How many wine makers do we have here?

[Kassaundra]

So as it continues to sit in the ferment bucket while I wait for the clearing and continue to rack until clear am I wanting it to ferment or not to ferment????

 

[kuntrygirl]

I finished a 21 day muscadine wine recipe (another experiment). All I have to say is when I tasted it, I saw fire shoot out my mouth. It was sooooooooooooooo potent. I cannot drink it. It's too strong. The alcohol content has to be 30%. I broke my hydrometer, so I can't find out the volume. I have to get another one today.

Homemade wine cannot go over 18% alcohol without fortification. Wine yeast dies above that point. In fact, most wine yeasts don't go above 16%. I'm sure it tastes good though!

Who said that I used wine yeast? Lol

 

[Totalcolour]

So as it continues to sit in the ferment bucket while I wait for the clearing and continue to rack until clear am I wanting it to ferment or not to ferment????

If you want a sweeter wine you need to use something to prevent refermentation. OTOH, if you drink the wine fairly quickly, it wouldn't be a problem

 

[Totalcolour]

Homemade wine cannot go over 18% alcohol without fortification. Wine yeast dies above that point. In fact, most wine yeasts don't go above 16%. I'm sure it tastes good though!

Who said that I used wine yeast? Lol

Well, bakers yeasts are pretty much the same. Except worse - they can give nasty off flavors to wine and are more likely to stick. Beer wines rarely go over 11 (tops). Are you distilling it (not a good idea, apart from it being illegal, it can make you dead if you aren't careful)? As far as I know, there isn't any yeast that can go anywhere near that high on it's own.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Homemade wine cannot go over 18% alcohol without fortification. Wine yeast dies above that point. In fact, most wine yeasts don't go above 16%. I'm sure it tastes good though!

Who said that I used wine yeast? Lol

Well, bakers yeasts are pretty much the same. Except worse - they can give nasty off flavors to wine and are more likely to stick. Beer wines rarely go over 11 (tops).  Are you distilling it (not a good idea, apart from it being illegal, it can make you dead if you aren't careful)? As far as I know, there isn't any yeast that can go anywhere near that high on it's own.

That's what I have heard people say but those peopel must be doing sometnig wrog. I prefer baker's yeast over wine yeast. When I use baker's yeast, I never have any problems. It gives it a better flavor in my opinion. I experimented again with the 21 day recipe that I got from You Tube showing the 2 Indian ladies making pineapple wine. This is far THE BEST recipe that I have ever used. And it doesn't stay around long because everyone loves it and always request more. Will try the 21 day grape next.

 

[Totalcolour]

That's what I have heard people say but those peopel must be doing sometnig wrog. I prefer baker's yeast over wine yeast. When I use baker's yeast, I never have any problems. It gives it a better flavor in my opinion. I experimented again with the 21 day recipe that I got from You Tube showing the 2 Indian ladies making pineapple wine. This is far THE BEST recipe that I have ever used. And it doesn't stay around long because everyone loves it and always request more. Will try the 21 day grape next.

Actually, they are doing something right, not wrong. Of course, if you prefer the taste of wine made with baker's yeast, keep doing it. It's your tastebuds that matter. Just be careful if you are making sweet wines. They CAN and often DO re-ferment in the bottle and can explode causing nasty injuries.

Also, remember, that to get 30% alcohol you'd need to have 60% (approx) sugar in your must. This would be a very thick, sticky, almost syrupy goo; not quite as thick as honey, but getting close. Fermentation breaks the sugar almost 50 % into alcohol and 50% into carbon dioxide gas. So 60% sugar would equal 30% alcohol, if it could ferment that far.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I don't think there is a right or wrong way. I think there is a preferred and non preferred way. When Jesus walked the earth, I'm sure people didn't have campden tablets and other wine supplies to make wine. I wasn't alive back than and I don't know anyone who is still alive. So bread yeast is my preferred method over the wine yeast. So bread yeast is not wrong to use. It's preferred. That's the problem people run into when the "professionals" turn their nose up at what they call the nonpreferred (wrong) way. I belong to a wine forum and I laugh at those who try to tell me that bread yeast is "wrong". After giving them a piece of my mind and ripping them a new one, they see where I'm coming from and back down. My preferred method is just that. MY method.

 

[Totalcolour]

I don't think there is a right or wrong way. I think there is a preferred and non preferred way. When Jesus walked the earth, I'm sure people didn't have campden tablets and other wine supplies to make wine. I wasn't alive back than and I don't know anyone who is still alive. So bread yeast is my preferred method over the wine yeast. So bread yeast is not wrong to use. It's preferred. That's the problem people run into when the "professionals" turn their nose up at what they call the nonpreferred (wrong) way. I belong to a wine forum and I laugh at those who try to tell me that bread yeast is "wrong". After giving them a piece of my mind and ripping them a new one, they see where I'm coming from and back down. My preferred method is just that. MY method.

As I said in my post, it's your tastebuds, and of course you should do it the way you prefer. It is your method, and you have chosen to do it that way. However, there is a right and wrong way, and there are a lot of reasons for doing it a certain way, the way that professionals do it for example.

The reason for not using bread yeast, is that it is totally unpredictable. You may have had good luck so far, but it may not always be that way. Plus, bread yeasts can go horrible wrong (as can any yeast done badly). Wine yeasts are more stable, and produce consistently better results.

As far as Jesus walking the earth, if he ever existed, I'm sure he didn't make wine. Back then, people didn't even know what yeast was.

From Wikipedia

In 1680, Dutch naturalist Anton van Leeuwenhoek first microscopically observed yeast, but at the time did not consider them to be living organisms, but rather globular structures.[12] In 1857, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur proved in the paper "Mémoire sur la fermentation alcoolique" that alcoholic fermentation was conducted by living yeasts and not by a chemical catalyst.[11][13] Pasteur showed that by bubbling oxygen into the yeast broth, cell growth could be increased, but fermentation was inhibited – an observation later called the "Pasteur effect".

And as far as "After giving them a piece of my mind and ripping them a new one, they see where I'm coming from and back down" this is simply rude. Nobody has given you a piece of their mind, nor ripped you a new one, so when you do it to others you are just showing your ignorance of this wonderful hobby and how it is done.

You have every right to do what you like and enjoy, but not to be rude to others, especially when they are giving you valuable information that may improve your product.

I hope you continue to enjoy your efforts, but I do hope you will not confuse knowledge with folk lore that you have learned from others like yourself, who also don't have any real understanding of the craft. Good luck with your efforts.

 

[Totalcolour]

Hope I didn't scare everyone away - not that there are many who visit this site, but still . . .!

Pear/cranberry wine is fabulous; trying to save some for Thanksgiving. Hope everyone else's wine is turning out great too.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I'm still here. Got kinda busy with the animals. New babies, new babies, new babies.

No, you didn't scare me away. Nothing can run me away. I'm a beast. I don't scare. My dad, who was a military man taught me that.

I started a batch of grape wine over the weekend. I tasted my muscadine wine and it is to die for.

LOL @ simply rude. PLEASE!!! Save the drama for someone who wants to hear that.

And I will continue to make wine the way that I want to. Now that we have that understanding CARRY ON!!!!!!!! ! Whoever doesn't like it can,