NJwinemaker
Junior
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2012
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 0
Hello all.
My family and I made our own wine last year. I wanted to write the process we did and see what everyone thinks; ie anything wrong with it. The reason I want feedback is because we had a few issues:
1. Out of 7 carboys - 2 have a terrible sulfur smell (both petite Syrah)
2. The wine was bottled in Dec 2011- it is very light bodied. Will this improve over time?
I would say we took an old school approach.
We sanitized all bottles, carboys, and materials with Potassium metabisulfite. We did not use any hydrometers or anything to test any levels of anything. Is this needed to determine when fermentation is finished? I feel like our lack on testing may be the reason for a few issues.
Please let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Jeff
My family and I made our own wine last year. I wanted to write the process we did and see what everyone thinks; ie anything wrong with it. The reason I want feedback is because we had a few issues:
1. Out of 7 carboys - 2 have a terrible sulfur smell (both petite Syrah)
2. The wine was bottled in Dec 2011- it is very light bodied. Will this improve over time?
I would say we took an old school approach.
- Purchased the grapes from a local store
- Crushed the grapes in a old school wooden crank crusher
- Let sit in Rubbermaid tubs for 2 weeks (punching the cap every day)
- Once the cap stopped rising - we pressed the wine into glass carboys
- Over the next year, we racked the wine a few times to remove all the sediment build up.
- We then bottled the wine
We sanitized all bottles, carboys, and materials with Potassium metabisulfite. We did not use any hydrometers or anything to test any levels of anything. Is this needed to determine when fermentation is finished? I feel like our lack on testing may be the reason for a few issues.
Please let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Jeff