What are you fermenting today?
- Thread starter ORChick
- Start date
freemotion
Food Guru
You can get a corker for about $6, at least the type I use. I have the beer caps and capper, too, and now I am having second thoughts about using it for wine! I was gonna bottle my onion wine in beer bottles, so it would be in smaller quantities for cooking. Maybe not. Or maybe I will keep it in the secondary a bit longer, just to be sure. I have an aversion to shrapnel wounds.... 
Wifezilla
Low-Carb Queen - RIP: 1963-2021
Don't worry abut beer bottles. For most wine they will be perfectly fine. It's when you add more honey RIGHT BEFORE bottling that you are taking a risk.
In fact this is the first time I have had a mead go ballistic on me. In the past I have had the most problems with cream soda and rootbeer.
In fact this is the first time I have had a mead go ballistic on me. In the past I have had the most problems with cream soda and rootbeer.
freemotion
Food Guru
Ahhh, you got the fermentation going again!
FarmerDenise
Out to pasture
I mashed up some of my grapes yesterday, I hope to do some more toinght, but it might have to wait til tomorrow. Got a pot of venison stock to get going tonight also.
I hope to make my first wine, using the white table grapes I harvested out of DD's redwood tree the other day. They were not quite ripe enough, so I plan on using a recipe for gooseberry wine. I know I'll have to add sugar to them. I used my hands to squush them yesterday. It went better than anything else I could have used. I love the way the fresh white grape juice smells.
I hope to make my first wine, using the white table grapes I harvested out of DD's redwood tree the other day. They were not quite ripe enough, so I plan on using a recipe for gooseberry wine. I know I'll have to add sugar to them. I used my hands to squush them yesterday. It went better than anything else I could have used. I love the way the fresh white grape juice smells.
freemotion
Food Guru
I have been using a potato masher for peaches and watermelon and it works great. I float the mashed fruit right in the water/sugar/yeast and stir it under twice a day or more. Straining it out later is a pain, but I didn't like the way the bag floated above the juice....to me, that was inviting mold or bad bacteria or something. My veggie fermenting experience tells me to get that stuff under the liquid! Maybe I'm wrong, but this is working out great so far, and the animals have been enjoying the strained out fermented fruit!
FarmerDenise
Out to pasture
At the small wineries I worked at the red grapes fermented in open vats for several weeks outside. They were just sheltered by an overhang from possible rain. The owners and winemaker and helpers would have to push the must down every few hours day and night with a special tool. I forgot what it is called. They devised a harness so whoever was pushing the must down wouldn't fall into the big barrels, because as the hard crusty mixture was pushed down, carbon dioxide (?) fumes would escape and could make the person whoozy. The winemaker and one of the owners had several close calls nearly falling into the barrels.
Making wine using grapes is different from making wine from other produce as far as I have read.
Making wine for myself is different than making huge batches even at a small family winery.
I miss working at the small family winery. I miss the smells and the activity and the comraderie and the energy.
I used to love going down into the cellar among the barrels. It was always cold down there, even when it was unbearably hot upstairs. And it smelled like oak, wet cement, wine and musty.
Making wine using grapes is different from making wine from other produce as far as I have read.
Making wine for myself is different than making huge batches even at a small family winery.
I miss working at the small family winery. I miss the smells and the activity and the comraderie and the energy.
I used to love going down into the cellar among the barrels. It was always cold down there, even when it was unbearably hot upstairs. And it smelled like oak, wet cement, wine and musty.
urban dreamer
I wanna farm
Sauerkraut!!! I love my new NT book!
FarmerDenise
Out to pasture
my wine making experiment is smelling good so far. I have been stirring the grape juice about 3 times a day. I haven't even added yeast yet. Seems there were enough natural yeasty beasties on the grapes to get it going . I did finally figure out aproximately how much wine yeast I should add, so I have that started in a jar of grape juice and apple juice mixture. I used the apple juice to dilute the active grape juice for no scientific reason. I am just going by gut feelings here, since I don't have all the right stuff and have to make do.
Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
Kind of sort of daikon. I'm working my way back to trying fermentation. I've got some thinly sliced daikon marinating in rice vinegar, lemon juice, sesame oil, honey and garlic. I made a fresh batch of yogurt and will drain it for the whey tomorrow. Not sure what I'll ferment with it.
I've got my copy of NT off the shelf after hanging out with Free all afternoon. Ready to try something!!
I've got my copy of NT off the shelf after hanging out with Free all afternoon. Ready to try something!!
