# Basic Juice Fermenting Guide



## djrockinsteve (Jun 30, 2011)

There are several ways and procedures folks like to use to ferment juice into wine. For the novice below you will find a basic guide to assist you in making wine.

There are other more advanced procedures some of us use and kits should be made following their directions. Again this is just a reference guide.


FERMENTING MADE EASY

This will be directions on fermenting 6 gallons of juice, whether it’s pure juice from a vineyard or from a concentrate. If you add any fruit it is best to have frozen it prior to fermentation as this will break the cell structure of the fruit allowing the juice to escape more freely. Freezing also kills off any insects/larve and most bacteria. You will need an additional bucket as the fruit will displace the juice in your primary. Remove the fruit around 1.020 and you should be left with a good 6 gallons at that time.

Start off with picking up your juice bucket. It will be very cold so allow it to warm up to around 65 degrees before opening up. Take a paper towel with a sulfite/water sprayed on it and wipe off the lid and surrounding area. Remove the lid and take any readings you like such as the specific gravity, ph, acid and record. Add 21 drops of pectic enzyme or it’s dry equivalent. Stir with a sanitized plastic spoon. Reapply the lid loosely and wait at least 12 hours.

After a minimum of 12 hours start your yeast by rehydrating it in 2 ounces of 100 degree water no longer than 15 minutes. If you rather you may create a yeast starter if you have a difficult wine or trouble getting a fermentation started. While the yeast is rehydrating add 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient per gallon to the juice and stir. Add your yeast and stir. Record when you added your yeast and the brand and strain.

Stir often, gently and every day. I try to stir at least 6 times if not more each day. Stirring the must will redistribute the yeast so they are better at eating the sugars. It will remove any unwanted odors from the wine and release unwanted CO2 from the juice so as to make a more enjoyable environment for the yeast. If your must contains fruit you want to keep it moist to reduce it’s oxidation. Stirring often will also reduce the chance of you having a so called volcano when you stir. Always start off stirring slowly and gently to also introduce some much needed O2 for the yeast. Never whip the juice.

About the 4th day and each day thereafter take another gravity reading and record. If you have aded any fruit remove it around 1.020 with a sieve. If you had fruit in the primary make sure you punch it down often when you stir to keep it wet. You may place all the fruit into another bucket, snap on the lid, then unsnap one snap and invert the bucket to drain juice back into the primary. It will take about 20 minutes to drain. You may want to move the bucket a bit to expedite all the juice to drain off.

When the must reaches a specific gravity of 1.000, give the must a good stir releasing CO2 then immediately snap on the lid with an airlock attached. The CO2 will push out the oxygen and the CO2 will help to protect the wine. You can put an airlock on a lid by using a 3/8th inch wood drill bit and drill a hole thru the lid. A number 2 bung will fit well in this hole. Do this prior to the must reaching 1.000 and do not drill while the lid is on the bucket with juice in it.

The airlock will bubbly quite a bit at first then slow. After 2 more days with the must being left alone with an airlock on it should be finished fermenting. Remove the lid and take a gravity reading. Your wine should be finished but even if it still has a little bit further to go you will be fine. Do not stir the wine, you will only suspend sediment and gross lees into the wine.

Start making your clearing agent, I prefer sparkolloid. Simmer a full 20-30 minutes and stir often as to prevent burning. If you need to add extra water to make up for evaporation do so. While the sparkolloid is simmering clean out a carboy, rinse and leave a few drops of water in the carboy.

Add 1/4 teaspoon of Potassium Metabisulfite to the carboy and move the carboy back and forth to dissolve the sulfite in the few drops of remaining water. Add a large funnel with a screen to the carboy. Carefully lift your bucket and pour wine thru the funnel until it reaches the shoulder area of the carboy.

Add 3/4’s of the sparkolloid thru the funnel into the wine. Add it hot. Immediately remove the funnel and insert a long sanitized spoon into the carboy. Stir the wine vigorously. Get the wine rotating in one direction the reverse the spoon abruptly. Repeat several times. This will mix the sparkolloid and degass the wine. Lift the spoon slightly and move the spoon back and forth quickly like a teeter totter to remove even more CO2. This whole stirring portion should only take 30 seconds or so. You will be able to tell by the size of the bubbles.

Add more wine being careful not to add the gross lees at the bottom of the bucket. Leave a small area for the remaining sparkolloid mix and stir in as best as possible. The level of the wine should be at the knuckle of the carboy. Add airlock with a water/sulfite solution in it. Wipe off the carboy and even the area just inside the neck prior to adding an airlock with a sulfite solution on a paper towel.

Allow 4-6 weeks to clear in a dark/semi-dark area. Clearing works best in a 70-75 degree temperature. 

Clean another carboy and add just a pinch of potassium metabisulfite. You may add potassium sorbate now if you like at a rate of 1/2 teaspoon per gallon. If you are going to oak your wine add the oak to the carboy now. Remove airlock and siphon with as little splashing as possible. Do not siphon up any sediment. Fill to the knuckle on the carboy. Oak will float for now but will sink over time. Add a clean airlock filled with solution. Move to a dark cool area and age. Reds should age a year from the beginning of the wine, whites and fruits 6 months or longer.

After the wine has aged siphon off a small amount (1 cup) into a sauce pan and invert some sugar into it. Take small samples and check the gravity and do a taste test to find how sweet you want the wine. When you have found the gravity you like calculate how much sugar is needed (4 ounces per gallon of sugar by weight, inverted, will raise the specific gravity .010) and invert the sugar in some wine. Warm the wine just enough to invert the sugar. You can invert twice as much sugar as the amount of wine.

Siphon the wine into another carboy, blend in the cooled inverted sugar/wine and allow to rest a week. You will also be blending any oak flavor you have added to your wine. If you haven’t already added sorbate do so now and you most likely will need to add another pinch of sulfite to the wine. You may wish to take and record readings for future reference such as acid%, Sulfite level, gravity and ph. After a week or longer preferred, bottle your wine and allow to rest a month before drinking.


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## parkerdouglas (Nov 10, 2013)

Can u use aluminum as the primary fermenter?


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## djrockinsteve (Nov 10, 2013)

I myself do not know. I would say no. I would be afraid of an off flavor. Use a food grade container.


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## Johngottshall (Nov 10, 2013)

parkerdouglas said:


> Can u use aluminum as the primary fermenter?[/QUOi.
> 
> I would not use aluminum because of the acids from the fermenting juices.


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## stemavi (Dec 17, 2015)

i dont know how to erase this jeje


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## Ron0126 (May 24, 2017)

Should we add K-Meta or Campden tablets in the 12 hour period prior to pitching the yeast?


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## cmason1957 (May 24, 2017)

Ron0126 said:


> Should we add K-Meta or Campden tablets in the 12 hour period prior to pitching the yeast?



It probably won't hurt anything to add it and it should kill off any wild yeast that is present. It won't do very much to any wine yeast that may have been added to the juice buckets. I have made juice buckets both with adding and not adding. I haven't seen much difference between it either way. However, if the producer of the bucket already added K-Meta, then it may cause MLF to be harder/impossible to start, due to high SO2 being present.


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## rustbucket (May 24, 2017)

Great tutorial! I had given up on making wine from juice buckets based on less than stellar results. Now that I have a little guidance, I'm tempted to try it again.


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