Making Port

[Crusader-Rob]

I love me a good drop of Port (Torlesse down the road from me is awesome.) I'm not sure if anyone has made anything like it before, but definitely interested in making some. Any tips?

[Tom]

I made a plum port last year. Its still in the fermenter but tastes amazing. Need to bottle it one of these days.

[Crusader-Rob]

Yum! I've seen a Blackberry Port recipe. Seems Like a good place to start.

[FatD]

stop the ferment half way through when it's about 30-50g/l sugar with ethyl alcohol to 17%. boom you've got a port :o in one day. tastes like sugar and alcohol for a few months until it's integrated in oak barrels or chips..

[Fairlane]

I've made a few variants - from grapes, plums and even a beer equivalent.  I'm even planning to make a couple of barrels of it this year and have just finished distilling 40 doz bottles of wine for the spirit.

As Dermot suggests, the most common method is to stop the ferment with the addition of Brandy (or similar) using the Pearson Square calculation.  If this is too tricky, ferment the wine dry then add the brandy (you'll just need to add more of it) and maybe balance with sugar depending on what style you're after. 

If you want a Vintage port style then bang it in the bottle and you're ready to go (after a few months aging in the bottle).  If you want a more Tawny style, age it all in oak then bottle it.

 

I prefer Vintage myself and made mine (including the beer version) at 20% alc with approx 120g per litre of residual sugar :D    It sure helps it age...  I had some of the beer version the other night that had been open in my fridge for about 2 years and it was still amazeballs...

 

If you're making it from fruit like plums, you may need to cut some of the acidity down by adding calcium carbonate after ferment..

 

Hope this helps