Raspberry Wine (2021 Version)

Summer is just about here and we're getting close to ripening a lot of new fruit on my large raspberry patch.  I have at least 100 lbs of fruit left over from last year so, to make room for this year's crop, it is time to brew up another batch of Raspberry wine - this will be my third attempt (read about 1st and 2nd).

I'll be following the same basic procedure as the last couple times.  I'll start with 2 buckets of frozen raspberries which should get me close to 5 gal of wine, add sugar to get the starting gravity somewhere close to 1.100, ferment on the fruit, then move to a secondary fermenter with some oak for months of aging (maybe something close to 11 months).  At the end I'll back sweeten the wine, which will have dried out to below 1.000, to something close to 5 brix or 1.020 - this helps the balance of the wine quite a bit.

The last couple I've oaked at a fairly restrained level (a couple ounces).  This time I plan to up that slightly (maybe up to something like 6 oz) to see how it does with more oak character.  I also intend to shoot for a bit higher ABV than last time - maybe something more like 15% ABV than the 12-13% I got before. 

This is a pretty easy and fun process to make this wine.  Raspberry are so expensive so most people will typically water down their wine a lot more than I am here with 10lbs of fruit per gal of product.  I think using this amount of fruit creates a product with a great intensity of flavor such that it's worth the time and effort that went into growing and harvesting it.

Recipe Details:

• 54 lbs of raspberry
• 13 lbs of table sugar
• 0.75 gal of Spring water
• 5.5 tsp Pectic Enzyme
• 2 packets of Red Star Premier Rouge Yeast
• Extras
• 10 campden tablet

Results:

• OG:
• 1.110
• Post-Fermentation FG :
• 0.996
• Back sweetened FG:
•  1.020
• ABV:
• 13.79%

Brewing Notes:

• 5/29/21:
• Moved 54 lbs of frozen fruit to 2 brew buckets

• Added pectic enzyme and campden tablets to the fruit

• Dissolved 10lbs of sugar in 3/4 gal of water.  Added this equally to each bucket

• Poured 3lbs of granulated sugar over the top of the fruit to offer the fruit a bit of protection while it thaws and to also see how well it dissolves in the released fruit juice (I'm interested to see if a procedure where no water is added could work).

• Let this thaw over night
• 5/30/21:
• The fruit has thawed and reached basement temperatures (low to mid 60s)
• Stirred in the small bit of sugar that hadn't dissolved over night

• Rehydrated my dry yeast in lukewarm water
• Pitched the yeast into the fruit and gave it another good stir

• 6/19/21 - The wine fermented out pretty quickly (maybe a week) and left the solids forming a cap.  I skimmed the cap off today and transferred to a glass carboy for aging.  I added 3 campden tablet with the transfer.  Aging this with 6 toasted oak sticks (0.75x0.75x6 inches).  The gravity is 0.996 at this point.

Skimmed off lees

• 6/11/22 - Transferred this into a bucket fermentor in preparation for packaging - left a lot of solids behind.  Added 3 crushed campden tablets for this transfer.  Added 3.5 lbs of sugar to this one (did 3 lbs last time and 2.25 the time before).  Measured the gravity as 0.996.  I has a very potent flavor - sharp alcohol and pretty strong oak.  I don't think I'd want to drink this as is - hopefully the back sweetening will help.  I'll give this a month to age with the extra sugar and to drop clear again. 
• 7/24/22 - Bottled today.  Measured the gravity as 1.020.  Collected about 5.5 gal which netted me 57 bottles.