Comment on So…. What’s the worst idea you went through with?
GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Nothing so meme lord. Pure watermelon. It’s so sour, and not in a good way. It tastes like underripe watermelon rind. It probably didn’t need acid added and it should be back sweetened.
poleslav@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yep! My last one was a watermelon wine I made into a brandy. The key is to only get the red guts and avoid anything slightly white. definitely dont boil the juice either or youll get a carrot flavor. Once it’s done fermenting if it was a good fermentation it’ll taste almost like cucumber, a bit of back sweetening makes the watermelon flavor come back with a vengeance.
GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Did that
I did heat pasteurize, but not boil. Just 160/180F (I can’t remember exactly).
Eh, I’m not getting cucumber. Maybe? It’s mostly just SOUR with some watermelon notes.
this is what I’m thinking
poleslav@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Ahh, it may have been the heat pasteurization that did it in. If you care to glance at a scientific paper, here’s an interesting source. pubs.rsc.org/en/content/…/c9ra01533g I want to say I’ve seen a low temp method of pasteurizing (that you have to hold for a good bit longer) but for mine I avoided heat like the plague and did everything cold with a huge starter to ensure the yeast outcompete anything and fill the fermenter with alcohol to handle any potential unwanted microbes