Today I made a five-cent ten-minutes-to-construct wine making factory.
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shows my first effort, started a few hours ago. Will my attempt succeed or fail? I have no idea, but my patient has a steady and strong pulse so maybe it will pull through.
Does anyone need a better set-up than what I have? What are the benefits of going all hog-wild with equipment and techniques?
In late summer we here at the ranch (I'm a cattleman in New Mexico) will have a grape harvest, and I plan on "preserving" some of those grapes in bottle form. Hic! Do I really need a grape press, and all that expensive equipment to make a good wine?
Why age wine? Why put it in oak barrels?
In a few minutes I will read the articles I downloaded off of this newsgroup, to see how other people "do it."
I got a great kick out of your "What Would Jesus Drink?" page. I'm new to winemaking, too, and I managed to completely spoil my first batch (of mead) by being too fussy and hands-on with it. So I like the way you think, Susan. I love the spirit of inventiveness and creativity and devil-may-care "make do with what you have"; as a city girl turned country girl, I strive to be more like that.
I expect the refined palate might have some problems with wine made in such an "unrefined" way (if for no other reason than it's hard for the refined mind to believe that good wine could be made in old Prego and pickle jars with no fancy equipment or testing or such). Personally, I was delighted with your model. I've got four gallons of spoiled mead into which I threw some Blackstrap molasses and chili powder and ground up cayenne peppers and three packets of bread yeast (yep, it started up again!) and just left open to the air. I have been stirring with the completely unsanitized racking cane I have not been able to manage to use properly because I'm too much of a klutz. I intend to use this potent brew to fortify my raised beds and kill off bugs before planting. Your clear directions on your WWJD setup definitely gave me some ideas about how to set up a cheap drip irrigation/fertilizing system for my beds.
Careful, you might end up with some interesting vinegar (and it would be a shame not to cook with it...). If it does go vinegar just one note of caution keep it and anything it has come in contact with away from your meads and wines (unless you bleach the hell out of them). Otherwise have fun. Ken
Ok set up looks fine, though caution is required for that type of airlock (gravity drop) so long as no air gets up the hose or the atmosperice pressure drops to the point that the bleach water gets sucked up the hose (the length of hose you have should mostly prevent that) you will be fine. You may want to get some type of sealing agent (silicon calking, rubber cement, or whatever) to ensure that the hose/hole interface is indeed airtight. You may want to get a primary fermentation bucket (a type 2 plastic pail) which will allow ease of mixing and fermenting for the first two weeks, if it has a lid you will need to do the same hole trick, if not some clean plastic sheeting and string tied around the top to hold it in place is fine. Otherwise thumbs up.
No you don't need a grape press, just freeze the grapes for a few days (this will break down the cell walls of the grapes and free up the juice better than a press would), afterwards you can hand press witha patato masher. If the juice is red the traditional meathod is to ferment on the skins, that would be the mashed up grapes, (no idea, but then most traditions are like that) for a week or two. If you keep the grapes in a nylon mesh bag (or a new set of nylons), it will be easy to remove the grape skins (even easier if you have that bucket) and wring the rest of the juice out of the grapes (though if you don't want to bother with this you can just ferment on the skins until it is done, though it may cause a spike in tannin which can be unpleasent for some people). One note here wild grapes, especial the North American varieties, often have to much acid, this can lead to a harsh/sour taste and maybe fermentation problems, chalk can be used to fix this (there are comercial products which do a slightly better job, don't use baking soda while it will reduce acid it will impart a salty taste if to much is used).
Well wine is rather like soups and chillies (which always taste better the next day) just on a larger time frame (a few months, reds take longer than whites). Aging will remove off flavours, which come from about 3 thousand different problems (well not that many, but even those with all that fancy equipment have problems with this), the most common sources for the problems are: too much heat (somewhere in the low to mid
70's is likely optimal, different from baking), raw materials, yeast (wine yeasts are less likely to impart undesired flavours; baking yeast will actual ferment to relatively high alcohol levels, I've heard of it hitting 14% though that is unusual, but it most likely will leave some off flavors), and speed of ferment (the faster it goes the more likely it is to have off flavours).
Oak barrels were used for a few reasons, first they added a nice taste to the wine, second there were a lot of oak trees in Europe (tradition, tradition), third oak was relatively easy to work with, fourth it is not poisonious to humans (yes some wood contains chemicals that are poisonious to humans which are alcohol soluble). In areas where oaks do not grow (South America) other woods have been used.
Jack Keller's website
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will likely be of interest to you and contains a lot of information on homebrewing, wines, and wild grapes.
Several comments about your method. I would recommend that you use glass rather than plastic. Try to wash out a plastic mayonnaise or pickle jar and then seal it and put it back for a few weeks. Then smell it. I don't think you will find it as fresh as you might think. Use glass. You can find free gallon glass jugs.
Air locks are cheap and reusable. But whether you use your airlock which probably will work, or a store bought one, do NOT use bleach as the liquid in it. Chlorine will come off as a gas and go up the tube to the wine. Chorine, even in very tiny trace amounts, is a very bad thing for wine. The wine industry ruined a lot of wine when the cork industry used chlorine to sterilize corks for a few years. The traces in the cork ruined the wine.
Why age wine? Because most people like what proper ageing does to wine. It mellows it. That is if you protect it properly from air. If you store it improperly while aging, then aging is a very bad thing. Not all wine is improved by unlimited age. Some wine is better drunk young. I drink some of my wine at 2 months. Others types I do not touch for 3 years.
Why age in oak? To effect the taste. Some people like oak. Some do not. That is a personal thing. Some people I know will not drink any wine that has touched oak. I add most of my oak by adding properly cured chips to the wine rather than putting it in barrels. This is easier and will give a similar but not the same result. It fits my pleasure. Oaked wines tend to require more aging.
You are crafting wine to your own taste so do it your way. But if you go against tradition, don't complain when you or others do not like the results.
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