year? Each recipe I think called for 1.5kg per gallon. What quantities should I be using in the future? a kilo? less? Any advice gratefully received! Thanks.