Beer, Wine and Mead Makers Thread

[dragonlaurel]

I want to try making wine. I picked up a 5 gallon bucket and a 4 gallon water bottle already. Trying to avoid the chemical additives and I have a pretty tight budget too.

The bucket used to hold pickles. Would washing it with some bleach in the water, (then rinsing very well), kill the bacteria that make vinegar? I don't want to make 3 or 4 gallons of vinegar.

I have a good juicer and was wondering if I could use it, then add the pulp in for a while- instead of trying to rig a fruit press.

Which equipment is really important to have? Which stuff can a beginner do without?

 

[~gd]

1. I have a new batch of orange/ginger mead bubbling away right now, used about 7-8 lbs of organic oranges and the zest. Looks and smells yummy. I simmered about a half pound of ginger with the zest for two hours, covered, juiced the rest of the oranges, used....um....10-12 lbs wildflower honey (raw) and enough sugar to get the sg up so the potential alcohol would be about 13-14%. Topped the whole thing with water and started it right in the carboy, leaving some space for bubbling up. I added more water after it calmed down in 2-3 days. Will rack at 3-4 weeks and again every 2-3 months until it clears, topping up with water.

2. No, you need to keep the secondary topped up, so that would be far too much air space at the top. Why bother with four gallons? It's not that much further to make it five, right?

beg to disagree with this point. IF YOU USE AN GAS LOCK, the head space will be filled by CO2 gas (heavier than air) toping up just adds to your chances of getting a bacteria in there that will cause it to sour and go to vinegar.

 

[~gd]

I am on my first brewing experience ever.

I am making 2 gallons of hard cider. We will see how it turns out. Right now it is just bubbling away.

Question.... Dark or no dark? I have heard it both ways. If it's supposed to stay in the dark then Why?

Thanks,

Gina

You should avoid bright lights Bright sun can cause it to take on a 'skunky' taste/odor. That having been said I have had very good results letting it ferment in open faced shelves in my kitchen. The sun never hits it but I like good lighting when I am working in the kitchen. This is the reason that beer is usually put up in brown or green glass bottles.

 

[~gd]

I have some home canned concord grape juice and it has a lot of pulp in it. My mother and I canned it,..heated the grapes, smashed them and then run them threw a food mill then canned the juice. Anyway,..I have quite a few quarts of this and was wondering if any of you experienced brewers could throw out some ideas of using it making a 5 gallon batch of wine. Mind you, no fancy ingredients,..Im on a tight budget. I usually use it for jelly,..but I could spare some for wine. Maybe mix some other juices with it,...oh and I think I would like a sweet wine,...that requires more sugar, right???

concords tend to be fairly boring wines So you could consider other fruits, spices, etc. If it was me I would add all the contents pulp and all into the primary ferm. vessel (leave head space it will foam up a lot once it starts to work. since the juice was canned you will need to add a source of yeast, this time of year the skin from an apple would be fairly easy to get, avoid baker's yeast if you can it was developed produce a lot of gas in a hurry and that would make your foam problem worse Once the ferm. had slowed down and the pulp had settled out , decant off the liquid to a different container to allow it to finish up. Sweet wine is made by killing or removing the yeast before it has had time to convert all sugar to alcohol. If you try to make it sweet by just adding more sugar it will start to ferment again. there are chemicals you can add to kill off the yeast but your best bet is a mild heat treatment to pasturize the wine or dump in Volka or other high alcohol booze the sudden alcohol shock will often kill off the yeast and then you can adjust the sweetness. Im sort of a wine snob to me the best use of concord juice is jelly or just drink as juice.

 

[~gd]

I want to try making wine. I picked up a 5 gallon bucket and a 4 gallon water bottle already. Trying to avoid the chemical additives and I have a pretty tight budget too.

The bucket used to hold pickles. Would washing it with some bleach in the water, (then rinsing very well), kill the bacteria that make vinegar? I don't want to make 3 or 4 gallons of vinegar.

I have a good juicer and was wondering if I could use it, then add the pulp in for a while- instead of trying to rig a fruit press.

Which equipment is really important to have? Which stuff can a beginner do without?

Needs Airlock or 'bubbler' to fit the fermenter. 6 foot lengths of plastic tubing to transfer the liguid to a second fermenter or to bottles and bottles either with corks or screw caps for storage (Avoid 'crowns' used on beer bottles) they can allow enough pressure to build up in the bottle so they become dangerous bombs. corks will pop or you can check pressure with a screw cap. Everything else is just extra gear to make the job simpler or easier.

 

[chicken stalker]

I want to try making wine. I picked up a 5 gallon bucket and a 4 gallon water bottle already. Trying to avoid the chemical additives and I have a pretty tight budget too.

The bucket used to hold pickles. Would washing it with some bleach in the water, (then rinsing very well), kill the bacteria that make vinegar? I don't want to make 3 or 4 gallons of vinegar.

I have a good juicer and was wondering if I could use it, then add the pulp in for a while- instead of trying to rig a fruit press.

Which equipment is really important to have? Which stuff can a beginner do without?

Needs Airlock or 'bubbler' to fit the fermenter. 6 foot lengths of plastic tubing to transfer the liguid to a second fermenter or to bottles and bottles either with corks or screw caps for storage (Avoid 'crowns' used on beer bottles) they can allow enough pressure to build up in the bottle so they become dangerous bombs. corks will pop or you can check pressure with a screw cap. Everything else is just extra gear to make the job simpler or easier.

hmm that is a good point. So if I want to put some wine in beer bottles I should cork them, right?

 

[dragonlaurel]

Thank you.
There aren't any brewing supply stores around near me, so I gotta mail order anything I can't get in normal stores. The brewing sites want to sell so much stuff.
I was thinking about bottling in Arizona iced tea bottles, since I like that size of bottle and they are dark colored already. Would those lids work, or do I need to find other bottles? I could see if any of the bars around here will save some empties for me.

 

[~gd]

Thank you.
There aren't any brewing supply stores around near me, so I gotta mail order anything I can't get in normal stores. The brewing sites want to sell so much stuff.
I was thinking about bottling in Arizona iced tea bottles, since I like that size of bottle and they are dark colored already. Would those lids work, or do I need to find other bottles? I could see if any of the bars around here will save some empties for me.

Sorry but I never touch the stuff (iced tea) so I can't give you any advice on those bottles/caps As far as getting bottles from bars it used to be against the law to refill those bottles with anything. The rule goes back to prohibition when it was common to refill with rot-gut and charge for the brand name. Just about everyone does it if they are making sparkling wine because the bottles were made to take the pressure.

 

[~gd]

I want to try making wine. I picked up a 5 gallon bucket and a 4 gallon water bottle already. Trying to avoid the chemical additives and I have a pretty tight budget too.

The bucket used to hold pickles. Would washing it with some bleach in the water, (then rinsing very well), kill the bacteria that make vinegar? I don't want to make 3 or 4 gallons of vinegar.

I have a good juicer and was wondering if I could use it, then add the pulp in for a while- instead of trying to rig a fruit press.

Which equipment is really important to have? Which stuff can a beginner do without?

Needs Airlock or 'bubbler' to fit the fermenter. 6 foot lengths of plastic tubing to transfer the liguid to a second fermenter or to bottles and bottles either with corks or screw caps for storage (Avoid 'crowns' used on beer bottles) they can allow enough pressure to build up in the bottle so they become dangerous bombs. corks will pop or you can check pressure with a screw cap. Everything else is just extra gear to make the job simpler or easier.

hmm that is a good point. So if I want to put some wine in beer bottles I should cork them, right?

I would suggest it at least untill you get enough experience to know that your wine has REALLY QUIT FERMENTATING.

 

[chicken stalker]

So I've got a porter cooling and getting ready to pitch the yeast and get it fermenting. I also am going to start that orange mead I have been procrastinating about tomorrow. Since there is 6 inches of snow on the ground I have been thinking about my gardens and was considering putting in some hops. Any suggestions... Red Ales so far are my husbands favorite beer so something I can use in that would be a plus.