Winemaking project: Pictures page 6!
- Thread starter freemotion
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #132
freemotion
Food Guru
Time to do some bottling of the first batches! DH is supposed to pick up corks for me today. Yesterday, I spoke with the guy at the beer and winemaking supply store (Brew & Wine Hobby in East Hartford, CT, for anyone in the area....these guys are wonderfully helpful and knowledgeable and their prices are quite competitive, so go support them, please!) and asked about corks.
Corks come in different qualities and what you use depends on how long you will be storing the wine. For my cheap, quick Welch's Grape concentrate batch, I'll use the cheapest corks that last a year or so, since this wine needs to be used up within that time frame anyways.
For the meads and whatever comes out better (hopefully the raspberry will, maybe a bottle of the elderberry) I will try to age a few bottles, and the meads should have a few bottles set aside for a few years.....better corks are needed. I found out that the better corks need to be compressed more than my little, cheap hand corking tool can compress them, and I need a floor corker. The owner offered to lend me his for a week at a time when needed! I thought this was sooooo nice. He was a student of mine a few years ago, so I don't know if he makes this offer to everyone.
Then I asked him about something I'd read somewhere....coating the corks with cheese wax after inserting them in the bottles. Why? He told me that it was common practice during prohibition when people were reusing corks or using very cheap corks. And he told me that I could use cheap corks and my little corker in all my bottles if I coated the ones I wanted to age longer with wax! He hadn't mentioned it in the early part of our discussion because no one wants to bother with the mess....but I told him that I make cheese and have pounds and pounds of wax here and waxing the corks would be neither a bother nor a mess, as I am very comfortable with handling the wax. I actually store some of it in a small stainless steel mixing bowl so it is very easy to just set that bowl on a small pan of simmering water to melt it, and when I'm done waxing, I just let it cool, cover the bowl, and put it back with my cheesemaking supplies. Easy-peasy.
Corks come in different qualities and what you use depends on how long you will be storing the wine. For my cheap, quick Welch's Grape concentrate batch, I'll use the cheapest corks that last a year or so, since this wine needs to be used up within that time frame anyways.
For the meads and whatever comes out better (hopefully the raspberry will, maybe a bottle of the elderberry) I will try to age a few bottles, and the meads should have a few bottles set aside for a few years.....better corks are needed. I found out that the better corks need to be compressed more than my little, cheap hand corking tool can compress them, and I need a floor corker. The owner offered to lend me his for a week at a time when needed! I thought this was sooooo nice. He was a student of mine a few years ago, so I don't know if he makes this offer to everyone.
Then I asked him about something I'd read somewhere....coating the corks with cheese wax after inserting them in the bottles. Why? He told me that it was common practice during prohibition when people were reusing corks or using very cheap corks. And he told me that I could use cheap corks and my little corker in all my bottles if I coated the ones I wanted to age longer with wax! He hadn't mentioned it in the early part of our discussion because no one wants to bother with the mess....but I told him that I make cheese and have pounds and pounds of wax here and waxing the corks would be neither a bother nor a mess, as I am very comfortable with handling the wax. I actually store some of it in a small stainless steel mixing bowl so it is very easy to just set that bowl on a small pan of simmering water to melt it, and when I'm done waxing, I just let it cool, cover the bowl, and put it back with my cheesemaking supplies. Easy-peasy.
- Thread starter
- #133
freemotion
Food Guru
Oh, and another tip he gave me about determining when it is ready to bottle...if you hold your hand behind the carboy, you should be able to see it through the wine for most wines. If not, it needs to clear a while longer.
He said that a 2000 year old bottle of mead was discovered and it was still good to drink, and the honey flavor was still there! Imagine that!
He said that a 2000 year old bottle of mead was discovered and it was still good to drink, and the honey flavor was still there! Imagine that!
glenolam
Lovin' The Homestead
This sounds so neat! If you ever need a taste tester.... 
- Thread starter
- #135
freemotion
Food Guru
Hee-hee-hee....somehow, I am never short of volunteers here, until it comes time to spring clean the barn.... 
- Thread starter
- #136
freemotion
Food Guru
After months of neglect (this is why I love fermenting!) I am getting all my racking done in preparation for bottling.
Tonight I racked that gallon of onion wine and took a sip....very good, very interesting! I had a ham roast (uncured, just a pork roast) thawed that I needed to cook, so I threw in some onion wine. Just took it out of the oven...AMAZING!
Definitely making onion wine again. Maybe with some garlic this time.
Tonight I racked that gallon of onion wine and took a sip....very good, very interesting! I had a ham roast (uncured, just a pork roast) thawed that I needed to cook, so I threw in some onion wine. Just took it out of the oven...AMAZING!
Definitely making onion wine again. Maybe with some garlic this time.
dragonlaurel
Improvising a more SS life
Onion wine would probably be great for sauteing some mushrooms.
I think garlic might kill the yeast instead of making a wine, but if it works- please tell us.
I think garlic might kill the yeast instead of making a wine, but if it works- please tell us.
- Thread starter
- #139
freemotion
Food Guru
I've seen recipes for garlic wine, so it must work....WZ, what do you mean by "bad?"
Latest posts
-
-
-
Picture Of The Week (POW) Information & Submissions- Latest: SS Project Manager
-
-
