How many wine makers do we have here?

[muddstopper]

No bubbles is a sign that the yeast has done its job and the wine is made. Sometimes you can simply shake the secondary and the bubbles will start up again.

All yeast has a certain tolerance to alcohol, but at some level, the alcohol being created will kill the yeast and at that point adding more sugar will only sweeten the wine. When you add more sugar, you are doing so as a sugar syrup, generally 2cups of sugar to one cup of water, and doing so will dilute the wines alcohol content. Any surviving yeast can restart the fermenting process, again bringing the alcohol levels back up to where the alcohol will kill off the yeast. There are something like 5000 different strains of wine makeing yeast, each with varying levels of alcohol tolerance, each yeilding different alcohol percentages in the finished wine product.

Now this part is just my opinion, but if you are not getting any bubbles from your carbouy and stirring the wine doesnt create any more bubbles. Its time to sweeten to taste and continue racking until the wine becomes clear. That might take several months to let occcur naturally, but some folks use clearing agents and filters to speed up the process. At that point, put it in the bottle.

 

[chicken stalker]

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ok so I do continue to rack (I don't plan to add any more sugar)...I was unsure because there were no bubbles but the wine isn't really clear. Rack and taste tonight

 

[muddstopper]

If the wine suits your taste, you can rack it off, but the less you mess with it, the faster it will clear. Just remember, everytime you rack the wine, you are going to lose a little bit of it. Its a slow process to become clear on its own. Lots of folks will use clairifying agents, (bentonite, egg yolks, unflavored gelatin), or a filtering system, to clear their wine. I prefer to just let mine sit until it clears on its own. Once it clears, I rack into a fermenting bucket, straining thru a doubled cotton cloth, leaving the sediment and a little bit of wine, in the bottom of the carbouy. I then siphion into the bottles and cork. Some folks also like to use potassium sulfite to insure there are no more surviving yeast. I dont like using any sulfites myself, and as long as the wine isnt giving off any CO2 gas, I dont see the need to.

 

[Unclebean]

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X2
Once my wine stops "working" I let it sit until it clears. I know most people say rack on a monthly schedule but I don't see the need. Good luck!

 

[chicken stalker]

Rack my strawberry rhubarb wine yesterday so it can clarify......snuck a glass. YUUUUUUMMMMM!!!
on to a batch of Blueberry and thinking about making peach, parsley and rhubarb..not all together

 

[muddstopper]

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Right now I have peach, cherry, grape, blackberry and mead, ( not all together), sittin under the kitchen sink just waiting to clear. The grape was started last Oct from grapes we had picked and canned. The cherry is also from berries we had picked and canned. We havent been able to find any grapes this year, they seem to be rottening on the vine and falling off. No cherries this year either. As soon as apples start coming in, I plan on making several gallons. We missed the June apples this year, they just didnt make. This has to be the worst year I have seen for gathering fruit. June apples will make a pretty pink apple wine, if you grind the fruit and ferment with the peelings instead of just strained juice.

 

[chicken stalker]

Picked up a new 3 gallon carboy yesterday and a bunch of yeast. I am ready to make a batch of peach elderberry wine and a small batch of parsley wine

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[muddstopper]

Yesterday I started on a batch of muscadine wine. I bought a hydrometer and just had to play with it. LOL.

Anyways, I ran across a bushel of muscadines for $45, a little expensive, but there doesnt seem to be very many this year. My wife canned 12 qts to use later. I saved a half bushel out so she could make a run of jelly and the rest I am makeing into wine. Of course, I dont follow the standard recipies, but since this is a hobby, I figure I am free to do as I please. Here is how this batch is started.

First, I washed the grapes, removed the stems, any bits of leaves, etc. I thn placed the grapes in a large stock pot and added just enough water to cover the grapes, (my wifes teapot worked well for this). I then placed on the stove on a medium high heat. My goal is to heat the grapes just enough to kill any bacteria and wild yeast. The heat also makes the grape skins turn loose of all the grape color. The main benefit is heating makes the grapes much easier to mash. Once the grapes are about to boil, I turn off the heat and dip a few of the grapes out at a time. I place the grapes into another smaller stockpot and use a potato masher to bust the skins and then dump into my fermenting bucket. I just mash enough to bust the skins, I dont pulverize. Once all the grapes are removed from the large stockpot, I add more grapes to the juice and repeat the process. Once all the grapes have been mashed and placed in the fermenting bucket, I save a pint of the juice from the large stockpot and pour the rest of the juice into the bucket with the grapes. After letting the pint of juice cool to room temperature, I added one packet of redstar Montrachet wine yeast and stirred to mix. I let the juice/yeast mixture sit overnite and added to the fermenting bucket this morning. Before adding the yeast mixture to the fermenting bucket, I discovered that all the grape seeds had floated to the top of the bucket. I went ahead and skimmed the seeds off so i wouldnt have to fool with them later. I assume the removeing of the seeds will effect the wine taste, good or bad i dont know.

I will let the must ferment for 7days at which time I will strain thru a jelly bag to remove the grape hulls and any remaining seeds. I will then also add my sugar. I mentioned that I had purchased a hydrometer, I used it to measure the brix level of the must. Brix is the measure of sugar content. Mine was 10%. If i dont add any sugar to the mixture I will end up with a finished alcohol content of around 5%. Wine at this level can spoil and turn to vinegar. Alcohol level needs to be at least 11% to keep this from happening. To get to a alcohol level of 11% I will need enough sugar to get the brix above 22%. Since I already have 10% brix, I will need to add enough sugar to makeup the remaining 12%. Just some rough math here since I havent weighed the wine yet. I have approx 20lbs of wine must. 20lbs times 12%=2.4lbs of sugar. One lb of sugar is approx 2 cups. 2.4lbs times 2 cups = 4.8cups, might as well make it 5 cups. This is approx how much extra sugar I will be adding to my wine. I will probably add more sugar at the first racking in about another month, just to get the alcohol levels up a little bit.

 

[muddstopper]

We also started some red apple wine. I had gotten a half bushel of Johnathan apples for canning. While peeling the appled I had a brainstorm, Why not use the peelings to make some wine. We have one of those crank type of peelers that peels and cores and cuts the apples into litlle spirals slices at the same time. The peeling just drop down into a bucket as they come off the apple. The chickens get the cores and I got the peelings, my wife got the apples. Anyways. I put the peelings in the stock pot along with a little water and a few Rome and Winesap apples all cutup real fine. I placed the stockpot on the stove and heated until the water turned read from the peelings. I then removed from the heat, mashed let cool added yeast and will see how this experiment turns out. All apple wine I have ever seen has always been clear in color. This must is turning out to be redish pink. Who knows, its just for fun anyways since we drink very little of what ever we make.

 

[chicken stalker]

We have an amazing apple crop this year and was I would love to make a batch of hard cider and wine. For the hard cider does it require a glass secondary? Im running short on them. Any tips or tried and true recipes would be great. I also just picked up my first bushel of pears. Woot!