At any rate, I need some advice about making wine. I’ve brewed beer for awhile, and mead for a few batches now. But, wine is the next adventure. How much will methodology differ between wine-making compared to mead-making? For example, I know honey is deficient in nutrients yeast need therefore the need for Fermaid O (TOSNA) and hefty yeast starters. Do you use the same nutrients in the same staggered procedure in the same amounts?
If there is a good, modern step-by-guide you could reference me to or even some books that aren’t too dated, I would greatly appreciate it.
Not much different at all. I find wine easier than beer as the pH and alcohol make it a little more resilient against infection.
Only book that I still refer to is http://www.techniquesinhomewinemaking.com/
The more basic books just take up space. Those were fine for basic understanding but useless when running into issues.
Well basically grapes are the ideal raw material for making alcoholic beverages, since it’s possible to make natural wines, i.e. you just crush the grapes without adding anything and letting the nature run its course.
Of course one can always add sulfites, yeast nutrients and whatnot, but when it comes to wine, it really isn’t strictly necessary.
That’s exciting Gabriel, making your first wine. My experience with wine-making is rather specific because of the business I’m in, but I might be able to offer some insight.
Do you plan to start with actual grapes, or source the juice itself? With grapes you’ll need to think about pressing into juice, either with your own equipment or potentially utilizing a local winery/cidery press. For your first time, it may be easier to buy some juice directly from a winery and skip the step – since you’ll learn a lot in your first couple fermentation processes.
After you have the juice, the actual fermentation process is fairly similar to mead, and I agree with Brian that it’s also a bit easier.
There should be plenty of guides online and certain recipes may vary in process slightly. The basic process I use to make most small batches would be:
- In a bucket/barrel/vessel, lined with a large food-grade bag, mix together the juice with Bentonite, yeast, any nutrients, grape skins or additives. I use an elastic to close the bag at the top instead of an airlock at this point, since it releases a lot of gas.
- After it reaches the specific gravity you want, (usually 1-2 weeks) rack from the bucket into a secondary vessel. I use a large carboy and 3-piece airlock at this stage.
- This is when I typically degass the wine – a drill attachment works great for small batch carboys.
- Then add sorbate to stop further fermentation and any sulphite needed. I also use clearing agents at this point.
- After the wine has finished and cleared (usually around 3-4 weeks), you can filter the wine if you have the equipment (or just rack back and forth between carboys and leave the bottom few inches when bottling if lacking a filter machine).
- Then you can bottle, or transfer to a different aging vessel.
If you intend to age your bottles for an extended period, you’ll want to take extra care to prevent unwanted air/gasses in the bottling/aging stage (some utilize a nitrogen based bottling system for this).
Regarding yeasts, different wines will benefit from different yeasts, but for most wines a Lavlin 1118 will do the job, it’s a great general workhorse yeast. Clearing agents I use Keiselsol and Chitosan. You could order it all online or maybe pickup at a local winemaking shop. Also try and keep a controlled temperature while fermenting (usually between 22-24 C).
If there’s anything I can help with further feel free to msg me. I’m a relative newbie myself but have made a few thousand litres of wines using this process over the past two years.
Cheers!