First full batch of wine

Why didn't anyone tell me that making wine was so damn easy?!?!

After several batches of apfelwein and an agave wine experiment, I finally broke down and bought a real wine kit (Vintner's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Austin Homebrew). During today's pumpkin ale brew day, I took a break from brewing to follow the first step in the wine kit's instructions. 10 minutes later, I affixed the airlock and walked away. Seriously? It's that easy?

I tasted the initial hydrometer sample, and that's some mighty fine grape juice! Even though it's an inexpensive kit, I'm really looking forward to the results.

Assuming the wine progresses as it should, we're going to bottle in early December and have 375 mL bottles to hand out for Christmas (with explicit instructions to age it).

Yuri_Rage said:

Why didn't anyone tell me that making wine was so damn easy?!?!

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I didn't tell you how easy it was? My mistake.

And.........those kits are actually pretty good. The inexpensive ones make a decent table one in a relatively short period of time. I bought a more expensive kit recently (when AHS had a big sale) and I'm really looking forward to that one. It's the kit with the grape skins and pulp along with the juice, and I've heard that these turn out really well. I'll be sure to post the differences when I get it finished.

Since you like making a kit wine, you should seriously consider making country wines out of local produce (or even frozen grocery store fruit). A nice strawberry wine is easy, and not very expensive. Pretty soon you'll be walking through the grocery store and everything will look fermentable.

YooperBrew said:

Pretty soon you'll be walking through the grocery store and everything will look fermentable.

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Oh, that happened a long time ago...

Yeah I'll second that everything looks fermentable quote.... I go nuts now all summer long waiting for various fruits to come in-I ran out of primaries this year-I don't wanna rush the wines but I gotta brew more beer !
Maybe this is a sign from above to buy more carboys and stock yeast year round.... Shane

SAS98M said:

Yeah I'll second that everything looks fermentable quote.... I go nuts now all summer long waiting for various fruits to come in-I ran out of primaries this year-I don't wanna rush the wines but I gotta brew more beer !
Maybe this is a sign from above to buy more carboys and stock yeast year round.... Shane

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I've got a slightly different disease, I walk through the organic section or past a local fruit tree and go "I wonder what kind of yeasties are on that fruit...." and proceed to nab it to add to my wild yeast bank.

I have made quite a few batches of wine from the Vintner's kits. Never had any problems and they make very good wine! I have tried all the kits from the cheap series to the Cruschendo series (comes with crushed grapes).

BTW: Sometime last year, I stopped taking hydrometer readings throughout the process and just racked/bottled the wine when the clock said it was time. That is the most tedious part and I have never had an issue doing that.

YooperBrew said:

...Since you like making a kit wine, you should seriously consider making country wines out of local produce (or even frozen grocery store fruit). A nice strawberry wine is easy, and not very expensive. Pretty soon you'll be walking through the grocery store and everything will look fermentable...

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Yep, I went and picked up the book "The Joy of Home Winemaking" about two weeks ago at B&N, finished it a few days ago. Really nice, simple and pleasant sounding wine's that I could have never imagined. I cruise the local grocery store and now I see all this potential. All I need to do is pick up a handful more of airlocks and get to work. :rockin:

My sickness runs to wandering around the nursery/garden center and wondering what to I grow to get fruit to ferment.