Home Brewing Wine - small batch

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Two weeks ago I bottled my first small batch of wine. By all indications it was a great success and is aging in the cold of the cellar.

Tart Cherry Juice, White Grape Juice, Sugar and Rhubarb from the garden constituted the second batch which is presently fermenting.

I never realized how absolutely simple it is to make wine. It DOES NOT take chemicals and fancy equipment. As someone else opined, making wine does not take a chemist and a laboratory, just a babysitter.

The only things I needed from the brew store were a hydrometer, a 2 gallon food grade bucket, an airlock and champagne yeast, the yeast because it consumes alcohol up to 18%, and I prefer dry wines. Beyond that you need the ingredients. In all, 15 dollars spent, and the 1 dollar yeast packet will make 5 batches.

Any food grade container which seals well can be used to bottle the final product. I simply used the containers the juice came in, and some leftover bottles sitting around. No corks, corkers, no carboys or large fermenting containers, siphons or slew of chemicals and sanitizers recommended by most hobbyists and makers. If it had ever been that difficult we would not have been making fermented drinks until the 20th century.

I took a sip of the first batch after it had aged for only a couple weeks and it is already tasting great. It needs a few months minimum from what I can gather but the more time the better.

If you can put together a meal, you can put together a small batch of wine.

 

[gmbteach]

Two weeks ago I bottled my first small batch of wine. By all indications it was a great success and is aging in the cold of the cellar.

Tart Cherry Juice, White Grape Juice, Sugar and Rhubarb from the garden constituted the second batch which is presently fermenting.

I never realized how absolutely simple it is to make wine. It DOES NOT take chemicals and fancy equipment. As someone else opined, making wine does not take a chemist and a laboratory, just a babysitter.

The only things I needed from the brew store were a hydrometer, a 2 gallon food grade bucket, an airlock and champagne yeast, the yeast because it consumes alcohol up to 18%, and I prefer dry wines. Beyond that you need the ingredients. In all, 15 dollars spent, and the 1 dollar yeast packet will make 5 batches.

Any food grade container which seals well can be used to bottle the final product. I simply used the containers the juice came in, and some leftover bottles sitting around. No corks, corkers, no carboys or large fermenting containers, siphons or slew of chemicals and sanitizers recommended by most hobbyists and makers. If it had ever been that difficult we would not have been making fermented drinks until the 20th century.

I took a sip of the first batch after it had aged for only a couple weeks and it is already tasting great. It needs a few months minimum from what I can gather but the more time the better.

If you can put together a meal, you can put together a small batch of wine.

Cool. I would try it, but I Don’t think Bilby would let me use his fermenters.

 

[Malintent]

Point of order... all equipment mentioned above can be used for brewing beer... so why wouldn't you want to brew some beer that takes less than a month from start to finish to make total greatness, rather than some stinky old wine that takes a generation to make anything less than greatness?

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Point of order... all equipment mentioned above can be used for brewing beer... so why wouldn't you want to brew some beer that takes less than a month from start to finish to make total greatness, rather than some stinky old wine that takes a generation to make anything less than greatness?

I'm a fan of greatness, don't get me wrong!

Unfortunately for me beer tends to make me feel unwell, whereas wine and hard spirits are presently hitting the spot, without any side effects worth mentioning.

And after a month a home made wine can taste quite good. My first try is great after just two weeks in the bottle.

Mother Earth News has an extended article on making wine at home. Yikes! The equipment list and logistics is enough to intimidate. Clearly they don't get the small batch thing.

But that is what makes hobbies great. One person't toil is another person's joy.

 

[Malintent]

Point of order... all equipment mentioned above can be used for brewing beer... so why wouldn't you want to brew some beer that takes less than a month from start to finish to make total greatness, rather than some stinky old wine that takes a generation to make anything less than greatness?

I'm a fan of greatness, don't get me wrong!

Unfortunately for me beer tends to make me feel unwell, whereas wine and hard spirits are presently hitting the spot, without any side effects worth mentioning.

And after a month a home made wine can taste quite good. My first try is great after just two weeks in the bottle.

Mother Earth News has an extended article on making wine at home. Yikes! The equipment list and logistics is enough to intimidate. Clearly they don't get the small batch thing.

But that is what makes hobbies great. One person't toil is another person's joy.

yup!

one day, this will all be mine! http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/

 

[mrzyphl]

Wow! 10 gallons of wine for $15! Where I live the gov't taxes alcohol pretty heavily.
A cheap blend of dry white wine costs $17 for a 1.5 liter bottle. 10 gallons of that would be close to $500.
I hope your batch turns out alright. I might give it a try.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Today I did the final racking (bottling) of my first two batches. I will know how well they turned out in about 6 months when I taste them in the Adirondack Room, near the trees and plants from which they came.

A few bottles will make their way to friends and family. And the rest will wait another year to see if time makes them more enjoyable, which it most certainly should. There were small amounts of each left over after racking today and I thought the taste was just fine.

The third batch is still fermenting and has a way to go on account of the cold weather, but all is well. It is 36 degrees F in the cellar right now. Not sure how good that much chill is for wine after racking but that's what it is.

 

[Malintent]

The third batch is still fermenting and has a way to go on account of the cold weather, but all is well. It is 36 degrees F in the cellar right now. Not sure how good that much chill is for wine after racking but that's what it is.

It is not likely that much yeast is still awake in that temperature. I am not that familiar with wine yeast.. I know all about Ales and Lagers.. but it is a very rare yeast that can stand such low temperature and still attenuate at all... even slowly.

One thing is for sure, though, you will definitely have complete flocculation and a beautifully clear final product... but maybe a little too sweet, due to that low temp stopping the final fermentation.

 

[Kharakov]

Word of warning.

A couple years back my dad decided to build a still- he had written a book on ethanol production years ago, for corny people (even included ways of breaking down cellulose in leaves/stalks with fungi or fungal enzymes, so that energy was usable as well, but it required secondary fermenters.. or primary, since you'd do it first..). Anyways.

He made a still. My uncle had made a rather large batch of wine, and given cases of it away to the family. My dad decided it would be a good idea to test his still with the wine during a family get together.

He's never drank a lot of the stuff. I did. Ketones, aromatics... fricken long chain things you don't want in your head or liver. That's why they do charred oak aging. Absolutely worse hangover in my life. Lasted over a day, and I wasn't as drunk as I've been in the past.

Needless to say, if you decide to distill, do some form of aging that minimizes the other organics.

 

[Sarpedon]

plus its illegal. wine and beer isn't.

 

[bilby]

plus its illegal. wine and beer isn't.

That depends on your jurisdiction.

Lots of people here distil their own spirits, and as far as I am aware, it's completely legal as long as it's not done commercially (in which case a licence is required). My local homebrew shop stocks lots of distilling equipment, additives, etc.

It's an odd oversight, as in this part of the world there is very little freedom from the law - most things that are not prohibited are mandatory (a hangover from the time when this was a penal colony).

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

The third batch is still fermenting and has a way to go on account of the cold weather, but all is well. It is 36 degrees F in the cellar right now. Not sure how good that much chill is for wine after racking but that's what it is.

It is not likely that much yeast is still awake in that temperature. I am not that familiar with wine yeast.. I know all about Ales and Lagers.. but it is a very rare yeast that can stand such low temperature and still attenuate at all... even slowly.

One thing is for sure, though, you will definitely have complete flocculation and a beautifully clear final product... but maybe a little too sweet, due to that low temp stopping the final fermentation.

I should have said after final racking, meaning bottling. Indeed, the first two batches are comfortably cool in the cellar. The third batch is still fermenting in warmer environs.

The yeast I am using is actually a champagne yeast that ferments up to 18% alcohol and ferments down to 49 degrees F, which means I should come out with very dry wines, which on initial tasting is exactly what happened on the first two batches.

The experts say to siphon into a secondary fermenter after no more than a week if using fruit to make the must. But because the fermentation is still so strong I don't want to do that. I want it to be fizzled out or almost fizzled out. So I'm letting it work. The first two batches were basically done at this point but the cooler temps in the house must be prolonging things.

 

[Malintent]

Cool.. Experimentation is what it is all about... that, and having a repeatable process.. in case you make something you ever want to make again, heh.

Regarding distilling... distilling and brewing are extremely different. The worse thing that can happen to you when a fermentation goes as bad as possible, is you end up tasting something that smells and tastes like puke. The worse thing that can happen to you when a distillation goes bad is you die.

I do not believe there are any states in the US where home distilling is legal. There are only two states in the US where homebrewing is illegal.. .and in one of them (Kentucky) it is because there is a huge Moonshine (distilling) "problem"... and brewing a corn-based mash mixed with plain sugar is the first step of distilling... so they made everything about it illegal there. the other state where it is illegal is Alabama... nuff said there.

 

[ZiprHead]

Cool.. Experimentation is what it is all about... that, and having a repeatable process.. in case you make something you ever want to make again, heh.

Regarding distilling... distilling and brewing are extremely different. The worse thing that can happen to you when a fermentation goes as bad as possible, is you end up tasting something that smells and tastes like puke. The worse thing that can happen to you when a distillation goes bad is you die.

I do not believe there are any states in the US where home distilling is legal. There are only two states in the US where homebrewing is illegal.. .and in one of them (Kentucky) it is because there is a huge Moonshine (distilling) "problem"... and brewing a corn-based mash mixed with plain sugar is the first step of distilling... so they made everything about it illegal there. the other state where it is illegal is Alabama... nuff said there.

I know a guy that winters in Alabama. Every spring, he brings back fifty gallons of 'shine.

 

[Malintent]

I have had some shine in my time... and every time I have had it, I immediately appreciated why Whiskey must be aged. "white whiskey", "young whiskey"... "moonshine"... all words for the same thing - Whiskey that isn't done yet. In my opinion, Moonshine is to Whiskey as grape juice that has gone bad is to wine.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Cool.. Experimentation is what it is all about... that, and having a repeatable process.. in case you make something you ever want to make again, heh.

Regarding distilling... distilling and brewing are extremely different. The worse thing that can happen to you when a fermentation goes as bad as possible, is you end up tasting something that smells and tastes like puke. The worse thing that can happen to you when a distillation goes bad is you die.

I do not believe there are any states in the US where home distilling is legal. There are only two states in the US where homebrewing is illegal.. .and in one of them (Kentucky) it is because there is a huge Moonshine (distilling) "problem"... and brewing a corn-based mash mixed with plain sugar is the first step of distilling... so they made everything about it illegal there. the other state where it is illegal is Alabama... nuff said there.

No distiller am I. But the fermentation process seems pretty straightforward, and I've kept a sourdough culture for bread making for many years. That's taught me a lot about what smells right and what's rotten, and how much sanitation is necessary. People overdo the sanitation thing.

Had one culture go bad on me only because I left it out too long in the warm summer after it had fermented out. "Puke" is being kind. Interestingly, starting a wild sourdough culture smells pretty "pukey" at first until the lactobacilli take over. If you don't know what you're doing you'll toss a good starter before it's finished making. Wine making is similar but it should never smell off at any point, not even at startup.

This morning I mixed up a new batch with apple juice and frozen pawpaw from last fall. Potential alcohol is 11% so it should be a winner. Have never worked with apple before so we'll see how that goes.

I think I've got your repeatable process down at this point, and have kept decent notes so far. If I happen upon a really good batch I should be able to do a repeat.

This should also be another good year in the orchard so there won't be a lack of raw materials to work with. But it doesn't look like I'll ever exceed the 100 gallons per family member that is the law for home wine making.

One thing I'm considering is using yeast from the previous batch to start the next batch. Supposedly yeast acclimates to the locality. If for example I bought some San Francisco sourdough starter, after some time it would become a local strain, same as if I started a wild culture. Just something to think about.

 

[Malintent]

The way brewers keep their yeast is on "slants" in a refrigerator, which is essentially a small petri dish you make yourself from test tubes and agar gelatin. I have a decent yeast bank of various White Labs brand yeasts. To use, you just inoculate a small starter pitch and build it up to 2 - 4 billion before pitching it to the batch... but yeast is so affordable and available, it really isn't worth keeping a bank unless you are breeding a new strain, like you mentioned about a local version...

pretty cool stuff.

 

[bilby]

The way brewers keep their yeast is on "slants" in a refrigerator, which is essentially a small petri dish you make yourself from test tubes and agar gelatin. I have a decent yeast bank of various White Labs brand yeasts. To use, you just inoculate a small starter pitch and build it up to 2 - 4 billion before pitching it to the batch... but yeast is so affordable and available, it really isn't worth keeping a bank unless you are breeding a new strain, like you mentioned about a local version...

pretty cool stuff.

I have thought about keeping yeast in this way; and every time I do, I conclude '... or I could just buy a smack-pack and use that'.

Perhaps if there was some major supply chain disruption and I could no longer pick it up cheaply from the brew shop.

 

[Malintent]

The way brewers keep their yeast is on "slants" in a refrigerator, which is essentially a small petri dish you make yourself from test tubes and agar gelatin. I have a decent yeast bank of various White Labs brand yeasts. To use, you just inoculate a small starter pitch and build it up to 2 - 4 billion before pitching it to the batch... but yeast is so affordable and available, it really isn't worth keeping a bank unless you are breeding a new strain, like you mentioned about a local version...

pretty cool stuff.

I have thought about keeping yeast in this way; and every time I do, I conclude '... or I could just buy a smack-pack and use that'.

Perhaps if there was some major supply chain disruption and I could no longer pick it up cheaply from the brew shop.

ya, I'm with you on that... its not very expensive and those smack packs work great... you're pitchable in a few hours rather than it taking a few days to build up the cell count.

 

[Sarpedon]

But it's always nice to know how to do things the old-fashioned way, JIC