Wine making

[scott_vt]

Mornin Guys,
OK, you have my curiousity!!!

Ron, you stated that you buy your winemaking kits from Canada ? Better price ? Why do they call a 6 gallon glass jug a car-boy ? Where do you buy the grape juice ? What is the approximate price for a person to get started with the basics ? I find myself drinking more red wine these days and less beer especially in the colder months !

Kathleen and I both enjoy Cabarnet or Merlot, any tips appreciated

 

[Paddy]

Any decent sized city will have a beer and wine making shop. Try the yellow pages first. The equipment can be had for about $150, mostly for a good corker.

You can get your kits, wine juice, on line. We have found by the time you add shipping, local is about the same price. The cheep kits are 2.6 gal of concentrait making 6 gal, $50-70. The better kits are 4 gal of concentrait making 6 gal and cost $100-150. I hear the cheeper kit can be drank much sooner.

I would not start by buying any juice and going to town. People do make all sorts of fruit juice wine with added sugar. With your investment of time, you want it to turn out good, not just cheep wine.

It is quite easy to use the kits and is a good place to start.

 

[ronjhall]

Mornin Guys,
OK, you have my curiousity!!!

Ron, you stated that you buy your wine making kits from Canada ? Better price ? Why do they call a 6 gallon glass jug a car-boy ? Where do you buy the grape juice ? What is the approximate price for a person to get started with the basics ? I find myself drinking more red wine these days and less beer especially in the colder months !

Kathleen and I both enjoy Cabarnet or Merlot, any tips appreciated

We find the kits and supplies are better priced and quality. In Canada Beer and wine making are a very popular hobby. May have to do with the price of alcohol beverages. A case of 24 beer is over $30.
Almost every town in Canada has a Wine/Beer making store. Many of them will make wine and beer and also sell the supplies.
It's French word. Don't know why its called Carboy.
Getting started should cost less than $100 for the supplies. Kit's start around $50 and go up from there.
We have a few shops around here that will make wine and bottle it for you. Cost is usually about $100 plus bottles and corks.
Here is a carboy of wine we made last year.

The site I listed above has some information on wine making. To start out the kits have all the instruction needed to make wine.
I have this book that I bought when we first started. It is still published. Winemaking .
There other good books and info on the internet.
Best thing I can offer is make sure you use distilled water for the wine (do not want any taste added from water). Always sanitize and sterilize every thing that will touch the wine. Then rinse it at least three times. Not following these rules can destroy a whole batch of wine. I have never lost any wine by following the above rules.

 

[scott_vt]

Thanks Ron & Paddy,
Is it safe to assume that you are also rinsing with distilled water also ?

BTW, thanks for the links and pictures.

Did I miss it, wondering how long is the total process ?

Thanks !

 

[ronjhall]

Some kits claim 4 weeks. Most of the time I bottle after 6 to 12 weeks. Mostly because I am doing other things. Cleaning bottles, filtering and bottling is a rainy day project.
The one job I do not like is cleaning the bottles. If you put the wine in 1 gallon jugs you only need 6.
Use the house water to rinse. The amount of water left after rinsing and draining is very small.
There are many different ideas on how to make wine. But I like to make it at 70 to 75 degrees. Store at 50 to 55 degrees.

 

[Paddy]

I use tap water, unfiltered from my well. The wine guys I speak to say, "if you drink it, it's good enough for wine". Mine have been just fine this way, but I have very good well water.

 

[Paddy]

Ronjhall,

We too like the Brew at warmer temps and age in our celler. I just love to walk by when the new batch is burping through the airloc. At first it smells of fruit, later it smells of bread rising! This year we are going to push the equipment. Meaning, as soon as the Primary bucket is empty, start another! At $3 a bottle in material we have endless gifts. I wait for the day when I have several hundred bottles ageing. I think I have 50 over a year old now. I guess I need to get my "cork" in gear

Paddy

Vicious Fishes Wines

 

[ronjhall]

We have good well water also. But if we want wine to come out close to the last batch it seems to work best with distilled. People that have Chlorinated City Water need to use the distilled water.
We plan on starting 2 batches in the next 2 weeks. But since we are going south, will not bottle until May.

 

[Paddy]

I left one batch in the Car-boy for 9 months before bottling. No ill effects. Yes, chlorine is bad news for wine! Do you experiment by adding rasins or other dried fruits? Mine have appeared light on the tanins so I added some hickory bark on this last batch. Using an oak barrel would be good but you have to be very carefull not to over do the oak!

Have fun

 

[ronjhall]

I have played with raisin and other flavors. But changed over to higher quality kits with better results.