Lum's down and dirty wine making thread.

originally posted by: one4all
a reply to: Lumenari

Thank you , now I will avoid the one race no one enjoys.....lol..cane sugar it is.

Could you use Birch sap or Maple sap to make a wine with?

I actually have made a birch sap wine that worked out well, so yes.

I have also used maple sap as a sugar but the taste isn't good in making maple leaf wine.

You would think it had some synergy, but it doesn't

It ended up bitter the few ways I've tried it.

The one sugar you have to prepare for and take your time at is using honey as a sugar.

That falls into the mead category and if you are not careful with it, you will either end up with a sparkling wine or a wine bomb.

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: visitedbythem

Thank you!

I didn't get into beer making here which is another passion of mine.

I'm told I do a rather amazing 7 point white wheat lager.

The next thread maybe!

Not a wine bloke - prefer beer. Here's the thing, I do collect one-off and limited edition alcohol for my bar & since international deliveries are all the rage atm, can you give me a price to send to Brisbane, a carton of that beer (assuming 12 x 700ml or 24 x 375ml) and 2 bottles of your wine?

If its around the US$200, I'll flick you the coin into whatever account details you PM me.

Then I'll do a review in this thread and give you my take on this mysterious grog you produce.

Cheers, let me know.

a reply to: Lumenari

Awesome thread, S&F! I’ve been wanting to make wine for some time now. I certainly have a lot of time at home to do this and start a new hobby. I’m a wino anyway, so yeah, I think this could be a lot of fun.

a reply to: Sublimecraft

I don't have a license to sell alcohol, so what I am doing with my wine is technically illegal here in the US.

Although my local sheriff is one of my customers, so I haven't worried too much about it.

I never thought about selling my beer... it's a family recipe.

So my next batch of beer I could send you on the house, as it were.

Just to have my babies on another continent.



ETA.. you could ask other members of ATS if I've ever sent them something.

You may be surprised at the response.

originally posted by: ChiefD
a reply to: Lumenari

Awesome thread, S&F! I’ve been wanting to make wine for some time now. I certainly have a lot of time at home to do this and start a new hobby. I’m a wino anyway, so yeah, I think this could be a lot of fun.

I use it to barter with for the most part...

But it is very nice if I'm in the mood to have a drinkie-poo or two to wander down to the wine cellar and pick a poison.

Need any tips for a starter recipe with something please ask.

I don't know everything but I do know a thing or two.

a reply to: Lumenari

I would think a citrus fruit based wine may be a little complex for a basic wine making thread, so kudos for the lemon pear shoutout.

Hard ciders and Peary would fall under the same general precepts as simple wines. Mighty tasty as well.

That said, have you taken a basic fruit wine and then went for a sangria by soaking fruit blends before bottling as a back sugaring after fermentation or married other spices for a mulled wine or bitters for a different experience? Or partook in other enhancements such as freeze distillation? (Which is also not exactly legal unless you replace with water...)

a reply to: Lumenari

OK, just send it all to me for free then.

By the way, I keep forgetting - I actually owe your neighbours $200 from that time I got stuck and they lent it to me out of the kindness of their hearts, if you could get me their bank details, I'll transfer it over.

cheers

originally posted by: Sublimecraft
a reply to: Lumenari

OK, just send it all to me for free then.

By the way, I keep forgetting - I actually owe your neighbours $200 from that time I got stuck and they lent it to me out of the kindness of their hearts, if you could get me their bank details, I'll transfer it over.

cheers

Something will happen...

I'll get a batch going.

The wine bottles at the bottom of the box we will just consider ballast.

originally posted by: Ahabstar
a reply to: Lumenari

I would think a citrus fruit based wine may be a little complex for a basic wine making thread, so kudos for the lemon pear shoutout.

Hard ciders and Peary would fall under the same general precepts as simple wines. Mighty tasty as well.

That said, have you taken a basic fruit wine and then went for a sangria by soaking fruit blends before bottling as a back sugaring after fermentation or married other spices for a mulled wine or bitters for a different experience? Or partook in other enhancements such as freeze distillation? (Which is also not exactly legal unless you replace with water...)

I was going for a basic thread on berry wines...



I do ciders as well but they are another topic entirely, as you well know.

Sangrias are a cheat but a fun one...

I've done ports....

And why do freeze distillation if you can just distill or enhance with the distilled portion of some of it?

a reply to: Lumenari

That was a read between the lines as, unlike Australia (or is it New Zealand, might be NZ more I think of it) distillation without a license in the US is a no-no, even freezing methods which require no complex equipment setups. Honestly making Jell-O shots are harder, but it sure sounds exotic. ABV might get as high as 40%, although in theory you can go higher, just taste becomes an issue as does pectin made methanol in higher concentrations due to less dilution, which is very bad.

Fortunately the cure for countering methanol is more ethanol. But pectin is more about dealing with apples and pears to lesser degree. Hard cider rarely would be a problem as there is more water and under fermented cider to the drink still.

a reply to: Lumenari

Oh boy, this is the best thread I have starred and flagged in 2020 so far! I'm going to try some of this 😋 thanks! I'll stop back in to let everyone know how it goes.

originally posted by: Lumenari

originally posted by: Trueman
a reply to: Lumenari

Those instructions are very easy to follow. Good job👍

It wasn't too far back in our history that every house made their own wine, beer or cider.

Just like they made their own bread.

That's true. I lived in a town in South America with very strong Italian roots.

People there make their own wine, not less than 60 gallons a year, just for family consumption. They're always short.

a reply to: Lumenari

Excellent thread, S&F!

...There is no quick way unless you just want to make white grape juice hooch.

This comment reminds me of an old mate who spent a stint in prison.

He told me about how they save pure orange juice and sugar, and had someone (or people?) working in the kitchens to supply bakers yeast.

They'd mix it up in jars and leave them under heaters, taking it in turns to keep an eye on them and periodically release the gases (Co2?)

It's sounded like a far cry from the neat rows of bubbling demijohns sat on heat mats in my Old Mans kitchen all of those years back.

I've been toying with the idea for some time already, moreso in recent months - I might have to take the plunge - alcohol and science?

I'm keen,

a reply to: Lumenari

I will definitely get around to wine making someday, excellent thread and thanks for sharing

a reply to: Lumenari

WOW Lumenari, i would really like to taste some of your wines. Really, just taste a little bit. If i want to get drunk my choice is beer. Seems to me that you know what you are doing here.

Look, we have a thing here called "Kilju" and it brings bad memories to most Finnish people. It is just water, yeast, and sugar. Horrible asphalt gray colored stuff that the big boys sold to us teenagers back in the day when we were searching our boundaries. My input here is basically Kilju and not wine, but tastes a whole lot better than most crouch wines here. The cheapest wines from the liquor store here is always on the bottom shelf, therefore, "crouch wine".

Lapland is the most northern part of Finland. And this is "Lapland man's magic potion"

What you need: 10 liters of 100% pure orange juice. Not those over sugared juice drinks, just 100% pure orange juice. And 5 kilograms of sugar. And 10 liters of water. Forget the yeast completely. (Of course you need all those containers and airlocks but you already covered all that in your OP).

The orange juice has to be frozen completely and in full. I don't know the actual chemistry behind this but somehow during the freezing process, the natural yeasts in the orange juice will activate itself. It is easy to put like 10 x 1 liter orange juice into the freezer. But what is totally an unpleasant thing to do, is to remove the covers from the frozen juice with a knife, scissors or something like that... Then just put them all into the container. Water, sugar, and frozen orange juice chunks. Let it rest for about 2 weeks, until no bubbles come from the airlock. Then bottle the stuff and chill it in the fridge. Then just enjoy your Lapland man's magic potion.

I really understand if you frown upon this recipe. I really do. And to be fair, it was somewhat off-topic. Just wanted to share this for some reason.

As you may know, I've dabbled a bit in wine (more like hooch by your standards, I'm sure), fruit wines mostly.

Everything was going great until...I did some research. And, as the old saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. I immediately found out I was a shameful, horrible, unwashed Neanderthal of a person who should be cast from society as quickly as possible. I was branded a diabolical witch doctor bent on destroying the 'finer' side of the 'upper-crust' types with my voo-doo, an alchemist of the highest order.

So my question to you is simple...do you use Campden?

ETA - And, what other additives, chemicals, magical blessings, rituals and hexes do you use to keep you in the good graces of the 'upper crust' 'elites' of the very snobbish "vintners" of the 1%?

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
As you may know, I've dabbled a bit in wine (more like hooch by your standards, I'm sure), fruit wines mostly.

Everything was going great until...I did some research. And, as the old saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. I immediately found out I was a shameful, horrible, unwashed Neanderthal of a person who should be cast from society as quickly as possible. I was branded a diabolical witch doctor bent on destroying the 'finer' side of the 'upper-crust' types with my voo-doo, an alchemist of the highest order.

So my question to you is simple...do you use Campden?

ETA - And, what other additives, chemicals, magical blessings, rituals and hexes do you use to keep you in the good graces of the 'upper crust' 'elites' of the very snobbish "vintners" of the 1%?

You made the tragic mistake of going to a "wine" forum online?

Yea... I found out rather quickly that I am an unwashed heathen and anything I could possibly make in my own home simply cannot be good and is rated a little lower than horse piss to the elites of the interwebz.

I've run into that in real life as well with people who just assume that you cannot make anything in a wine that tastes good unless it is from a grape.

To your question, I have a bag of Campden tablets that my Dad gave me that are probably from the 1980's.

I've never used them, for three reasons....

1./ Most everything I make has just been boiled, so I'm not worried about wild bacteria or yeast.

2./ What if, in the case of elderberries especially, the wild yeast actually makes the wine better tasting?

3./ I'm not worried about eliminating free chlorine or chloramine from my water. Mine is coming out of a mountain behind my home, has a natural PH of around 7 and tastes good.

My secret ingredient for the wine snobs that they never seem to be able to figure out (thank god) is the use of a baker's yeast in some wines (it gives it a slightly nutty back flavor that wine yeasts don't) and the use of wood chips the final month or so of fermentation. A good go-to for me on any wine that has a bold enough taste to stand on its own is French Oak chips, normally a light roast.

That and just learning your ingredients and understanding what they can do.

The same strawberry wine that has a wonderful strawberry flavor and is light and airy at 10% ABV tastes like an antiseptic at 17% ABV... don't let your alcohol level wipe out the taste of the wine.

And for the record, what I consider "hooch" is juice wines... where you pour some Welch's white grape frozen concentrate into a bottle, add sugar and yeast and wait a week.

Which I 'might' have done a time or two.

a reply to: Finspiracy

I really understand if you frown upon this recipe. I really do. And to be fair, it was somewhat off-topic. Just wanted to share this for some reason.

I never frown upon a recipe until I've tried it.

I haven't with yours because normally any wine I make is from something I've picked or grown and where I live, oranges are never going to happen.

However, I'm going to have to try it once just to see how it works.

Thank you so much for posting something new to me!

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

There was a time when I was in the military and stationed in a place where alcohol was forbidden, we would make "pruno."

MAKE YOUR OWN PRUNO AND MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOUL.

Linky

This was about the same recipe.

From the article...

The only drawback pruno has, aside from its unappealing tannish-orange color, the white flecks of mold floating on the top and the smell you can't wash off, is its taste. For lack of a better metaphor, pruno tastes like a bile flavored wine cooler. It tastes so bad, in fact, that it could very well be poisonous or psychedelic, which might explain the violence it induces in prisoners.

Good times.