Made my little batch last night, 3.5lbs of clover honey and one 32oz bottle of Cranberry/Grape juice rounded out with some distilled water and used some Lalvin D47 yeast and a little yeast nutrient for my 1 gallon batch. This morning it seems to be bubbling.

I've never done any form of wine before, only beer. How long does fermentation typically take? From what I gather wine typically ferments quickly and then you just stabilize it and let it age, correct?

Prickly pears would fit that description and they have the cool reddish purple color.

I was looking to do a Blood wine and a Romulan Ale here in the near future. If you don't mind, could you shoot me over the recipie that you used and do you have any suggestions as to how the Romulan Ale? From what I can gather from the tv shows and movies its more like a wine than anything else, so I figured I might try it as a mead since they generally more abv than a normal wine.

Mixed up the honey and juice well, topped off with distilled water then pitched the yeast. At 60 days I racked into secondary and tasted, already quite drinkable. Tastes like a very potent blush wine. Day 94 I added Sorbate and Metabisulfite, day 95 I back-sweetened with about 4 tablespoons of honey. Day 96 I bottled.

Totally just a recipe I made up in my head and it seemed to have worked quite well. Not sure if it will be any kind of prize winner but it certainly is drinkable and potent.

I think it totally works as bloodwine, the cranberry gives it a little bite that I think Klingon beverages should have. The next batch I do I might throw in a few fresh cranberries as well to up the ante.

As for Romulan Ale I've given it some thought and I think I've come up with an idea. Ok, they call it "ale" but it's blue. I've tried making blue beer before but because beer comes out yellow or brown it's impossible with food coloring so I think a white mead is the way to go. Also we know that it's supposed to be very strong (for an ale) which an 11-13% ABV mead would certainly be. This will be my recipe when I try it:

I would let it ferment for about 30 days, rack to secondary then around day 90 I'd bottle it on top of 1/2tsp of superfine bar sugar (per bottle). This should cause a tiny bit of fermentation in-bottle and carbonate it.

I know it sounds like a strange recipe but I'm thinking it would result in something like a white wine with blue coloring, a little fizz and a fairly good ABV without being too dry. I would suggest shaking the carbonation out of the Sprite before putting it into your must, also a yeast nutrient might be a good idea. My only fear with the Sprite is the PH, but I think it could work since it's only 1 liter.

Most folks will probably balk at the idea of fermenting Sprite, but hey, you gotta try before you know it won't work. If you're afraid of using Sprite you could always just add a bunch of lemon and lime to the batch in its place.

Hey. I know this is an old thread, but I did something with black cherry juice. I did a 250 mL honey mead starter with EC-1118 and let it percolate for about a day. Then I added it to 4L dark cherry juice and gave it another 21 days. Then I crashed it and did the spices listed above. I then put in a a spice bag 5g fresh grated horseradish and 2 chopped habaneros that had been de-seeded and de-veined and let that soak for about 12 hours.

Let's just say it's not for everybody but the smokin' nerd girl with the OCD 'boyfriend' thought it was love in a jug.