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NeX

Home Brewing

Does anyone here have any experience? I'm thinking about trying my hand at winemaking. I've developed a huuuge love of wine, especially reds, and it sounds like a lot of fun and an interesting hobby that doesn't require too much time. Low risk, High reward, and easy peasy gifts haha.

 

 

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Tiddy-bits:

Make sure EVERYTHING is sterilized.   Any stray bacteria will have an effect on the taste.  Don't expect your first batch to come out great.  Do expect to get fucking destroyed drinking the fruits of your labor.   

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If it flies, floats, or fucks, rent it.

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Make sure EVERYTHING is sterilized.   Any stray bacteria will have an effect on the taste. 

 

Yup. I've been soaking up as much info about this as humanly possible, and that always is the loudest thing everyone shouts. Sterili-fucking-zation. Some people are so paranoid they'll dip their hands in the sulfite shit just so that if they accidentally touch the must they'll not contaminate it.

 

 

Don't expect your first batch to come out great.

 

I'm hoping by using a kit it'll at least be acceptable. I've had some pretty good wines at around $4-5/bottle and had some shit-nasty ones at $10+/bottle, so I'm aiming for "moderately tasty". TBH I've seen complete imbeciles do this successfully, so I'm hoping that being a mostly-non-fucktard I'll be able to manage a decent first batch, if not an award-winning affair.

 

 

Do expect to get fucking destroyed drinking the fruits of your labor.   

 

Dude. It's 6 gallons.

 

30 

fucking

bottles

 

30

 

I'm going to be giving it away all the time. Party? Bringin' some wine. Celebration? Wine. Hospital stay? Wine. Baby shower? Wine, bitch. Wine all-da-time.

 

Have you done any home brewing yourself? I'm super excited to start

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I attempted to brew beer in a really cheap shitty kit when I was 20, came out terrible.  I have considered trying again without a kit and converting my kegerator in the garage to a fermentor holder due to the high temps in Arizona. 

 

My parents brewed some wine once.   It came out kind of subpar for a wine-o but was drinkable-ish. The fuckup factor(abv) was insane though.  My friends don't remember much of that summer after my parents bottled it.  

NeX likes this

If it flies, floats, or fucks, rent it.

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I attempted to brew beer in a really cheap shitty kit when I was 20, came out terrible.  I have considered trying again without a kit and converting my kegerator in the garage to a fermentor holder due to the high temps in Arizona. 

 

My parents brewed some wine once.   It came out kind of subpar for a wine-o but was drinkable-ish. The fuckup factor(abv) was insane though.  My friends don't remember much of that summer after my parents bottled it.  

 

Yeah keeping ferm temp the same seems the biggest hurdle people have that ruins/hinders a batch of anything.

 

Wine from grapes seems easier to get a "quality" result from than most beers or ales, even meads.

 

If the ABV was that high that's probably why it was kinda "meh". Highest ABV I've ever had in a wine (other than a sherry or port) was about 13%?

 

Somewhere around there. That's about what I'm shooting for here, as well.


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Just got everything started last night! Cleaning and sanitizing everything was a bitch, I'm definitely going to need to develop some kind of system for it, since ad-hoc just didn't work well at all. 

 

I now have ~6 Gallons of merlot grape juice combined with yeast fermenting in my living room. Bung and airlock are in, and it's bubbling away.

 

Initial specific gravity readings at around ~1.095 indicate it should be between 10-12% ABV. A little lower than I expected, but not bad. I'd rather it not be overwhelmingly strong for my first batch. I can always add some sugar to other batches to give the yeast a bit more food..

 

Once the specific gravity hits around 1.04-1.05, I'll add the yeast nutrient and really let it go. I'll post back when it's time to re-rack it for secondary fermentation in the carboy.

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Yesterday the must's specific gravity was about 1.04, so I added the yeast nutrient and let it go. It should be ready for racking and secondary fermentation within the next few days (fingers crossed!)

 

A nice little formula for ABV is 

 

  • ( OG - F) * 131 = ABV
  • OG = original gravity
  • FG = final gravity (end of secondary fermentation)

 

Now, most merlots end up with a final gravity of about 0.95 - 1.05. This batch's orginal gravity was around 1.095, and since it's down to 1.04 before primary fermentation is even finished, we can make the assumption that it'll fall somewhere between 0.95 and 1.01, giving us ABVs in the range of 

 

  • 11% - 19%

Sounds pretty good to me!

 

 

 

On a related note, keeping the temperature at a consistent 65-75oF has been slightly challenging. It hovered around 74 for the first few days, and by day 5-6 it was only down to 73, and there was a...stink to it when checking the gravity.  It was a rotten egg smell, a result of sulfur dioxide (SO2), a result of the yeast being stressed by the high temperature and not metabolizing the sugar as efficiently. I started leaving on the AC unit in the room with the must at the expense of it being quite chilly in the house. Apparently (duh...) the active fermentation generates heat as a byproduct, so the must was consistently 2-3 degrees above that of the ambient room temperature. So keeping it at 70 was actually maintaining that bad temperature.

 

Since I turned the AC on over the weekend, it's hovered right around the 68-70 mark, which accounts for the sudden rise in activity. The smell was almost completely dissipated yesterday as well, which is great!  It remains to be seen if the SO2 will negatively impact the flavor/odor of the finished product, but from what I've read, if you correct the temperature problem early the SO2 will reabsorb into the must easily and come out during the degassing process like normal.  If not, I may have to siphon the wine over a copper plate or through copper wool to catalyze a reaction to get it out for good. Unfortunately that means moving 6 Gallons of wine across the copper about 10 times, and at a flow rate of around 100mL/s. Not a great way to kill a few hours, but good to know that's the worst case scenario.

 

I'll post an update after racking it and settling in for the long haul of secondary fermentation!

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Welp, I racked the wine on Sunday (6/26) to the secondary fermenter. I had a really busy weekend with my fiancee's bridal shower stuff, so while I meant to take specific gravity readings on Friday night, I didn't get around to it until Sunday.

 

This is....not ideal - I let it sit for too long (ish), and the gravity was at an even 1.000.  Secondary fermentation and racking are supposed to happen at a SG of about 1.010-1.020, so it's a bit higher alcohol content than I wanted for this, but I can keep it on track for the rest of it with a little vigilance.  Worst case scenario is that it turns out a little bit stronger than the average of 13-15% ABV, which isn't necessarily a bad thing...?

 

 

Here is a picture of the racking process with the siphon (and my fiancee's lovely hand :P). The top container is the "Big Mouth Bubbler" which is basically a carboy with a very wide opening to make stirring and adding the juice easier. That's the primary fermenter. It's being drained into the lower container which is a regular thin-neck carboy for secondary fermentation. 

 

cWH0tMb.jpg

 

Unfortunately, I used the wrong tube for the first portion, and it let in more air than desired, resulting in a bit of foam. I swapped it for the proper tubing right after this picture, though, and the foam went away mostly on its own after that.

 

Floating on the top of the must in the secondary fermenter/carboy are oak chips, to leech tannin and that earthy/woody flavor that wine normally gets from an oak barrel....without the barrel. Nice little touch, I think.

 

 

Now I wait a few more days until the SG is <0.98 and then re-rack it into the primary fermenter and add the clearing solutions and metabisulphite solution to kill any remaining yeast and prevent further fermentation. 

 

It'll sit in there for about 2 more weeks until it hits a good clarity, and then it is racked a final time into the secondary for bottling.

 

Will post more pics soon, including some custom labels I whipped up in PS that I'd like some feedback on - I'm going to use them for our wedding - assuming this wine doesn't taste like ass :D


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Late Farther in law used brew his own ,stones bitter  pure rocket fuel blow ya socks off,he used to store in under the floor boards in the house to ferment and keep it at a even temp,brought back some fond memories

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