Wine making

[hippiechick]

I keep reading about the wonderful health benefits of drinking a small amount of wine per day, but it is so expensive to add much to my pantry so was thinking of fermenting my own. Has anyone else tried it? Where to buy supplies? Recipes to share? This is the time of year when the berries and fruits are available so I better get started quick if I'm going to do it. Any suggestions?

[opsec]

I don't know, but you better get this right because distilling alcohol makes more than just ethanol which is the active ingredient in wine. It also makes methanol which is highly toxic.

[Beeherder]

Lets not confuse fermentation and distillation. Wines and beers are made by fermenting the sugars of cereal grains for beer and fructose of fruits like grapes, and if you happen to have some honey wine can be made from that most wonderful sweet elixir as well.

Home brewing of beer and wines is just like hone canning. It is just another way to preserve your harvest. I started with the Charlie Papazian's book The Complete Joy of Brewing:

http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9780380763665-8

 I see he has a blog and an e-book now:

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/The-Homebrewers-Companion-Charles-Papazian?isbn=9780062018502&HCHP=TB_The+Homebrewer+s+Companion

We were also in the same homebrewers club in the late 80s, he can make a good brew and has made some stinkers too. Making meade is a two year project for me. One day to make the must and pitch the yeast, 3 months in primary fermentation, 9 -18 months in secondary fermentation, then a year or more in the bottle and viola, home brewed wine. A 5 gallon batch of meade takes 5 - 6 quarts of honey. Beer can be made from wort to drinkable ale in only a couple of months. It takes lots of barley to make beer. So unless you can grow barley this is not a preppers beverage. Meade, well now, just about anybody can beecome a beekeeper, just about anywhere. That's a preppers beverage, imo.

Charlie is very readable.

Enjoy
 

[opsec]

Let's see now, how can I talk Beeherder into buying a new oak barrel, burning the inside of said barrel, filling the barrel with home brew and then storing it for about 12 years or so?

[hippiechick]

I decided to go ahead and order a simple winemaking kit for $30. Will try my luck with some fresh fruits. It might be fun.       http://www.vinomaker.com/1gaeqkit1.html

[Beeherder]

There should be homebrewing supply stores in most parts of the country, there are many in Colorado. The book i suggested includes instructions on how to make all your own equipment from readily available food grade components. A 24 quart heavy stock pot, 7.5 gallon primary fermenter and 5.0 gallon secondary fermenter and a big long stirring spoon are the primary tools. The Complete Joy of Homebrewing is a worthy reference for your prep bookshelf.

Ask Old Soldier how to make a still, then distill your homemade beer and put in that charred oak barrel and you have whiskey or scotch depending on a few little details. I have a book about making a still but have never done that. Making wine is really easy, if you can preserve jellies and jams you can make wine. Its mostly just a follow the recipe kinda thing.

[hippiechick]

I got my kit and found fresh peaches on sale. Have a gallon batch of peach wine brewing now. Pretty easy so far, I just stir in a couple of times per day. Plan to make strawberry wine next with some of last years frozen strawberries in the freezer that I need to use up. I hope it tastes good.

[Beeherder]

 

stir it every day????? If that's what the kit says then i'm guessin that's what its designed for. I use a gas lock and totally air tight containers for both primary and secondary. The reason for this is that the air if full of stuff that wants to grow in your nutrient mix and most of it does not yield a tasty beverage. Please let me know what your results are like, sounds very interesting. Take notes, keep a brewing diary and recipe list just like you would for any other cooking experience.

in my experience, hygiene is the biggest reason for batch failure. Had one bad batch of beer not suitable for human consumption otherwise all the homebrews were great and so far all the meade has been a success, some of it was in the bottle for over a decade and tasted great.

[Beeherder]

just couldn't resist:

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/events/mead-day

[hippiechick]

I was wondering about that myself. You would think that opening the lid and stirring twice each day would let a lot of air and dirt and such into it. I just followed directions, but didn't make much sense to me either.