Another hobby of mine.....Wine!

Hello everybody, I just emptied my ash pan for what feels like the 1000th time this season( i hate winter allready) and thought I would post something different. Ive been making my own wine for about 6 years now and I have 10 gallons aging as we speek. I havent gone crazy and made too much at once or anything but my buddies and I did make 30 gallons of hard cider in a weekend once about 4 years ago. I enjoy it but I dont drink at home unless I have company so Ill keep it to 10 gallons a year. I dont own a press either, I buy all my grape juice from a winery about an hour and a half from my house that sells every type of juice for any type of wine.Surprise but I buy only the cheap juices,I think they make the best sweet wines andthat way if I lose a batch to neglect I dont wanna hang myself dumping it out. Catawba,concord, niagara, and diamond are all good juices and range from 4.50 to5.50 a gallon....yummy. I look forward to your comments and chatting with anyone who has made wine or cider before. Keep warm Jim

I was just back to New Jersey a few weeks ago and my father showed me the same thing! His next door neighbor, who's a VERY Italian older gent, got him into wine making. Same deal, you go and pick your grapes, and they press it and fill your bottles right there. Looks a little nasty with all the sediment, etc. in the fermentation bottle, but I guess once you decant it into another bottle, it's OK. I'm not a big wine fan - good wine is the perfect ingredient to good vinegar. I much prefer a good beer. I've not met a beer I didn't like, although some have been less good than others.....

Cheers!

My uncle Rocco always made his own wine (also raised rabbits for dinner), I've only made Merlot with the wine making kit (using the grape syrup).
I much prefer making beer as well, I've had much success with "Mr. Beer".
Some how in my mind I think it's only home made if you grow the grapes and then make wine or buy the ingredients for beer and actually brew it. I guess there is too much old school Italian in me.
I never had tomato sauce (we call it gravy) out of a jar until I was an adult and out on my own. I still prefer my own over it.

Cheapheat, if you come to the get together in the summer you are now required to bring one of those bottles for admission.

Richard S. wrote:Cheapheat, if you come to the get together in the summer you are now required to bring one of those bottles for admission.

Preferably the dark red one.

I made some blackberry "wine" one time, with a balloon on top of the jug. I can't really remember what happened but it was really strong and strangely I never had the urge to make wine again.

e.alleg wrote:I made some blackberry "wine" one time, with a balloon on top of the jug. I can't really remember what happened but it was really strong and strangely I never had the urge to make wine again.

My Grandmother had a recipe for that, consisted of concentrated grape juice, water, sugar, and yeast if I remember correctly. I guess the principle is the same for making any wine. You waited until the balloon deflated and then it was done. Took a few weeks I think. Wasn't really bad but wasn't great either.

Wood'nCoal wrote:Preferably the dark red one.

My aunt has been making wine for a very long time and if you tried her peach wine you'd probably change your mind.

My cousin's Grandfather made wine but he was an expert, I mean you'd never want to buy it in the store if you tasted what he made. He even had a batch that he distilled which was about the same a s a rock n' rye liquor. You only needed a few glasses of that.

I used to be really into beer making. Really liked doing it before I had kids and a wife and had time to play. Lots of fun for sure!

Oh I definately plan on attending next summers get together(i planned on goingto the 2 previous ones also) and if I can make it Ill surely bring some samples. This year Im goingto try make about 3 gallons of the red wine(concord) Sparkle. I had it happen as a happy accident before when I had secondary fermentation in the bottle. I couldnt figure out what the noises I was hearing were until I looked at the wine bottles in the spare bedroom and half of them had blown off their corks. Well the other half had the most beautiful little bubbles in them turning my allready pleasant sweet white wine into the stuff dreams are made of, with just the right amount of sweetness and sparkle. To save time and money Im gonna try to make this in 22oz(22 not12) beer bottles and just cap them so I dont have any corks blowing out. But Ive had to drink alot of beer in 22 oz bottles from the local micro-brewery.Ill keep you informed....anyone looking for something to kill time that can get you tipsy let me know Ill mail you a pack of yeast and some and some metabisulfite. Just dump the yeast in a gallon of apple cider and wait in a week add some sugar in another week pour it into another clean container and add the sulfite and by the time the superbowl comes you can be proud to share it with a couple buddies. see ya, Jim