How do I know when to bottle? Still fermenting?

[earthkitten]

Hi folks,


Any advice would be appreciated:


I have been making red wine from fresh, probably 'wild' grapes on my property, and using a very old recipe. The recipe is in the 'Wine Recipe' section if you need to have a look; it's entitled "Ghetto Wine"....hehehe.....


According to this very vague, weird recipe, my wine should be ready to bottle by now. I've followed it as best I could. However, it still smells slightly yeasty, and has fine, white foam/bubbles in it. It smells quite sweet, and good....but I just don't know if it's ready to bottle. How do I know? Unfortunately I do not have any testing equipment...and even if I did, I doubt I'd know what to do with it!


Should I taste it? I haven't so far. I've got it fermenting in sanitized white buckets (4) and I've strained the wine through cheesecloth twice already. I stir it every second day, and skim it. It's got quite a bit of sugar in it (recipe called for equal parts juice, sugar, and water) and it's been about 13 days since I added the yeast.


I am going to post a pic of it ASAP, which I hope helps.


Thanks for reading!
Earthkitty

 

[earthkitten]

Here's a photo of one of my buckets:

 

[grapeman]

You are going about it the old time way, with probably unfortunately old time results- very unreliable. If you bottle it too soon, a lot of bottles will blow and you will have a big mess on your hands, and walls and ceiling. With some luck, you might get a few bottles to keep a while. You are experiencing the unreliable results of an old time recipe with old methods.


Without some readings to base things on, before and after, everything is kind of hit or miss. One thing I can tell you is if you still have foam, you still have an active fermentation. If you had a simple $10 hydrometer, you could tell if it was ready to rack off the lees(instead of running through cheesecloth) and into a glass carboy with an airlock. Then you could monitor it for active fermentation and see it clearing. Once it was clear, then you could stabilize it and bottle it without exploding bottles.


I'm not trying to come across in a negative way, but the way you are going about it is extremely unreliable and that's why it is rarely done that way anymore.


Good luck.

 

[earthkitten]

Oh, I appreciate all the advice, Appleman. Nothing negative about your comments at all.


I realize that this method of making wine is completely archaic, and most wine-folks reading my question are probably shaking their heads...hehe....
I just wanted to try it. I can't quite explain it, but I knew that when I embarked on this method of making wine, it could be a complete flop...and I'm not outta the woods yet from the sounds of it! But I come hell or highwater, I really just wanted to do it the way old-country-bumkins have been doing it for eons, and see if it really works! So far, I've had a ridiculous grin on my face the whole time....even if the whole batch goes bust, at least I gave it a shot...hehehe.....


As for exploding bottles, well....I don't think I'm quite ready for that, so I'm going to see if I can purchase a hydrometer, and I'm going to give it a few days. I don't have carboys, or airlocks. I guess that's going to be a bit of a problem....any advice in that respect would be appreciated also, but I realize this is probably very un-charted territory for most serious hobbyists, unlike myself.


Thanks again,
Earthkitty

 

[Wade E]

You will definitely want to get it into glass soon. This glass must be sanitized and then covered with something like an airlock or least a balloon with a pin hole in it or a sandwich bag tied to it and have a pin hole in it. You can use as many bottles as you want to do this but there must me a very small space between the top of your wine and the top of your bottle to minimize Good luck.the exposure to air or your wine will get oxidized.

 

[Waldo]

Perhaps an option for you earthkitten would be to go ahead and bottlethe wineand then put a ballon over each bottle. You could store it like this and then just rack each bottle off the sediment as you got ready to drink it. If nothing else, you would have a very colorful cellar

Edited by: Waldo

 

[earthkitten]

YOU GUYS ROCK!!!


I'm totally gonna do that.....hehehehe.....great graphics too, Waldo. Thanks sooo much, see....this is why I post on this forum.

 

[Waldo]

I wanna see the actualpicture once it's done

 

[s.arkvinomaker]

Hi there Earthkitten,
If you can swing it George has put together a basic winemaking kit
which would include most everything you needto get you started. I'm just
guessing but it probably cost some where around a hundred dollars.
The best part is you will reuse most of it over and over again. So it is
an excellent investment.
It is always good to write down each step you take in making your wine.
Good records can be gleemed later to see what worked and what didn't.
If you remember your ingredients and can share them here. I am sure
this band of fine makers can take an educated guess and help you even
further. Patience is the key in winemaking and time is on your side. The
yeast smell will go away only with time. Keeping things wel sealed and
sanitized is essential. Good luck and look forward to hearing how it comes out.