New hobby, new town, new wife

[FutureFarm]

I'm very new to this. I just graduated from the Air Force Academy, got married, moved to Dayton Ohio, and picked up a new hobby. I have a friend who makes his own beer, but since my wife likes wine more, I thought I'd give it a try. Right now we have 3 gallons of cider fermenting away. We started it on Columbus Day. I'm anxious to taste it. Hopefully it will be done for Thanksgiving.
It has been a steep learning curve for us. We didn't have a hydrometer when we started, the homebrew shop said we didn't need one (just wait for the bubbles to stop). Our cider recipe is 3 gallons of Musselman's Cider, 3/4 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, yeast energizer, nutrient and double the pectin amount (internet said it was ok with apples). The fermentation was so strong that it bubbled through the airlock. We took some out with a turkey baster. 1.020 SG 3 days into vigorous fermention. Since then the fermentation has slowed considerably to one airlock bubble every 30 seconds. There is some sediment at the bottom, but the liquid is still very cloudy.
Do you think everything is progressing OK?
Doy you have a good pineapple wine recipe? My wife and I had some on our honeymoon this summer and want to make our own.

 

[cintipam]

Welcome to WMT, married life, Ohio, and life after school. Sounds like you are on the right track. You need that hydrometer and also a good acid test to know how to keep your wine chugging along and safely sulfited. Since wine usually takes about a year to age I'd suggest checking out Dragons Blood, a recipe by Danger Dave, a firefighter in Chillicothe

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f68/dragon-blood-15-days-31996/#post354243

I'd also suggest getting a couple of the Rubbermaid Brute line garbage cans from Home Depot to use as primaries so you can make nice big batches of DB. 20 gal can with lid is $20 at Home Depot. Be sure to get gray (or order white or yellow on line) as these are the food safe colors.

I've not made pineapple wine, but plan to try pineapple orange from Welches juice. Try the recipe forum, search for the main ingredient you want to try, and you'll get lots of helpful recipes and advice already there to read and try.

Pam in cinti

 

[bkisel]

Welcome aboard! Oops... that would be Navy.

 

[Duster]

Welcome to WMT.
sounds like your well on you way. You will learn a lot from this forum and some by accident (like placing wine in a carboy while still early in the fermentation process causing a volcano). We have all been there. The rubbermaid containers work well as a primary and I would not recommend racking into a secondary carboy until the SG gets to around 1.010.
Keep us posted on your progress and never be afraid to ask any question.

 

[DaveL]

I have a cousin. Perry Mintz, who graduated from the Academy. I forget the year but I know **** Cheney spoke at the graduation when he was VP. I believe he is a Lt. Col now His sister married a classmate of his, Sean Hosey, Also a Lt Col I believe.
Seems to be working for them I guess.
Welcome to the Forum. You can get all the help and advice you will ever need for making wine here.
I will second the notion above, most of these wines will be better with age. Even the fruit wines will improve with 9 months to a year. The dragons blood will get you through until the others come along.

 

[LoneStarLori]

Welcome Future and congrats on all your new ventures. You will find this a great place to learn things that others have done that or did not work. I had a fortune cookie today that said "a mentor is someone who's hindsight becomes your foresight". I thought that described WMT very, very well.

I grew up in Piqua. Look northward and its 20 miles up I-75 from you. I miss the changes in weather, but not enough to give up my life near the south Texas coast.

 

[Tess]

your not that far from me. Welcome. Ever make it to Rising Sun Indiana give me a shout. I work at rising Star Casino. From Cinci. We got a lot of people from dayton

 

[ffemt128]

Welcome to WMT

 

[kevinlfifer]

Welcome from NW Ohio and THANK YOU for your service.

Ohio is taking over the forum, YaHoo!

 

[Rocky]

Welcome to the forum, FutureFarm. I am guessing that you are stationed at Wright-Pat, correct? Thank you for your service and dedication to our Country.

 

[FutureFarm]

Thanks for all the welcome wishes. I am stationed at Wright-Pat. This week we had a canned pineapple must in primary and racked it into secondary tonight. I thought it tasted ok, but it did have a bit of fire in it. OG 1.084 Today's Gravity 1.010 Now I just rack it every 60 days right? Until 6 months? We have a hard apple cider with added sugar in a 3 gal. It was clearing then we turned on the heat and it clouded up again and I can see small bubbles when I hold a flashlight against the glass. Is this just CO2 coming out of solution or has fermentation restarted? Should I just keep it as cold as possible and then rack to bottles? I really want to get a DragonBlood started. Also we've got a gallon of Carlo Rossi almost empty. What should we start in that? I'm thinking a mead with frozen fruit (Strawberry or Blueberry). This is all very new and exciting.

 

[Tess]

do you know anything about hanger 18 or any of the underground bunkers???Hmmmm?lol
I think its Co2 that you are seing. Dont stress about it! the rest is up to you!! You have lot of questions about what you wanna do!! What do you wanna do?? You tell us!!

 

[Tess]

start your dragons blood!!

 

[FutureFarm]

I'm going home this weekend for my wife's birthday. We're going to turn off the heat while we're gone. Hopefully the cold causes the apple cider to clear faster. When we get back hopefully it will be clear enough to bottle. That way I can do three gallons of Dragon Blood instead of just one. I'm starting to think a strawberry for the almost empty gallon jug.

 

[bchilders]

Welcome to the club. There is some great advice on this site. Your batch should be OK for the first one, just remember to sanitize anything that touches the wine such as your turkey baster. Sounds like your batch might be finished with primary fermentation and could be stopped anytime with three Camden tablets or 3/8 tsp K-Meta. Depends on how dry you want it. I would rack to a clear carboy or pail and then back to the original carboy and to remove the solids at least once or maybe twice before Thanksgiving. Good luck.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome aboard!!!

 

[FutureFarm]

Quick Question:
There is a craigslist ad for 1/2 gallon jugs. It looks like they seal with the 38mm screw caps. Are these worth having. I could buy airlocks for each of them and use them to age until I save up enough empty bottles. It would also allow me to keep a dry and a sweet version for long term.

 

[cintipam]

FF, I find 4 liter, 3 liter, gallon, and 1/2 gallons all very helpful. I took the time to carefully measure what each container I have holds and have figured out a nice progression that lets me rack down to a slightly smaller container so less worries about topping off. I used a nice empty Ocean spray jug that I carefully measured to a gallon and marked. Then fill carboys with measured gallons, ending with measured cups etc so you know what you have. My 6 gal Better bottles nicely rack into a 5 gallon Mexican carboy with a 3 liter jug left over. Next racking would be to a diff 5 gal, using some of the 3 liter to top leaving a 1/2 gallon. Or I start an experimental batch going into 4 liter first, then racking to a gallon.

Both 3 and 4 liters are easy to find as Carlo Rossi wine still comes in nice glass jugs of that size. I generally pay a couple bucks tops for each (empty) one as in the beginning I needed to buy topping wine and found CR's White Zin to be a nice topper. Almost all bottles of that size accept a 6 drilled bung or the 38 screw on lids with holes to accommodate a 3 piece airlock. I like those better as they hold on tighter IMHO.

I have noticed in our area that carboys have jumped in price a bit. Right now 5 g carboys seem to be going for $25, while a month ago they were $15. Course the $25 is just an asking price, you could prob offer less if buying the whole lot. Make sure they are made in Italy or Mexico, as the chinese carboys that are coming around now have been known to shatter suddenly.

Hope this helps

Pam in cinti

 

[cintipam]

Forgot to mention that if you do use small bottles for long term storage (basically as soon as you remove the airlock) be sure you buy the Polyseal screw on caps for them. It has a poly bubble that is on the underside of the cap which helps seal out air that will cause oxidation in your wine. Not really any use for the original metal screw on caps that comes on the bottles except for empty storage purposes post cleaning to be certain to keep out dust bunnies etc.

Personally I have only been doing this a short time so all my small bottles turn into my personal experiments testing diff extract additives to help determine if I wish to add anything to the 5 gallon carboy or not. Then that bottle quickly turns into a glass here, a glass there, and poof, it's gone. It might taste young and a bit harsh but there is magic in drinking what you made yourself.

Pam in cinti