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Wine making
Wine making. Wine making from wine kits is a great and affordable hobby. Wine kits are affordable, they range from $40 to $90 on average in Easter Canada, where I am living. Each kit produces 23 litres of wine, which is the equivalent of 30 bottles of wine as sold in (liquor)stores as a quart.
Starter kits are sold in wine and beer making stores, or some grocery stores here in Eastern Canada, in a price range of about $60. They consist of a:
1e fermenting pail, get one with hard cover or buy cover separately, some starter kits describe to cover the top with plactic fastend with elastic band, but in my experience a pain in the butt. Also do not cut a hole in the middle of the hard cover, which is meant to put a breading top (same as from a carboy), but in my experience the easiest way is to put the cover lose on top of the pail. There is a seal in the top, but do not seal(pushing the top down). It is sufficient to put the cover lose over the top and if gas forms it lifts the top as needed and still nothing else get in. I do this already for years this way. There is another reason also which I describe towards the end.
2e a carboy(glass 23 litre bottle) for 2nd fermentation stage.
3e a breading top for the carboy ( gas gets out and no air can get in)
4e syphoning tube with hose and bottle filler, make sure the tube has a bottom shoe preventing the suds to be sucked in with the wine.
5e A ladle to stir the wine in second fermentation stage.
6e Floating hydrometer wich measurer the gravity of the wine.
Besides this kit it is also wise to buy a floating thermometer (I used that with the hydrometer in the beginning, but after a while did not need this anymore, because the procedure is each time the same for every kit.
Also a heating belt is a wise investment it cost about $20 and only uses 20 watt per hour and is used for one week at a time in the primary fermenting stage (in the pail) which is a totall of about 3.5 kilowatt at a cost of 10 cents a kilowatt $0.35. I make wine in the middle of the (canadian)winter in an unheated basement using the heating belt and the pail(s) covered with a couple of old blankets. Compared to a heated area of about 22 a 23 degrees a lot cheaper. This is the reason (blankets to cover the pail(s) why not to use the breading top in the hard cover. Also the pail and carboy are in my basement on a table.
Instructions as how to make wine are included in every kit, so no need to explain it in this article.
What I do different and read articles about is that I do not stirr the wine a few times in the second stage as the instructions state. I only stirr it one time when putting in the sorbate potasium and the metabisulphite (don't worry this comes with the kit and is packed in the right amount to use). The total wine making process takes 28 days. I always make sure that the time required for the different stages is fully met or even longer. I had different times that I was away or forgot the exact day even a couple of times a few weeks over the described time for certain stages and it never does any harm. The only time crucial is the first stage in the pail (which is 7 days) no harm if it is the 8e or 9e day when syphoning the wine over in the carboy, but not later.
After 28 days or later the wine is ready and should be syphoned over either in bottles or racked (syphoned) to another carboy. I personally rack my wine to another carboy for different reasons. 1e I like my wine to age for about 8 a 10 weeks in bulk (carboy) which gives a better taste than directly in the bottle. (aging in the carboy takes longer than in bottles) So if you are in a hurry bottle the wine right away. If you do not have a second carboy syphon the wine back in the pail, clean the carboy and than syphon the wine back in the carboy. I always rack my wine and the reason is that if you bottle the wine directly from the second fermenting stage you need to filter the wine in order to get clear wine (filters can be bought in wine store and filtering machine rented from store) this is fairly expensive. By racking the wine I never have to filter my wine for there is hardly any suds in the carboy the second time around and as stated before the wine is more full tasting.
When it comes to bottling the wine. I buy my bottles in the bottle exchange. In my province every bottle sold is taxed 10 cents for recycling and the empties can be returned to a bottle exchange for 5 cents each. The bottle exchange gets 2 cents for each bottle out of the bottle tax fund and the rest is for Big Brother government. I buy my bottles for 25 cents from the exchange (that is why the bottle exchanger gladly saves the bottles for me, 3 cents or 25 cents is big different)' I buy only 2 liter bottles with a screw top, which I can use over and over. Again a lot cheaper than new bottles, which are very expansive, and also a lot cheaper than one liter bottles, which have to be corked (corkes and corking machine are bought and machine given for free to use by most wine stores or a smaller hand corker can be bought for about 15 a 20 dollars). Corking is a lot of work, while 2 liter bottles are done in no time and the cap screwed on takes no time at all. And last but not least it tastes better if the wine is aged, most of my wines are over a year old. And in my opinion better tasting than store bought wine.
I mentioned in the beginning that wine kits are priced from 40 to 90 dollars per kit. The lower priced kits are mainly 7 liter and now more and more 10 liter kits of concentrate. While the higher priced kits range from 16 liter to 23 liter. In other words the higher the content of the kit the less water has to be added. I mostly use the cheaper kits because I find the wine of those kits just as tasty as the wine from expensive kits. And I know that my wine is tasty through aging. I have tasted enough wine what was young and a lot less tasty than aged wine.
I love my wine and have a glass of two every day.
I hope that this is usefull to a few people and as written above don't fret because every kit comes with clear instructions.
Only one thing more make sure your equipment is sterelized well, clorination solutions etc are sold in same stores who sell wine making equipment. Good luck with your wine making. Art Hogenbirk
art907@gmail.com |
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This intel was contributed by adora
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May, 2012
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