Wine Making Class: Week 2 – Racking, Mead Wine & Wine Tastings

Link to Wine Making Class – Week 1

Week 2 of Wine Making class gave us the opportunity to rack wine and create a mead wine.

Racking

In week 1 we created a red and white wine, which needed to be racked in week 2 (transferred) from the primary fermentor to the secondary (The picture above is a secondary fermentor aka carboy). The primary is used to give the must (wine ingredients) enough room to vigorously ferment within the first week. After the first week, fermentation slows down and can be transferred to the secondary, which is a tighter space and limits the amount of oxygen with a airlock (located in the picture above and is the closure at the top of the fermentors). Racking is also used in the process of clearing wine. When you transfer the wine from one fermentor to another, you are able to leave the sediment at the bottom and get a clear and vibrant color from your wine.

Mead Wine

Another first for me in the class, was the process of creating a mead wine. Mead wine is wine that has been fermented from honey (the honey is converted into alcohol). Keep in mind, this is different from wine that has been sweetened with honey. We made a Blackberry Mead.

Blackberry Mead 1 Gallon Recipe (from DeFalco’s)

Ingredients:

• 1-2lbs Blackberries
• 2 1/2 to 3 lbs. (about 26 – 32 fl. oz.) unprocessed honey (dry to semi-sweet)
• Water to one gallon (Specific Gravity – 1.085 – 1.105)
• 1 tsp. Super Ferment (or 2 tsp. regular “nutrient”)
• 2 tsp. acid blend (or 3/4 tsp. tartaric acid & 1 1/4 tsp. malic acid)
• 1/4 tsp grape tannin
• 1 campden tablet* (crushed – or substitute 1/8 tsp. sodium/potassium metabisulfite)
• 1-2 pkgs. wine (e.g. Premier Cuvee, Champagne, Cote des Blancs, Lalvin D-47) or mead yeast

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients EXCEPT the yeast and the campden tablet. Stir the must until the honey and additives are completely dissolved. Cover the pail to keep out dust and air with the large plastic sheet.
2.  Crush and dissolve the campden tablet in 1 oz. of warm water. Add this to the must and stir well. Cover the pail again and tie down the plastic sheet. Let the must stand for one day, stirring several times.
   *ALTERNATIVE: Heat honey with an equal volume of water to 180°F and let stand for 15 minutes to pasteurize. (DO NOT BOIL!) Cool and add remainder of water before proceeding to next step.
3. Rehydrate the dried yeast by sprinkling it into 1/2 cup lukewarm (95 – 100° F) water in a sanitized jar and cover for 20 minutes. (If using “Mead” yeast, prepare a starter 48 hours prior to using.) Add the yeast “slurry “/starter to mixture. Re-cover the primary fermenter and allow fermentation to proceed for 5-7 days or until foaming subsides.
4. Syphon the mead into a sterile glass jug. Avoid the transfer of sediment and aeration as much as possible. Be sure the mead completely fills the jug – into the neck. Attach a fermentation lock and allow the fermentation to go to completion (.995 – 1.020 S.G.).
5. One week after fermentation has ceased, syphon the mead into another sterile glass jug. Again, avoid the transfer of sediment and aeration. Crush, dissolve and add 1/2 campden tablet per gallon to the mead. Allow the mead to stand for one month in a cool dark place and repeat “racking” process. If at the end of three months, the mead is clear – bottle it. If it is not clear, repeat this step every month until it is clear and then bottle it. The mead may be sweetened to taste with additional honey, if desired, after stabilization (1/2 tsp. potassium sorbate & 1/2 campden tablet per gallon).

Note: All equipment should be well washed and sterilized with a solution of sodium metabisulphite. Fermentation temperatures should be no lower than 60 degrees F. or higher than 80 degrees F.

Ratio for different meads – (parts by volume honey: parts by volume water)
DRY: 1:4 (2 1/2 lbs. honey per gallon – the dry recipe above)
SEMI-DRY: 1:3 (3 lbs. honey per gallon – our most popular – the semi-sweet recipe above)
SWEET: 1:2.5 (4 lbs. honey per gallon)

Mead wine will need to be racked more than traditional wines in order to obtain a natural clarity. It will also need to be aged longer as well. Similar to other wines, meads can be dry, semi-dry, or sweet. Our instructor Scott, recommended us setting aside 1/2 to 1 gallon of the un-fermented juice and using it to the final batch at before bottling.

Wine Tastings

Below are the wines we tasted in Week 2:

• Martin Codax Albarino 2011 – (My Favorite) From Rias Baixas, Spain the wine is fruity, crisp, medium-bodied white wine with a dry finish
• Seven Sinners Petite Sirah 2012 – From Lodi District, France the wine is rich, with flavors of jam, heavy tannins, with a dry finish
• Raspberry Melomel 2011 – A mead wine made buy the store’s staff. It was fruity, light-bodied, acidic, with a semi-dry finish
• PluBerry – A Japanese Plum & Blackberry wine made by one of the students in the class. It was boldly fruity, medium-bodied, acidic, with a sweet finish
• Erath Pinot Noir 2013 – From Oregon, USA the wine is a light and fruity wine with lighter tannins and a dry finish
• Carmenere 2012, A chilian wine, with bold berry flavors, heavy tannins and a dry finish. I forgot to write down the brand

All in all, week 2 was another great class filled with learning and wine.

Until next time…Our should I say next, next time since I’ll be missing Week 3’s class 😦

Check out Week 3!!!

Wine Making Class: Week 1 – Wine Kits, Hydrometer, & Acid Titration Test

My local brewing & wine supply store (DeFalco’s) has a wine making class once a year in the spring, so I decided to take the class and perfect my craft!

We meet every Tuesday from 7-9:30pm for 6 weeks and the class was only $79 (includes material).

Week 1

After introductions, our instructor (DeFalco’s Owner, Scott Birdwell) gave us a high-level overview of what we would be doing and learning in the classes

For our first class, we made a Red & White wine kit from Winexpert. This was new for me, since I’ve never made a wine kit before and really wanted to know what came in it and the value of the kits before I spent money.

Wine Kits

The red wine was a Chilean Malbec Shirez, which came with:

• Concentrated Grape Juice
• Grape Skins
• Yeast
• Bentonite
• Metabisulphite
• Sorbate
• Fining Agent
• Mesh Straining Bag
• Oak Powder
• Oak Cubes

The white wine was a Washington Riesling, which came with everything listed above except grape skins. This kit had a F-pack (Sweetening Juice) instead.

The Winexpert has a variety of kit types and grape varietal ranging from $60-$245. Each kit makes approximately 30 bottles of wine, which averages out to about $5 per bottle of wine.

Hydrometer & Acid Titration Test

In the week 1 class we also learned the proper methods of using a hydrometer, conducting an acid titration test.

The Hydrometer is used to check the Specific Gravity (SG) in you ingredients before, during and at the end of fermentation in order to calculate the wines alcohol content.

The Acid Tritration Test is used to check the acid levels in your ingredients. This would allow for you to add more acid to avoid a flat wine or to reduce the acid and avoid a really tart/sour wine.

Week 1 Closing

All in all Week 1 was great! I learned a lot, met some really awesome people, and sampled a lot of wine. I’m really looking forward to Week 2 and sharing my experience with you all…until next time!

Link to Week 2

Wine Making: Bottling & Labeling

My first batch of wine was complete just in time for my mom’s 60th Birthday Bash!!!

After 2 months, my Country Wine was finally ready for bottling (Link to Recipe).

Pre-Bottling Prep & Sweetening:

• I added 1/2 tsp of stabilizer to ensure fermentation was complete 24 hrs before adding sugar. Otherwise, your wine could begin fermenting again.
• I then added 1 cup of sugar (simple syrup mixture for easy dissolving)

Bottling:

I cleaned and sanitized my bottles and cap corks with sodium metabisulfite before siphoning the wine.

After siphoning the wine into each bottle and adding the cap cork it was time to add the PVC shrink caps

I used the hair dryer method, which took forever….I will be using the boiling water method next time!

Labeling:

I really wanted to find a label that was water proof and reusable. After doing some research I found the Avery 22827 label, which met all my criteria. Plus the Avery website has a Design & Print Online tool, which I used to make my Mom’s 60th Birthday Bash labels.

As you can see in the initial pictures, the labels are submerged in ice and water and the labels are not smearing or coming off the bottles (This label is a Winner!!!).

Ultimately, the bottling & labeling went extremely well for this to be my first batch!

One of my next post will be a Wine Review on my own wine : )

Wine Making: Peach Reisling

With this batch of wine I’m making Peach Reisling 😍

Peach Reisling Recipe:

• 1 Can (23 fl oz) – Alexander Reisling Grape Concentrate
• 2 Can (11.5 oz) – Welch’s White Grape Peach Concentrate (Save 1 Can for sweetening before bottling)
• 93 fl oz – Water
• 16 oz – Sugar
• 1/2 tsp – Super Ferment
• 1 tsp – Acid Blend
• 1/4 tsp Tannin
• 1 Campden Tablet (Crushed)
• 1/2 pkg – Yeast ( I used Red Star Pasteur Champagne)

Directions:

• Add the Reisling Grape & White Grape Peach Grape Concentrate to your primary fermentor and stir.
• Create a simple syrup mixture with the water and sugar (Heat the water on the stove and stir in sugar until completely dissolved). Set the simple syrup mixture aside for cooling until room temperature.
• Add all remaining ingredients except Yeast to the primary fermentor. Cover and let ingredients sit for 24hrs
• Sprinkle yeast and leave in primary fermentor for 3 to 5 days
• Transfer to secondary fermentor for the remaining fermenting and bulk aging
• Rack as needed (i.e., transfer wine off yeast and other sediment to another fermentor)

So now we wait….Here’s my three batches in the works:

From Left to Right:

Blueberry Port, Ari’s Country Wine & Peach Reisling

Wine Making: Blueberry Port

When I purchased my wine making kit, I also received the Winemaker’s recipe handbook by Raymond Massaccesi. One recipe stood out to my husband immediately, the Blueberry Port. Both of us are Port fanatics, so it was only right to make it.

Blueberry Port Recipe:

• 6 lbs Blueberries
• 1/2 pt Red grape concentrate (for later at bottling)
• 1/2 cup LT Dry Malt
• 4 pts Water
• 1 3/4 lbs Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Acid blend
• 1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
• 1/2 Energizer
• 1 Campden tablet, crushed
• 1 pkg Sherry or Port Yeast ( I used the Lalvin EC-118)

Directions:

Now, this is the first time I have used fresh fruit. The directions tell you to use a nylon straining bag to mash and strain out the juice into the primary fermentor. I found this to be a little weird and messy, so I placed the remaining berries on the stove with water and extracted the juice by boiling them. Then I dissolved my sugar in the hot berry juice.

Once the juice cooled to room temperature, I poured the juice and berries into the nylon straining bag over my primary fermentor (This allows you to strain all your juice into the primary fermentor and leave the blueberry pulp in the bag). I then removed the straining bag and stirred  all my ingredients EXCEPT yeast and added back my tied nylon straining bag of blueberry pulp. After the ingredients set in the primary covered for 24 hours, I added the package of yeast.

A week later, this is what I have

Even with the nylon straining bag, some of the pulp makes it into the primary fermentor. So, I siphoned it through a strainer and then transferred it to my secondary.

I’ll rack in 4 weeks, and again in 2 months. Then it’s time for bottling, when I will add 1/2 tsp Stabilizer and 1/2 pint Red Grape Concentrate.

 Alcohol Content: 

I used my hydrometer to check my S.G., which was 1.110 when I started. When I transferred from my primary to secondary it was already at 1.000 S.G., that is approximately, 14.9% alcohol volume.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m use to my Port’s ranging from 18%-20%, so I’m not too sure this recipe could be considered a Port. Normally, Port’s are fortified with a distilled alcohol containing between 30-60%, but this recipe used a Lt Dry Malt.

Nevertheless, I’m sure the recipe will make for a great wine!

Next in the Pipeline:

My next wine will be a white wine, I’m thinking muscadines grape, peach, and apple.

Wine Making: Getting Started Making My First Batch of Wine

After ton’s of research via various blogs and Youtube videos, I finally decided to make make my own wine at home and join the multitude of home wine makers.

I purchased a 1 Gallon Kit, from my local Home Wine & Beer supply store in Houston (DeFalco’s), which included the following:

• Primary Fermenter (2 Gallon Bucket w/lid)
• Secondary Fermenter (1 Gallon Glass Carboy)
• 4″ Siphon Hose
• Shutoff Clamp
• Hydrometer
• 3 Pc Airlock and Stopper
• Sanitizer and campden tablets
• Wine Yeast, yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, acid blend, and grape tannin
• Stringing Bag
• 5 corks
• Handcraft Winemaking Guide

I also purchased an additional Secondary Fermenter & Airlock, so that I could start another batch of wine once I moved the 1st from the primary fermenter.

Ari’s Country Wine Recipe

• 50.7 fl. oz – 100% Apple Juice (I used Martinelli’s Gold Medal)
• 32 fl. oz – 100% Cherry Juice (I used R.W. Knudsen)
• 33.8 fl. oz – 100% Mango Juice (I used Ceres)
• 12 fl. oz – Spring Water
• 3 cups 5 oz – Sugar (Heated on stove with the water listed above)
• 1 tsp – Acid Blend
• 1/4 tsp – Grape Tannin
• 1 Campden Tablet
• 1 tsp – Super Ferment
• 1 pkg – Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast

I mixed all my ingredients (excluding the the package of yeast) into my primary fermenter and let it sit for 24 hrs. Then it was time to add the yeast.

So, now I’m 2 week’s into the process and have transitioned my must from the primary to the secondary fermenter. The wine smells so good!!! I can’t wait until it’s ready to drink, but fine wine takes time.

Since my primary is free, I already started my next batch, which is a Blueberry Port.

Update: Bottling & Labeling My First Batch of Wine