wine makeing convert

[kissajew86]

Hello all, i started out makeing home made wine and have begain meddleing into the beer arena, i started out with a merlot and a rasberry cabirnet.

i got an imitations mike hard lemonaide, and realized they wanted you to artifitially carbinate the mixture inorder to make it the sweet hard lemonaide like make's hard lemonaide, so when i was buying the keg setup i decided to try to make beer, after all i had all the equipment.


so i started out with a pilsner, in reading up in the forum i have noticed something and had a question

as always sanitization is #1 for brewing wine or beer, however it seems like beer is more effected by spolidge becasue of the low alcohol content. With my wines i have always used tap water filtered through the carbon filter. i have never boiled my water to kill off bactirea, and have had no issues with infection, i never saw it recomended in the wine arena, they useually stated the chlorine will kill off the harmfull bacteria, and to sanitize all the equipment well which i always have done.....

I boiled all the water that was used for the beer, and boiling 5 gallons of beer took a while!

I was just curious is this really neccissary? and if so why does it not seem to be as previlent in the wine arena? is it becasue of the high wine alcohol content?

 

[EvilTOJ]

You shouldn't have to boil all 5 gallons of water if you're using filtered water. I don't boil all of mine, I just add from the tap for my boil, then use my filter from my refrigerator to top it off in the carboy. As long as you're sanitizing all of your equipment you should be fine. Beer is more prone to getting nasties, part of it being the lower alcohol content, another being many more kinds of bacteria love beer wort than wine must (is that what it's called? I don't make wine)

 

[david_42]

Beer wort is much more complex than grape juice. It has proteins, five or six kinds of sugars, etc. The sugars in wine will ferment most of the way in a few days and the ABV is much higher. Other than vinegar bacteria (mycoderma aceti), not much can live in wine. Even then, if you are making vinegar, you dilute the wine to 6% ABV to give the bugs a chance.

You don't need to boil all 5 gallons (assuming you are doing extract), 2-3 will work fine for the boil. You just need a little more bittering hops.

 

[Lost]

A lot of extract brewers around here don't do anything to the top up water - they just add it. When I was doing extract batches I would always boil the top up water. I tried making wine from a kit for my gf and I didn't boil the top up water because the instructions didn't mention it and she was in a rush. Well.. that was some stinky, sulfur smelling wine :cross:. That kit (just the ingredients and clarifiers and what not) cost around $50 - you better believe I wanted to kick myself in the ass for being to lazy to boil that water!

A lot of people don't do it and make great beer.. I'm sure it's probably pretty safe but doing so effectively reduces the number of nasties that get into my wort and gives the yeast a better chance, so I say why not? I know from experience that when (not if, but when) you get an infection you kick yourself for all the shortcuts you took.

Besides, ideally you boil the whole batch - that is preferable to partial boils.. get a turkey fryer for $40 and you can boil the whole batch outside, away from the wife/gf, where clean up will be easier in the event of a boilover. With the large kettle that comes with the fyer you probably won't have to worry about boilovers anyhow. The propane burner makes boiling a snap.. much quicker than the stove. And you get the added bonus of fried turkey on Thanksgiving Of course, once you've got the turkey fryer you're well on your way to all grain too...