Who makes wine?

Hey guys I just ordered 200lbs of Shiraz and 200lbs of Cabernet Sauvignon from a farm who sells wine grapes in the Niagara region. Wont be ready until Sept. or so. This will be my first time with fresh grapes, currently I have many kit wines and frozen musts on the go.

In carboys I have

23L Merlot from costco (kit)
25L Cabernet from costco (kit)
23L Barolo (kit)
23L amarone (frozen must)
and 18.9L Pinot Noir (frozen must)
I also have a "Super Tuscan" 18L concentrate (kit makes 23L) that I havent gotten around to making yet.

Theyre all at various stages of development, the Barolo I have filtered once but have yet to decide wheather I will filter with finer micron pads or just bottle it. I really like the frozen musts better than kits..

Anyone else into making wine? Lets hear it!

 

i make wine every summer, wait 2-3 yrs. then share it w/ a few ppl
i don't make any specific kind...whatever fruit is available
i usually strain it through an old shirt & bottled it in old booze bottles (making sure their airtight, of course)
but i bought 2 jugs of cider & i've been letting them ferment since last october
wine is groovy...

 

i started my first batch a week ago

 

Great thread-I have some old Merlot vines in my yard and this year have a ton of grapes. Anyone know a good site for directions? I have never made any before and want to give it a try.

 

My friends have used this site for tips on wine making.
They bought grapes from a winery and made a decent Cab at home.
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/

 

Sounds pretty good.... I come from a pretty strong Italian family, so naturally we make our own vino... Well, my parents more so than me, but I do enjoy what they make...

 

Since I have restarted making wine as a hobby, I figured that digging up an old thread would reduce duplication a little.

I'm only making a gallon at a time for the moment. Partly because I don't want to see a 5 gallon batch go to hell because my technique slipped. I'm also not about to waste money on wine grape concentrate until I can make a decent, repeatable wine of good quality using the cheap stuff.

Already I'm having cloudy wine issues. I figure the first was a combination of the juice, white grape and Raspberry (it was on sale) and the sugar, a cup and a half of turbinado dissolved in a mason jar. I disinfected everything with Potassium Metabisufite and the wine tasted OK (I didn't care for the Raspberry note).

The second batch is the result of my greed I saw white grape juice for a foolish price, so I snagged 2 half gallons. As I'm prepping I realize it's not only 100% fruit juice, it's grape and apple mixed for some unholy reason. So, I went ahead and fermented it with a cup and a half of white sugar. It too is cloudy.

The batch I started yesterday is all white grape juice and this time I added a half teaspoon of Pectic Enzyme and let the juice warm up in a sink of hot water to 100F. After an hour I pulled it out of the water and added the white wine yeast. If it's still cloudy, it may be that filtration is the only solution. It will probably be 10 days before I transfer the wine to another container and let it finish.

When I did gallon batches before I could usually count on it taking a month to making it drinkable. I see little point to aging cheap grocery grape juice wine batches. I'm just getting my technique worked out. I'm also considering a wine rack for the basement. I need to make some labels. Maybe this avatar!

 

I make mead.
Well this weekend I will be.

 

I never tried making that. But it's not something I usually drink. Is it like brewing where you have to cook everything?

 

Lots of honey and boiling a big pot.
Nah tbh I've never done it. But I'm going to try this weekend because mead is good in winter.

 

Whenever I see old threads like this bumped, it reminds me of how much more "hippie-ish" this place used to be.

 

I tried making wine when I was 16...kinda. I used an old butter churn, put in some reconstituted apple juice, a few sliced apples, water, sugar and the kind of yeast intended for making bread. It bubbled, it moved around in there, it put off a semi-pleasing aroma. After 6 weeks we drank it and got sick.

 

I make beer, close enough.

Oh my this is an very old thread, I guess the OP is long gone

 

Its just the old folks go grumpy like old folks do.

 

I drink wine. Does...does that help?

 

Without you, there'd be no point to making wine!

 

Last seen in 2012.

I haven't had the nerve to try beer yet. Over the years I have tasted so many bad examples of homemade beer, so it tainted my opinion. However, I met a Jehovah's Witness in Houston who made his own beer back in 2010 and it was excellent. But then, part of his kitchen looked like an 1800's chemistry lab. So I figure it takes a dedicated effort.

Wine making is for lazy fuckers like me.

 

Sweet! I have a function in society!

 

Brewing beer: you have to mash 1+hrs, boil 1+ hrs, chill 1/2 hr, clean up and need to maintain sanitation. It is a 4+hr process to make then you have to bottle/keg it. Though once you get it down, it is not too bad. I have a covered porch and tend to brew on shitty days. A good way to get something accomplish in bad weather. My friends like it too, I am the neighborhood bar

 

I bought a big bucket of honey for my mead this weekend.