#31 – Cranberry

Bottled (24) 375ml and (7) 750ml (from ~4 gallons) at 11.5% ABV on 17.Mar.2013.

I had always intended on making a batch of cranberry wine, but for whatever reasons I never got around to it.  But last year on Thanksgiving Day, I was at the supermarket and I discovered that large bags of cranberries were on sale!

The original intent was to make a 3 gallons, but the resulting must was too thick, so I had to thin it out somewhat.  I had another surprise after I racked to secondary…  I caught a whiff of that rotten egg smell — hydrogen sulfide.  Fortunately after a quick look online I figured out what to do, and it cleared up within a day.

The end result is a very delicious, well-balanced wine…  Nice color, aroma, and of course just the right amount of tartness you’d expect from cranberries.  It’ll go well with this year’s Thanksgiving meal — if there’s any of this batch left!

Update 14 August 2014 — as time has passed, this wine has produced quite a bit of sediment which likes very much to persistently stick to the side of the bottle (when it’s stored on its side)…  Next time, I’ll try some bentonite clay and a dose or two of patience before bottling!  🙂