Oh, the waiting

[mjdtexan]

Ok. Some observations from a completely new guy.


1. The wait. The wait is a brutal thing. What do you guys do, start a new batch every week to have something to do in this hobby?


2. I feel like I should go in there and stir it every day. I'm not though. I am following the directions.
3. I have tasted more wine this week than I have most of my life (was a WL Weller & water kind of guy).


4. <-------------- wonders why the wine bottles at the store dont tell you if its gonna be dry or semi sweet or really sweet. Its been just my luck that I have not found a semi sweet wine yet. The white zinfandel was the closest.


Ok, I am sure that the wait is gonna be worth it once I put wine to bottle and get my first taste of wine that I produced. I am thinking of making a gallon (4 liters really) of wine out of some frozen apple concentrate. I am gonna go look for a recipe for that now.


Another thing, I plant watermelons next month, I cant wait for that harvest. No questions really, just sayin

 

[gaudet]

I now have 5 carboys I try to do something wine related once or twice a month. I have two primaries running right now (pitched yeast yesterday) the 6 gallons of carlos port that waldo and I are concocting and I am doing another 6 gallon batch of regular carlos that I intend to oak for a couple months. I need to do something with a mead I started back in November, and I just racked my cranberry off the lees yesterday. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the 5 gallons of cranberry muscadine that needs to be racked and back sweetened (might leave that one dry and oak it) soon as well as the 1 gallon of sweet kumquat mead that needs to be bottled soon Tomorrow is its 2 month birthday. I should start another 1 gallon of JAO but make it with limes this time (ok maybe make 3 gallons)

Should be enough to occupy my time. One last note, planning to bottle the cranberry in the next two weeks so I need to start cleaning bottles. Phew, you sure you want to get into this obsession

?

 

[Wade E]

Just be warned, if you go too fats then you eventually end up with a cellar FULL and then you cant make anymore as you will have no where to put anymore! I dont know who has this problem!

 

[mjdtexan]

Just be warned, if you go too fast then you eventually end up with a cellar FULL and then you cant make anymore as you will have no where to put anymore! I dont know who has this problem!

Ha ha, thats impossible. Could never happen. Not in a million years. You wanna know why? Cause we dont have cellars here

. I keep reading about yalls cellars and thinking that would be cool to have. I do have a four bedroom (very nice too) house next door that I just dont rent out. One of the closets is the "wine cellar/brew house right now.

 

[hannabarn]

I think it would be cheaper to have a cellar!

 

[mjdtexan]

I think it would be cheaper to have a cellar!

Your probably right. The last, ahem "renters" we had in there did not do very well on the rent part. So we says "ok, just keep up the maintenance". Well, they did not do very well on the maintenance part either. So now I grow a vegetable garden over there, use the garage as my wood shop, and one of the closets as the wine area. There is a warehouse in the back that is full of industrial/commercial janitor equipment that I need to unload as the company has closed its doors. I could not compete in the bid arena with the companies that used "undocumented workers" and keep up the two million dollar umbrella. The warehouse is bigger than the house. Next month I am going to put a couple of steers in the back pasture.


None of this has much to do with wine huh? Sorry about that.

 

[PolishWineP]

We've been known to stray from the original topic once in a while. You're not the first, not the last.

Maybe it's time to put in a storm shelter and you can protect your wine from storms!

 

[Rocky_Top]

The waiting is the first lesson of wine makeing, Grass hopper. When you can leave the wine in the carboy for a year you have compleated your first lesson.


I have8 carboys. I have something to do each week. If only cleaning winebottles.

 

[pelican]

Oh, the waiting! YES. I have 111+ bottles I am "waiting" on... some could be conceivably ready now, but I have set a goal to wait till a certain point with them (all different points in time) and none of them are there yet

I also have
1 6-gallon,
1 3-gallon and
3 1-gallon batches in glass and
1 1-gallon in the bucket at present
... and having to restrain myself from starting another one of any size!

I have a kit in the wings, but no place to put the big bucket (and it's sitting in the shower waiting for a good cleaning, my kitchen sink is waaaayy too small) and makings for a few batches of fruit wine hanging around but -- space is at a huge premium in the house.

I don't have a cellar either.

I have to content myself with watching the airlocks bubble (my meditation time), watching the calendar to make sure I don't rack again too soon (it really, really is too often to rack every 3 days! LOL), and pondering whether I need to check the acid levels, add oak, degass, and oh yes, scrape labels off of collected empty bottles.

 

[hannabarn]

I guess I haven't completed my first lesson yet because I could never wait a year. Of course at my age, the year may end sooner!

 

[gaudet]

I guess I haven't completed my first lesson yet because I could never wait a year. Of course at my age, the year may end sooner!

Me either, the longest any of my batches stayed under big glass is still in the carboy right now. I started 6 gallons of Mead back in November. Its still in the carboy (though it has been racked 3 times)

 

[mjdtexan]

I guess I haven't completed my first lesson yet because I could never wait a year. Of course at my age, the year may end sooner!

Me either, the longest any of my batches stayed under big glass is still in the carboy right now. I started 6 gallons of Mead back in November. Its still in the carboy (though it has been racked 3 times)

Wow, thats a big batch of mead. Just curious, how much honey in a 6 gallon batch¿

 

[vcasey]

You can have as little as 3 lbs. a gallon to as much as 5 lbs. a gallon. Just depends on what you want to make, how sweet or dry you want the end result.
VPC

 

[gaudet]

I think I have 18 #'s invested in it right now. You can check out the recipe at this link

http://www.finevinewines.com/wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6505

 

[dragonmaster42]

All 7 of my carboys are full, so I don't have a choice but to wait. One of the Island Mist gets bottled next week though.


mjdtexan, have you tried a Chianti? It's a medium sweet, fruity red. Made with a Sangiovese (sp?) grape.

 

[Rocky_Top]

Wow 18 pound$. That i$ a lot of Honey. I wa$ going to make $ix gallan$ once. $omething $topped me though.

 

[vcasey]

Cost really does depend on where you get the honey, but it can easily cost as much as a mid range kit. If you think waiting for some of the wines is hard, mead can take much longer. Easiest way to experiment is to search for JAO in this forum. JAO is an easy mead, its very sweet, and its only a gallon.
VPC

 

[gaudet]

Wow 18 pound$. That i$ a lot of Honey. I wa$ going to make $ix gallan$ once. $omething $topped me though.

3#'s is about $7 where I get my honey from now, so I'd say I have about $42-$50 invested in this batch. So if I get 30 bottles (750's) its less then $2 a bottle.

WHAT A BARGAIN!

Cost really does depend on where you get the honey, but it can easily
cost as much as a mid range kit. If you think waiting for some of the
wines is hard, mead can take much longer. Easiest way to experiment is
to search for JAO in this forum. JAO is an easy mead, its very sweet,
and its only a gallon.
VPC

Agreed, you can pay some serious coin for the bee spittle. Sam's Club sells 80 oz containers of clover honey for about $10 (the cheapest I've seen).

I've done two batches of JAO mead. One I followed to the letter, the other I used a different citrus (kumquat). This recipe can be adjusted to 3-5-6 gallons as well. But I'd suggest making 3 different kinds of citrus JAO and doing it large with the one you like best.

 

[mjdtexan]

mjdtexan, have you tried a Chianti? It's a medium sweet, fruity red. Made with a Sangiovese (sp?) grape.

Nope, but I will soon, now that you have steered me in that direction.


I went out flea market lookingin Cut-N-Shoot Texas today and I found an old 5 gallon carboy for $14. I think I got a good deal on it. It is smooth on the outside, not like the new 6 gallon one that I got that has the square pattern on the outside. I checked one of the spare bungs that I got and it fits. I need to get a bottle brush for carboys though.

Easiest way to experiment is to search for JAO in this forum. JAO is an easy mead, its very sweet, and its only a gallon.
VPC

Already got one going.

I've also got an Island Mist Blackberry Cabernet in the primary that is going to go in the 6 gallon carboy next week.


I am drinking a "Yellow Tail"Cabernet Sauvignon. Its better than the Merlot, Shiraz, and the White Zinfandel that I/ve tried. Its getting closer. Its still fairly dry but just a little sweet. Maybe just a tad more sweeter. Tomorrow I will try the Chianti

 

[fish1onthefly]

I bought a bunch of wine making stuff off craigslist you just have to Keep watching......and beat me to it!
I order 2 kits at a time and keep one in the fermenter all the time. I have no problem keeping the bottles empty for my next batch!