Wine making newbie with questions.

[dwrestle]

I originally wanted to make beer, but it seemed like wine is a lot easier for a newb like me. Also I want to have better cholesterol LOL.

My first batch was apple juice fermented in it's own half gallon or so plastic container with regular old yeast(I think half a packet), and lots of extra sugar(3 to 4 cups extra). I let it sit for six weeks under the bathroom sink with a balloon on top(with holes punched in it. Even with the holes in the balloon it still foamed out and made the whole hallway smell like a brewery. It tasted awesome! It wasn't dry(I don't like dry), it was sweet, it was almost carbonated, and it was STOUT(I am guessing at least 10-15%), but smooth without any burn. The only downside is it had a smidgen of plastic taste, and it ran out fast, and it takes too long to make more(I need to get a giant carboy).

My second batch on the other hand sucked balls. It was made from Cran-Apple juice. This time I bought a gallon pitcher with the flap thing so I can vent it without a giant mess. I used a whole packet of yeast. I also didn't put as much sugar in. This batch was a little drier, but not too much, and FAR less sweet, much less carbonated, and WAY more plastic tasting.

What can I do to prevent the plastic taste(I hope you guys know the taste I am talking about)?

Do you guys have any actual recipes on here(mine are just throw this in shake it up, and hope it turns out good)?

What kind of equipment should a beginner like me use, and where can I get it?

Thanks in advance

 

[neiladammcginnis]

For the plastic taste you should not ferment in plastic.. the alcohols will cause chemicals to leach from the plastic and that is what are you tasting. I'm doing my first ever fermentation right now in a 5 gallon glass carboy with an S shaped airlock. So obviously i'm a newbie, even more so than you. I started with an organic apple & pear mash and today i'm going to strain the pulp.

 

[bernardsmith]

Not everyone on this forum will agree with me - or make their wines in this way but in my opinion you do not need a recipe to make a good wine (or cider or mead) you need to understand principles and one way of gaining a handle on principles is to read a good basic book or two. I suggest a book because most folk on forums - even forums as good as this one - make wines by the seat of their pants - and so the advice they give may work... or it may not ...
But that said, you make a good cider by obtaining good apple juice. Commercial apple juice is made to be drunk unfermented and so the blend of apples used are not the same as the blend used to make apple juice for hard cider. So the better the juice , the better the cider.
I agree with neiladammchginnis - if you ferment in a plastic designed to hold a low acid , non alcoholic drink then you are likely to leach out chemicals. But perhaps more critically, if you stress the yeast - (not provide it enough nutrients or nitrogen, have the temperature too warm, use sugars that the yeast is not "designed" to ferment (bread yeast for example to ferment fructose) then you can produce off aromas and off flavors.
Last point: I am sure that "cran-apple" juice can be fermented to taste quite delicious, but most fruit that you enjoy you enjoy in part, at least, because of the sweetness. Fermenting fruit removes all the sugar (you know that) and the removal of the sugar highlights the acidity of the fruit. Wine making is about two things - (and cider is a wine) One thing it is about is patience - the longer you allow wines and ciders to age the better they taste. The other thing that is core to wine making is balance. You are always trying to balance the alcohol with the acidity of the fruit (what gives the drink its kick, its freshness) and with its sweetness... so cranberries are very acidic and may need some residual sugar to balance their acidity (that's why the soft drink was a blend of apples and cranberries ) so you may want to add some sweetener to this cider after the fermentation has ceased and you have removed any possibility of the yeast fermenting the sugar you now add (that is called stabilization)

 

[emwinna]

I just finished fermenting a bottle of "two minute wine" made from Kirkland cranberry-cherry juice, fermented in its own container with a plastic sandwich bag rubber banded around the top as an airlock.

I did the bottle of juice, minus about 1 1/2 cups off the top so there would be room for extra sugar, which in my case was leftover homemade candi syrup. I added a cup of the candi syrup, closed the lid well, and shook the hell out of it. When the bubbles subsided, I topped off with some of the juice I pulled off into a sterilized container. I added about a teaspoon of Montrachet yeast and 1/4 teaspoon of white labs yeast nutrient. I also steamed and cooled 4 cubes of med+ French oak for tannins, body, and preservative. (It also made the wine taste quite a bit more expensive than it had any right to taste IMHO ) I let it ferment for two weeks, cold crashed it, and bottled it. (I am a beer brewer first and foremost, as I probably should have mentioned at the beginning.)

The wine is pretty tart, which I assume is because of the cranberry juice. It's full-bodied and ever so slightly smoky. I will absolutely be repeating this. I back-sweeten in the cup, and haven't decided if I'll bother with batch back-sweetening or not on the next go round.

Tl;dr: Wine can be done in the juice's bottle, but I think you need to give the yeast some nutrients, and the juice itself will make a big difference in the final product.

 

[Jove1991]

Dumb mistake on my part, maybe someone can help me out. I let a WineExpert wine batch sit in carboy for about 5 weeks before I degassed it. I just degassed today and added the final ingredients in the kit. Did the batch go bad from sitting so long? The step today is the step where I add the stabilizing and clearing chemicals, which means there were no stabilizing chemicals in the batch for the 5 weeks.