Winemaking project: Pictures page 6!

[Blackbird]

Whoo! Get some wine in that girl!

Monique + wine =


No. Making wine is NOT hard. My mom and I put up about 40 bottles of different wine this year. Definitely 'regional' and WAY better than any storebought, in my opinion.

GO WINE!

Speaking of which..

 

[freemotion]

I know that there are sulfite-free wines available, but I never had the desire to spend all that money when I suspect I won't even like wine! And I have never been anywhere that I was offered sulfite-free wine to taste. (Don't get out much! Too busy!) My poison is vodka and any citrus juice....yum!

BB, aren't you too young to be......oh, alright. Have a glass.

Free+wine=less whine! We'll see!

 

[freemotion]

Questions for the more experienced winemakers in our group!

Question one: It has been one week now, and the juice did not bubble up very actively. Just a tiny bit. It smells like I would expect it too.....should we give it more time? Should we rack it into the carboy now? Did we do something wrong?

Question two: I have the opportunity to buy a bunch of one gallon jugs for $3 each. I am thinking that they would be great for smaller batches, or to rack into instead of the carboy. In the directions in Wild Fermentation the wine is kept in the carboy with an airlock for up to nine months before bottling. That is a sulfite-free method. So our two carboys would be tied up for far too long, and more carboys are just not in the budget right now.

How many jugs should I grab at this price? In discussion with the owner, they are older, higher quality jugs than the ones available today. He has 30-40. I can't see buying them all, that is far too much wine it seems. But....how many? Is it a great opportunity? Or not?

 

[FarmerDenise]

If they are better quality jugs, I would buy as many as I can afford. They are also very useful for making vinegar as in apple cider vinegar.
I used one glass jug last year, because it was all I had, then I ended up using plastic ones, which I really don't care for especially for making ACV.
I have been going around and looking for glass gallon and 1/2 gallon jugs. It is amazing how hard they are to find these days.

 

[blueskylen]

we have made wine at home for several years now, and have used sulfites and not used them. Their only purpose is to sterilize the containers and "must" - if you are very careful on your cleaning the containers,and washing the fruit, you would really not need to use it for home winemaking - as long as everything is sterile.
most producers use it as they are on such a large scale that they couldn't afford to lose a batch to bacteria.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

My experience.
Crow Berry wine
Blueberry wine
And last July, I started 3 gallons of Current wine.
Its still working. Bad recipe. Called for way to much sugar, and I did not realize it.
It is getting close though!
We keep testing it

 

[FarmerDenise]

My experience.
Crow Berry wine
Blueberry wine
And last July, I started 3 gallons of Current wine.
Its still working. Bad recipe. Called for way to much sugar, and I did not realize it.
It is getting close though!
We keep testing it

I think that is what happened to my accidental plum wine. I added too much sugar. It is very sweet like a fruit brandy, but doesn't have much alcohol. It tastes nice though. I think I'll add it to whatever I make this summer. Sometimes I add it to a bottle of purchased wine, if I don't really like the taste.

 

[freemotion]

Here it is, five months later, and after five exciting months of watching nothing visible happening in the carboy, we decided to do something about it. Dad had taken a sip a couple of weeks ago and decided that it needed a little more sugar. Last night I finally made up a small batch of simple syrup (two cups sugar, one cup water, simmer until dissolved) and called him to come over today and decide how much to add.

When he tasted it, he thought it was ready to bottle and didn't need any sweetener! So we bottled today! I was not prepared for this, so when we gathered everything we needed....26 empty wine bottles, labels removed. Twenty six corks, set into a steamer insert and put on the stove to steam. Special tubing to siphon the wine from the carboy and into a six-gallon bucket, leaving the sediment behind...called "racking." And a special tube to bottle the wine, a cool little device that has a valve on the bottom that stays closed until you press it hard against the bottom of the wine bottle...then the wine pours out and fills the bottle. When the wine reaches the top of the bottle, you simply lift the tube and the flow stops. I just thought that was so cool! I'd thought we would be holding the tubing with a thumb and making quite a mess in the process!

When I gathered our supplies from the cellar, I discovered that everything had a strong musty smell, so everything had to be washed in a mild bleach solution and rinsed a few times. We worked together with a sinkful of bleach water and a sinkful of clear water and got done in no time.

Then we racked the wine from both the carboy and the one-gallon jug, into the pail. We put this pail onto the kitchen counter, and set up our bottles on the floor beneath it with lots of rags to absorb inevitable spills. I handed Dad clean, empty bottles while he filled them, then I took the filled bottles and put them in a clean wine box with cardboard dividers. Some of the bottles were so dark, I finally figured out that a flashlight would be useful to see the level of the wine before it got away. We filled 26 bottles and one swing-top bottle was filled halfway. I have plenty of cloudy dregs to filter to make wine vinegar, too.

Then we used a cool little corking device that is simply two pieces of plastic that fit together. You put the steamed or boiled cork in one, like a cup, then fit the other piece inside. Place it over the neck of the bottle and push down firmly. Voila! A corked wine bottle! I was like a little kid, corking all those bottles with that ingenious little device.

I still need to clean up the kitchen, label the bottles and carry them to the cellar to age, and make my very first batch of vinegar. I'll report later when I decide exactly how I am going to do that.

Oh, and Dad said the wine tastes like cheap, cheap wine right now, but it should age nicely into something better. I tasted it...I've not been a wine drinker due to sulfite sensitivities....and I can imagine drinking it as is in a nice sangria recipe. I look forward to tasting it later when it has mellowed to see if I enjoy drinking it without disguising it with sweet juice.

I also have a small batch of elderberries in a pan on the stove that I picked, destemmed, and brought to a simmer and left to cool on the stove for a day before straining out the juice. I picked a few more tonight, and when Dad saw them, he told me he knows were there is a huge patch were he and my mother go walking....they will pick a pail or two tomorrow. Elderberry wine next! I also have a quart or two in the freezer from last year. If we don't get enough, we will mix it with purchased white grape juice and make a blush wine.

 

[big brown horse]

WOW!! Awesome free!

I can't wait to hear how it turns out after it ages!

 

[FarmerDenise]

OH, how exciting, I wish I could have been there. I have worked in wineries, but have not made any wine at home. I kinda sorta made a plum wine by accident last year, but it didn't turn out very well, more like sweet syrup
SO was asking me the other day, why I hadn't made any whine yet, especially since we got the "yeast" last fall. Geez, I've just been a little bit busy, that's all and I am the only one who drinks it here
Ok, I'll go back to cooking dinner now.