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+--- Thread: Wine making (/thread-15084.html)
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- Jumpshot - 09-30-2001
Are there any posts out there on this subject? I have some questions on making wine at home. I am looking for some advice and would like to pick your brain?
- Catch 22 - 09-30-2001
Ask away. I can assure you that picking my brain won't take too long! [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]
- Jumpshot - 09-30-2001
Hey Catch, I just talked to you on the novice place and you told me to go here. Well, guess what? There is nobody here but you and I. I responded to your answer to my first wine making post earlier.
- Jumpshot - 09-30-2001
So Catch what kinds of wine have you made? Have they been drinkable? I am thinking of a fruit wine next. My wine seemed to stop producing gas bubbles one day after racking it. Normal?
- Schneck - 09-30-2001
Hi Jumpshot,
I have been making fruit wines for three years now. We bought a few acres not knowing it was a pear orchard. Making wine can get rid of lots of ripe pears fast. Since then we have made peach, (My husbands favorite) Rasberry, (labor intensive picking all those rasberries but made a delicious dark red) and I have gotten hooked on mead making. There is a really good book out there called "Making wild wines and meads." I think the author is Vargas. All the recipes have been tried (unlike the ones you so often find on the web) and the general info is all good advise. Good luck and feel free to ask if you get stumped, Schneck
- Jumpshot - 10-01-2001
Thank you Schnek for your input. I have thought of trying a real fruit wine next. I have read on this forum that some take offense to calling wine, "wine" when it comes from something other than grapes. Some people take this stuff that serious? Anyway raspberry sounds great to me. Question: Have you or have you heard of anyone adding a blackberry or cranberry flavoring to a red wine? I saw this stuff in a brew store and they say that most add it to beer. That sounds interesting to try. Would that be a mistake in your opinoion?
- Schneck - 10-15-2001
Hey Jumpshot,
I put anything I want to into my wine but I didn't get real adventurous until I had done a few batches to see what did what. Depends on how gutsy you are. If you make several different kinds individually you can always blend at botteling time for interesting tastes if you like. I use real fruit because it makes my wine cost next to nothing, I'm lousy with fruit and poor as a church mouse but if you use concentrates be guided by what's already in them. Yeast won't make alcahol if it doesn't like the conditions. It can't eat certain types of sugar without nutrients, or too much acid can stifel the reaction. Or lack of tannin can make wine insipid or too much sugar.......
After a batch or two with good record keeping you may find somethings are a better risk than others. I just made a batch where I was 2 pounds short of having enough grapes so I threw in the same amount of raspberries. Some of the grapes used tested low acid so it was a safe bet. The gravity was a tad low so i adjusted with boiling sugar water. I suppose true wine snobs would turn up their noses at my meathods but I do know a few that have been brought over to our side by a 1999 organic peach mead. Experiment but with an eye to the basics. I had a 5 gallon batch of pear last year that I only use for cooking and that's alot of work for cooking wine. Let me know how it's going. P.S. I hardly have any time to goof around on-line so be patient between my responses-Schneck
- Jumpshot - 10-18-2001
I understand the online time Schneck. I am on day 26 with my Cabernet Sauvignon kit. I am not following the directions completely. This is a 28 day to bottling kit but I was told that I could go longer in between rackings and didnt have to limit the rackings. Depends on the clarity and gravity? My gravity however is 1.004 and I guess will not go lower at this point. I just racked yesterday and added the insinglass for clarity. I think I will let it go at least 10 days before racking again. It is tasting much better after this latest racking also. This is a first for me so I dont have more than one going at a time. I have heard of blending at bottling but I can see you would have to really know what you are doing to do that. One question I have is that everytime you add campden tablets, do they remain in the wine or does some of that get eaten up by acid or alcohol? If it stays in then is there a risk of having too much in the wine at bottling? I appreciate your input, Schneck. Have a great day whatever day it is you read this!
- Thomas - 10-18-2001
If I remember correctly, Campden tablets are sulfur dioxide SO2. Every time you add SO2 some of it binds in solution and some remains free; the bound type builds and the free type dissipates over time. There is a kit to measure SO2 in solution; look for it at the winemakers' shop. If you add SO2 indiscriminately you will ruin the wine (strip it, mostly). More importantly, if you allow the free SO2 to get out of hand, anyone with asthma who breathes in the stuff could have a serious respiratory reaction.
About that specific gravity of your Cabernet: 1 seems too high--too sweet, unless you like sweet red wine.
Do you guys have any home winemaker books? If you follow a good book you will learn a lot about what to do and not to do. Look for Philip Wagner's "Grapes Into Wine."
- winoweenie - 10-19-2001
I prefer the book " Run Over to IS-WINE " WW
- Thomas - 10-19-2001
As long as the title isn't "Run Over the Guy at is-wine".
- Jumpshot - 10-20-2001
What is an acceptable level of SO2? I see on the packages of Potassiam Metabisulfite that one teaspoon equals one campden tablet. Is it acceptable to use this since it is almost impossible to get your campden tabs to disolve completely?
- Thomas - 10-20-2001
Unfortunately, those kinds of directions do not give you enough information. First of all, acceptable levels of SO2 depend upon the wine's ph--the higher the ph, the more SO2 required, and prudence demands that free SO2 in wine not exceed 20 to 30 parts per million; bound SO2 could top out a lot higher because when you add SO2 most of it gets bound and some of it remains free.
I have no idea how much SO2 is built into a Campden tablet, but I do know this: both the tablets and powdered potassium metabisulfite lose their strength over time and should be used up within a year of purchase.
If you are going to use SO2 you really ought to read up on it. Another great book for winemaking was written by Professor Amerine, UC Davis; I think it is called simply "Wine."
- Jumpshot - 10-20-2001
Foodie I was told to use the campden tablest everytime I rack, one per gallon of wine. Trouble is the store is new and doesnt know that much about wine, just beer. I will do some research on SO2. What I have found so far on the internet hasnt gotten into too great of detail.
- Thomas - 10-21-2001
As I said, you need a book; I wouldn't trust the Internet for reliable information. I suppose a blanket statement about adding Campden tablets is enough for making any old wine, but to make really good wine one must follow really good directions.
When I was a home winemaker I thought the wine I produced was good. Then, I studied winemaking and became a winemaker for my own winery. I learned quickly how poor my homemade stuff was.
- Schneck - 10-23-2001
Hey Jump shot,
I never use campden tablets unless I am using them to sanitise equiptment and for the water in the water traps as I have an alergy to sulphites in any form. I read about 7 books on wine making before I started my first batch. There is much difference on the opinion but several felt (and I agree) that with good sanitising habits and good racking technique campdens aren't neccessary and add more chemicals than I can tolerate in my wine. Many of my friends who have respiratory allergies can drink my wines though they can't tollerate commercial wines. I have no familiarity with kit wines but i do know that time is the best ingredient in wine making. I have never done a batch that took less than 4 months to bottle and most sources I have say the longer it stays in bulk the better. I don't even think about my carboys any more until they've been in the basement at least 6 months and I do country wines which are young wines. all my best, Schneck
- Jumpshot - 10-24-2001
Schnek that is interesting. What do you use to sanitize? Idopher Iodine is something I have been told to use that requires no rinsing?
- Thomas - 10-25-2001
No rinsing--provided the item you sanitize has been left to dry completely before you use it again.
Incidentally, Campden tablets, or sulfur dioxide, should never be used as a sanitizing agent; if it is used it should be used to slow down oxidation in wine. It takes far too much of the dangerous chemical to use as a cleanser or sanitizer. Sulfur sticks can be used in oak barrels after they have been cleaned.
- Schneck - 10-26-2001
Hey Jumpshot.
Campdens are a relatively weak version of sodium metabisulphate. It is sold in different strengths for different purposes. Campdens are so weak that you can drop them into the wine. A stronger solution can be used for sanitising bottles and corks, stronger yet for barrels. Many use it for purifying the must, (Killing all the wild yeasts and bacteria before pitching the wine yeast.) or for insuring all the yeast is dead before bottling (Time will do the same thing eventually)
Me, I only use sulphite to sanitise the corks. I purify my must by freezing or boiling some or all of the indredients before I begin. I clean all my equiptment religiously with b-brite and rinse well. I even clean my bottles the same way although I have been called nuts for this I have not yet had anything go wierd on me this way.
I also crush a campden into a pint of water to clean the spoon I use to stir down my fruit in the primary fermentation, and to fill my airlocks. I guess if I ever have a batch go to vinegar on me I'll rethink this, but until then That's how I avoid the use of campdens.---Got to go, Schneck
- Jumpshot - 10-28-2001
Foodie and Schneck, thank you for all your input. I have one other question. I bottled my cabernet yesterday. It came out quite clear but the color seems weak. It is not near as dark as Cabs you purchase from a store. Does the wine get darker with age? Right now it has the color of a lighter style such as a Pinot Noir.