ah. Good information. With 6 1/2 gallons of cranberry wine using Jack's
recipe (modified w/ 2 cans of cranberry fruit wine base from Homebrew
Heaven (www.homebrewheaven.com) which has real cranberries in it), if I
might want to wait 12-18 months, maybe i should bulk store it for more
of that time. I started it in late september. This last racking has been
for 2 months, I had planned on stablizing it in January.
Would you say leaving it in the carboy after stablizing for another 12
months is good for it? then bottle and wait another 6+?
Or if it doesn't matter, i'd just as soon bottle and reuse the carboy.
smile.
DAve

Ray Calvert wrote:
> Just a few comments on Jack's cranberry wine.
> Nice balanced wine but very strong cranberry taste. I found it takes at
> least 12 to 18 months to become worth drinking and improves beyond that.
> The cranberry flavor is a bit strong for most men but it seems women to
> really like it. If possible, I like to open a white grape wine at the same
> time and splash a bit ofyes, if each in the glass as a bend. But that is me. ;o)
> Next time I make it I plan to cut back on the cranberries and add some
> Welch's Niagara.
>
> Ray
>
> "Adam Preble" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>DAve Allison wrote:
>>
>>>Good to know. And the tip on soaking upside-down hadn't occurred to me.
>>>
>>>However, when I did the cranberry wine from Jack's recipes, I did the hot
>>>water over the fruit into a primary plastic bucket, not the carboy.
>>>
>>>BTW, my 6 gallons of cranberry will be bottled in January and hopefully
>>>ready to sip by next Thanksgiving. You on the same calendar? At this
>>>point, mine is real clear. I bought some cranberry flavoring, since it is
>>>rather dry.
>>
>>I don't have a bucket yet, but it's come up with everybody that I've
>>mentioned my procedure to, including Jack Keller himself. I guess if I
>>continue to play with real fruit, I'll have to buy one.
>>
>>I'm not in a hurry to bottle this wine. Well, I can see myself getting
>>impatient, but I'm pretty sure I can wait this time around. I'm still in
>>primary fermentation, 9 days into it. I will have to transfer the must
>>soon.
>>
>>The plan was to do a little bit of bulk aging before bottling, especially
>>since I expect I'll have higher than average crud--this is my first
>>attempt at using fruit itself. I figured I'd transfer soon, have it
>>finish off primary fermentation, and rack it into secondary right before
>>Christmas. Somewhere in the process I plan to stick it in the kegerator
>>at 45 degrees to settle out most of the big junk.
>>
>>Thanks for the heads up on the dryness. I'll probably look for frozen
>>cranberry juice to add more flavor if I have the same problem.
>
>
>