maryannette
Wise One
I want to get into making wine. I recently had homemade blueberry wine and I really liked it.
Homemade Wine
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wilheldp_PE
PE, LEED AP, SPAM KING
It's a lot like making beer. You can usually get winemaking grape juices from homebrew stores, then you pitch in some yeast and wait. Bam...you've got wine.
RIP - VTEnviro
His Memory Eternal
My dad did it for a few years, but it never turned out very well.
SSmith
Well-known member
Along the same lines, I've always wanted to make a still too. I don't really drink that often, but I really like the idea of drinking something I make instead of something I buy...
cableguy
Has never sniffed a stink bug
We made wine in college using Welch's. It was fermented in the closet, and we referred to it as "the kids". By the time we were done, it only took about 2 glasses of The Kids to rock you out of your socks.
wilheldp_PE
PE, LEED AP, SPAM KING
Some of my buddies in college made absinthe. Rumor has it that it was too sour to drink...even with a sugar cube.
Capt Worley PE
Run silent, run deep
My Dad made wine for a few years. It was an awful lot of work for what he got out of it. the last time he did it, Mom sampled a bit of it, and messed up the water in the airlock. The wine turned to vinegar. That was the end of the wine making.
It was really tart.
It was really tart.
The patriach of some family friends is "from the old country" (Italy) and he fits the stereotype of having the garden with the grapevine trellis overhead and makes his own red wine. They gave me a bottle one year because I was always curious to try it. Man, I thought it was pretty nasty. I gave some to my FIL (also Italian, his parents came from the old country) and based on his experience, it was pretty good for home-made wine. I'd hate to taste a "bad" one.
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Flyer_PE
Jr. PE / Sr. Company Pilot
A friend of mine from Eastern Europe (Serbia) used to make his own. He also did a few batches of plum brandy. They were actually pretty good. Two glasses of the wine were enough to get you pretty well 'faced. A friend of mine referred to the brandy as "Rocket Fuel". I never tried to light the stuff but it definitely had a kick to it.
wilheldp_PE
PE, LEED AP, SPAM KING
I forgot to mention, if you plan on crushing your own grapes or other fruits, you will need a press. Even the cheap presses are expensive as hell ($300+). You also have to know what your doing in regards to varieties of grapes/fruit to use, how much sugar to add depending on the variety you use, etc. Just like homebrewing beer, I suggest starting out with a kit or concentrate made especially for wine making.
One of my co-workers at a previous job made his own wine. His mother-in-law is from Italy, and she owns one of the local wine-making/homebrew beer stores in the area. He gave away bottles of his homemade Green Apple Riesling one year for Christmas. I thought it was excellent, but I'm a fan of light, sweet wines.
One of my co-workers at a previous job made his own wine. His mother-in-law is from Italy, and she owns one of the local wine-making/homebrew beer stores in the area. He gave away bottles of his homemade Green Apple Riesling one year for Christmas. I thought it was excellent, but I'm a fan of light, sweet wines.
Wolverine
Uncanny Pompadour
I've made wine at home, but it was only after I had gotten comfortable brewing and had most of the equipment.
It's not an expensive setup, but like many hobbies, there is a start up cost.
The two main things you need are a fermenting bucket and a glass carboy (a giant bottle). The ancillary equipment you need is extensive, like brushes and cleaning solutions, piping & tubing for siphoning, etc, etc, but you can get by with a little or a lot, depending on how you do it.
I bought the prepacked region-specific grape juice at the brew store about a mile from my house and I was able to borrow their filter and corker, which made things much smoother & better. The actual winemaking wasn't much harder than baking a cake - mix this, add that, let it ferment, siphon, ferment some more, add this, bottle, and then wait three months to drink. I made a few batches and they came out pretty good, if a little sweet, but they were fully consumed before having much time to age. With home wines, you don't age much more than a year, but I found a bottle at my sister's house that I gave to her the year before and it was not bad at all when we tapped it after 12+ months.
I recommend both brewing and vintning as a hobby, but it really helps to have a local brewshop to guide you and rent/borrow the extra stuff you need. With a cost of about $2-$3 a bottle though, it's just as good to buy the 3-buck-Chuck at Trader Joes.
It's not an expensive setup, but like many hobbies, there is a start up cost.
The two main things you need are a fermenting bucket and a glass carboy (a giant bottle). The ancillary equipment you need is extensive, like brushes and cleaning solutions, piping & tubing for siphoning, etc, etc, but you can get by with a little or a lot, depending on how you do it.
I bought the prepacked region-specific grape juice at the brew store about a mile from my house and I was able to borrow their filter and corker, which made things much smoother & better. The actual winemaking wasn't much harder than baking a cake - mix this, add that, let it ferment, siphon, ferment some more, add this, bottle, and then wait three months to drink. I made a few batches and they came out pretty good, if a little sweet, but they were fully consumed before having much time to age. With home wines, you don't age much more than a year, but I found a bottle at my sister's house that I gave to her the year before and it was not bad at all when we tapped it after 12+ months.
I recommend both brewing and vintning as a hobby, but it really helps to have a local brewshop to guide you and rent/borrow the extra stuff you need. With a cost of about $2-$3 a bottle though, it's just as good to buy the 3-buck-Chuck at Trader Joes.
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wilheldp_PE
PE, LEED AP, SPAM KING
The most important thing with brewing both wine and beer at home is cleanliness. When you are using yeast to ferment sugars from grapes or grains, bad shit can happen. If you get rogue yeast or bacteria from the air or contaminated buckets/spoons/etc., your entire batch of homebrew will be ruined. You have to sanitize everything that will touch the wine/beer before and during fermentation either by boiling it for 5 minutes or by using a sanitizing solution.
maryannette
Wise One
Good advice from y'all. Thanks. I'm still looking into it.
I thought along the same lines - "Was this thread started to see if people are applying for engineer licenses after serving time?"
FusionWhite
Epee ~)----- Fencer
Pruno is the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. Life is hard when your in the pen. You gotta get your drank on any way you can. Anyone know the exchange rate of pruno to cigarettes these days?
