pizzaman
Well-Known Member
Background: Over the last two years I have tried various ways of making wine. While I'm getting better and better at making beers and meads, I just can't seem to grasp this wine concoctificationism. The root of this problem is most likely that I have never had a wine that I enjoyed, and therefore I have no real base for how to make a good wine. I have been to a few wine-tasting classes and shows, sampled some of what others have said is very good wine...it all tastes like sour juice to me. Of course my wife loves wine, and will only allow me to continue brewing if I at least try to make her wine every now and then....
Foreground: So after bottling ten gallons of damned good beer today, I was looking at the shelf in my kitchen that has become my wine cabinet, cluttered with bottles of failed attempts at making drinkable wine, and in a drunken rage dumped all of it(no not down the drain silly, it is alcohol after all) into a carboy. I followed this with some orange juice(I have recently found that my wife loves a properly fermented orange juice), some various fermentable sugars I have had success with in making beers and meads, poured in some dissolved tannin, acid blend, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, and crushed campden tablets, and sealed it up to rest for a day or so. The abv of all the wines added was 10-12%, after the additional sugars the gravity was up to 1.045 which should make for an additional 6% abv if anything happens to this globbitygoop. It's resting now, I'll be pitching some montrachet onto it tomorrow night....I can't help but wonder if the homebrewing gods will forgive me for making something so terribly awful. Thinking back on it now, my thought process must've gone something like this: "None of this wine tastes any good, people drink it when I put it in front of them, but never EVER ask for more...maybe if I mix it all together and bump up the alcohol noone will ever NEED to ask for more...muahahahaha(laughter trails off into the darkness with me madly pouring gallons of crappy wine into a carboy)"
Foreground: So after bottling ten gallons of damned good beer today, I was looking at the shelf in my kitchen that has become my wine cabinet, cluttered with bottles of failed attempts at making drinkable wine, and in a drunken rage dumped all of it(no not down the drain silly, it is alcohol after all) into a carboy. I followed this with some orange juice(I have recently found that my wife loves a properly fermented orange juice), some various fermentable sugars I have had success with in making beers and meads, poured in some dissolved tannin, acid blend, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, and crushed campden tablets, and sealed it up to rest for a day or so. The abv of all the wines added was 10-12%, after the additional sugars the gravity was up to 1.045 which should make for an additional 6% abv if anything happens to this globbitygoop. It's resting now, I'll be pitching some montrachet onto it tomorrow night....I can't help but wonder if the homebrewing gods will forgive me for making something so terribly awful. Thinking back on it now, my thought process must've gone something like this: "None of this wine tastes any good, people drink it when I put it in front of them, but never EVER ask for more...maybe if I mix it all together and bump up the alcohol noone will ever NEED to ask for more...muahahahaha(laughter trails off into the darkness with me madly pouring gallons of crappy wine into a carboy)"