Wine from kits

WWW - I was thinking I should start with wine since it must age longer, but i see your point and your logic is certainly sound!

Tim - just do 'em both at the same time!...

If you think a wine has turned out poorly, it may still be salvageable by aging. Wine changes as it ages and the best part is you get to taste it periodically.

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While it is true that some wine is better with age some is fine when it is finished.
An old friend told me and I have a tendency to agree that be it beer/ale/wine if it taste good drink it.
Some of the old wine makers in this area that made wine in 55 gal barrels would sample the wine occasionally during the process and when it tasted to their liking they would put 5 gal or vodka or whiskey in the barrel to stop the fermentation process and preserve the flavor.
Wine actually undergoes a second fermentation when the yeast fermentation is finished and that being a bacterial or malolactic fermentation resulting the difference in taste and in some or most cases resulting in a smoother not as harsh wine.
Sorry to be so wordy/detailed but I have also made some wine that was not to my liking until it had aged 4-5 years.
A friend made a pino noir that was not suitable until it aged 3-5 years after making.

What are these wine "Kits" some of you keep refering to___?
My neighbor has made wine for years, and from just about every kind of friut grown around here, and let me borrow his favorite wine making book last year.

So I bought some 5 gallon containers that bottled water comes in, some plastic, and some glass. I have 6 now for a 30 gallon capacity.
I also had a 5 gallon "Carboy" that I use to rack my batches with and about 4 feet of clear plastic tube for siphon duty.

I also bought the rubber caps with holes for the 1 way valves, and the valves of course and camden tablets and yeast, from the local feed store.
They have a beer and wine making section with books and supplies, but kits...?

I made a 5 gal batch from the neighbors grape and a 5 gal batch from our pears last year, and am drinking it now.

I was surprised at how easy it was with just a simple book, and of course my neighbor to add a helpful hint here and there.

This year I will make at least 6, 5 gal batches from different fruits as they come into season, and hopefully have enough to have some age 2 years before drinking.

And all without the kit... oh dear me what have I done?
Maybe its not too late for me to get a kit... just kidding.

In my best Al Pacino voice I'm saying... Kits....? We don't need no stinking kits..."

The kits consist of juice concentrate and are available in many different varieties, enabling you to make your own wine from varieties you may not be able to grow in your location (NEOhio isn't all that well known for its Zinfandel !). You can also get blends, etc. Just seemed like a good way for a novice to start out.

Never had the need to use one though. I have made Beer with Hopped malt extract..........But I always make up the "Recipe" to suit myself.
I've never made an "All Grain" beer either, though. Most Brewers that I know, bunches of them, have their own quirks and tricks about their Brewing. Some they will gladly share. And some of their tricks they will not share.

I made & bottled 13 five gallon batches, 65 gallons, of Beer & Ale, last year, as well as about 25 or 30 gallon of Mead & Braggot, a Mead made with Malt extract added.
I hardly ever use Mead that is less than a year old. Mead generally ferments slower than Wine, unless it's a Melomel, a Mead with fruit juice added. And then not always. Cyser, Mead made with apple juice is notoriously slow, in my experience. I have 10 cases of champagne bottles I put my Mead up in, because they use the same crown caps as beer bottles.I also have 20 standard size cases of recycled beer bottles. 13 are full.I have a "Beer fridge" in the downstairs Kitchen.

Right now I have 5 cases full and 6 gallon aging in 1 gallon jugs. And, I have another two 5 gallon batches in carboys fermenting.And I have 5 gallon of beer settling in a carboy. I'll bottle it first of the week.
Brewing is all an on-going process at our house.

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Kits are a good way for a novice to start out and have less of a chance of making 5 gal of drain cleaner.
Kits are also a good way to try different varieties that are not readily available or common or if you do not have access to your own fruit; in your area.

http://www.streetdirectory.com/trave...om_grapes.html

I have been told that it's closer to 12-15 lbs per gallon when doing 5 gallon batches. But still at the cost of grapes kits can be cheaper than trying to buy grapes for those of us that don't grow them. It'll take a few years before I can get any kind of harvest to make very much wine.

Same is true with just about any fruit wine you'd want to make.

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If the grass looks greener it is probably over the septic tank. - troy n sarah tx

Our existance here is soley for the expoitation of CMG

I have a friend in IN who processes quite a bt of fruit into wine at a time. He as a cart for that prupose. In the front there is a stranlsss sreel sink with a stamdard garbage didposal under it. Fruit with a bit of water flow processes the fruit. It is collected from the GP into trays, which are dumped to a wine squeeze press, using an old pillowcase as a strainer. The juice is funned down into onrs or more carboys. As I recall he mixes in one package of champaine starter to get things rolling. May or may not add extra sugar.

Kits are a great way to start into winemaking. I make about 125 gallons a year. Once you master the kits you can move on to other types of wine, right now I have 10 gallons of rhubarb going. wine can be made from about anything that grows, some people even make army worm wine.

Have rhubarb coming into season.
Would you share your formula for rhubarb?

My recipe for rhubarb is:

25 lbs of rhubarb
10 lbs of sugar
pectic enzyme
yeast nutrient
5 tbls percipitated chalk
wine yeast
4 gals of water

If you need more detailed instruction let me know.

What is the reason for the percipitated chalk?

doc-I have an old paperback entitled "The Art of Making Wine" by Anderson and Hull. Their recipe for rhubarb is as follows:

2.5 lbs rhubarb, 2.5 lbs white granulated sugar, 1 level tsp. yeast nutrient, 1 gal. water, 1 Camden tablet, 1/4 tsp. grape tanin, wine yeast

Cut up rhubarb and put in primary fermentor. Pour dry sugar over fruit to extract juice. Cover with plastic sheet and allow to stand 24 hours. Add all other ingredients including wine yeast. Ferment 48 hours. Strain out pulp and press as dry as possible. In 3 or 4 days syphon into gallon jugs or carboy and attach fermentation lock. Rack in 3 weeks. Make sure all containers are topped up. Rack again in 3 months. When wine is clear and stable, bottle. Wine may be sweetened to taste at time fo bottling with sugar syrup (2 parts sugar to 1 part water). Add 2 Wine-Art Stabilizer tablets per gallon to prevent renewed fermentation. To preserve colour and flovour add 1 Wine-Art Antioxidant tablet per gallon. Age 6 months.

Obviously, some of the "Wine-Art" stuff can be substituted.

Thanks Tim.

Ok, am I the only one who envisions a pile of rabbit kits floating in a wine vat when they read the title of this thread?
Sorry, I know I'm twisted...

Cliff - could be a bunch of foxes too! I did not envision rabbit kits in wine, but must admit that's pretty funny.

Rhubarb wine recipe

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques34.asp

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If the grass looks greener it is probably over the septic tank. - troy n sarah tx

Our existance here is soley for the expoitation of CMG

percipitated chalk is used to cut down on the acidity of the rhubarb. If you are going to sweeten it when you bottle you dont have to use it. Just add a little more sugar to cover the tartness.