Hello from Detroit!

Okay, I'm enthusiastic, but I'm still a beginner! From the left: 6 gallons elderberry-reisling pyment, 6 gallons cherry-reisling pyment, 1 gallon black cherry wine, 5 gallons strawberry wine, 3 gallons tropical ginger wine, 1 gallon white cherry melomel (hiding in back) 3 gallons cherry desert wine (with an unlabeled extra gallon of overflow next to it for topping off later), 3 gallons cranberry melomel, 1 gallon sweet wheat wine, 6 gallons pinot noir, 1 gallon cherry almond wine, 6 gallons malbec, 5 gallons plumcot (hiding behind my shoulder) and 6 gallons elderberry (in the big plastic fermenter under my arm). I think that's everyone... oh yeah, bottles of cabernet on the back wall...
I was homebrewing beer for about a year and a half when I made a sparkling mead for the first time and got HOOKED on making wine. I made a few kits and then moved on to juice. Things have all turned out well, which I attribute to a combination of beginner's luck and the sanitary habits I learned as a brewer.
My real passion right now is making fruit wines, and I have so much to learn. So far I've just been keeping things clean, following recipes (lots from, "Making Wild Wines and Meads") and letting the wine do what it does. I don't know hardly anything about things like ph, degasing (if/when) and finings (as evidenced by my sparkalloid post - argh!). I found this forum when I did a websearch on gravity wine filters and found Martina's "how to" (really, the green mouse assistant was irresistible) and, after reading a few posts, I thought, "THESE are my PEOPLE!"
So - thanks for having me, everyone! I'm excited to learn from you and get inspired about new recipes and techniques I don't know yet.
Cheers!
-Ellen

Great to have you here and those are some interesting combos you have there and sound like they will be great.

Hey Brewgrrrl welcome! Looks like you are enjoying yourself a lot. That's great, keep it up. Now get to filling those wine racks in the background!


Don't be afraid to move on to real grapes along with fruit in your future.


Have fun!

Thanks. Any suggestions on finding good industrial racks to store the carboys/wine bottles on? I only have so much floor...

I'm excited about the white cherry melomel BTW - I used rainier cherries and the must is a nice golden color in its early fermentation. I'm planning to add a bourbon vanilla bean later. I'm hoping to end up with a white to golden wine that's mysteriously mellow and accented with a subtle cherry flavor (which would be unexpected because there's none of the cherry color).

From one newbie to another, welcome!

Lots of great people with a ton a knowledge on this board.

Here is what I think is the best deal going for commercial wine rack. It holds 168 bottles and its only $85 I will be ordering a couple as soon as I get past the bulk aging stage.

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=144911

That is a great price - thanks for the tip!

That is a great wine rack and its very easy to put together! I love the variety of both wines and meads that you have made. The Cherry Riesling Pyment is on my very long to do list, is it finished, what was the starting and ending SG, and most importantly how does it taste?
I also have a cranberry melomel going. Here is a pic http://www.finevinewines.com//Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8461 Mine is still quite young and rather tart. Once it finishes fermenting I'll decide how much I want to backsweeten.
Welcome to the forum!
VC

welcome newbie .. although by the looks of the background your not so new! lol keep it going!

Welcome aboard. Wow, what a great combination of wines. You go girl!!!!

Brewgrrrl said:

Thanks. Any suggestions on finding good industrial racks to store the carboys/wine bottles on? I only have so much floor...

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Ellen,


I found that the InterMetro shelving from the Container Store worked well for storing carboys. Here's a picture of one angle of my winemaking area with the shelves well in use. The 14" x 36"deep shelves work perfectly for three carboys wide and one deep. I use a shelf on the bottom for carboys, another in the middle for more carboys, and one on top for accessories.





I can PM you a better picture if you would like to see a straight-on view of how it can be used to store carboys. The wire shelves can hold 300-500 pounds, which is just fine for three or four carboys.


- Jim

A case of $2 Chuck!

Welcome Brewgrrrl....You have very interesting meads going there.... ...I find meads very interesting too..

ibglowin said:

A case of $2 Chuck!

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Mike,


Correction: it's a case of bottles from $2 Chuck (in this case soaking in the blue Rubbermaid tub also pictured). A friend of mine that brings me bottles has another friend that puts down a case of good ole Chuck every week. As long as his liver holds out, I've got a steady bottle supply.


- Jim

Jim,

I need a few friends like that! I have about 6 people now collecting/saving bottles for me. Its funny that when I am in the wine section these days of Trader Joe's or wherever one of the 1st things I look at is the quality of the bottle which will be reused soon!

Sure, blame it on the "friend" who buys $2 Chuck...

Brewgrrrl said:

Thanks. Any suggestions on finding good industrial racks to store the carboys/wine bottles on? I only have so much floor...

Click to expand...

First off, welcome to the forum. Glad to have you onboard. I mainly use the one I made for storing my emptys bit I have bulk aged a couple of 5 gallons on it after they had cleared and quit dropping any sediment

Nice! I just have mine clustered in a basement corner right now, and the bottle rack capacity is totally inadequate. A friend of mine gave me over 100 empty bottles last Friday and they are still in my car because I haven't figured out a place for them in the house (but hey, how could I pass up all those free bottles?). I looked at some industrial shelving today at Costco but I couldn't lift the box of parts by myself so I decided to wait. Grrr!

BTW I ended up bottling the tropical ginger wine last night and I decided to filter it even though it seemed really clear because there were some persistent banana particles that I really didn't want anyone to wonder about. WOW - this was my first time filtering anything and it REALLY made a beautiful difference. I can't believe how sparkly the wine is now - it just looks perfect. Oh, if only I had done just that with the plumcot... (sigh...)
Oh - Waldo, thanks for the welcome and my previous message was about my wine bottle rack not having enough space. Your carboy rack looks really great and also nice and solid.

Welcome - well you made me go out and take some pictures of mine.


Here is my carboy rack: