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Best way to get started at making wines at home
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Posted by caroline1 (My Page) on Fri, Jan 20, 06 at 19:19
| Hello! I grow my own grapes and plan to make wine from them sometime. I have a few of the books on how to make wines, but as far as equipment, it seems a little confusing. What exactly do I need for making say, 5-15 bottles of wine at a time? What's the best (cheapest?) source for the equipment?
Thanks in advance for any and all advice. Its about time they added this as a forum! :-) |
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RE: Best way to get started at making wines at home
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You don't say where you live... If you live in a city, there might be a homebrewing supply store in your area.
I started out with the basics really, a primary fermenter, which can be any bucket, probably holding 5+ gallons. Some metabisulfites, if you want to use them,some wine yeast, a 5 gallon glass carboy and some bungs with airlocks and a triple scale to tell the alcohol potential and the rest is all gravy, you can get by without the rest unless you want to work on a better wine, like with acid testers and such... my next purchase will be a glass wine thief, so I can boil it for disinfecting. :o)
If you don't have a homebrew shop, you will have to buy online... might be a little pricey, so I'd just go with the basics at first. |
RE: Best way to get started at making wines at home
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| Only essential I'd add to robynlacy's suggestions is that you'll need a hose to siphon with. I do suggest you buy a rigid plastic tube to attach the hose to--it helps alot because it can be tricky racking wine, especially without a helper, and the tubes have a little plastic knob on the bottom which will keep your racking tube off the lees. You insert the rigid tube into the primary with the soft tubing attached, the end of the soft tube you insert into your new container. If I have no one around to help me, I use a clothespin or clip to keep the tube stable while I begin the siphoning (clip the rigid tube to the lip of your primary). One gallon should yield you 5 bottles. A 5 gallon carboy ($20 in a brewshop) will yield 25 bottles. Carboys are sold in 5 and 6 gallon capacities, so be aware of the size when buying (keep it topped up to prevent oxidation). You can also use a 5 gallon plastic water jug (the kind used in water coolers) which you may be able to find at a yard sale. Experience is the best teacher, so you can try a one gallon batch of wine made with store-bought frozen grape juice just to get the hang of it before you make a batch with your home-grown fruit. This will show you the process and won't cost you alot. |
RE: Best way to get started at making wines at home
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| I did copy, and paste, but their is some stuff other--- freezing thowing help fruit sofen I would say start off with store bought fruit, but not grapes to expensive(1)Prepare the wine making produce by cutting up larger fruit, busting skins on smaller fruit, chopping up fruits such as raisins, and bruising any produce like ginger root, etc.(sodium metabi"sufite)when crushing) Also, any large pits should be removed. It is also important to understand that you can over-process the produce. Food processors, blenders and such should not be used for this purpose. Doing so will cause too much bitterness from the skin and seeds of the produce to be incorporated into the resulting wine.--- you could boil fruit but just to kill germs, boiling long=starch that will cloud it up.I have half wine,and half fluff. (2)Stir together all of the wine making ingredients called for, EXCEPT for the YEAST(If you boiled hold of till cool pectic enzym), into a primary fermenter. Collect any pulp in a fermentation bag and submerge the bag into the wine making mixture(do so it's eayer). Add water to equal the batch to 5 gallons. Then add 5 Campden Tablets. They should be crushed up before adding. Do not add the wine yeast at this point in the process. Adding the wine yeast at the same time you add the Campden Tablets will only result in destroying the yeast.-- not true stuning wild yeast so inaculate yeast can over power(I have a funny story as of yeasterday about boiling wild yeast dead)--- you can also boil the fruit for a short time, or pour boiling water over it 180 degrees will kill the bad bacteria, you can also freeze the fruit breaking down the cells, and the fruit will crush easyer.-- first freeze On the vine is ice wine."WINERIES"let it rot. (3)Cover the fermenter with a thin, clean towel and wait 24 hours. During this waiting period the Campden Tablets are sterilizing the juice with a mild sulfur gas. After 24 hours the gas leaves the container making it then safe to add the wine yeast. (4)Sprinkle the wine making yeast over the surface of the juice and then cover with a thin, clean towel(or lid). Allow this mixture (must) to ferment for 5 to 7 days. You should start to see some foaming activity within 24 hours of adding the yeast. Typically, 70% of the fermentation activity will occur during this 5 to 7 day period(but can be(faster) slower depending on high acidic juice,-but who says you can't make lemonade out of lemon juice(a toping up thing)LOOK At Jackkeller.net for requested recipes even burdock won 3rd).
*before syphoning or pouring(in a funnel to bottle=(*secondary** fermentation) add a campden tablet (5)After 5 to 7 days remove the pulp from the fermenter and discard(or save add sugar for second wine--I use 1/2 the original water(but I don't like light wine)). Siphon the wine into a secondary fermenter in a careful manner, so as to leave the sediment behind. You can easily remove the pulp by lifting out the fermentation bag. Wring out any excess juice from the bag. Siphon the wine off the sediment without stirring it up. Get as much liquid as you can, even it some of the sediment comes with it. If necessary, add water back to 5 gallons. (6)Attach a wine making air-lock and fill it approximately half-way with water. Allow the juice to ferment for an additional 4-6 week period or until it becomes completely clear. You may want to verify with your hydrometer that the fermentation has completed before continuing on to step 7. The hydrometer should read between 0.990 and 0.998 on the Specific Gravity scale. Be sure to give the wine plenty of time to clear up before bottling. (7)Once the wine has cleared completely, siphon it off of the sediment again. Stir in 5 Campden Tables that have been crushed and then bottle. When siphoning off the sediment, unlike the first time you siphoned the wine, you want to leave all of the sediment behind, even if you lose a little wine. (8)they usually don't add--after your wine is finished get a stirer after you syphoned off gunk(best to one of those stirers you attach to a drill or a wine saver(a attachment added) to release carbon unless you wouldn't mind a fizzy wine that will mask some of the taste= not a sparkling wine)
If you guys do want a online brew shop to check out I found the cheapest I can find from searching time and time again. |
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