winemaking virgins

[MedPretzel]

So, you've got what is known as "must."


So then you take 3 tsp nutrient and 2 crushed campden tablets and put it in the must. Restir everything nicely, and let it sit overnight.


The next day, sprinkle the yeast on top. Put a towel over the plastic pail, and then wait for a day or so. You should see some foaming. It's best to put the bucket/pail in the bathtub to make sure nothing foams over.


You basically can sit back for a week and let the yeast do their thing.


Then, you'll be ready for transferring over to the carboy (glass jug). This is often called racking. You will need the racking tube I mentioned earlier and the airlock and bung (which I forgot to mention). The bung is a rubber stopper with a hole that seals the opening - basically. You need to sanitize the carboy and the tube in the same way that I mentioned above.


Once you've siphoned the wine (please practice this with water first) into the carboy, you might find that you have some left over. If you do, please get your extra wine bottles and fill them with the rest of the must, which is now technically wine.


Then you put the airlock and bung on the carboy, fill it with vodka or water or crush a campden tablet in a couple of tablespoons of water and add it to the airlock. There is a line where you need to fill it up to.


Then you sit back and wait about a month.

 

[clattak]

Hello, my name is Chris, and I am yet another wine making virgin. I'm sure that my questions have been answered in some form elsewhere, but not in what I've read thus far. My background. My family has a decent sized fruit farm (apples, peaches, pears, berries, grapes, etc.) and farm market in southwest Michigan. We've given excess fruitto home wine makers in the past and received many bottles in return.During school Istudied abroad (Australia and Europe - where I developed a taste for wine) and we have a burgeoning wine industry here locally and we will begin planting wine grapes under contract in the next couple of years. The bug has struck andhas me firmly in its grasp.


My beginning questions are:


I want to produce small batches (gallon/4 or 5 bottles?) of many different fruits and cider wines. What size fermenting buckets and carboys (and quantity) would you suggest? and multiples of what other equipment?


Does it hurt to produce small one gallon batches in a 6 gallon carboy?


Due to a spring frost we have unharvested grape acreage and I love ice wine - any special hints for my ice wine endeavor?

 

[Wade E]

If your only going to do 1 gallon batches, go to your local transfer
station (recycle) and grab some one gallon used wine bottles or buy 1
gallon carboys from FineVineWines.com or your local brew shop. You will
need a food grade bucket also. You could use any size for this though
as long as it is bigger than 1 gallon. when your wine has finished
fermenting you want to keep it in a glass bottle right up to the top so
a 6 gallon carboy is no good for a 1 gallon batch, (hence the 1 gallon
jugs). I go to the dump(recycle center) every Saturday and bring home
betwwen 10 and 12 regular bottles and a few 1 gallon bottles each time.
Welcome aboard and good luck.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Welcome clattak...
You've come to the right place....all the people here have helped me out at one time or another...
I saw a show on Ice-Wine on TV....they were harvesting the grapes when they were all shriveled up and frozen....the juice was dripping off the bottoms of each grape...guess the water goes first, then the sugary fluids stay inside the skins...
The probably is a recipe someplace for Ice-Wine...try


http://www.ontariograpes.com/icewine.html

[Copy & Paste to your browser]

Looks like a fun idea

 

[pkcook]

Welcome clattak,


I started with a 2 gallon bucket I bought for a buckat a local dollar store and while the1 gallon batch was in the primary, I was drinking the wine from a 4L jug I bought. I managed to drink it all in the 5 days I had my batch in the primary

. I make 6 gallons of the 1 gallon batches I've tried and really like.

 

[Wade E]

clattak, you will need lots of bungs and airlocks. I use whats called
the triple ripple which sells for $0.75 and trust me, if your going to
be doing gallon batches, your going to need a bunch of them, I have
twelve and just realized I need 7 more when I went to rack a few
batches today from my buckets to 1 gallon jugs. I guess I'm going back
to the supply store tommorow. Uggg.

 

[Waldo]

Welcome clattak.....George sells a primary fermenter specifically designed for doing the one gallon batches. And wade is right.....you will need a good supply of bungs( different sizes) and airlocks. Give George a call and let him work you up a good package deal,.

 

[bmorosco]

I live in Oneida County, Upstate NY...sorry but I'm computer illiterate, I could take the photo but it would take 2 hours to figure out how to transfer it to this forum

Welcome LuckyLady ..I also live in Oneida county.. Whitesboro area!! Welcome!!

 

[luckylady]

Just an update...first of all, thank all of you who answered my quiries, I am very enthused by your enthusiasm! I have 2 books from the local library...one is "the Backyard Vinter" by Jim Law, and the other is "the Way to Make Wine, How to Craft Superb Table Wines at Home", by Sheridan Warrick...I am slowly digesting the info in these and also have spoken at length with a few vinters in the area as to where to purchase supplies, etc. It seems there's a shop across from the Carousel Mall in Syracuse that has sanitation tablets, yeast, sulfite packets, and maloactic bacteria packets...I have yet to venture out there, but will possibly make the trip this sunday. As far as the carboys, etc. I think I can get my hands on the rest of the stuff from the local recylcing centers and bargain outlets. So slow wins the race, as they say..and slow is how we're gonna go here...will write more when I get my hands dirty!

 

[OGrav]

Oneida, that's not too far away from where I grew up in Andes, Delaware County. I've got a sister in Cooperstown. Surprised Oneonta don't have a shop yet with the colleges there. Pretty sure there used to be one in Meredith, of course that was 17 years ago! I had to mail order just about everything when I was there. If you or any of your friends frequent antique shops or do a lot of garage sales, they would be good places to look out for some carboys.
LT

 

[bmorosco]

We do a lot of camping in the Cooperstown area..

 

[PolishWineP]

Luckylady,
Be warned though, do NOT purchase low-priced wine bottles. Use only good, made-to-hold-it wine bottles. (Or used liquor bottles with the proper cap.) A while back a forum member used pretty bottles that she's bought at a discount store and, if memory serves me correctly, sheended up with a bottle blowing.

We don't want anyone hurt making wine!

 

[OGrav]

Beautiful country up there. Especially with the leaves turning. You guys have access to what may be the best cider in the country. I don't know if apple wine is on your list of things to try or not.

 

[OldWino1]

yall know that 1 gal batches are just the start we end up in the 5 and 6 gal range before we know what hit us.

 

[bmorosco]

yall know that 1 gal batches are just the start we end up in the 5 and 6 gal range before we know what hit us.

What happens if you start out at 5 gal...???? Do we move up to Barrels? Ok im scared..

 

[Wade E]

No but youll have to buy a lot more carboys.

 

[bmorosco]

No but youll have to buy a lot more carboys.

Ok started this In June of this year and have 4 so far...Is that about right?

 

[PolishWineP]

You're running kind of slow there, but you're young.

You get a few more and I swear, they start reproducing on their own!