Looking to get my hands dirty

[husker1223]

Okay, so I've been making wines from kits for exactly 10 years using glass carboys. I'm ready to get my hands dirty and begin making wine from grapes; or, as one friend suggested, buy fresh juice and fortify it with a lug of grapes.

Either way, I want to do this in oak barrels - not sure what size just yet.

Anyway, I know I need a press and of course an oak barrel, what else do I need that I'm missing?



Any thoughts would be appreciated, including the idea of using the grapes to fortify fresh juice.

Thanks.

 

[robie]

Welcome to the forum.

If you are going to be dealing with several lugs of grapes at a time, you really need a crusher/destemmer. It sounds easy to crush and destem a hundred pounds of grapes, but it is more work than you might think. Of course you might be able to rent a crusher/destemmer, which is a good idea when starting out.

I also like a refractometer for testing the sugar/SG of fresh grapes. When you have all those grape solids, trying to test with a hydrometer is a challenge. Just don't try to use the refractrometer to test for dryness (after fermentation starts) without using the conversion algorithm, else you won't get a good ready. Alcohol and refractometers don't mix well without that conversion algorithm.

 

[jimmyjames23]

You'll need a crusher more than a press. You can always rent both. You will also want a plastic 50 gallon (or abouts) container to do the first fermentation. Which is more like sterilization followed by soaking the skins in the must (called punching down the cap).
I've fermented in wood. I prefer fermenting in glass and aging in wood.

 

[joea132]

Barrels do best when always full of wine. You can store them with sulfited water but you will be leeching the oak into water and in effect wasting it. The smaller the barrel, the less time the wine stays in to get the same amount of oak. So you would be rotating batches of wine through the barrel more often.

I bought a 27 gallon french oak barrel last year and made enough wine to fill it 4 times until next California season. I left my first batch in for about 3 months I believe. The second stayed in for almost 5. The next will probably be in for 8+. Moral of the story is, you need to be making a significant amount of wine to keep that barrel full without over oaking your wine. Be prepared, it's not easy at all. And you will need to keep your sulfite levels high and check constantly. Wine aged in oak is lightyears better than glassed wine in my opinion. It's just a lot of extra work and worrying when you have wine in wood.

 

[Boatboy24]

Welcome to WMT, Husker. I'm just south of you in northern VA and plan to do exactly as you mentioned: buy juice buckets and "goose" them with some grapes. A few inquiries to the pros here told me it was good to go. Where are you getting your juice/grapes?

 

[husker1223]

grapes and jucie

Welcome to WMT, Husker. I'm just south of you in northern VA and plan to do exactly as you mentioned: buy juice buckets and "goose" them with some grapes. A few inquiries to the pros here told me it was good to go. Where are you getting your juice/grapes?

I'm planning on getting them from Harford Winery. http://stores.harfordvineyard.com/-strse-template/index/Page.bok

How about you, where are you getting juice and grapes? Private message me, I don't always get on here as much as I'd like.