Bottling wine

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I bottled my 2011 summer wines yesterday...about 12 gallons,
all in 12 oz clear bottles. Here are the highlights.
http://www.jackofallbrews.org/forum/...hp?f=19&t=1898

anyone else do any homebrewing ?
Jon

[ubetcha]

Yes.My wife and I also make wine,but haven't made any in a couple of years.Just haven't had the time.We have help some neighbors with theirs and lent them some equipment.When we first started to make wine ,we entered some in the the state fair for a couple years.To our suprise we did get quite afew 1st places,but no best of shows

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I've entered in a few county fair / state fair competitions.
It seems they judge more on appearance then the wine.
Or maybe that's my excuse for not doing so well
Jon

[winelover]

I don't bottle but I sure can empty them!

Winelover

[Chicken Thief]

I have made @ 2 gal of apple brandy and 1 gal of apple suicider (13% vol). Have to wait a year to taste, but hey i have last years harvest

[Jeffrey]

I like to make wines I cannot get at stores: Honey (mead) with various fruit juices (cyser). Haven't made any since Katrina, but got another vinting kit for christmas. Will get a batch going this spring.

[Moonie]

I make straight mead (honey wine), cyser (mead made with honey and apple juice), pyment (mead made with honey and grape juice) and a couple of varieties of beer.

[Tom-ADC]

Beer yes but only tried once years ago, it wasn't even good for vinegar.
Been thinking of trying it again.

[bigjason6]

I've been interested in beer making for a while. Just got my first kit the other day from Coopers.

[Tom-ADC]

This is where I got my beer making start & will be the place I buy from if I decide to try making wine. http://www.williamsbrewing.com/
BTW did I mention that I won 2nd & 3rd place at the San Diego Fair a few years back for homebrew? White & Red ribbons

[ubetcha]

Making ones own wine or beer can be very rewarding and can be very frustrating.I tried making beer but it never turned out right so we tried wine and that worked.The first wine we maked was a strawberry wine and our goal was to make it taste and smell like a strawberry jam or jelly.That's what we won our 1st places with.Turned out fantastic.Now we cannot repeat the mix again.our favorite wine to make now is a raspberry wine,and mixure of concord grape and wild grape,or just plain wild grape.The wild grape are quite a difference grape to work with.Very small in size,but have a very intense earthy taste.When made ,the wine reminds me of an Italian Lumbruso.Rubarb also make a good wine,but take alot for it to clear without the use of some finings or filtering

[Moonie]

The things to remember when it comes to making wine and beer are to make sure everything is not just clean but sanitized. The second thing to remember is to keep great notes, if you make a great batch you will know how to repeat it, if you make a bad batch you know what not to do again lol.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I have a trick to making country style friut wines
so the friut really shines through.
I make Rhubarb wine as the base.
Be sure to strain out the slimey rhubarb before the following.
Then add the "headliner" friut in the secondary, the more the better.
I think the fruit can loose alot of it's aroma and flavors during a
vigorous fermentation...up and out with the CO²

The friut should stay in there at least a month...longer if necessary.
I test by removing a piece of friut and comparing the taste
with a sample of the wine.
The friut should not have any more flavor than the wine itself.

Then I strain out the remanents of the friut (seeds and slime).
then I age it in the carboy til it's ready to bottle (2 or 3 months atleast)..I've waited
as long as a year.
Here is my recipe for Juneteenth (Blackrasberry wine)
http://www.jackofallbrews.org/forum/...php?f=9&t=1406
Jon

[cheese1566]

I used to years ago when I was single. I started beer homebrew and found nobody else liked the dark beer. I moved over to country wine from sugar and progressed to the honey based wines.

Good stuff!

I ade the mistake of selling off my entire kit, equipment, and carboys way too cheap! They were taking space and not usaed for a couple years do to a child.

Now I wished I had it back!!!!

These guys are good suppliers too : http://www.midwestsupplies.com/

I am thinking of beer brewing again and kegging it for the man cave!

[Old Goat Keeper]

Anyone make a "mead" (not sure what it's real name is) using maple syrup? I had some once an it was awsome. Would like to make it!

T-o-m

[jdgabbard]

I've been know to run an "ethanol" still from time to time

[Reg]

Make all kinds of wine but never seem to get around to putting it up in bottles, just siphon into one gallon plastic jugs and enjoy !!!!

[kentuckycajun]

Haven't made any this year, but still have dozens of bottles (3-4 years old)and 1 5-gal carboy each of apple, strawberry, blueberry, wild blackberry & muskedine (almost ready to rack and bottle)- the latter two FREE from picking fruit behind the levee (the good stuff).
All are upwards of 15% , have great "legs", and are actually closer to brandy than wine.

Have a great tip for getting the wine to "fall out" when sparkloid or bentonite won't work - and for cheap, er, I mean frugal, people like me who can't afford expensive wine filters. Wait till the temp outside is lower than 32 degrees, then put your carboys outside for 3-7 days. Put them up on a workbench or somewhere you won't have to move them. Your wine will be crystal clear within a week. I suggest bottling outside where they sit, so as not to disturb the lees before you rack into bottles.

Cheers!!

[WRideout]

Being a certified cheapskate, I try to find sources of fruit for cheap or free. When I lived in Pittsburgh, I found that mulberry trees grow like weeds all over; people cut them down so they don't drop purple fruit on the sidewalk. When I was in graduate school, I used to make wine and beer in my apartment (five bonus redneck points). I found a mulberry tree by the alley. I harvested enough fruit to make a two gallon batch. It was way too sweet, but I discovered that a different kind of yeast would ferment up to 19%, so I used that to reduce the sugar content. I kept sampling it, hoping it would improve. After about six months of aging, something magic happened, and it became a fantastic red wine. Everybody that tried it loved the stuff! I make a couple of gallons of mulberry every year when I can, but I have never equaled that first batch that was an accident.

There is a small patch of woods right at the Swissvale exit off the parkway going into Pittsburgh, and for years my wife and I would harvest a mulberry tree that grew there. People used to park just to ask what we were doing.

Wayne

[felix]

About a half pound of ripe banana, boil in water for chemical extraction, filter if desired, and add that to the must before fermentation. Perfectly clear wine after the lees are compacted. This would be for about 5 gallons of must. This will make an otherwise light bodied wine into a medium bodied with no banana taste. ... felix