Posts Tagged ‘Wine Kits’

I know of a few fly anglers that also make their own wine. Jack Keller is one, and so is Ernie Kalwa, the Captain of the Fly Fishing team (The Osprey’s) that I used to be a member of. Not sure which one of us ties the better flies, but I know it’s not me! Although I do enjoy doing that. Today and yesterday, I had two good days to combine my two hobbies. And one advantage a home winemaker has if they’ve brought a fish back to eat for dinner is that wine selection is not difficult. Whatever is there! For me, the bottle of Liebfraumilch was a good pairing with the baked trout and rice I made. And on top of that, the fly that I caught the trout on yesterday was made with hair from my Maltese dog named Rudy. You can read about the afternoon fly fishing here.

Winemaking activities included racking and degassing. The maple wine I started on May 5 is expelling lots of co2 gas still, even though the fermentation is complete. The specific gravity was at 0.996 yesterday when I racked it – it’s cleared nicely on it’s own since the last racking on May 28th. It has a very interesting taste – I just had very teeny sip of it, and could taste maple candy – but without the sweetness. I’m looking forward to seeing how this will age a few more months.

I started three wine kits two weeks ago – a Chamblaise and two Vieux De Roi. All are four week kits – I generally use 8 week kits for red wines but I wanted some Vieux De Roi and it was only available at the time in the more economical priced version. I noted that these two kits in the instructions called for 14 days in the primary fermenter. Anyhow, these three kit wines were racked and degassing is on going in all of them before I add the fining agents.

Then there is that potato wine! I’ve had a few interesting questions and comments about that. Like, “what does it taste like?” Yesterday, I racked and checked the specific gravity which was 1.002. It does taste a bit sweet – I’ll have to check my records on that one, but otherwise it is pleasant. I am reluctant to describe its taste just yet as it was only a very small amount and not quite what I expected or can really identify. The demerara sugar certainly has left it’s mark though.

The other day, I was snooping around some “stuff” I had and discovered two more wine kits I had forgotten about! They were purchased about September of 2007, just before I headed off to Grande Prairie, Alberta for the Canadian Fly Fishing Championships. I guess I had meant to start them upon my return, but totally forgot I had them. Both are Cru Select RQ’s: a Montepulciano Cab Merlot, the other Unoaked Chardonnay. I’m hoping and believing the juice will be fine but I will use fresh yeast when I start them, probably in about two weeks from now.

So there’s another connection between fly fishing and winemaking. One can get in the way of the other at times! Actually, it wasn’t the fly fishing that distracted me from these two kits back in 2007…

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.

I’m sometimes asked when I tell others that I make my own wine, “Ian, how can I make wine?” As someone else once wrote (I think it was Jack Keller, but I’m not certain right now) my response is “You don’t make wine. Yeast make wine.” Sometimes I find it amazing that these single celled organisms are responsible for the turning juice into a beverage that many of us enjoy for it’s flavors, aromas, and of course, gently intoxicating effects.

So, how to make wine? Well, considering it’s the yeast that consume sugar, turning it into alcohol and carbon dioxide, we get to control so much of the process however, including the type of yeast we are going to use. There are many varieties of yeast available to make wine today, and are selected for a variety of characteristics they have. Some have higher tolerance to alcohol and temperature changes, while others are more suitable for wines that are meant to finish sweet or semi-sweet.

Of course, in wine making, there is also the choice of the main ingredient. Will it be juice from grapes or other fruits? How about mead made from honey? Even vegetables can be used to make wine. Until someone has tried it, they may think that making a parsnip wine would be rather awful tasting, but in fact parsnip wine after some aging is quite nice.

When wine is being made, what we try to do is control the conditions as much as possible that the wine is being made in by the yeast we’ve selected. During and after the fermentation (and sometimes before fermentation starts), adjustments will be made to try to get the right acidity, sweetness or dryness, clarity, and the all important flavours and aromas.

If you are using a wine kit, you won’t have to worry about those adjustments – the concentrated juice you will receive has already been balanced and had the necessary ingredients added to complete a fermentation that will turn out similar to a wine purchased retail made of the same grape variety(s). And for the beginner, this is probably the easiest way to begin learning about how to make wine.

First, I’ve had suspicions for some time that winemaking kit instructions are a bit off when it comes to degassing wine. Most kit instructions advise, after adding Potassium Metabisulfite (and please please make sure you add the sulfite BEFORE you attempt to degas!!), to stir vigorously a few times for at least a day or two before adding the fining agents. The most recent set of instructions advise that it is vital that the wine be degassed or it will not clear adequately.

Here’s my problem with these instructions: I have yet to be able to stir a wine vigorously for five minutes, three times a day for a couple of days, and have it anywhere near to being fully degassed within those two days. I’ve had a Zinfandel sitting in a carboy for the past week, and today, it continues to give off lots of CO2 when it is vigorously stirred, with lots of tiny CO2 bubbles rising. I am not introducing that much air to it while I’m stirring because most of the action is way down below the surface of the wine.

Here’s another reason why in my opinion, even a kit wine will profit from bulk aging before it is bottled. Much of the CO2 will have time to dissipate on its own. Whenever I let a batch of wine, kit or not, bulk age, (which is most of the time), I have little CO2 problems. However, I have seen others who follow the instructions of a kit wine to the day, and their wine can have excess foam when poured. I once had a bottle with a man who was very proud of his wine he had just made and wanted to share a bottle with me. He poured his into his glass, gave it a swirl, and the foam on top was nothing like I’d ever seen before. To say that he had made the wine is a bit misleading – he sprinkled the yeast on it in a “ferment on the premises” shop. Obviously the shop staff did not do much degassing, if any.

One does have to be careful not to overdo it when degassing too. That’s one of the reasons I’m not so keen right now on the Fizz-X tool. That thing can create a whirlpool with a deep vortex at the centre. That’s a lot of surface area that’s coming into contact with air. And I’ve found that even using that tool does not seem to really degas wines all that great. Unless I’m mistaking all those tiny bubbles rising from various depths of the wine and all that foam on top for something else – but beats me what it could be.

No, I think time is the best degasser. Not that some degasing isn’t a good thing to help the process along. But that’s just my opinion and I’m certainly open and welcome other thoughts on this as well.

Another observation after racking the Grenache that I started about two weeks ago to the secondary carboy: I really dislike the original 5 Gallon (6 US Gallon) carboys I purchased. They seem to have more capacity than 5 Imperial gallons, which leaves too much ullage for my liking. Quite a bit too much. I much prefer the “Mexican” 5 gallon carboys.

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.