Making wine

Fixing and making things, what tools to get and what skills to learn, ...
Chad
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Post by Chad »

I love homemade alcohol of all types. I guess that provides a window on my soul.


JohnnyH
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Post by JohnnyH »

Can I get a cost breakdown on some of these wines?... Looks easier and more cost effective than beer brewing.


jacob
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Post by jacob »

With few exceptions, to make one gallon of country wine one requires
about 2lbs of sugar

1/2 pt of white grape juice, like this

about 2 lbs of whatever fruit or vegetable wine you're making

15 cents worth of yeast (one 60 cent bag makes 5 gallons)

25 cents or less worth of chemicals (typical a few tsps of various things that cost about $10 a pound)
The one exception is grape (red or white) wine, which requires a lot of juice (several pints). Conversely, I think beet wine required no grape juice. In some cases (like potato), you can eat the potatoes after using them. In other cases (like tomato), you can't. Instead of vegetables you can also use tea or coffee---then the price total is only a bit over the cost of the sugar and the frozen concentrate.


jacob
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Post by jacob »

BTW raisins can substitute for the white grape juice.


jacob
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Post by jacob »

So I learned (the hard way) that yeast energizer is not the same as yeast nutrient. Blargh!
This explains why some of my meads are weak. The strong ones were apparently a result of luck. Fortunately, the coffee mead for which I have high expectations seems to be doing well.
I currently use 6 one gallon jugs as secondary fermentors.
I've gravitated towards potato, orange, and mead as my favorites along with one experimental brew, currently wheat wine.


MountainMan
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Re: Making wine

Post by MountainMan »

I've tried dandelion, ginger, raisin and apricot wine so far. Planning on trying elderberry and apple (I'm only using what I can get for free as ingredients). They are still all in the secondary vessels, but from racking I know that some already taste quite good (especially the ginger wine!). But waiting a few more months for optimal results is going to be difficult! I was wondering what was people's favorite fast and tasty recipe. I'm looking for something that would take 1-2 months from primary to drinkable/palatable, and cheap (frozen grape juice concentrate is hard to find and really expensive where I live, so I have to rule that one out).

jacob
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Re: Making wine

Post by jacob »

Tea wine is pretty fast ~ about 2 months from primary.

Canadian Dream
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Re: Making wine

Post by Canadian Dream »

An alternative way to massively speed up your wine making is to boost the amount of yeast and add extra yeast nutrient. By adding a full package of yeast into 1 gallon you can finish your fermation in about 5 to 7 days (provided you keep the room temperature high enough ~23 to 25C). I'm going to have to play around with amounts to see if that will still work with less yeast, but overall you can drop your time to about 5 to 6 weeks.

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jennypenny
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Re: Making wine

Post by jennypenny »

The Oct/Nov issue of Organic Gardening Magazine has an article on Rumtopf with instructions on how to make it. (Bibendum pg. 30)

Serving ideas from their website...
http://www.organicgardening.com/cook/se ... or-rumtopf

MountainMan
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Re: Making wine

Post by MountainMan »

@ jennypenny: That looks yummy, I'll have to add rumtopf to the to-do list!

@ all: regarding permeability to oxygen, it is nearly impossible to find free/cheap glass carboys in Switzerland, and I can't bring them back in the plane the next time I go to the UK or US! I understand that PET is not great, especially for longer periods of time, but so far that seems to be my best option. Any suggestions, or is PET fine in your hands? I was thinking of looking for the big glass jugs of cheap wine the next time I go to Italy or France, if they still exist.

JohnnyH
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Re: Making wine

Post by JohnnyH »

I have some nice gallon glass jugs, but they have really shallow threads (1.5 turns), and are not like the Rossi wine jugs (5x + rotations). Are these acceptable for wine making?

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Re: Making wine

Post by jacob »

@MountainMan - I haven't tried PET or plastic for secondary fermentation. The biggest issue with plastic carboys is that they scratch and become harder to clean. I've seen examples of using a 1 gal water jug with a plastic film and a rubber band to cover the hole substituting for a proper airlock. Not optimal, but wine is very forgiving. I would just try it.

@JohnnyH - I don't see why not. Threads are irrelevant. Just get a drilled rubber bung that fits the opening. They come in different sizes. The 1 gal jugs use a #6. Then get a 3-piece airlock (they're easier to clean).

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Re: Making wine

Post by jacob »

My very first attempt at wine making was apple wine. It was also the worst wine I've ever made.
In retrospect it was because I only gave it 2 months in the secondary. This time I dedicated 80% of my capacity to the project making 4 gallons based on two 1 gallon Apple Juice and 10 pounds of sugar from CostCo.---Which turned out to be cheap and taste alright. I gave it 3 months.

Overall, the inventory cost to enjoyment of apple wine is too high.

My favorite remains potato/masher wine even though it takes 5+ months. Orange being a close second because it's fast (2 months). Tea being the third (I don't like it but tea drinkers do.)

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Re: Making wine

Post by jacob »

If anyone in Chitown wants to brew their own $3/gallon wine, I recommend BrewCamp(.com) which is right next to the Damen Brown line stop. Their prices are equivalent to http://midwestsupplies.com

Did
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Re: Making wine

Post by Did »

Has anyone tried making so-called country wine or other cheap alcohol in Ireland or other lower temperature countries?

Can anyone report back on elderberry based wine? We have a tree in the backyard.

While I have everyone's attention, has there been any update in anyone's thinking with the additional years of experience since this thread started? I am looking at something dead simple and dead cheap, that can ferment in Irish temperatures. A small ask, I know.

What is your favourite recipe for something reliably drinkable?

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: Making wine

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Has anyone tried making so-called country wine or other cheap alcohol in Ireland or other lower temperature countries?
As far as I can tell my location is colder than Ireland and it has worked fine. Wine is forgiving.
What is your favourite recipe for something reliably drinkable?
I've made one batch of http://fivegallonideas.com/1-minute-wine-recipe/. The site is run by another ERE, though I can't remember his name.

It was very easy. The results are drinkable though it had more alcohol and sugar than I would prefer. It was drinkable but bad at two weeks, ok at 1 month and at two months it seemed good (or I got used to it). For the next batch I'm going to add less sugar and rack into a new bottle around 2 weeks.

I've also made a few batches of hard cider with the recipe from http://www.howtomakehardcider.com/. The batch from apple cider had little flavor but was drinkable. The batches from homemade cider were better but I'm not an expert on what good hard cider should taste like.
Last edited by Gilberto de Piento on Tue Apr 07, 2020 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

jacob
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Re: Making wine

Post by jacob »

@Did - Okay, here's a trick from the ghetto. To combat the cold, put the primary fermenter on top of the stove (presuming you have a gas stove). The pilot lights will keep it warm enough to ferment. If you're brave, you can put it in the oven. Just make sure that nobody turns it on!
If that's not an option, you can buy a solution http://www.midwestsupplies.com/the-brew-belt.html or DIY something similar ... like an insulated box with a 60W light bulb in there.

I don't think my stuff has gotten any better or worse over the years. After trying out a bunch of different recipes the first year, I now only make the same two or three recipes over and over. Wine brewing is pretty reliable. The only variable here is how warm it was during primary fermentation and how much I stirred the must (to oxygenate it). I've had 3 failures total out of dozens. My very first brew where I transferred it constantly and ended up diluting it with vodka. Otherwise because the temperature was low and I failed to stir. Generally when I fail, I just mix the must in gradually with a new batch in the primary and it gets going again.

My favourite recipe is orange wine (make out of orange concentrate). It follows GdP's drinkability time frame. Patience really is a virtue when it comes to wine. The hard thing is not to drink it. I also like potato wine. You use the water and you can eat the potatoes. The time frame here is about 4 times longer!

enigmaT120
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Re: Making wine

Post by enigmaT120 »

I think a better way to deal with a sour wine is to just add a little more sugar and let it ferment out. Keep doing that until the yeast die from alcohol poisoning. Proceed to not learn anything from that, and enjoy slightly sweet wine. Just don't swim in it.

I found all my glass carboys (for secondary fermentation, when making fruit wine) at garage sales and stuff. Cheap. For primary fermenters that would be full of fruit I used 6 gallon food grade plastic buckets from work, but I'm sure restaurants have them too. The lids are pretty much air tight so you just have to punch a hole (my local homebrew supply guy had the right sized punch) in the lid for the air lock. Or blow-off tube, for some of them!

Did
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Re: Making wine

Post by Did »

Thank you all. I will have a go at this and return with results. My favourite term for this sort of alcohol, seen on a YouTube video, is jail hooch.

Did
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Re: Making wine

Post by Did »


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