Winemaking
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wine4all
SWM 40 seeking truth
UC Davis also has a degree in "Fermentation Arts".
Winemaking 101:
Q: Can wine be made from ANY fruit???
A Technically...NO. True WINE is only made from grapes in the vinifera family. But who cares??? Damn french are way too anal about all this.
Basically winemaking is simple. You take grapes, crush them to get the juice flowing, press them to get it flowwing even more, add yeast and wait.
God + Grape + Time = Wine!!!
Obviously the above is over simplified, but not much. Even if you don't add "wine" yeast, natural yeasts will cause fermentation to start. Unfortunately, you cannot depend on natural yeast to produce a good wine consistiently. Therefore, you not only add a pure "wine" yeast culture but you also add Potassium Metabisulfite to inhibit the growth of wild yeasts prior to the addition of the good stuff.
Yeasts are wonderful little creatures in that they eat sugar (in the juice), fart carbon dioxide and piss alcohol. hehe. Not exactly, but with the same result. The amount of sugar in the juice and the alcohol tolerance of the yeast determines how much alcohol and carbon dioxide is produced in total but the ratio remains constant (I don't remember what it is) so you can determine potential alcohol at the beginning of a new wine by measuring the sugar content of the juice. This is normally done with a hydrometer and measured as specific gravity.
The order of events is different for white and blush wines vs red wines. White and blush wines are crushed, pressed and then fermented to minimize contact with the grape skins. You can in fact make a white wine from a red grape in this way due to the fact that most grape pulp is clear and only gains color by contact time with the skins during fermentation. Red wines are therefore made by crushing, fermenting and then pressing the grapes.
Fermentation actually occurs in two steps, Primary: with much exposure to air, then Secondary with little or no exposure to air. Primary fermentation can last 3 - 10 days depending on a number of variables. Secondary fermentation can last 2 - 4 weeks depending on those same variables.
Once fermentation has ceased due to all the sugar being used up or the alcohol having risen to toxic levels for the particular strain of yeast, you wait. 6 - 18 months later the murky liquid has cleared and now looks like what we know as wine
In the mean time a layer of "mud" composed of dead yeast cells and combined protiens and salts of acid have fallen to the bottom and the wine is occasionally "racked" (siphoned) off to allow further "clearing".
Eventually you siphon the wine into bottles and force a cork into the neck and let the drinking begin!!!
Whew...
Winemaking 101:
Q: Can wine be made from ANY fruit???
A Technically...NO. True WINE is only made from grapes in the vinifera family. But who cares??? Damn french are way too anal about all this.
Basically winemaking is simple. You take grapes, crush them to get the juice flowing, press them to get it flowwing even more, add yeast and wait.
God + Grape + Time = Wine!!!
Obviously the above is over simplified, but not much. Even if you don't add "wine" yeast, natural yeasts will cause fermentation to start. Unfortunately, you cannot depend on natural yeast to produce a good wine consistiently. Therefore, you not only add a pure "wine" yeast culture but you also add Potassium Metabisulfite to inhibit the growth of wild yeasts prior to the addition of the good stuff.
Yeasts are wonderful little creatures in that they eat sugar (in the juice), fart carbon dioxide and piss alcohol. hehe. Not exactly, but with the same result. The amount of sugar in the juice and the alcohol tolerance of the yeast determines how much alcohol and carbon dioxide is produced in total but the ratio remains constant (I don't remember what it is) so you can determine potential alcohol at the beginning of a new wine by measuring the sugar content of the juice. This is normally done with a hydrometer and measured as specific gravity.
The order of events is different for white and blush wines vs red wines. White and blush wines are crushed, pressed and then fermented to minimize contact with the grape skins. You can in fact make a white wine from a red grape in this way due to the fact that most grape pulp is clear and only gains color by contact time with the skins during fermentation. Red wines are therefore made by crushing, fermenting and then pressing the grapes.
Fermentation actually occurs in two steps, Primary: with much exposure to air, then Secondary with little or no exposure to air. Primary fermentation can last 3 - 10 days depending on a number of variables. Secondary fermentation can last 2 - 4 weeks depending on those same variables.
Once fermentation has ceased due to all the sugar being used up or the alcohol having risen to toxic levels for the particular strain of yeast, you wait. 6 - 18 months later the murky liquid has cleared and now looks like what we know as wine
In the mean time a layer of "mud" composed of dead yeast cells and combined protiens and salts of acid have fallen to the bottom and the wine is occasionally "racked" (siphoned) off to allow further "clearing".
Eventually you siphon the wine into bottles and force a cork into the neck and let the drinking begin!!!
Whew...
K
krusty
Guest
lol.. now I've heard everything... winemakers geek speak. 
Ok, I have a question. Now we've all seen the I Love Lucy episode where Lucy and Ethel are stomping the crap outta grapes in the giant vat. I'm thinking this method might be a tad impractical for the home. How is the smooshing accomplished? So anyway, after the grape smooshing is finished, do you strain the liquid through cheesecloth or something similar or do you leave the pulp in there to frement too, then strain that off later?
Ok, two questions. Roughly how many pounds of grapes would you need to make one bottle of wine?
[ June 12, 2001: Message edited by Q ]
Ok, two questions. Roughly how many pounds of grapes would you need to make one bottle of wine?
[ June 12, 2001: Message edited by Q ]
wine4all
SWM 40 seeking truth
First empty the water from your waterbed...
Put all the grapes where the water was...
Then until your legs fall off! heheh
Or the more traditional approach...
If have access to a crusher/destemmer turn that puppy on and start dumping the grapes in. Otherwise you could actually fill up the hard plastic kiddie pool put on some Godsmack and dance, but then you have to remove the stems by hand. A more romantic view of this can be found in the movie "Walk in the Clouds".
Once the grapes are crushed a winepress must be used to squeeze all the juice out. Small versions of these are "screw" (there we go again!
) type. The larger scale ones use a bladder inside a cage to apply pressure to the crushed grapes.
The skins are discarded or saved to make a "second run" wine and only the juice and very few solids go into fermentation (again if it is a white wine).
If it is a red wine the crushed grapes, skins and all are put into the primary fermenter and pressed later.
Put all the grapes where the water was...
Then
until your legs fall off! hehehOr the more traditional approach...
If have access to a crusher/destemmer turn that puppy on and start dumping the grapes in. Otherwise you could actually fill up the hard plastic kiddie pool put on some Godsmack and dance, but then you have to remove the stems by hand. A more romantic view of this can be found in the movie "Walk in the Clouds".
Once the grapes are crushed a winepress must be used to squeeze all the juice out. Small versions of these are "screw" (there we go again!
) type. The larger scale ones use a bladder inside a cage to apply pressure to the crushed grapes.The skins are discarded or saved to make a "second run" wine and only the juice and very few solids go into fermentation (again if it is a white wine).
If it is a red wine the crushed grapes, skins and all are put into the primary fermenter and pressed later.
We used to make about three barrels of zin and/or cab every year. We have several friends that own or work at vineyards/wineries, often they would let us go back through the vines a week or two after harvest and "glean" enough for our batches for free 
.
We traded work (concrete/carpentry, plumbing etc.) for a small stemmer/crusher and a basket press one of our winemaker friends had outgrown, worked pretty well.
I moved away two years ago
but I do get by for a glass or three once in a while
One of our best years, we found a blue bellied lizard floating on top of the cap right before pressing (quite dead, but I bet he died happy ) The berries were from the smoot vineyard, so of course it was instantly dubed "Smoot's blue-belly zin" good stuff, all gone now... <sigh>
.We traded work (concrete/carpentry, plumbing etc.) for a small stemmer/crusher and a basket press one of our winemaker friends had outgrown, worked pretty well.
I moved away two years ago
but I do get by for a glass or three once in a while One of our best years, we found a blue bellied lizard floating on top of the cap right before pressing (quite dead, but I bet he died happy
) The berries were from the smoot vineyard, so of course it was instantly dubed "Smoot's blue-belly zin" good stuff, all gone now... <sigh>
wine4all
SWM 40 seeking truth
Very cool winemaking story Maxout, loved the lizard . Do you still dabble? Hell, I live in Indiana and make wine so what's your excuse? 
"Q" I forgot to answer your second question, my bad, you can spank me later (please). It takes approx 16 lbs of vinifera grapes per gallon of wine which also equals 5 bottles, which is where the term "fifth" comes from. Most fruit wines or non-vinifera grapes take less due to the higher acid content but then are usually ameliorated with water (That is winemaking geek-speak for "adding" water to reduce acidity)
There are really only two ways to get bubbles into wine: 1. Cause a third fermentation to occur in the bottle, 2. force wine and an external source of carbon dioxide gas together under pressure. The first method covers a couple of scenarios: A. Methode Champenoise - Traditional French method for making Champagne, B. Unplanned re-fermentation (ask Neo about his Gewurztraminer , again my bad, forgot to add Potassium Sorbate to a sweet wine we bottled) or malolactic fermentation (a whole other animal).
My guess (considering Lambrusco comes with a screw top ) is they inject carbon dioxide in low doses to get a slight "sparkle" to the wine.
Gotta go, my son just woke up.
Cheers!
PS Thanks for the avatar source "Q"
. Do you still dabble? Hell, I live in Indiana and make wine so what's your excuse? "Q" I forgot to answer your second question, my bad, you can spank me later (please). It takes approx 16 lbs of vinifera grapes per gallon of wine which also equals 5 bottles, which is where the term "fifth" comes from. Most fruit wines or non-vinifera grapes take less due to the higher acid content but then are usually ameliorated with water (That is winemaking geek-speak for "adding" water to reduce acidity)
There are really only two ways to get bubbles into wine: 1. Cause a third fermentation to occur in the bottle, 2. force wine and an external source of carbon dioxide gas together under pressure. The first method covers a couple of scenarios: A. Methode Champenoise - Traditional French method for making Champagne, B. Unplanned re-fermentation (ask Neo about his Gewurztraminer
, again my bad, forgot to add Potassium Sorbate to a sweet wine we bottled) or malolactic fermentation (a whole other animal).My guess (considering Lambrusco comes with a screw top
) is they inject carbon dioxide in low doses to get a slight "sparkle" to the wine.Gotta go, my son just woke up.
Cheers!
PS Thanks for the avatar source "Q"
Ooh, w4a the dancing wine bottle is coooool! Thanks for all the information.
More questions!! Do you and NEO make your own labels for the wine you bottle? I bet you could make some really neat ones with an art proggie. Where do you store the wine to age. The wine needs to be a certain temperature, right?
More questions!! Do you and NEO make your own labels for the wine you bottle? I bet you could make some really neat ones with an art proggie. Where do you store the wine to age. The wine needs to be a certain temperature, right?
wine4all
SWM 40 seeking truth
See... I knew the ladies would be attracted to the dancing bottle heheh.
I do my labels at home using Bearrock Labeler which works OK. I will scan and post some later so you can see. Neo cheats!!! He has our Desktop Publishing guy at work do his, but his wife says she wants to create some for him.
Ideally wine should be "cellar" temp 55-60 with about 80% humidity and laying on their side to keep the corks from drying out and leaking. I keep mine all over the house and am lucky to keep it between 65-75. Oh well, I drink it fast enough it just doesn't matter!
I do my labels at home using Bearrock Labeler which works OK. I will scan and post some later so you can see. Neo cheats!!! He has our Desktop Publishing guy at work do his, but his wife says she wants to create some for him.
Ideally wine should be "cellar" temp 55-60 with about 80% humidity and laying on their side to keep the corks from drying out and leaking. I keep mine all over the house and am lucky to keep it between 65-75. Oh well, I drink it fast enough it just doesn't matter!
wine4all
SWM 40 seeking truth
All donations will be cheerfully accepted!
Why do you like the Mulled Red label so much? Wachenschwanz... a good Irish name... heheh...NOT. German actually. When last I looked into it there were only about 15 or so families of that name in the US. I went to Germany many years ago (in college) to visit my brother who was studying in Aachen on Fulbright Scholarship. We went to the post office which had all the phone books for all of Germany and tried to look up Wachenschwanz's only to find that it is no more common in Germany than in the US.
Why do you like the Mulled Red label so much? Wachenschwanz... a good Irish name... heheh...NOT. German actually. When last I looked into it there were only about 15 or so families of that name in the US. I went to Germany many years ago (in college) to visit my brother who was studying in Aachen on Fulbright Scholarship. We went to the post office which had all the phone books for all of Germany and tried to look up Wachenschwanz's only to find that it is no more common in Germany than in the US.