Making wine

[tzxn3]

Started my mead today. The must is producing gas, which I assume is a good sign. Will report back around Christmas whether it's drinkable.

[FrugalZen]

I do remember my first experiment in making wine...I think I was 17...(indulgent parents...at least when it came to learning..LOL!)
Old 1 gallon sangria bottle...air lock made from a rubber stopper and a piece of hose dropped into a glass of water.
Ingredients....package of frozen sweetened strawberries from the store and some extra sugar with enough water to fill the bottle about 3/4 of th way and a package of Fleishmans Bakers yeast.
When it finally stopped bubbling and there was about an inch and a half of gunk in the bottom of the bottle I capped it and shoved it in the back of the refridgerator to allow it to settle and maybe clarify.....and promptly forgot about it...Mom left it there and never threw it out and about 2 years later I pulled it out.
Sediment had settled a bit more and I carefully decanted it....the wine was this amazing deep pink and crystal clear and had the most intense taste and aroma of strawberries...got about 2 quarts and Mom and I thoroughly enjoyed it....
And the moral is like all good wines it takes time....in many cases years... before it "matures" into something you will truly enjoy.

[jennypenny]

It's funny this thread popped up. We made the sangria one if my prepper friends showed me today. We found a cheap box red, added homemade apple wine (a trade) and lots of apples and an orange (no sugar). We're adding a splash of club soda to the glass when we pour instead of mixing it in with the sangria. It's very inexpensive but tasty and beautiful in the glass. I'll make more Wednesday and serve it on Thursday.

[FrugalZen]

Proper term is "rumtoph" though the spelling sometimes differs.
Take a large crock and fill with fresh sliced fruits...fill with rum and cover.
After a couple of weeks start serving the fruit and replacing it in the pot with new and topping with more rum...the crock is a permanent thing if done right.
I do a version of that with gold raisans....I have a large (two liter) glass jar with a glass lid held shut by a metal bail....I filled it about halfway with gold raisans and them filled it up with Goslings Black Seal Rum and set it aside for two months...the raisans absorb the rum and swell up a bit...I take them out and use them in baking and the thing is they still have rum in them and when you bit them in a cookie or pie you get a tiny spurt of rum.
I keep topping off the jar with more raisans and more rum....an added bonus is after a while the "rum" in the jar absorbs the grape sugar from the raisans as well as the flavor and turns thick...almost like pancake syrup...and is it ever good on pancakes or a couple of spoons over ice cream.
Another permanent item kept in the pantry like a rumtoph crock.

[jennypenny]

We're doing a traditional rum toph and another version in a glass jar with vodka and berries. We haven't tried either yet so I don't know how they've turned out.

[Chad]

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

[JohnnyH]

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

[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]

BTW raisins can substitute for the white grape juice.

[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]

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]

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

[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.

[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]

@ 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]

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?

[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).

[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.)

[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]

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?