2018 Coffee Port
November 2018
Back in July I pre-ordered this coffee dessert wine from American Brewmaster. The kit arrived in late September, but my 3.5 gallon carboys were both full … so I had to wait to start it. This past weekend I finished bottling everything in production, so a carboy is free to start this kit!
BTW — In the past these kits were labeled as “port”, but I suspect that the makers of real Port complained, so all such wines are labeled as “dessert wine”. However, as a home wine maker I’m free to call it what I want, so I call it “port”.
Ingredients
| Kit | R J Spagnols Coffee Dessert Wine Kit |
| Bentonite | yes |
| Yeast | 2x Lalvin EC-1118 |
| Sulfite | yes |
| Sorbate | yes |
| Fining Agent | kieselsol and chitosan |
Method
| These kits are 100% juice so there is no water added. Poured juice bag into the fermenter. Stirring with a drill mounted rod, slowly poured the bentonite in and stirred for 1 minute to ensure it mixed.
Sprinkled both packages of yeast on top. My guess is that due to the high initial SG, two packets are used to ensure fermentation starts on a timely basis. However, given that it’s EC-1118 (which will ferment a rock if given the chance) I’m not concerned. Wiped the inside of the fermenter (above the must) with a paper towel soaked in Kmeta, to remove any residue. |
11/26/2018 SG 1.106 |
| Racked into a carboy | 12/05/2018 SG 1.014 |
| Racked. This wine did NOT want to ferment out. The temperature kept going up-and-down and by the new year I decided to just let it set. It was emitting enough CO2 that I wasn’t worried about oxidation, so I ignored it.
Checked the SG today and it looked like it was down enough that I figured it was done. Added sulfite and potassium sorbate; stirred for 2 minutes, reversing direction every 30 seconds. Added kieselsol and stirred for 1 minute. Added chitosan and stirred for 1 minute. |
02/02/2019 SG 0.995 |
| Racked. The directions say to add the F-Pack at bottling time, not at stabilizing time, so I followed the instructions.
Stirred and bottled. |
03/03/2019 SG 1.042 |
Notes
| Yield | 30 split (375 ml) bottles |
| Alcohol | 15.1 % |
| Residual Sugar | 13% |
| 11/26/2018 | Starting these kits is anti-climatic. Pour the juice bag into the fermenter … stir in bentonite … sprinkle yeast on top.
This kit had one oddity — the F-pack does not get added until just before bottling. I’m curious why that is. |
| 01/01/2019 | This wine does not want to ferment out. Checked the SG and it was 1.010. Stirring it produced a lot of CO2 so I let it set. Figured I’d check it in a month. |
| 03/03/2019 | Tasted the wine at bottling — even green it’s very tasty. I have high hopes for this one. |