Say, I have a bunch of grapes that I want to use to make wine, both white and red. Does anyone know how to make it and what the basics consist of? I have a couple books, but they seem to be month long reading and I certainly don't have the time or want to take it for reading all this material. Can any one help me out here?
Wine Makers--- Any help
- Thread starter Treebender
- Start date
grape wine is a little harder to make , not hard but its timing has to be perfect. you hold the grapes to long in the barrel and it spoils the batch not enough and you get no flavor. yeast and sugar is all you need.
Crush the grapes and put them into a container lrge enough to hold them with some room on the top. Add a little heat to get the mix to start fermenting. You may have to leave it for a few days (depending on the size of the batch) Strain the juice and press the mash to get as much out as you can. Put the juice into a large enough container to also leave a little room for expansion. Get it warm (I use a small space heater) and it will start to ferment. Depending on the sweetness of the grapes, it may take a couple of days or a week. Once it stops "boiling" top up the container and let it sit for a couple of weeks. Change the wine into another container so when transferred, the vessel is full. You'll need to put an airlock on the container while the wine is boiling. When changing the wine, siphon from one container to another being careful not to disturb the pulpy stuff on the bottom of the container. We change the wine over when the moon is new. The lunar cycle helps keep the pulp at the bottom of the container. Once you've changed it a couple of time it will clear up. You can then transfer it over to bottles. We don't add yeast or sugar ever.
Thanks for the information. I have some conflicting info though, some say to add sugar and some say to add water. Not sure yet for a recipe. When you transfer the wine from the original large jug, are you not suppose to let air get to it during the transfer to bottle? How long for fermentation?
NO trouble with air. Once you have transferred it over for final aging, you need to make sure that you fill the container to the top. My father in law is an old Italian guy and we don't add anything. If you start adding stuff, you need more stuff to get the first stuff to stop. Sounds confusing.
We have added a little sugar once to get the fermentation process going but if you're buying good grapes, they won't need it.
We have added a little sugar once to get the fermentation process going but if you're buying good grapes, they won't need it.
I made some watermelon wine once, just crushed up all the melon threw it in a big jar with water, sugar, and yeast, put the little bubbler on top to let gas out and no air in, bubbled for about three months, turned out very alcoholic but tasted terrible!!!!
When you add sugar and yeast, the net result is a longer fermentation. IN grape wine you don't want it fermenting longer than a week to 10 days. If we still see it fermenting, We'll move the batch to a cooler and get it to slow down. If you add all this stuff, you need to add further chemicals to counter act. Degassers get the fizzy CO2 out. If you do the wine naturally, you don't get the bigt CO2 build up. The biggest secret is to not screw with it. Red wines need the grape stocks in the mix to leach the tanins. White grapes don't. WE don't go to all the trouble of pulling every stem out but the wine tastes better if you get some of it out. We double crush the mash. It's amazing how the mash can feel as dry as tobacco. Press it again and more juice comes out. Be patient, get it to boil good for a week or so, change it out, let it rest, change it again, top it off and wait until Christmas. Be careful when syphoning not to disturb the crap on the bottom and you won't need to filter it. I use a syphon hose tied to a stick. The stick is an inch longer than the hose. Once the wine has set up and been changed twice, I bottle and cork it. If you leave air space in the container the wine oxidizes. I use this style of airlock when the wine is fermenting and resting.
How much for a bottle of your fine wine sir?? Red please.!!
When you add sugar and yeast, the net result is a longer fermentation. IN grape wine you don't want it fermenting longer than a week to 10 days. If we still see it fermenting, We'll move the batch to a cooler and get it to slow down. If you add all this stuff, you need to add further chemicals to counter act. Degassers get the fizzy CO2 out. If you do the wine naturally, you don't get the bigt CO2 build up. The biggest secret is to not screw with it. Red wines need the grape stocks in the mix to leach the tanins. White grapes don't. WE don't go to all the trouble of pulling every stem out but the wine tastes better if you get some of it out. We double crush the mash. It's amazing how the mash can feel as dry as tobacco. Press it again and more juice comes out. Be patient, get it to boil good for a week or so, change it out, let it rest, change it again, top it off and wait until Christmas. Be careful when syphoning not to disturb the crap on the bottom and you won't need to filter it. I use a syphon hose tied to a stick. The stick is an inch longer than the hose. Once the wine has set up and been changed twice, I bottle and cork it. If you leave air space in the container the wine oxidizes. I use this style of airlock when the wine is fermenting and resting.
PM your address and I'll see what I can do.
We make about 200 gallons of wine a year for family personal consumption (no we're not all a bunch of winos...just 1/2 the family is Italian).
We make about 200 gallons of wine a year for family personal consumption (no we're not all a bunch of winos...just 1/2 the family is Italian).
