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Making Your Own Wine – Part 4

Posted by benevert1 On June - 30 - 2006ADD COMMENTS

This is the fourth part of a 4 post series on making your own wine.

Ok, we have decided what wine to make, tested it for sugar content and acidity, adjusted for tannins and nutrient, and pitched the yeast.. So what do you do now? Well, you let it sit and begin to ferment.

There are two types of fermenting styles. One style is closed and the other is open. Personally, I prefer and open style of fermenting. This is quite contrary to what most books and other wine makers will tell you. My rationale for an open system is that since yeast need oxygen to convert the sugar, then more oxygen will help the yeast.

This is the system that I use for my primary fermentation.

This system is primarily a bucket with a large grain/fruit bag tied to the top. If you plan on using this system, keep it up and away from children and pets. Primary fermentation will take about 5 – 7 days. During this time, the solids will float to the top due to the activity of the yeast. This should be “punched down” or gently stirred back into the fermenting wine at least once a day and if you are able to do it, twice a day.

This is what the solids look like.

When it is time to transfer to your secondary, the one thing that I do is to skim the solids off prior to racking over. Most times I use a slotted spoon to allow any liquid to flow through. These solids are pretty thick, so they tend not to fall back into the wine when you are scooping it out.

Scooping out the solids.

To rack over to my secondary, I use a funnel. Other people will tell you to use a siphon system. Personally, using the funnel is easier and quicker so that is what I use.

Secondary fermenter ready for the wine.

Notice the handle? Best investment when using glass carboys.

Pour the wine into your secondary, put an airlock on it and let it be. Generally, I’ll let my wine sit for a month or two before racking it over again. It really depends on how many solids have settled at the bottom. If a lot have settled then I rack it over in about a week or two. Otherwise, let it clear up a bit before racking again.

After about the third racking, I rack the wine into a one gallon jug and put an airlock on it for about two weeks. Then I cap it. The one gallon jugs are easier to handle when it comes time to bottle, because I use a funnel to bottle .

One gallon jug with airlock

At bottling time, clean and sanitize your bottles along with your corks or screw caps. Use a funnel and pour your wine from the one gallon jug into your bottle. Cap it and let it age for a few months. I have gone to using screw capped bottles because they are easier to open. Also, with the screw cap bottles, you can open it and sample it before given it to someone. It saves on being embarrassed about given your friends some really nasty wine.

Well, that’s it in a nutshell. Time, to kick back and enjoy some wine.

Technorati Tags : Wine, Winemaking, Fermentation, Racking, Bottling

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Wine Making

Making Your Own Wine – Part 3

Posted by benevert1 On June - 28 - 2006ADD COMMENTS

The is the third part of a 4 post series on making your own wine.

In the first post, we dealt with getting your must ready to be tested for sugar and acidity. The second post dealt with testing for sugar and acidity. This part will describe all the other things that go into your wine so that it can ferment properly.

One thing that almost all wine needs to get it going is yeast nutrient. This acts as a jump starter to get the yeast cells motivated to turn the sugar into alcohol. You don’t need to use a lot of this so follow the directions on the label for dosage .

For wines other than grape wines, you usually have to add a little grape tannin to your must. I generally only use 1/8 of a teaspoon per gallon. If you are in a pinch you can use raisins instead of grape tannin. A handful of raisins per gallon should be enough.

Certain types of fruit will require you to add pectin enzyme to your must. This breaks down any pectin that is in your wine. Pectin in your wine makes it very difficult to fine and clarify. So, for things like peach wine, strawberry wine, apple, wine, etc, use the pectin enzyme.

Campden Tablets

Campden tablets or sulphur dioxide is the last thing that you add to your must before adding the yeast. This will help to sterilize the must and kill any wild yeast cells that are hanging around. Generally, most people will tell you to add 2 tablets per gallon of must. Personally, I use about 1.5 tablets to a gallon before the fermentation, 1 tablet per gallon on the second racking and for the last racking prior to bottling.

After these items have been added to your must, leave the must alone for at least 24 hours. Do not add yeast until the after 24 hours because the capmden tablets will kill it if added now.

Last item to add is the yeast. There are quite a few different yeasts out there, but they fall into 2 categories, dry or liquid. With the liquid variety, you are able to make more style specific wines. Personally, I use the dry wine yeast because it is a lot cheaper and because most of my wines are fruit wines. The 2 major dry yeast companies are Red Star and Lavlin. I prefer the Lavlin yeast since it seems to make a smoother wine than the Red Star.

At this point your ready to make wine. The last post will talk about fermenting, racking and bottling your wine.

Technorati Tags : Wine, Winemaking, Yeast, Grape, Tannin, Pectin nt size="2">, Campden

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Wine Making

Banana Wine

Posted by ben On June - 27 - 2006ADD COMMENTS

BANANA WINE

4 1/2 lb. bananas

1/2 lb. chopped golden raisins

3 lb. granulated sugar

1 lemon (juice only)

1 orange (juice only)

1 gallon water

wine yeast and nutrient

Peel and chop bananas and their peels, placing both in grain-bag and tie closed.

Place grain-bag in large pan or boiler with water and bring to boil, then gently simmer for 30 minutes.

Pour the hot liquor over sugar and lemon/orange juice in primary fermentation vessel and stir to dissolve sugar.

When cool enough to handle, squeeze grain-bag to extract as much liquid as possible and add to vessel.

When liquor cools to 70 degrees F., add yeast and nutrient. Cover and set aside in warm place one week, stirring daily.

Move to a cooler place (60-65 degrees F.) and allow to sit undisturbed for two months.

Siphon liquor off sediment into secondary fermentation vessel, add chopped raisins, and fit airlock.

Rack after four months and again in another four months.

Bottle and sample after six months. Improves with age.

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Wine Recipes

Pete’s Wicked Ale Recipe

Posted by ben On June - 27 - 2006ADD COMMENTS

It’s been a while since I have had a Pete’s maybe I’ll give it a try over the weekend. This recipe is mostly for extract brewers and is fairly simple.

2 cans Unhopped light Extract
1 lb Crystal Malt
1 oz. bullion hop
1 oz. Cascade hops
1 oz. Fuggles
Ale Yeast

Put the 1 lb crystal malt in hop bag and put in gallon of cold water. Bring water up to a boil, then removebag of crystal with strainer and throw away(you made a tea with the cystal).

Remove from heat and add 2 cans of Unhopped light extract. Bring back to a boil and add 1 oz bullion simmer for 30 minutes.

Then add 1oz. cascade hop and simmer for another 15 minutes. Then add 1/2 oz Fuggles simmer for 15 minutes.

At last minute add other 1/2 oz. of fuggles.

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Beer Recipes

Making Your Own Wine – Part 2

Posted by benevert1 On June - 23 - 2006ADD COMMENTS

The is the second part of a 4 post series on making your own wine.

In the first part we dealt with figuring out which wine to make and getting your must ready to be tested. This post will deal with testing your must before adding the yeast to ferment it. At this stage, it is easy to adjust your acid content as well as your sugar content. Trying to test after the fact is a major pain in the butt, so you want to do this part every time you make wine.

Let’s start with checking for acid. You can use ph paper but a more accurate way is to use an acid testing kit.

Acid testing kit

You can usually purchase a kit for around $7. Depending on the type of wine you are making, the acid percentage should be around .60% to .85%. The kit tells you what your percentage by generally fruit (peach, strawberry, etc.) and red wines should be lower in acid and the whites should be higher. The kit includes a bottle of sodium hydroxide, coloring agent, testing tube and a syringe.

Parts of the acid testing kit

The process to test is rather simple. First you take the testing tube and fill it 15 cc of your must.

Testing tube with 15 cc of must

The second step is to put 3 drops of the coloring agent into the testing tube. Third step involves filling the syringe with 10 cc of sodium hydroxide. Caution — Sodium hydroxide is very poisonous, be extremely careful around pets and children. The last step is to slowly put 1 cc of sodium hydroxide at a time into the testing tube until it changes color. At that point, you will know the percentage acid in your must. Basically, if you put in 5 cc of sodium hydroxide, then your must has .50% of acid content.

Testing tube after it has changed colors

After you determine the percentage of acid in your must, then you can make the necessary adjustments. If you need to raise your acid content, add acid blend according to the directions on the kit. If your acid content is too high, then add water and retest. I usually shot for anything between .60 and .70 for most of my wines and I usually don’t sweat it if it comes to .70 when it should be .65. What you really don’t want it a wine that is too low in acid or too high in acid because it will make some very nasty wine. And, I mean nasty in a bad way, not a good way. Now that the acid testing is complete, we can move to testing for the amount of sugar.

To measure sugar content we use an instrument called a hydrometer. A hydrometer looks like a thermometer but with a bubble at the end. For more info on how to read a hydrometer, click here. Basically water will read 1.000 on a hydrometer and most wines will ferment a few steps below that level. For most wines, you want the hydrometer reading to be 1.085 – 1.095. Most hydrometers will have 3 scales on them. Personally, I like the 1.000 system instead of Plato or Brix.

Hydrometer in testing tube.

Notice that the hydrometer is barely over the top of the tube. This liquid was 1.000

Pour some of your must in the testing tube and then put the hydrometer in. Check the scale, if not enough sugar, add white table sugar a cup at a time. If you have too much sugar (over 1.100), then add some water

.

Added some sugar.

Notice that the hydrometer sticks up higher in the testing tube. This measured about 1.020.

In the first post, I mentioned when using juice concentrate to fill your fermenter to the 3 gallon line before adding sugar. What I usually do at this point is to warm up 1 gallon of water and stir in 1 1/2 bags (5 lb) of table sugar. Once that is dissolved, pour it in the fermenter and stir for about 30 seconds. Then test your must for its sugar content. Too high, add some water, too low add some sugar.

At this point, we are ready to add the other ingredients and yeast. Which will be talked about in the next post.

Technorati Tags : Wine, Winemaking, Acid, Hydrometer, Sugar

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Wine Making

Ginger Wine

Posted by ben On June - 22 - 2006ADD COMMENTS

I had some ginger wine about 2 months ago at the local wine makers meeting. Being the person that is willing to try anything once, I gave it a taste. My first thoughts were that it would be some very nasty stuff. Boy, was I surprised !! It was quite mild and rather smooth tasting. The best way I can describe it was that it tasted like a flat ginger ale but had a kick.

The real beauty of this wine is that you can purchase most of the basic ingredients at your local supermarket.

Root Ginger 1 oz.
Sugar 2.25 lb
Lemons 2
Oranges 2
Raisins 0.4 lbs.
Campden Tablet 1
Pectic Enzyme
Water 1 gallon
Wine yeast
Yeast nutrient

Crush the ginger then add it to the water along with the raisins.

Bring to the boil and then add the sugar.

Stir until all of the sugar has dissolved then simmer for around half an hour before placing in a fermenting container.

Allow to cool then top up to 1 gallon with cold water.

Grate the skins of the oranges and lemons then add this plus the juice of the fruit to the fermenting container.

Allow to cool then add the pectic enzyme.

Leave for 24 hours then add the yeast and nutrient.

Place the container in a warm place and leave to ferment on the pulp for four to five days stirring daily.

Strain off the pulp into a carboy then fit a bung and airlock and return to a warm place to ferment out.

Once fermentation has finished, rack off the wine and add the campden tablet.

Once the wine is clear bottle and leave for around three to four months to mature before drinking.

Technorati Tags : Wine, Winemaking, Ginger, Recipe

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Wine Recipes

Budweiser Recipe

Posted by ben On June - 22 - 2006ADD COMMENTS

The reason I picked this is that it is usually really tough to make a yellow colored beer from malt extracts, unless you are using an extra light variety. The best that I was able to acheive, was a dark golden color.

This is a great, easy-to-make pilsner-style beer made with ale yeast — no lagering required. Comes close to many commercial light pilsners, with just a bit more flavor. (5 gallons)

Ingredients:

2.5 lbs. extra light dry malt extract
1.5 lbs. light honey
1 oz. Cascade hops (6% alpha acid): 0.25 oz. for 60 min., 0.25 oz. for 30 min., 0.5 oz. for steeping
1 tsp. Irish moss for 15 min.
1 tsp. gypsum
Wyeast 1056 (American ale) or Yeast Lab Canadian ale (AO7)
3/4 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

Bring 2 gal. water to boil.

Remove from heat and add dry malt, honey, and gypsum.

Return to boil. Total boil is 60 min.

Add 0.25 oz. Cascade and boil for 30 min. Add 0.25 oz. Cascade and boil for 15 min. more.

Add Irish moss and boil for 15 min. more.

Turn off heat, add 0.5oz. Cascade hops, and steep for 2 min.

Pour into fermenter and top up with cold, preboiled water. When cooled below 70° F pitch yeast.

Ferment seven to 10 days in primary at 70° F or below, then transfer to secondary and
ferment another seven days. Prime and bottle.

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Beer Recipes

A Plethora of Info for the 21st Century

Archive for June, 2006

Making Your Own Wine – Part 4

Making Your Own Wine – Part 3

Banana Wine

BANANA WINE

Pete’s Wicked Ale Recipe

Making Your Own Wine – Part 2

Ginger Wine

Budweiser Recipe

A Plethora of Info for the 21st Century

Archive for June, 2006

BANANA WINE

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