In Greece they make a unique white wine called Retsina that gets its flavor from being stored in terra-cotta jars lined with pine resin thus the finished wine takes on that flavor. Its supposed to be an aquired taste.
Good tip, the first one you gave about storage and oxygen. I almost made this mistake thinking I can bottle some of this later and leave some of it in a plastic storage container about half way full. That makes sense about the oxygen factor a component to it all which obvious comes into relevance after the fermentation stops and the liquid is exposed to oxygen (is easy to overlook things like this when making wine for the first time). Saved me from making a mistake and wrecking what I think is a pretty good first batch wine I made.
I thought fermentation was limited by sugar content, not so much the alcohol level. The other thing that confuses me is after all the efforts to sanitize we open the buckets to punch down the grape skins several times a day. Isn't that going to allow bad things to get in?
Fermentation is limited by three things: 1. The amount of sugar available. 2. The amount of alcohol, (yeast can only ferment to a max of about 17% alcohol). 3. The type of yeast. Many yeasts can only ferment to 14 to 15% alcohol but some can go to 17%. As far as punching the cap, the fermentation process has a protection factor as it produces carbon dioxide. You still have to be very careful with your punching tools because you can introduce spoilage yeast and/or bacteria which could have a bad effect later. We spray our tools with Everclear (190 proof) to kill off contaminants.
@@fabbyalways1 There is only one strategy that works all the time and that is to sterile filter your wine once it's at the desired sugar level then add about 400ppm potassium sorbate. If you wanted to skip the sorbate you would have to refrigerate. Sterile filtering for all but the largest wineries does not get all the yeast out so with out refrigeration or sorbate it will re-ferment.
I finally gave in and bought some juice/active dry yeast packets just to see if all the youtube videos actually work. I know it won't taste good I've just never experienced the fermentation process first hand. lol.
You will find out its not as hard as you make it out to be, it's relatively easy to make a finished product! Just wait at least 2 months to drink your homebrew. That extra month really makes a big difference In taste
What videos of yours do you recommend for someone who wants to try hobby making, but has No Clue on what they are doing? Including what equipment you need and what it does. Just like very basic stuff.
Love the video, very imformative and i have a few questions but I'm only going to ask 1....so if white fruit wines can be aged cause thwy dont habe tannins what about if u added tea to the must ??
My Dad use to melt paraffin wax on the top surface of the wine neck. Tasteless and odorless, it creates a good seal, preventing air from touching the wine
i was just in door county.i would've stopped at your place had i known about you. i definitely will next visit to wisconsin. im making merlot, cab, barberra, petite syrah, and zin..also muscato this year. great video. i use an old basket style press.it holds 10 cases.whats your best idea for sterilizing something like that? i usually wash and dry. im going to spray or wipe down with star san mixture this time. thanks for the great video.
Hello, fermentation expert, I have a question for you, if you allow me. I fermented a liter of natural grape juice, added 250 grams of sugar, and used wild yeast. I know that the amount of sugar is large, but what are the expected results? Note that it has 17 days in the fermentation container and it has not finished yet! I would love to hear advice from you, thank you
I like your video. I've been making home wine now for 3 years now. Made only berry wines. I now have concor grapes that I'm cleaning and will be my first time doing this. My biggest concern is the seeds. Will the seeds leave a taste. Should they be removed or just mush them up a bit and put the whole works in the primary bucket.
I haven't made concord grape wine but I grew up with a pretty big arbor of them. I can't really say that I know the answer to this but I suspect by the way that slimy little seed sack tastes, that it would be better to remove them. We have a few concord vines here, I'll have to experiment with that next year.
If I use preservatives before bottling to kill all remaining yeast, Is it OK even though I have some sugar left? For example to use potassium sorbate or any potassium metabisulfite to kinda sterilize. Is this sorbate or metabisulfite going to kill all other bacteria in wine, or just yeast?
I made Blackberry wine from BB's from my garden. Everything went well at first. When I transferred all the berries out and began secondary F in gallon jugs with airlocks the ABV was 14%. I put it in my pantry at a steady 65 degrees and one month later the ABV was ZERO...what may have happened???
Are there any issues I should know about, when using well water? I live in Waupaca co. In the village of Ogdensburg. We have high hard water levels here.
I don't even trust plastic airlock. No glass airlocks available in US, unfortunately. Ordered two glass airlocks from Ukraine for $30 total. I need to learn more before starting to make wine.
No, you probably want one before fermentation, one on first racking and one before bottling. Without measuring sulfur dioxide you are better off with three total additions
I accidentally added 1.5 gallons of water to fill up the space because I used a 1.5 gallon recipe for a 3 gallon .. it’s still reading about 10.5 alcohol. I can taste grape but it’s faint. Anyway I can possible fix it or should I just start all the way over.
Hi sir. I subscribe already . I am making a dragon fruit wine. My concern is the color, it changes from magenta to a little brown it reaches 6 months. My question, can we put artificial color to when we make wine or do some makers do that?
Question: I want to make carrot wine. I DO NOT anytime I make wine want to add refined sugar. Carrots which are deep orange have a high sugar content so I don't figure I need to add sugar to the must. Would you recommend a certain yeast or is adding grapes to the must another alternative. I always figured that grape or fruit wine having sugar in the fruit is all the sugar you need. Where would the wine makers in Italy have gotten refined sugar from anyway in the "Old Days"
I don't think carrots would have nearly enough sugar to get the alcohol much past 6 or 7%. You could add grape juice or frozen concentrated grape or any other kind of juice. I haven't heard of concentrated carrot juice. The Italians found a unique way of making wine sweeter without sugar. The Northern Italians made Muscato sweet by stopping the fermentation early. Other than that, the standard yeast EC1118 is a very agressive yeast.
Natural fermentation is just keeping your wine temp about 70 degrees until the natural yeast starts the process. It will then ferment until dry or the alcohol gets up to about 15%
I have a 1 gallon wine making kit. The methods I'm seeing are saying to steep the fruit in water. But, for example, if I make pear wine, and I have a juicer, could I juice 1 gallon of concentrate? Or would I juice the recommended amount of fruit, and top off with water? It seems like a gallon of straight concentrate would have more flavor than mixing with water
Probably totally gonna be trial and error. I usually run no yeast. 5 gallon bucket with percolator on the top. Never had bad runs unless it's the fruit itself or I don't run in time
I have made a test wine using bread yeast and it worked pretty decently, its very clean, and has settlement that needs to be filtered and the taste is great only a bit too sweet, what could i do to lessen the sugar? i think the alcohol content is too high for more yeast. Also when i tasted it, it has kinda has feel of a liquor or whiskey where you feel the warmth in the back of your throat is this normal?
For home wine making thats pretty normal. If you wanted less sweetness the only thing you can do is either blend with a dry wine or dilute it with a percentage of water and restart the fermentation. You unfortunately will lose some of the intensity. Believe it or not, I've had the same problem in the winery. I diluted it and restarted the fermentation.
What you have made is actually called wagonwheel, which is high in alcohol content. I'm pretty sure you used fruits if I'm not mistaken. My great great grandmother made wines, liquor etc. And I can tell you from the information you read online about yeast not allowing alcohol content to raise above 15% is BS! Nobody mentions the yeast already on fruits etc. I make homebrew as well and have made homebrews with abv of 22% plum liquor using wild fermentation only. IDK I guess it's different information depending on where it's coming from.
Thanks for this. If I were to use screw tops (as more & more shop wines are using now) , then if fermentation restarts would the lid still come off or would the bottle explode?
Anything with sugar can be made into wine even if you have to add the sugar. Anything that has potassium sorbate added will not ferment. Hope that helps
My first batch of elderberry is waiting a couple months before my next step (carboy filled to the neck). When I transferred, it tasted sour. I was shooting for acid of 0.6, but maybe put in too much tartrate. Will this mellow on its own? Should I add sugar? Other solution? I planned on transferring again, after 2 months, and adding oak chips before letting it sit for half of a year (bottling at ~8 months). It sits in a dark basement closet, about 55-60 F. Does that sound reasonable?
It will mellow only slightly for tartness. If you want to bottle it dry than you can drop the acid as much as 2 g/liter total acidity by using potassium bicarbonate. Otherwise a couple of grams per liter sugar will make it more palatable but then you need to sterile filter or it will start fermenting again.
It's not really that important to wait until primary is completely done. However when the wine tastes dry it's done or almost done. Which would be close enough
If im not following a recipe what gravity do i need to aim for before fermentation? I dont want to much water to solids ratio and im aiming for 1.020 after fermentation
1.1 is close for whites and you will get about 13% alcohol. 1.106 for reds gives you a touch over 14% alcohol which balances well for full bodied wines.
Yes, you can add enough water to bring the carboy level into the neck. This offers less surface area to air and therefore you will have less oxidation. It will dilute the flavor if you add to much so the other option is to rack it into a smaller carboy.
Three things could cause this. 1. Red wines have a lot of tannin which when young will be bitter. 2. Too much malic acid will also cause this 3. A very low PH will also be perceived as bitter. As an old wine maker once told me. Sugar fixes everything.
