Homemade Wine

[Chuckie]

One thing we have in common here is cattle. But I have another interest that I have not confessed to, and that is making wine. Last year I made around 50 gallons. I had blackberry, muscadine, watermelon, and peach. I always wondered what watermelon wine would taste like, so I had to give it a try. I always liked the song Tom T. Hall did about Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon wine. It was good, but I wouldn't want it to be the only wine I had to drink. The blackberry and peach are my favorite. The muscadine ain't bad either. I just wondered if anyone else bootlegged...I mean made a little wine on the side?

 

[bigbull338]

chuck i admire you for getting into winemaking . i dont make wine/ but like you ive wondered bout the watermelon wine .
scott

 

[Chuckie]

bigbull338, the best part of making it is getting to sample it as it goes along to see what you need to do next. At the very beginning, it is a sweet fruity taste, with carbonation from the yeast just getting started, then a little further along, it turns into a green taste like fruit flavored beer without any sugar. We are talking nasty tasting at this point. Then when it hits the year old stage, you can start to sweeten it. The fruit wines take a year, and the muscadine takes at least two. I made some mead too. It is honey wine and it needs around three years to make it smooth. It is the oldest known alcoholic beverage. I doesn't taste bad at all.

 

[bigbull338]

thats a lot of work / sounds fun to test it all during the yr . i bet its smooth . hard part would be having enough for a yr. scott

 

[MrBilly]

My wife makes muscadine, blueberry and apple wine. I drink it, she does the work and has the know how. She is very good. She gets some type of live yeast from the Northwest and it makes muscadine wine that is much different from what her father used to make - it is no longer sickeningly sweet. She must do other things? but it is great.

Billy

 

[Chuckie]

Mr Billy, I did not realize they had so many different kinds of wine yeast till I started making it. Some give the wine a real fruity flavor. I have tried some of the overly sweet wines and I don't care for them either. Sounds like your wife has her act together on making wine.

 

[Beefy]

can you describe or recommend a site describing the wine making process. thats just what i need, something else to do.

 

[Chuckie]

Beefy, This is the site that I learned from. Mr Kellar will answer any of your questions by email. He explains the process that makes it easy to understand.
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/index.asp

 

[CowCop]

I made some mead too. It is honey wine and it needs around three years to make it smooth. It is the oldest known alcoholic beverage. I doesn't taste bad at all.

My brother and dad are beekeepers and make mead wine.

Everyone raves about it and they have won many awards at the county and state fairs.

My brother gave me a bottle for Xmas and it exploded in my refrigerator.

Have you had any bottles explode yet ?

 

[la4angus]

I'm still trying to figure out what Xmas is, and what is the reason for receiving a gift for it.

 

[Chuckie]

Cowcop, I have heard some of the explosions that go on with making beer and wine. Knock on wood...I haven't had any to do that yet. How long does your Dad and Brother let it sit and age before they bottle it?

 

[CowCop]

Cowcop, I have heard some of the explosions that go on with making beer and wine. Knock on wood...I haven't had any to do that yet. How long does your Dad and Brother let it sit and age before they bottle it?

Obviously not long enough, on that particular bottle Chuckie.

I will inquire and get back to you on the correct answer.

Have heard there is another batch "ready" around Turkey Day.

I am never putting another bottle of the homemade variety in my main regrigerator ever again. Lesson learned. I can't begin to describe the damage to food, glass every where, ruined cheesecake, Many other broken jars of jam, pickles, mayo, rootbeer, etc etc. Weeks later I was still finding glass shards.

On another note, I had a taste of some DELICIOUS homemade rasberry wine at a goat cheese farm last year. It went perfect with the cave cheeses they were taste testing. After that adventure I was tempted to try and make some..until the mead explosion.

Interesting thread. Tell us more Chuckie, and mentor Beefy on this as well.

 

[Chuck]

My brother gave me a bottle for Xmas and it exploded in my refrigerator. Have you had any bottles explode yet ?

When I was a kid my Grandad and his buddies made apple jack every year. One year they put it in the jugs and corked it, put a straw in the top of the cork to vent it. Something went wrong, maybe too much sampling of the unfinished product :lol: anyway we were eating supper and it sounded like somebody started shooting a shotgun in the root cellar. Those corks started popping out. My Grandma wasn't big on the old demon rum anyway. My old Grandpa had to lay low for a while after that one. :lol2:

 

[CowCop]

Here are the answers to some questions that my beekeeping brother was kind enough to quickly answer:

How long does honey wine ( mead ) sit and age before you bottle it and can drink it ?

~~ it would be the same as for wine. 90 days? up to a year..
I made melomel, which is honey and fruit juice mixed together.
my first batch of true mead turned into poison. (cause I think the yeast never got activated.)
but I switched to making the melomel.


The bottling process is the same for wine,

all it is , is sugar, just like grape juice.
add yeast, keep it warm, the yeast eats the sugar and turns it into alcohol.
lots of other chemicals, to make it clear, to help with aftertaste, or sediments, etc.
it's easy, but there's about a handful of things you have to control.


Why do bottles explode ?

~ Too much pressure/ bottling it prematurely, when yeast eats sugar to make alcohol,
carbon dioxide is the other result. Co2 is gas . Hence why champagne has a pop when you uncork it.


Bottlers beware.

Hope this helps,

 

[Chuckie]

I always let my wine age in the large glass jugs. (carboys) I always keep a bubbler on top to let the gases out, but no air comes back in. I let the fruit wines such as peach and blackberry age at least one year. The muscadine ages for two or more years. The mead, it is on it's third year. It is amazing how smooth it is now. It has no bite at all. Just a smooth honey alcoholic beverage. I make sure the yeast has died before I cork any of it. I don't think I could handle any explsion. I usually do 5-6 gallon batches. I really enjoy making it.