It certainly would not hurt anything to bulk age for longer, but with 6+
gallons, why not go ahead and rack 5 gallons for bulk aging and bottle the
rest for sampling. Heck you might like it young where I do not.

Ray

"DAve Allison" > wrote in message
. ..
> 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.
>>
>>