Home Made Wine
Discussion
Does anyone else here enjoy making their own wine?
My next door neighbour has an old vine from which she lets my daughter and I harvest the grapes. They are black grapes and quite small, but this year after the very warm dry September were very sweet.
Last year my first attempt to make wine from them wasn't very sucessful, I seemed to wast a lot of juice and I didn't destalk the grapes before beginning to ferment. Consequently I only ended up with 4 bottles of very astringent, citric wine. In May when I opened the first bottle after 6 months maturing it was pretty undrinkable, but it has mellowed over the months and now isn't too bad.
Anyway, lessons leared and this year I picked 4 weeks later and have 3 gallons of wine fermenting which I destalked before presssing. It's been on the go now for around a month and is still fermenting, albeit very slowly now. I racked off the sediment last night so I now have a lovely clear but very deep red wine in demijohns which I should be able to bottle in a week or so.
One of the gallons is from pressed juice with no skins with a white wine yeast, the other 2 gallons were fermented with a Burgundy style yeast on the skins for the 1st 10 days before straining off. Oak chippings were added to one of those and the other left au natural
I should have around 5 bottles of Rose, 5 oaky red and 5 plain red.
When syphoning off last night I think this year's results will be much better than last years!
My next door neighbour has an old vine from which she lets my daughter and I harvest the grapes. They are black grapes and quite small, but this year after the very warm dry September were very sweet.
Last year my first attempt to make wine from them wasn't very sucessful, I seemed to wast a lot of juice and I didn't destalk the grapes before beginning to ferment. Consequently I only ended up with 4 bottles of very astringent, citric wine. In May when I opened the first bottle after 6 months maturing it was pretty undrinkable, but it has mellowed over the months and now isn't too bad.
Anyway, lessons leared and this year I picked 4 weeks later and have 3 gallons of wine fermenting which I destalked before presssing. It's been on the go now for around a month and is still fermenting, albeit very slowly now. I racked off the sediment last night so I now have a lovely clear but very deep red wine in demijohns which I should be able to bottle in a week or so.
One of the gallons is from pressed juice with no skins with a white wine yeast, the other 2 gallons were fermented with a Burgundy style yeast on the skins for the 1st 10 days before straining off. Oak chippings were added to one of those and the other left au natural
I should have around 5 bottles of Rose, 5 oaky red and 5 plain red.
When syphoning off last night I think this year's results will be much better than last years!
Edited by allgonepetetong on Wednesday 2nd November 14:36
My mother used to make gallons of the stuff. The most drinkable was the elderberry. Got very drunk on that when I was a teenager...
We're thinking of making some elderberry wine next year as we were a bit too late to gather them this year.
Home made wine can be very good. But on the other hand, it can also be very, very bad indeed.
Any tips to ensure we produce the good variety would be most welcome!
We're thinking of making some elderberry wine next year as we were a bit too late to gather them this year.
Home made wine can be very good. But on the other hand, it can also be very, very bad indeed.
Any tips to ensure we produce the good variety would be most welcome!
Well, what I have found is make sure you have all the equipment you need before starting the process and destalk all the fruit.
Equipment needed:
Buckets with lids
demijohns with airlocks
campden tablets
yeast
funnel
strainer
syphon
bottles
hydrometer (for measuring sugar content of the juice prior to fermentation)
and loads of sterilising solution!
Equipment needed:
Buckets with lids
demijohns with airlocks
campden tablets
yeast
funnel
strainer
syphon
bottles
hydrometer (for measuring sugar content of the juice prior to fermentation)
and loads of sterilising solution!
I'm no expert but I think it's probably less of a factor than you'd imagine.
I'd say harvesting the grapes at the right moment, ensuring the right sugar/acid ratio and pressing them correctly (as shown by me not destalking) are pbobaly more crucial.
One you've got that all wortked out then I'm sure the grape variety would be a factor.
This is assuming of course that one is using a grape that can ripen in Northern climes to begin with.
This hasn't stopped me going out and buying 3 different varieties of vine for myself to see what difference it makes though.
I'd say harvesting the grapes at the right moment, ensuring the right sugar/acid ratio and pressing them correctly (as shown by me not destalking) are pbobaly more crucial.
One you've got that all wortked out then I'm sure the grape variety would be a factor.
This is assuming of course that one is using a grape that can ripen in Northern climes to begin with.
This hasn't stopped me going out and buying 3 different varieties of vine for myself to see what difference it makes though.
6 months is a little early, i thought rule of thumb was not before your working on the next batch, so about a year, although we have been known to dip into the small over flow bottles.
Biggest things are to de stalk and in the process de snail, de earwig and de woodlice the fruit. its amazing how much is living in between those grapes.
Next thing is hygiene, sterilize the grapes with campden tablets, sterilize everything that come in contact with the juice.
Keep the demijohn topped up to the neck, when you rack off either top up with cooled boiled water or from another wine. if you have air in the top, the wine can spoil.
Patience
Our first brew was supposed to be red and turned out rose, last year we had lots of grapes so took the skins out straight away, it looked pink when we put it in the demijohn but the colour bleached out by the time it went into bottles and is now a definite white wine, this year we were short of grapes so again left them in the mash and not in the bag this time and its looking darker, definitely smelt of red when we racked it into the demijohn but will have to wait and see what colour we end up with.
Biggest things are to de stalk and in the process de snail, de earwig and de woodlice the fruit. its amazing how much is living in between those grapes.
Next thing is hygiene, sterilize the grapes with campden tablets, sterilize everything that come in contact with the juice.
Keep the demijohn topped up to the neck, when you rack off either top up with cooled boiled water or from another wine. if you have air in the top, the wine can spoil.
Patience
Our first brew was supposed to be red and turned out rose, last year we had lots of grapes so took the skins out straight away, it looked pink when we put it in the demijohn but the colour bleached out by the time it went into bottles and is now a definite white wine, this year we were short of grapes so again left them in the mash and not in the bag this time and its looking darker, definitely smelt of red when we racked it into the demijohn but will have to wait and see what colour we end up with.
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