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Has anyone here made their own wine? I was thinking about a large barrel of a Cabernet Sauvignon - Merlot Blend and maybe a small barrel of apple. Lot's of websites out there, but I was hoping someone here has actually done it themselves and has suggestions based on their own experience.
I made ballon wine as a kid using sugar, Welches grape juice and yeast.
I did the same thing Sarky probably around 14-15 or so. I let mine ferment for around 7-8 months and it tasted alot closer to the strength of a whiskey (kinda like tattoo) than a wine.
I haven't made much wine as of yet, but I have brewed quite a bit of beer and hard cider. I made a small batch of wine from concord grapes that I picked at a friends' house a couple of years ago, it turned out well if not a little sweet for my taste. I am planning on trying again this year. I am also planning on making some mead this spring. The basics of wine and beer making are essentially the same. There are a few more steps for wine than beer, but it is technically easier to make wine than beer. What sort of info are you looking for?
I've been looking into making wine, but the original outlay of equipment can be expensive. You need sterilizing solution, an air lock, the right yeast, etc. You get the tiniest amount of bacteria in there (the reason for sterilizing and the air lock) and the whole container goes bad.
If you want to do it to get the experience, fine, but I don't think you're going to save any money. I would rather just buy a bottle of $7 wine at the store, it will taste much better.
Any tricks you've found useful. Barrel prep, percentages of grapes for blends, anything you think will help.Quote:
Originally Posted by tacmedic
Thanks!
I have been thinking that a barrel isn't essential for wine-making.
I know most vitners use the various blends of barrel so that they can "age" the wine in a wooden container. This aging process is merely so that the specific wine will obtain an additional flavour from the wood.
I personally am not a fan of wines that have a strong wood flavor to them, so I would probably be more prone to skip that type of aging.
not only is a barrel not nessecary for home vinting/brewing, it is not practical.
by and large, a person will make several batches before finishing one which is really satisfactory. when you add such a potential source of contamination as wood into the equation, you decrease your chances of a good product.
the ideal materials for home/hobby scale fermentation have traditionally been food grade hdpe buckets [generally 5 gal.] with sealable lids, and glass or hdpe water cooler bottles.
the first consideration is always sanitation. an accidental introduction of a foreign yeast or bacteria will often destroy a batch from the start.
there are a great many sites and books dedicated to the subject, and while i and at least a few others here i've seen will be happy to help, this is not a simple art [though it can be made so] and there are so many different styles and options to brewing and vinting that we could not cober a fraction of them here.
as grape wines go, i would recommend starting with a simple wine made from whole grape juice, a commercial wine yeast and a $5 new food grade bucket.
from this perspective, it's as simple as filling the bucket with warm bleachwater, covering and letting sit 1 hour while simmering the juice for the same duration, covered and preparing/rehydrating the yeast in water.
after this, the bucket should be slowly and gently dumped out, and immediately sealed with the lid.
the pot of juice should be allowed to cool to room temerature, still covered at all times, by immersing it's bottom in a sink of cold water.
after the juice has reached room temperature, it should be poured into the bucket, slowly so as not to splash, but insuring it is falling into the surface of the juice and not running down the side [this is to aerate the mash]. after this, the prepared yeast should be carefully pitched, and the bucket slowly and carefully swirled around to distribute. the bucket should never be stirred again in such a manner as to aerate it again. the yeast only need oxygen in the first stage, as they breed rapidly, and will not begin making ethanol untill they have used it all up, whereafter they will start scavenging it from simple sugars, thus yeilding ethanol.
this should be left covered, and preferably fitted with an airlock, which can be bought on ebay, or from any brewing store, or made from aquarium hose and a gatorade bottle [as i do]. the temperature should be kept stable, around 70f, but Sachromycese cerveceae yeasts can tollerate fluctuations as low as 50f and as high as 90f and still reproduce, though muuuuuch more slowly.
most of my personal experience is with other fruit wines, beer and mead.
bulrush: sanitizing solution is as simple as 1/8 cup household bleach per gallon of water.
materials, like almost all of my laboratory/culture apparatus, can be any free, cheap or scavenged thing that will suit your needs.
my sub gallon batches are fermented in used 1 gal wine jugs. beyond that, i use 5gal water cooler jugs i bought empty and new for about $6 each. as mentioned above, i've also used food grade buckets. for long term use, you can even line them before filling with small size trash bags.
I have made a couple of different kinds, small scale. some worked better than others.
Thanks everyone.
I've never seen wine made in anything OTHER than a barrel, but the guys I knew who did that are long gone, so I can't pick their brains.
From what I've read so far, I'm scrapping the idea of using a barrel, at least for my first few batches.
Any more thoughts are greatly appreciated.
i would scrap the idea of a barrel for a loooong time to come, if for nothing else than out of consideration that it's a far better prospect of loosing a $5 investment ina 5 gal batch than a $100 investment in a large one.
barrels are used mostly for aging and finishing wines these days anyway. the fermentation in commercial wineries is generally done in large stainless steel vats.
You can buy a lot of Madd Dogg 20/20 for the price of a barrel and several fine wines, all with a twist off cap. I was a fan of our area's clear, crisp brew for years. Now that's an art to learn. Forget wine, people have been making it for many years and still no kick.
When I was in Mobile, we stopped at a packaged liqueur store to pick up a bottle of wine. Sorry, they told us, we don't carry wine. As God as my witness, wine was sold at the Shell station. Now that's just wrong.
If price is a concern you don't really have to buy the whole kit that that brewery/wine supply places sell, it just makes it easier. I still just use food grade plastic buckets with lids that I fitted a blow off tube on, works just fine for me. (The same set up that I use for my ethanol production as well, for my car :D yeah that's it). I would suggest for your first batch that you make you buy one of the prepared juice concentrates that are available, or use 100% juice concentrate from the store. It's a lot better to make your first mistakes on something that you haven't put a whole lot of time and/or money into. A search on the net will yield quite a few recipes for wine from concentrates.
As far as percentages of grapes go (if you are pressing your own) it just depends what you like. Find a wine that you like (from a local winery) and then ask the wine makers what grapes they use and in what percentage. Most of them are more than happy to talk about how they make their wine, at least the ones around here are willing to talk. It might be hard for someone making a small batch of wine to get the appropriate grapes, but decent wine can be made from wild or concord grapes.
I live in wine the country of Ohio, surrounded by wineries. One of my friends owns a big winery just a few miles from here. If you ever get stuck on a problem let me know and I'll ask him for advice.
Thanks. I appreciate the offer of help. I have two wineries (one's also a brewery) within 5 miles of me. I attend tastings and other events on occasion, but I was hesitant to ask questions about "trade secrets."
See:
:wine: http://www.westportrivers.com/ and :drunk: http://www.buzzardsbrew.com/
Also see:
:wine:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...aq=1&oq=sakonn
My backyard:
http://www.coastalwinetrail.com/gui/spring08/map.aspx
Just curious, but will you be growing your own grapes or will you be buying them?
For at least the next few years I'll be buying them. :sad:Quote:
Originally Posted by RaymondPeter
it takes a lot of grapes to make wine, you may also look into buying whole grape juice. in volume it'll probably be cheaper.
i don't mean bottled welches, or canned concentrate, i mean whole grape juice. as an example,. they sell it relatively cheaply in 1gal sealed cans at my local homebrew shop. they also sell that or a variety of other fruits.
you might have to look around, but it can make an enourmous difference, as fresh wine grapes are seasonal and also tend to be pricy.
I never made wine but I was a brew master for a Brewery so if you need help with beer . Oh and wine is not as hard to make as beer lol.
Smok - my oldest son brews about twice a month. I'm impressed, except for the pale ales, which I've never cared for to begin with. I'll see if he has any questions. You may just have become his new best friend.Quote:
Originally Posted by Smok
i know what you mean. i don't like really like gin, so it could be the finest in the world, or the nastiest rot gut ever made, i'd probably not even tell the difference.
It's good for you. :innocent: I've made "gin" by using juniper berries to flavor some clear flavorless firewater I was given. I also make pastrami with juniper berries.Quote:
Originally Posted by canid
yeah, juniper is great for red meat, and it actually helps digestion of meats.
if i'm going to use spices to quiet the thunder of white lightning, i'd use crushed allspice and a couple cloves. cinnamon's not bad either.
Try ginger, coffee syrup (the strongest coffee you can make, add sugar to taste, and just render it down) pineapple, cherries, or mixed citrus fruits. They're all great. Speaking of which, I'm almost out of my liquid base..........Quote:
Originally Posted by canid
i like orange, and complete with a bit of rind if you want the zest to carry over.
it's good for acidifying a brew.
the only thing to be careful of with citrus, and a lot of other fruits for that matter is that pectins tend to increase any formation of Methanol, particularly at higher temperature fermentation.
did you know that cheap orrange and apple juice from concentrate can have more methanol than traditional applejack?
canid nope I had no idea ... :innocent: .. Ken ask away would love to help.. But I did not say I was any good ..LOL....:smartass: .....But I did Win the Best of Show at The State Fair.....:oops:......Once ....lol
Yep I Made that too,Kept Adding yeast and Sugar over a 3 Month Time Frame Came Out More Like Hooch Not Wine .Tasted Good But really Strong.Wish I Would Of Proofed It.Quote:
Originally Posted by SARKY
the wife and i make wine from wild berries everyear. we also have made wine from rosehips and fireweed.
we have some friends in town that have fruit trees so we gather fruit from them most years and make wine from those as well.
we had a bottle of homemade elderberry wine on sunday night. it was a little over 1 1/2 yrs old. good stuff...
ha. thats to funny. i used to raid my moms apple sauce, mix with water and yeast and hide it in my closet until it was ready.Quote:
Originally Posted by Skinner
that was before i met the bootleeger...:)
I'm certainly not an expert, but have been making wine for most of my life. Have 3 jugs working by the stove right now. This is my 3rd batch this year. I pretty much stick with muscadine's that I pick myself. My methods are probably rustic to most people, but I always have the same folks coming back for more. Equipment: 5 gallon water jug (preferably glass), 2-3 feet of plastic hose, 1" cork from the hardware store.
I do wash the jug and rinse with bleach/water. I used to crush the fruit but have found that simply piercing the skin with a knife works as well and easier to clean up. Put about 2 gallons of fruit in the jug, boil about 7-8 pounds of sugar into spring water, and add to jug. Put in about 1/4 package of plain old bakers yeast. Drill a hold in the cork big enough for the hose. Put just enough hose into the jug to clear the cork, then seal the hose into the cork with candle wax, put the other end of hose in a quart jar filled with water and let it work. When it stops bubbling it's done. About 1 month @ 70-80 degrees. Don't let it sit long after it stops bubbling or it will turn to vinegar. Siphon the wine off into bottles without stirring up the fruit. Usually get about 2-2.5 gallons per jug. This will make a fairly dry wine. The only times I've had problems we're when I used too much yeast or had a back air lock. Good luck
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