Coffee Wine

[RobHed]

Hope someone out there can assist - I am in the throes of making some lovely coffee wine and have transferred it from a fermentation bin to a demijohn after 5 days. Do I need a fermentation lock on the demijohn (not stated in the recipe) and does it matter that there is an amount of foam at the top of the wine, or will that disappear over the next 3 months until it is bottled ?

All assistance gratefully received.........

Cheers from Bristol

Rob

[MKG]

Yes, you definitely need a lock.

But beware coffee wine. In my experience, it is the foam producer from Hell. Don't transfer it until you're sure that the foaming is, at least, dying down. If you search for other coffee wine threads here, you'll see what I mean. Once it dies down, it acts just like any other wine.

As a matter of interest, how much sugar did you use?

Mike

[RobHed]

Yes, you definitely need a lock.

But beware coffee wine. In my experience, it is the foam producer from Hell. Don't transfer it until you're sure that the foaming is, at least, dying down. If you search for other coffee wine threads here, you'll see what I mean. Once it dies down, it acts just like any other wine.

As a matter of interest, how much sugar did you use?

Mike

Hi Mike - many thanks for your helpful and very informative reply. I strained the liquid through a muslin bag which seemed to get rid of most of the scum - I put the liquid into a demijohn about 3 hours ago and having just checked it, it seems that only a little of the foam remains. Hopefully it will all have gone by the time it needs bottling in 3 months ! I will certainly take your advice about not bottling it until the foam has gone. Incidentally, I have a wine filter that I have used for my apple wine and which made that wine absolutely crystal clear - perhaps I should use that for the coffee wine too ? Incidentally, I used 3 lbs (1.5kgs) of granulated sugar.

Many thanks, once again

Rob

[MKG]

Hi Rob ...

Sugar - that'll give you a 15% wine (quite strong), and it will probably ferment out completely. That's fine if you want a dry wine (but I think dry coffee wine tastes more like Mackeson than anything else). If you want the Tia Maria effect, you'll need to add more sugar AFTER all fermentation has finished and you've racked the wine off the yeast sediment. The safest way is to bottle it without additional sugar and add it when you want to drink the stuff. It can take up to an extra pound per gallon (2.5 to 3 ozs per bottle) to begin to get near to the syrrupy licqueur taste.

But it's great fun experimenting!

Mike

[chadspad]

MKG - thats very interesting to know. I made coffee wine about 2 years ago but its very dry and I had hoped it would be like tia maria. To add the extra sugar do you make a sugary syrup and add it to the wine or just had sugar and hope it dissolves?

[MKG]

Definitely make a syrup (equivalent of 1lb of sugar to 1 pint water) and add it slowly, tasting all the time (there's the fun bit!). If you do it with dry sugar, there'll always be the bit at the bottom which hadn't dissolved - but it does eventually, which is when you realise you've oversweetened your wine. Having said that, coffee wine can take an awful lot of sugar to approach the Tia Maria effect - almost to the point of the stuff crystallising on your lips.

Mike

[chadspad]

OK, will give it a go thanks