Archive for the ‘Wine Making’ Category

I was glancing at the headlines of one of the local newspapers and noticed one about saving money on your wedding. I had no idea that the average couple, when they got married, spent almost 25 Thousand dollars on their wedding! That’s ridiculous. Apparently more and more couples are realizing how ridiculous it is to fork out that kind of money when really, it’s all about the celebration with friends, not enormously priced flower arrangements that will wither in less than a week, and all the other accouterments that are mostly just decorative.

Another way you can save money on your wedding costs is to consider making your own wine for the event. Depending on how many people will be attending, this could be a huge savings for you, and it’s likely you can make wine that will be comparable to that which would be served if you purchased it from the liquor or wine store. And how much can you save? Well consider that many venues and halls mark up the retail cost of a bottle of wine by double or more, making a ten dollar bottle of wine cost you twenty or more dollars and multiply that by 2 bottles (one red, one white) per table. Then consider that you could make 30 bottles of either red or white wine for around three dollars a bottle. If you have twenty tables at your wedding, that’s a savings of $680.00. I can think of a lot of things I could do with an extra $680.00.

You will of course need to do a little bit of planning. You’ll probably want to start your winemaking well in advance of the big day. If you decide to go with a more expensive ultra-premium wine kit for the red wine, think at least a year in advance to give that wine a chance to develop some maturity and character (if you don’t have a year, you can still use the wine – it just won’t be as great as it has potential for). You will also need to think about where you are going to store the bottles of wine you have made. This may also have a bearing on the type of closure you choose for your wedding wine bottles: Bottles that are sealed with real cork should be stored with the bottles laying down so that the cork does not dry out. The newer synthetic cork closures do not require this way of storage.

You could think about spending some of the extra money you’ve saved on unique bottles for your wine, and even your own custom labels. So not only might you save money on wedding by choosing to make your own wine, you can make the event even more personal by supplying your guests with something you’ve made yourself.

Many of the stores and shops that provide winemaking supplies and a facility for making wine on their premises also offer Wedding Wine Packages and can help you plan ahead and choose the right wine for your wedding day. They will have more information on any legal requirements that you might need to meet in order to provide your own wine at your wedding, and will know more about the venues in your local area that will co-operate with you should you decide to serve your own wine at your wedding.

I grew up in a tradition that some may know or understand, where on the 1st day of the week, bread and wine had much significance. I find it interesting that some that grew up in similar traditions used grape juice instead of wine and have such an intolerance toward anything with alcohol. Some years ago, I even heard a preacher rail against alcoholic beverages, claiming that “alcohol” was the excrement of yeast. Funny – he didn’t seem to mind eating bread with his grape juice on Sunday mornings – bread that had been risen with the use of yeast. And of course, one wonders how the disciples and apostles back in the day were able to preserve grape juice and keep it from turning into wine in the first place.

But that’s a matter for another blog of a different topic. Maybe I’ll start one day on Theology. This evening, I baked bread, racked wine and took specific gravity readings. It was time to add the sulphite and sorbate to the Old Vines Zinfandel that I racked back on March 6 from the primary. As I expected, there was no change in the specific gravity of this wine: 0.996.

I really like the Mexican 6 US gallon carboys. They are stouter than the other carboys I have, and seem to take about a half cup or so less in quantity so there is rarely a need to ever top up after racking from the other type of carboy. Such was the case this evening.

The Zinfandel does contain a lot of Carbon Dioxide. Part of the routine of stirring in the sorbate and sulfite includes lots of vigorous stirring. I cannot completely fill the Mexican carboy when I do this – I need to remove a good cup of wine in order to have lots of space for the inevitable foaming. I will add the fining agents that the kit came with, but not until I’ve done lots of degassing and promote the release of the CO2.

While all this was going on, I was baking the No Knead Bread. The kitchen is filled with the wonderful smells of bread baking! Perhaps tomorrow I will break bread and drink some wine. I’d have a slice tonight, but the loaf is still crackling as it cools.

Prior to all of this, the “wee man” and I recorded some specific gravity readings on a piece of paper, which I then promptly re-recorded in my log book. It will be nice to save the “wee man’s” printing and numbers though and I’ve kept copies inside my log book.

But for anyone interested in following along:

Cru Select Old Vines Grenache:

March 23/09 – Starting SG: 1.106
March 26/09: 1.054
March 27/09: 1.031

California Connoisseur Liebfraumilch:

March 25/09 – Starting SG: 1.080
March 26/09: 1.072
March 27/09: 1.060

Mystery Wine:

(Ahh.. this one is screwed up because of the stuck fermentation which I unstuck),

March 11/09 – Starting SG: 1.104
March 13/09: 1.092
March 19/09: 1.054
March 20/09: 1.046
March 21/09: 1.042
March 23/09: 1.030
March 25/09: 1.028
March 26: 1.021
March 27/09: 1.019

One of these days, I’ll start plotting these values. Might be interesting to see this graphed out.

So how was your home winemaking day?

Finally, the “Mystery Wine” fermentation has become “unstuck.” Reinoculating it much earlier is probably what I should have done in the first place. At the first sign of sluggishness, opening a one dollar pack of yeast would have been the best thing. But I also wanted to see what would happen with this wine and the yeast I had initially inoculated it with.

I’m curious as to how it will turn out in the end – perhaps like other things in life, that which has challenges can end up being the very best with some tender loving care. Something I have to remind myself – time is often the best way to overcome issues, with just a little bit of a catalyst, and then some patience.

I realized the other day that although I had several red wines on the go, I had no whites! And summer is coming, and on a warm day, it’s nice to sit back and sip on chilled white wine. I also like Liebfraumilch. I haven’t made one in awhile. When I was at the local shop I frequent (too often), they had a Liebfraumilch available in a “California Connoisseur” series by Vineco. So I decided to pick it up and at least have some white wine on hand from my home winemaking activities for the summer. I’ll probably have to make more if I really want enough to last the summer though!

I’m not all that impressed with Vineco calling this a “Premium Wine Kit,” but it will make a decent wine. Anyhow, my review of the wine kit is here.

I just came across this very basic recipe by John Gorman. Mr. Gorman says that maple wine tastes like “ambrosia.”

Thought I’d post this here for future reference. My bookmarks folder is quite disorganized and I likely wouldn’t find the link again.

The sun is shining brightly outside, and the other day I heard geese flying north. Although it’s still below freezing, warmer weather is sure to arrive. We’ve already had a number of days where the temperature rises to above freezing during the day, but drops below at night. Perfect weather for collecting sap from the Maple trees.

I’ve been thinking of purchasing some maple syrup to try making wine from that, but the price of the stuff is getting out of hand! One litre sells for $29.99 retail. When I was a young boy living in what is now industrial and residential but then was maple trees and farms, we had gallons of the stuff from our neighbours. Those were the days! It was fun to see the sap boiling outdoors in big cast iron cauldrons over an open fire that would be kept going 24 hours a day.

My potato wine has the appearance right now of a medium maple syrup. Not very appetizing as far as wines go. But it will clear eventually. I racked it into a 3 gallon carboy yesterday – it had been 7 days since I started it, and the specific gravity was 1.020.

The “Mystery” wine is showing much better fermentation signs now, although I did forget to take an SG reading. I’ll have to do that later today, and crossing fingers that it will be showing a considerably greater fermentation rate that previously.

Ah, the adventures of home winemaking!

I’ve been monitoring closely my “Mystery” wine that I suspect the the majority of the berries were dark gooseberries, but possibly something else mixed in. It was started on March 11: Ten days ago. At the time, it had a starting Specific Gravity of 1.104. I used Lalvin EC-1118 yeast.

Several days later, I started the Potato Wine. Again, I used Lalvin EC-1118 yeast. It had a starting SG of 1.128. Yet within six days, it was down to 1.026.

After ten days, the “Mystery Wine” SG is 1.042. The fermentation seems sluggish to me. I think it should have been down to this SG several days ago, at least. So I added a 1/2 teaspoon of yeast nutrient, dissolved in about an 1/8 cup of water, to the five gallons of fermenting wine. About four hours later, there is obvious improved activity going on with significant more Carbon Dioxide being created. Was it the yeast nutrient?

There is always debate about whether wines should be fined and/or filtered before bottling. It can be confusing to those who enjoy the hobby of home winemaking to know what to do. There is even disagreement among professional winemakers and wine tasters. Most would probably agree that fining and filtering have much to do with the appearance of wine, but what about taste and aroma?

There are some who claim that using Bentonite and other fining agents, and then filtering a wine strips away some of the flavors and aromas, while others say any such reduction is imperceptible to most.

In Forbes Magazine, there was an interesting discussion about this along with a list of ten commercially available unfiltered/unfined wines that wine enthusiasts can try for themselves. Article is here.

Same yeast, same ambient air temperature, different sugar and different base.

March 11th, I started the “Mystery” Berry Wine. At that time, it had a starting specific gravity of 1.104

On March 13th, it was 1.092
Today, March 19th, 1.054. This is after 8 days.

March 15th, started the Potato Wine (using Demerara Sugar). Starting SG of 1.128
Today, March 19th, SG is 1.050. This is 4 days of fermentation.

In both, I used EC-1118 yeast.

I didn’t realize until recently that there is a very small wine making industry in Nova Scotia, Canada. Canadians who drink and appreciate wine are likely familiar with Pelee Island and the Niagara escarpment areas of Ontario as well as the wine regions of British Columbia. But I’ve never seen a bottle of wine from Nova Scotia at our LCBO. Because of the climate and short growing season, there can be challenges for Nova Scotian wine makers.

According to the Globe & Mail, one winery is learning from a technique developed in Italy that is used to make Amarone: Drying the grapes after they have been harvested to reduce the moisture and increase the sugar percentage. And apparently it’s working out for them.

“Mr. Ewert’s new effort, called Alchemy, has already garnered a gold medal at the All Canadian Wine Championships and is drawing parallels with, of all things, the rich reds of sunny South Australia.”
~ Globe & Mail