I want to make some wine.

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Tophe

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Hey all...

I currently have only been a beer brewer. Ive got a few carboys and what not. Everything for extract brewing plus a little. Is there anything equipment I need to acquire for wine that I dont have, besides corks, corker and wine bottles?

I have a 4 gal kettle. Can I use a 6.5 gal carboy for primary, or do I need a bigger one. I was thinking about buying a 7.9 gal bucket for this.

For ingredients I think I am going to buy a kit from Midwest or NB.
 
I recently did my first wine kit. Most of them are 6 gallon kits.

I'm not expert, but here is my advise based on the one kit I have under my belt...

Wine from a kit is REALLY easy, but there is one thing that you have to worry about with wine that isn't a problem with beer - headspace. You don't want it because of the risk of a particular type of infection. You can either use something like sanitized marbles to fill the last 1/2 gallon or you can get some 6 gal carboys.

The kit I did required a secondary and a polishing vessel. I plan to have wine going pretty much all the time, so I picked up 2 6 gal carboys. It's also nice to have something to stir with -that you can get in a carboy. These work well

For a corker, I got one of these. It's cheap and easy. Soak your corks and use a rubber mallet with this corker. It works pretty good.

I also got a bottling bucket and bottle filler because I never bottled before. You probably already have those.

Good luck!
 
-Using a bucket is alot more convient for stirring in ingredients and addatives.

-Buy a Degassing whip there really inexpensive and fit at the end of any electric screwdriver they really save your arm when your ready to degass your wine.
 
Thanks for the replies...actually the 2 carboys I just picked up from a buddy are 6 gal carboys I think. They look a little smaller than my 6.5.

I think I'll order the 7.9 gal fermenter and checkout that degassing whip. Bottling bucket and filler are already covered.
 
Okay.....I'll be brewing wine soon....I ordered this kit

German Müller-Thurgau. Delicious flavors apricot, green apple and peach aromas of Riesling, and the early ripening qualities of Silvaner. A great sipping wine, its a perfect choice for potato chips (theres nothing like a crisp glass of Müller-Thurgau and some crunchy chips!) but mostly its a very satisfying wine to quench a thirst in good company

Sounds like it will be good to me. Also bought a degasser . Ill pick up a corker and corks at the next stop to the HBS
 
Don't forget the bottles!
How long does that wine have to age? I've been wanting to do a wine for my wife, she usually only likes cabs, merlots, zins, and other strong reds. If I do one of those it will take a year to age, so I think I'd like to do something that ages quicker (ready to drink while young). Hijacking this thread, sortof, but hope someone can suggest. (When she does drink whites she likes pinot grigio, hates sweet whites like "white zinfandel"...)
 
Wont forget the bottles...Still have 6 weeks to cover that. The LHBS is getting ready to get some new styles in soon.
 
Do they recommend the muller-thurgau be aged a year, or is it actually decent to drink after a month or two in bottles?
Any suggestions for wine that is ready to drink in a short amount of time - I'd like to make a few batches of "quicker" wines first off, to give us something to drink while subsequent batches have time to age out.
 
My first batch of wine I bottled half of the batch and bagged the other half. The bags are made of Mylar (I think) and fit into a plastic holder--wine on tap. My SWMBO loves this and helped me justify a kegerator.
 
LouT said:
Do they recommend the muller-thurgau be aged a year, or is it actually decent to drink after a month or two in bottles?
Any suggestions for wine that is ready to drink in a short amount of time - I'd like to make a few batches of "quicker" wines first off, to give us something to drink while subsequent batches have time to age out.

This is suppost to be good in a month or so. Thats one reason I bought it.
 
Any of the Welches concentrate wines are quick to ferment and drink. As long as you keep the ABV down to about 7% or so, it'll be ready fairly soon (< month). I'm sipping on my White Grape Peach wine, 7.5% ABV. It took two weeks to ferment out and almost totally clear. I bottled at week three, just to be safe. It's very drinkable now (my tastes are a little less discerning than some on this board ;) ) But ageing for another month makes it downright gold. Absolutely a panty remover, my fiance thinks it tastes like a fuzzy navel :D

mike
 
Flyin' Lion said:
My first batch of wine I bottled half of the batch and bagged the other half. The bags are made of Mylar (I think) and fit into a plastic holder--wine on tap. My SWMBO loves this and helped me justify a kegerator.

Cool, I like the bag concept - if SWMBO likes to drink frequently enough it's a lot easier than dealing with bottles. Where did you get them?

Also, was this wine ready quickly ( overall how many weeks?)?
 
Tophe96 said:
This is suppost to be good in a month or so. Thats one reason I bought it.

Is it sweet, semi-sweet, or considered dry but with sweetness/fruitiness? I guess you haven't tasted yet, but I know my SWMBO isn't big on sweet whites, but also hates oaky Chardonnay's, so I have to pick something closer to pinot grigio type of taste...
 
MLynchLtd said:
Any of the Welches concentrate wines are quick to ferment and drink. As long as you keep the ABV down to about 7% or so, it'll be ready fairly soon (< month). I'm sipping on my White Grape Peach wine, 7.5% ABV. It took two weeks to ferment out and almost totally clear. I bottled at week three, just to be safe. It's very drinkable now (my tastes are a little less discerning than some on this board ;) ) But ageing for another month makes it downright gold. Absolutely a panty remover, my fiance thinks it tastes like a fuzzy navel :D

mike


We're in the almost-40 age bracket, so if it doesn't taste like actual quality wine, she probably won't drink it -- but, I like how you think!! I may try to do a gallon of this just so I can know what the welches type wines taste like when done -- I bought a packet of Lalvlin 1122 yeast with that in mind.
 
I think its considered a semi-sweet wine, actually its a riesling I believe. Checkout the kits from NB or Midwest supplies. They have descriptions about them too.
 
How much concentrate do you use for those?

MLynchLtd said:
Any of the Welches concentrate wines are quick to ferment and drink. As long as you keep the ABV down to about 7% or so, it'll be ready fairly soon (< month). I'm sipping on my White Grape Peach wine, 7.5% ABV. It took two weeks to ferment out and almost totally clear. I bottled at week three, just to be safe. It's very drinkable now (my tastes are a little less discerning than some on this board ;) ) But ageing for another month makes it downright gold. Absolutely a panty remover, my fiance thinks it tastes like a fuzzy navel :D

mike
 
Its funny you posted this. I thought it would be cool to try making my own wine. That way I would have something whenever company comes over. The SWMBO brothers are little bit of wine snob type.

I can't believe how pricey the wine kits are as compared to a similar sized batch of beer. Why is that?

I found this link. It would be good for anyone treading into new territory.

http://www.grapestompers.com/tutorials.asp


I like the cheap corkers rdwj had at the start of this post. I'm gonna get me one and some bottles.
 
Schlenkerla said:
I can't believe how pricey the wine kits are as compared to a similar sized batch of beer. Why is that?

Very simple- it takes top quality wine grapes to make top quality wines. Since demand always outstrips supply, the price of suitable grapes goes up. :(

There's no shortage of top quality barley or hops, so the price of these ingredients is very very low.

The 30 or 60 day wine kits do include some actual wine grape juice, but there's lots of additives and chemical wizardry also in the juice.

There's lots of non-wine grapes (like the concord grapes that go into Welches) or poor quality wine grapes available, so the price of these is low.

The top-of-the line wine kits (in the $120-150+ price range) do have a quantity of very good quality wine grape juice included, but they take at least a year, perhaps two before the wine is matured enough to be at it's peak. These wines will equal what you'd pay $7-$15 a bottle for in the store so there's not huge cost savings to be had.
 
What about doing homemade wine without the "kits", but with some type of juice from a wine vineyard instead of actual grapes? Seems this would allow for making wine this time of year vs. only at harvest time, and (perhaps) be a bit less costly than the kits....
Comments, sources?
 
Ive got some learning to do before harvest time. My SWMBO's dad lives on a vinyard that sells grapes to St Julians and/or Welch's. Both have plants right near by. I'll have to figure out what kind of grapes they grow out there.

My kit was like $50 for a wine expert kit. I figure it comes out to about a buck and a half for a bottle in the end, so thats not bad. I mostly like knowing that I made it.

I am curious about making them from welch's juice, since her mom works there. I could get that juice for very cheap.
 
If you guys are into actual grape-wines, (kits and vinyard grapes) then the welches route isn't for you. They're more of a flavored wine-cooler drink, with a kicked up abv. They may be a way to put some variety in your actual grape wines, but I don't know, I'm not into that. I figure I'll part with a few extra bucks at the liquer store for quality wine rather than making my low quality amatuer stuff at home, so I focus on the weird and unusual recipes (meads, country wines, etc), stuff you don't find in the store.

Anyway, Welches recipes are super simple. I use 3 cans of concentrate to one gallon, top with water, measure SG and see if I've hit the 1.06 mark. If not I add a half a cup of dextrose or so to bump it up. The peach has a nice taste on it's own, but the raspberry lacks body (required glycerin to even out). Again though, this is girly drink stuff, not quality wine making.

mike
 
LouT said:
What about doing homemade wine without the "kits", but with some type of juice from a wine vineyard instead of actual grapes? Seems this would allow for making wine this time of year vs. only at harvest time, and (perhaps) be a bit less costly than the kits....
Comments, sources?

Many vineyards will sell their juice to hobbyists, but again you get what you pay for.

If the vineyard owner can get $5-10 a liter for his good stuff by selling it to a winery, he's not going to sell it to you or me for less.

Have a look at this price list from Brehm:

http://www.brehmvineyards.com/SpringSalePrices.pdf

The 'pails' that they refer to are 19 litres each- just do the math. That's up to $7 bucks a bottle (assuming no waste) just for the raw juice!

You can buy 'wine grape juice' for $2-3 a litre, but the quality of the finished wine will be in proportion to the price.

There's a huge Italian and Portuguese community here in Montreal that do bulk purchases of wine grapes every fall, but they buy truck loads coming from the Central Valley in CA. They average around $4-5 a litre and it makes a decent table wine.

Maybe the foregoing will qualify me as an EAC (again), but so be it. If I'm going to go to the time and trouble of making a batch of wine or beer, I'll use the best ingredients I can afford.:mug:
 
Yeah, Im mostly making the wine for SWMBO, which she will mostly prefer the fruity girly drinks. I just think it would be cool at harvest time to try and make some from real grapes since I'll access to free quality grapes. Lots of time to learn up on those before its time though.
 
I don't think I have the skill level yet to justify paying 7 bucks a bottle for just the juice!!
If anyone has tried the Island Mist kits, I'm leaning toward one of them for my first batch - they have some fruit along with grapes, and are ready to drink fast, (and they are priced under $50) so I think would be good to get started. Then I'd do a white wine that needs 6mos, or so aging, then start in on some reds. Wine doesn't "disappear" as fast as beer, so I won't need to make it as regularly as brewing. I still want to "move up" to grape crushing and the whole nine yards some day. (I am Italian but have no family members to pass down the tradition of wine-making to me, wish I did.)
 
I almost bought one of the Island Mist kits, but ended up with a white wine. I will probably try one of those next though.
 
LouT said:
If anyone has tried the Island Mist kits, I'm leaning toward one of them for my first batch - they have some fruit along with grapes, and are ready to drink fast, (and they are priced under $50) so I think would be good to get started.

And there's nothing wrong with those kits at all- my SWMBO has commisioned me to keep the wine racked stocked with them at all times.

There's also nothing wrong with any of the other kits- just don't expect to get the equivalent of a 2002 Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon (tonight's offering at dinner) from a $50 kit.:mug:
 
It's a plan, then. I just need her to pick her flavor. I think I have everything else I'll need, except maybe the degassing whip tool. Need some bottles, too - don't have enough yet. If I buy I think I'm going to get screw caps, seem like they'd be easy and from what I hear they seal more consistently well than corks.
 
great read guys, enough to get me to take a hard look at whipping up some myself.

Anyone tried this approach and can offer any differences in what the wine tastes like?

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/wine/fruit_wine.asp

I live in the South and have access to quite a bit of fresh fruit and this little kit seems to be pretty easy to whip up a gallon of fruit wine.
 
That looks like a good little kit....I may have to look into that sometime. I have access to lots of free grapes.
 
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