Cheapskate wine

[nuchellfamily]

So i wanted to try making wine. Before i got into the hobby i wanted to just see if i had the time and patience to do so. So after having about 40lbs of various fruit. I decided to make a mulled wine from table grapes and a mango wine. Yes i know you are probably laughing but hey i wanted to see if it worked. But here is some more laughs. Ok so after juicing the fruit i decided to try and make as organic as possible since these were organic fruit. I just added about 10 ounces of honey to the 1 gallon mango juice and. 2 pounds of sugar. 10 cinnamon sticks cloves and all spice along with 1 ounce vanilla extract into the 5 gallons of grape juice. I used milk jugs but made sure the air locks and all equipment worked before just trying it out.... Well this was 3 weeks ago and as i can tell the mango is done fermenting so i tried filtering the mango wine with coffee filters. It worked but took about 1 and a half hours. I had some remainder since i was able to roughly get 5 bottles of it. So i tried some. And wow i am impressed i wouldnt say its the gteatest. But it definitely out do most of the value wine i have tasted and its after tastr is very heavenly. And honestly i spend a whole.... .99 cents on all the mangos about 15 to make this wine and its not even aged. Any ways i ranted on but i enjoyed every process of doing this so


Please from the bottom of your heart i want some people to give me their own advice on what i should get to produce this 5 gallons of wine on a bi weekly basis. (Its when i get all this fruit for free or next to free)

 

[Arne]

First of all, welcome to the forum. Second, find a home brew store and at least start out with a hydrometer. It will tell you how much alcohol you can expect to have in your wine and also when the wine is fermenting and when it is done fermenting. I know, I didn't use one when I first started, but it does help you know what is going on with your wines. You probably should get away from the milk jugs. The acids in your wines can leach some of the chemicals out of them. Best to find either glass or plastic from the brew store. You want to do this every 2 weeks, you are going to require a decent amount of equipment. You will probably find you can't consume enough of it to stay ahead of your fermenting wines. You made this in 3 weeks, that is pretty fast. Most of mine will sit in the carboys for a year or longer before bottling. That gives time to clear and lets the wine age a bit. When it comes time to bottle, my recommendation is buy a floor corker. They are more expensive, but far easier to use than some of the others. When you get thru the first mad rush of winemaking read thru a bunch of the old posts here, look around and you can find some recipes to go with your fruits and I think you can improve the product you are making. Have fun with it and good luck. Arne.

 

[Tenbears]

First let me welcome you to the forum,
You have made the most basic of wine, and it is nice to feel a sense of accomplishment. But what you have will most likely spoil unless you drink it fairly rapidly. We have come a long way in wine making since the middle ages. Modern wine makers have refined the art to a point where one can make a fantastic wine with only a rudimentary knowledge of chemistry.
I am big on making fruit wines, in fact I have never made a kit. You have a jewel if you can access inexpensive fruit. Throwing fruit sugars and yeast together ferment but green wine is a vast difference from the finished product. You have a rare opportunity here to make some great wines at bargain prices. Stick with it, read the posts here, and ask for citification on what you don't understand, before long you will be making world class wines.

 

[BernardSmith]

.... Well this was 3 weeks ago and as i can tell the mango is done fermenting so i tried filtering the mango wine with coffee filters. It worked but took about 1 and a half hours. I had some remainder since i was able to roughly get 5 bottles of it. So i tried some. And wow i am impressed i wouldnt say its the gteatest. But it definitely out do most of the value wine i have tasted and its after tastr is very heavenly.

Welcome to the forum, nuchellfamily. Filtering wine from the particles of fruit can be done - and is done in folk wine making, but as you see it can take many hours... and those hours expose the wine unnecessarily to air and air can discolor and taint the wine (oxidation). But there is another process that takes care of the particles in your wine. And that is time. You simply allow gravity to slowly force all the particles to drop to the bottom of your fermenter and every couple of months you transfer by siphoning (wine makers call that racking) the wine above the sediment into another clean and sanitized vessel. After a few such rackings your mango wine will be as clear as glass and you won't need to filter.
The secret ingredient in every good wine is something you will never seen on any label. It is patience. Seriously. The more patience a wine maker has the better his or her wine will be. Without exception. Your wine will do everything you want it to if you simply give it time...
PS. I've made mango wine and I agree it can be incredibly delicious although it does produce a great deal of sediment.

 

[heatherd]

Welcome to winemaking! May I also suggest that you check out the Dragon's Blood and Skeeter Pee threads for recipes you can turn around on a biweekly basis or even quicker.

Heather