Archive for May, 2009

About a year ago, I had a friend who “makes” wine at a local store (in other words, my friend pitches the yeast and then helps with the bottling – all the work is done by the store) give me a bottle of a Gewurtztraminer that he had “made.” The bottle was 375 ml in size. I know some folk who will bottle some of their wine in these small size bottles, and I do the same at times. However, a comment on Jack Keller’s blog got me to thinking a bit more about when and why I choose 375 ml over 750 ml, and when I might even select magnum size bottles.

Jack’s comment:

“A preface. I do not put all of my mead in 375 mL bottles, even though I know many do. I only fill two 375 mL bottles with each mead, and these are for tasting to see if the mead has aged enough to drink. I enter full, 750 mL bottles in competition unless 375 mL bottles are actually required, which they rarely are. You do as you desire.”
~ Jack Keller (Scroll down to the May 22nd, 2009 entry)

Personally, I’d never give anything less than a 750 ml bottle of wine as a gift if I’ve made wine from a kit that makes 23 litres of wine. It just seems “chintzy” to me. However, there are times when I do consider a 375 ml bottle for both gift purposes and my own use. I have my own arbitrary thoughts about it and as Jack says, “You do as you desire.”

First, I seldom bottle into 375 ml or magnum size bottles. Most of my wines and meads go into 750 ml. But then, most of my wines are 23 litre (5 Imperial gallons). I like the standard 750 size, and corking them is easy. Corking the 375 ml bottles with my Portuguese floor corker is a bit awkward – I need to put a block of wood over the bottle stand in order to give them enough height to be corked. And that means I also need to hold them steady. As well, obviously there are more bottles to be filled when using 375 ml.

When I do bottle into 375 ml size bottles, it’s when I’ve made 3 or less gallons of a particular wine or mead, or when I’ve made something exceptional and I’d like to be able to give away as many as possible to friends and clients while still keeping a good amount for myself. For example, a few years ago I made a 5 gallon batch of blackcurrant wine that turned out to be like heaven. That went into 350 ml bottles – and many were given away. The recent Kiwi Melomel that I made was 3 gallons, and it too turned out exceptional, so I have all of it in the smaller size bottles.

As far as magnum size bottles, the only time I can think of that I’d consider bottling into those would be if I was making wine for some special event where there was a corkage fee for bringing my own wine instead of purchasing the wine provided by the venue. If I were trying to save costs, then reducing the number of bottles that needed to be opened might be a time I’d think of magnums.

But then, that’s just another advantage of home winemaking. You can choose whatever size of bottles you’d like to use for whatever your purposes or reasons are. One caution though: smaller quantities might be more susceptible to temperature changes when aging your wine. Just as wine in a 5 gallon carboy won’t be as susceptible to temperature variations while aging as much as wine in a 750 ml bottle will be, wines in 375 ml bottles will be more susceptible than that in 750 ml bottles.

I am awaiting a very important phone call at this late hour (3:30AM) from the most special woman – to let me know she arrived at her house safely. Due to some circumstances beyond our control at this time, she lives a four hour plane ride and then about a two hour drive away. Tonight, I dropped her off at the airport in Toronto after we spent a wonderful five days together. Some of that time was enjoying some of the homemade wine and mead I’ve made. But one of the highlights of our weekend was being able to take in Leonard Cohen together in London, Ontario on Sunday night.

Mr. Cohen is such a fine old gentleman that we decided to dress for the occasion, and it was very nice to get compliments from the staff at the John Labatt Centre as we walked through the turnstyles and had ushers and usherettes direct us to our floor level seats. And I was able to “whisper sing” in my beautiful lady’s ear, along with Leonard Cohen, “If you want a doctor….. I’m your man.” Of course, in his older age, and his Marlboro cigarette “enhanced” voice, Leonard does it much better than I do, but the sentiment is the same.. if not deeper.. when I sing it.

Anyhow, as I wait for that phone call to know Colleen has arrived home safely, I thought I might as well add a post here. If you enjoy it, very good. If not, perhaps some of the other content here will be of more interest to you. I don’t mind.

I haven’t started another batch of kiwi melomel yet, but am thinking I might do that on the weekend. My beekeeper friend/client might be dropping off quite a load of honey to me on Friday. Thus far, the kiwi melomel has been met with compliments and this time, I’m going to make sure I make ten gallons of it. It will make for a very good gift to friends and clients.

I was also going through some photos and came across one of my six year old son helping me cork some bottles. He’s a great wee man, and perhaps this photo says it all about his constant happiness and love for doing things.

Ok… here’s the photo… and hopefully, the phone will be ringing in minutes!

Ring…! There’s the phone!

Anyone else noticing an increase in articles and websites that infer they can teach you how to make wine quickly?

Folks, settle down here! While it is true that you can pitch some yeast into fruit juice which might have some added sugar and in seven days end up with something that contains alcohol, it’s not going to be very drinkable – unless you’re desperate. Wine takes time. Yes, home winemaking can be fun, it can save money, and you can create wines that you won’t find in many wine stores – but the process to make decent wine requires the same thing the world over: time.

Recently, I came across someone trying to sell a manual and a packet of yeast who was claiming he could teach you to make wine in four days. I hope no one purchased that. A packet of yeast costs about a dollar, and no manual will ever teach you to make wine you’ll be pleased with in four days. It’s impossible. The very bare minimum you’ll need is a month – and you’d be best off to head over to your local winemaking supply shop and pick up an economical winemaking kit that provides instructions, grape juice concentrate and the necessary ingredients to stabilize and clarify the wine in 28 days. Even then, the wine will benefit from at least a month’s worth of aging in the bottle.

I did watch once a video about how some prisoners made wine in jail. Even they agreed it took at least seven days to end up with some plonk that had alcohol in it. But it wasn’t exactly very appetizing. It had something to do with smuggling sugar from the jail cafeteria, a plastic trash bag, fruit juice … a dirty sock, and some mouldy bread. I guess Lalvin EC-1118 yeast is hard to come by behind bars. I can only guess what use the dirty sock had.

If you want to learn how to make wine, be sure to take your time – or rather, let time do the work.

When making wine at home, the usual expression that is used to describe this is “home winemaking.” When making beer, folks will often refer to “home brewing.” In actual fact, “brewing” technically speaking refers to steeping something with heat. Think of “brewing a cup of tea.” Recently, I’ve seen some websites refer to making wine as “wine brewing.”

When folks make beer at home using a simple beer kit containing malt extract and yeast, and no heating is required, it’s not really a “home brew.” The brewing has already been done and all the home beer maker needs to do is add water to the malt extract. When a home beer maker purchases all the necessary ingredients, whether it is a kit form or not, and is required to heat any of the ingredients like the hops and barley, then technically that person is “brewing” beer.

Winemaking is often referred to as “vinting.” Therefore, a home winemaker is a home vintner.

Not that I’m fussy about technical labels, but it does seem weird to me to see making wine referred to as “wine brewing.”

From looking at my referrer logs and some of the questions on other website forums and blogs, there seems to be a good deal of interest in the use of potassium sorbate in home winemaking. Some of the answers I’ve seen to the questions show that there is a lack of understanding about what exactly potassium sorbate does, and when it is required.

For example, one “expert” recently responded to a question about potassium sorbate, suggesting it was necessary to add it to all wine to prevent a malolactic fermentation in the future. At a reasonable rate of addition to keep yeast from reproducing and starting a new yeast fermentation, it is still possible for lactic acid to reproduce and renew a malocatic fermentation. Indeed, winemakers are warned to not add potassium sorbate to wines that have had a malolactic fermentation in case the lactic acid bacteria become active again. Wines that have been sorbated and then undergo malolactic fermentation will end up with a very unpleasant geranium smell.

When I first began learning about how to make wine at home, I had the mistaken impression that potassium sorbate killed yeast. This is what some of the literature says or implies. However, this is simply not true. What it does do is inhibit yeast reproduction.

With this in mind, we can better understand when potassium sorbate is required and when it is not.

However, if you are new to winemaking and are following instructions of a recipe or a wine kit, and it says to add potassium sorbate to your wine, I would recommend that you do so until you have more experience and know for sure that your wine has fully fermented to dryness. Ignore for now the rest of what I’m going to write, and follow the instructions to the letter. I do not want you to have corks exploding out of the bottles due to a renewed fermentation going on after you’ve bottled your wine! Neither do the makers of the wine kits, and they don’t know for sure that you’re going to ensure your wine ferments fully, or that you know how to read a hydrometer, or that other issues might arise during the fermentation process causing the wine to not ferment fully and have just about all of the sugar consumed. That is why they instruct you to add potassium sorbate.

Having said that, what is the argument against using potassium sorbate when it is not needed? Some people claim that it can leave a “bubblegum” taste – sometimes referred to as a “wine kit” taste. I personally have never detected this, and scientific literature suggests that potassium sorbate is taste neutral. Even if it is taste neutral, I’d prefer to add as few additives as possible, so if it’s not necessary or the risk is very low, I don’t add them.

So now that we know what potassium sorbate does, when is it required and when may it be omitted?

First, it is not required when fermentation has been complete, ie. it has fermented fully dry with only a trace or zero amount of residual sugar. As long as there will be no back sweetening, there is nothing in the wine for the yeast to begin consuming to turn into alcohol and carbon dioxide. So even if there are still some viable yeast cells, they can’t do anything as far as starting up a renewed fermentation goes.

You SHOULD add potassium sorbate when:

1. You’re new to home winemaking, and you’re following instructions.
2. You’re wine is off-dry to sweet which means there is more than a trace amount of residual sugar.
3. You’ve fermented your wine dry, but you are going to sweeten it with a sugar based sweetener before bottling. This includes honey as a sweetener as well.
4. If you’re unsure.

You should also consider that potassium sorbate works better with the addition of sulfite.

For advanced winemaking, the higher the alcohol content, the lower the amount of potassium sorbate that is needed to inhibit yeast activity. In other words, if you add the amount of sorbate that comes with your wine kit accidentally before you add the yeast and ferment it, there is still a very good chance the yeast will not be affected much by that amount of sorbate and will probably reproduce and ferment your juice into wine. Of course, it’s best to try not to have accidents in the first place. But I did read recently the account of a winemaker who thought he had ruined his wine kit by accidentally putting sorbate into the juice instead of yeast. The faulty advice given to him was that his kit was ruined – however, it was not ruined and when he added yeast, they did their job fine.

The British Columbia Amateur Winemakers Association has published an article by Bill Collings which states:

“Assuming that proper levels of free SO2 are maintained and the pH’s are within the desired ranges, sorbate additions can be determined by the estimated alcohol of the wine. The following table is based upon the percentage of alcohol in the wine:”

% alcohol sorbate addition
10 0.20 g/l
11 0.17 g/l
12 0.135 g/l
13 0.10 g/l
14 0.07 g/l

Source: Potassium Sorbate

For those making non-kit wines, this is a handy guideline to have when the addition of potassium sorbate is required.

There are a few things about making my own wine I don’t like: Cleaning and sanitizing bottles, trying to figure out where I’m going to store carboys not in use along with wines I’ve just bottled, and being disappointed about something.

Today, I’m disappointed. Very very disappointed. Hey, when you’re a home winemaker, it can happen. You put a lot of time and effort into trying something – wait two or three years, and with much anticipation – you sniff the aromas and put the liquid to your mouth. Will it be as good as you hoped? Was the patience of waiting worth it?

How about this one? “I didn’t make enough!”

Back in 2006, I went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of Kiwi fruit. About nine pounds. Then I followed this recipe. Except, I stopped racking after a year and just let it age in the carboy for another 2 years and 4 months. I bottled it the other day into 375 ml bottles. Last evening, I put a few of those bottles into the fridge to chill. Then I opened one. I smelled. I tasted. I drank. Then another bottle was opened. I tasted. I drank. Then another…

You get the picture.

Heck, even the hangover tastes good. Now, where’s my Milk Thistle?

Oh, I am so disappointed that I only made three gallons. And a few of these bottles are marked already as gifts which leaves me with even less to enjoy over the summer. Kiwi Melomel is something you can enjoy with anything you’d eat that would call for a white wine – but I can also see myself sipping this on a hot day while sitting out in the sun.

I’m off to buy about 40 pounds of kiwi fruit (thankfully, there are three grocery stores in my town. Not sure what they would think of me at Zehr’s buying up ever last Kiwi they have in stock). I’ve got enough honey to do make two five gallon batches. If you enjoy home winemaking, and are thinking about trying some meads – seriously give Kiwi melomel lots of consideration. Tell your friends when you offer it to them that I told you to try it. Your friends will thank me.

We didn’t see fireworks, but we got a lot of “home winemaking” accomplished, the “wee man” and I. Here in Canada, it is the “May 2-4″ long weekend where the Monday before or on the 24th of May is a holiday to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. It’s not really Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday, but rather Queen Victoria’s day of birth. Traditionally, the holiday is celebrated with fireworks in the evening, and in the past, the Town has had a fireworks display about ten minute drive. Tonight, we drove up there but there was nothing. Many were confused about this year’s May 2-4 long weekend because it came so early. Some were thinking that it was next week that the holiday weekend landed on.

Perhaps the Town was confused too. Or maybe the recession cut into celebrating Her Majesty’s birthday this year. Regardless, the “wee man” David and I did not see fireworks this evening.

When I first learned how to make wine, the wee man wasn’t around. But ever since he could walk, he’s been trying to help me. If you check out this post over here, you’ll see photos of him, taken almost 4 years ago. He and I had a little “adventure” together, driving down from Orangeville to Beamsville, Ontario, when I picked up some Baco Noir must from a vineyard. Back then, he called grapes, “wine juice berries.” He was cute and a great little fellow back then. Today, he’s still cute and a great little fellow.

I decided to get the Dry Mead I had started in 2006 bottled today. That meant cleaning and sanitizing bottles, of course. I think David might grow up to be a home winemaking expert – he sure seems to enjoy sharing in all the tasks that need to be done. “Can I help make wine, Dad?” He doesn’t call me “Daddy” anymore. It’s “Dad.” He’s grown up, don’t you know!

I had about 30 bottles soaking to get old labels off, and then I sanitize and clean them using the water pressure thingamajigger that screws onto a faucet. And I have my sulphatizer beside it on the counter. The bottle tree is a few steps away, so David and I have a little routine. I clean and sanitize the bottles, hand two to David, and he puts them on the tree so they will drain and dry.

When the bottles are (mostly) dry, he helps bring them out to the kitchen where we line them up on the floor. While this, and the bottle sanitizing is going on, David is singing about “teamwork.”

It’s his job to count the bottles to make sure we have enough. As I fill the bottles, he colours the labels that get printed off. When the bottles are filled, he washes his hands and inserts the cork into the floor corker – always a step ahead of me – and I cork the bottles. We get things done in no time! Then it’s time to glue on the labels, and we’ve got a “teamwork” routine for that too.

Personally, I find the home winemaking task of cleaning bottles to be the least enjoyable part – but when I’ve got a helpful wee man helping me out, it does become a lot of fun!

Naturally, at 6 1/2 years old, there are other things he’d like to do including kicking soccer balls and learning how to dribble basketballs. So, we did take a little break and spent some time in the sunshine doing that together. And then he left me to my own devices to bottle the Kiwi Melomel that I started January 2, 2006. I had made three gallons and decided to bottle them into 375 ml bottles. It’s delightful! Although I think next time, I might add a bit more acid blend to it.

The only short size corks I had on hand were some synthetic corks distributed by Vineco. I don’t like them. I had three of them bend on me when trying to cork bottles, a few went far to deep into the bottle just because they slide that way, and well.. I don’t like them. But it’s what I had this evening. Ah well!

I have some work to do tomorrow, carrying cartons of mead to the basement. I know David will want to help with that too! I bet in about 20 years, I’ll be getting a phone call, “Dad! Come try this Kiwi Melomel I’ve been aging for three years!”

Yeast selection – some say it makes a difference in the final taste, while others who have years experience of home winemaking claim it does not – at least not noticeable after a few years, to the average home winemaker. John Iverson once wrote:

“Much has been written about the different flavor characteristics that various strains of yeasts impart. Differences undoubtedly exist immediately after fermentation, and they matter greatly to a commercial winery not wanting to tie up its fermentation capacity too long and wanting its wines to be marketable as soon as possible. But the differences are minor from the home winemaker’s viewpoint.”

Well, I have an interesting observation about mead and yeast selection that goes beyond taste. In January of 2007, I started two different batches of mead, using the same recipe. Same amount of honey (the honey came from the same pail too) and same water. The only difference was that in one, I used Lalvin EC-1118 yeast while in the other, I used a vial of “Sweet Mead Yeast” (#WLP720), the liquid yeast from White Labs.

After racking them both several times, they have been bulk aging in the carboy. I was thinking of bottling them today. I haven’t really paid much attention to either one in about 18 months other than ensuring the airlocks are correctly filled with water.

Today, here are the differences:

Color:
The mead fermented with the Lalvin EC-1118 is several shades darker than the one fermented with the liquid sweet mead yeast. I have no idea what would have caused this darker shade. It’s not as noticeable in the glass, but is very noticeable in the carboy. There was some sediment on the bottom of both carboys, and the color of the sediment was considerably different, with the liquid yeast mead a light beige colour. The sediment in the other carboy was a dark brown colour.

Specific Gravity:
As I expected, the sweet mead yeast finished off higher at 1.001 while the mead fermented with Lalvin EC-1118 finished at 0.998. I thought it might even go a bit lower than that.

Flavor:
It’s hard to describe the flavor of either of them at this point – I’ll have to think more about it and see what I think I’m tasting. But, the flavor of the drier mead is definitely more complex with more mouth feel too. The sweeter mead is pleasant – but not as intriguing, if you know what I mean.

Alcohol:
Using my “vinometer,” which is not the most accurate way of determining ABV (how I’d love to own an Ebulliometer!), the dry mead is 14% while the other is 11%. That may be pretty close – the starting SG of both was about 1.110.

Thoughts:

I expected there would be some differences in the taste and aromas, but was not expecting the very noticeable difference in colour. I’m not certain it’s due to the yeast – perhaps someone else might postulate some theory or explanation?

A couple of years ago, I checked out “Twitter” but didn’t see much use for it. I couldn’t figure it out either. So almost as fast as I registered my account, I removed it. But I see that Jack Keller is now twittering and maybe he’ll twitter about his home winemaking activities so I thought I’d try the tweet and twit thing again.

So far, I’m following about 6 other winemakers. If you’re on Twitter and would like to follow along yourself, my username there is ‘ianhughscott’. I’ll probably reciprocate if you decide to follow. At the same time, I’m not sure how much time I’ll spend “twittering” about whatever I’m doing at any given time.

If I do spend some time, I’ll probably tweet or twit or twattle (whatever the lingo is) about other activities including fly fishing, camping, outings with my awesome 6 1/2 year old son who recently lost both of his baby front teeth and trips to Alberta. Hopefully you won’t find it boring if you decide to follow along.

As soon as I’ve posted this, perhaps I’ll tweetle about cleaning bottles – I’m thinking today will be a good day to bottle up some mead. And happy tweeting, twittering, and tattling to you too!

I’ve mused and written about trying to make Maple Wine at home. About a week ago, I mentioned that I had managed to get 1 Imperial gallon of dark maple syrup – the cost was $45.00 Canadian, and made locally here in South Western Ontario. It was fresh! Made just this past spring. But I was wondering what I would do with it to turn it into wine.

I basically followed John Gorman’s recipe – just added water to the gallon of syrup. But I made a mathematical error and added a touch too much water for the beginning specific gravity target that Gorman suggested: 1.120 to 1.130. My beginning specific gravity was lower – and I can’t believe I forgot to record it in my log book. But I did forget. But it was around 1.080, I do believe.

Basically, I poured the maple syrup into a primary fermenter, then added water to bring the level up to the 13 litre mark. I should have stopped at 12 litres. I then pitched EC-1118 yeast after I had rehydrated it along with 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast nutrient. It’s been fermenting in the primary for the past week.

Today, the SG was at 1.016, and I racked it into a 3 gallon carboy. It’s a golden brown colour, and has strong aroma of maple syrup. Of course. I’m looking forward to seeing how this turns out. I’ll be sure to let you know!