Friday, March 8, 2013

Why not wine?

      I am a home brewer and most importantly a lover and supporter for DO IT YOURSELF projects, mine happen to be focused at what I can turn into alcohol! Beer brewing is great, but as we all know it can be costly. Wine making tends to be a bit cheaper depending on the fruits you are using.

     I decided to make APPLE WINE!!!! wine making is not centered on grapes, you can use almost any fruit (ex. cherries, berries, strawberries). Apple wine is really easy to do and also very cheap, with a great outcome.

      What do you need?

                  *Apples: 6 pounds of apples ~about $7 (I made about a gallon and a half of apple wine with
                   6 pounds)

                  *Clean water

                  *3 pounds of corn sugar ~roughly $4

                  *Yeast ~ 75cents for a pack

                  *Fermenter (primary, and secondary)

                  *Spoon for mixing

                  *A stove!

      Ready, Set, GO!!!

      The steps are basic, put water in the pot, boil it and keep on mashing the apples until you get pure apple juice, keep on adding sugar making sure it all dissolves, also DON'T forget sanitation. Cool your wort down to about 79 or so degrees, and pitch in your yeast. For the fermenter I first used my 5 gallon jug, but then poured it into a secondary 6 liter fermenter. I have racked the wine twice (moved it into different fermentation vessels) to get rid of sediment and trub, I have had it fermenting for about a month and a half now.
   
      Not all wine takes a long time to ferment, some take a couple of weeks and some take a very long time, it is very important to research the type of wine and the process for each type you want to do. I have not gotten to clearing the wine yet, and I will blog about it when fermentation is complete. I have read a lot about clearing wine, but I will wait till I have tried a method myself before blogging about it.



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