# Thinking About It



## RAMROD (Mar 7, 2005)

Have been looking and reading and think I would like to try this wine making, but I am not sure if I will be able to with the wayI work. I just bottled my first batch of beer (a German Bock) and I truly enjoyed it cant wait to taste it! Ok heres the catch the beer was in the primary for 4 days then racked to the secondary and could stay there for a month or more without checking anything but the S.G. before bottling. Witch is great for me with the way I work(14 and 14)but most the time I have togo back out early witch leaves me with only 7 days at home and 21 days at work.







To make a long story sort can I make wine without all this everyday checking I have been reading about. I am talking about the fresh fruit here if that makes a derifince.






Thanks for any feed back


RAMROD


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## RAMROD (Mar 7, 2005)

Also I know very little about wines ok I know nothing about wine, is there a kit to make something like wine coolers. Please dont laugh at me if this is a stupid question remember I am a newbie.















Cant drink all day if you dont start in the morning!


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## Hippie (Mar 7, 2005)

Yes, look at kits at the finevinewines main website. I think you will find the Island Mist kits. They finish just like wine coolers. The chics dig 'em!








http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdMist.asp*Edited by: Country Wine *


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## Texas Rose' (Mar 7, 2005)

I am pretty new to wine making, and I have found the most time consuming part of the whole wine making process iscleaning and sterilizing everything! Of course, there is always plenty of help around when I start bottling, so that makes that part pretty easy! So, I have found that it isn't as complicated as it first seems.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 7, 2005)

From what I've read, making beer is much more difficult than making wine. Beer seems to be more sensitive than wine when it comes to..... everything.









You would only have to stir everyday for the first week tops (3-4) days if you don't put your fruit into a straining bag. This ensures that enough oxygen gets to the yeast and that fermentation can continue. Otherwise, you need to check your wine about every 3-4 days until you have transferred that back to a glass carboy. There you can check your wine about every 2-3 weeks (for sediment, etc).





Hope this helps.


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## AAASTINKIE (Mar 7, 2005)

I think you would be all set with a wine kit, you need 5 days for the primary fermentation but after that you could work around your schedule, I am making a Island mist wildberry schiraz kit which is low alcohol 6% and it is my first kit and almost ready to bottle but if I were away it could sit in the carboy for a month and would only turn out better for the aging. *Edited by: AAASTINKIE *


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## masta (Mar 7, 2005)

I would agree that starting a kit and racking to secondary after primary is complete it can sittill you get back home without any issues.


BTW making beer is not any harder than wine...actually easier after the wort is made. As with wineit is important to protect it from oxygen after the primary fermentation is complete.


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## RAMROD (Mar 8, 2005)

Thanks everyone I do belive I will pick up a few more primary and secondarys when I get home


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## Hippie (Mar 9, 2005)

I think beer is much more susceptible to infections and bacteria because of the lower acidity and alcohol. I know a man who makes beer from potato peelings, at least he calls it beer.


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## masta (Mar 10, 2005)

You southern boys kill me....potato skin beer? In order to be called beer it needs at least 4 ingredients: malted grain, hops, yeast, and water. 


A bit of history on the German Purity Law: Reinheitsgebot


At the very least you should know how to pronounce it. *


*"Rine-Hites-gaBoat"


Most Americans are probably familiar with the "German Beer Purity Law" only because it has been mentioned in Samuel Adams beer commercials. Not long ago, it was completely irrelevant to the American beer scene, but the current popularity of micro and craft brews in the U.S. and Canada has made "Reinheitsgebot" a meaningful term in discussions about North American beer.*


So what is this Reinheitsgebot thing all about?


*First of all, it should be understood that the Reinheitsgebot is the oldest food regulation in the world and that it still exists today. Translated to English, the word "Reinheitsgebot" essentially means "purity law." The complete, original text of The Rineheitsgebot is included below. 


In the middle ages brewing beer was a primitive science, but by the 15<SUP>th</SUP> Century it was also becoming a very lucrative industry. Brewers looking to make greater profit often used cheaper ingredients of mixed variety to achieve their financial goals. Unscrupulous brewers would add fruit, herbs, eggs, tree bark, fish bladders and who knows what else to their beer. As a result, beer was frequently foul tasting and occasionally poisonous. In a beer-loving country like Bavaria a purity law was desperately needed.


The first regulation appeared in Augsburg, Bavaria sometime in the 1490's. Establishments that served bad beer or dishonest amounts of beer would be fined and their beer destroyed. In 1516, Bavaria's reigning Duke Wilhelm IV expanded the Augsburg regulation to cover all of Bavaria, creating the world’s first Pure Food &amp; Beverage Law. The "Reinheitsgebot." Thanks to the regulation, Bavarian beers quickly became renowned for their superior quality. Eventually all the lands of Germany enforced the regulation.


The Reinheitsgebot stated, in brief, that only pure and essential ingredients be used in beer. The only ingredients allowed were barley, hops and water. Today, of course, yeast is also recognized as a vital ingredient. Yeast was a brewing element whose effect was not understood at the time the law was written. In the 1500’s, brewers utilized naturally occurring, airborne yeast and attributed fermentation to the will of God. In fact, lambic beers are still produced this way.


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## RAMROD (Mar 10, 2005)

Well I have learned my new thing for the day!lol


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## MedPretzel (Mar 10, 2005)

masta said:


> In a beer-loving country like Bavaria a purity law was desperately needed.




Hahaha, you have just made friends with all Bavarians in the whole entire world for that comment.



Must be some southern thing. hehe. Bavaria is still known today as one of the only "Free States" in Germany (by name technically, but some Bavarians think otherwise, my cousin included).That just means they think they should be a country of it's own. Kind of like Quebec thinks of the rest of Canada.




masta said:


> The first regulation appeared in Augsburg, Bavaria sometime in the 1490's.




I can't back it up for sure, but I remember seeing in German Television somewhere that there might have been a document that dates back 30 years prior to this "1st document." As you can well imagine (from my comment about Bavaria above), the Augsburgers were livid and refused to acknowledge the other document, trying to get some lawyers to find something wrong with it.



It cracks me up.


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## RAMROD (Mar 10, 2005)

Debate 101 next lol


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## Hippie (Mar 11, 2005)

Very interesting. Thanks for that, Scott. I know for sure I have never had beer I liked as well as the beer in Germany. Except rice beer. No thanks. Wiezen maybe or something like that. The guy with the 'potato beer' is probably not making real beer, since I know those ingredients are not available here, and he don't drive, much less use the internet.


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## RAMROD (Mar 11, 2005)

Thought I was the only nite owl CW. I see you post alot a nite but everytime I look you are offline


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## Hippie (Mar 11, 2005)

I work at night, no net at home, yet. Thinking of a cable modem so I can zoom zoom zoom like I do here!


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## RAMROD (Mar 11, 2005)

There are several of us thinking about getting it out here right now I am how wired in to the Co Rep's sat. lets hope I dont get caught stealing!


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## Hippie (Mar 14, 2005)

I call it profit sharing.


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## RAMROD (Mar 15, 2005)

How about safty bonus.


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## Hippie (Mar 15, 2005)

Yes. You deserve a bonus for all your hard work.


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