Hello from a newbie!

[bionerd]

This is my first time ever joining a forum. I have recently gotten into wine making. As a scientist by training, I love the chemical and biological aspects of the wine making process. I look forward to learning more about this and drinking lots of "experiments" as I go!

 

[Kraffty]

Welcome Bionerd, great hobby for a chemist kind of mind.
Mike

 

[willie]

Hello happy your here. I have learned a great deal from this site. Enjoy.

Will

 

[Johny99]

Welcome, does this mean we have someone to help us with organic chemistry

 

[bionerd]

John, yes!!! I teach organic chemistry online

 

[Johny99]

Yeah! Cause that is when I dropped out of premed for engineering! Expect the questions to come

 

[hollie5]

Hi, I'm also a newbie and feeling so nice to be a part of this forum.

 

[ceeaton]

John, yes!!! I teach organic chemistry online

I'll send my wife's questions your way, she is currently taking chemistry and is lost. I'm more on the computer and biology end, so I'm of little help to her. I love to cook and tinker with things, plus I was a home brewer long before I started this wine stuff, so you might want to tinker with some grains as you can drink your batches of beer while you are waiting for your wine to "come of age". Welcome to WMT!

 

[Hoxviii]

I'll vouch for this one.

She knows what she's doing on the science/chemistry/biology side of things and how they apply to winemaking, now she just needs to up her experience level in the actually making wine part of winemaking.

She's a great teacher and loves sharing her knowledge and experiences.

 

[bionerd]

I'll send my wife's questions your way, she is currently taking chemistry and is lost. I'm more on the computer and biology end, so I'm of little help to her. I love to cook and tinker with things, plus I was a home brewer long before I started this wine stuff, so you might want to tinker with some grains as you can drink your batches of beer while you are waiting for your wine to "come of age". Welcome to WMT!

Craig, definitely open to getting chemistry questions! I will say I still dont understand the computer thing very well. I took one programming course in college and I pretty much lived in the teacher's office haha. I have tried so hard to like beer over the years, but I keep running into one problem - beer has a beery taste! If you have recipes for not beer tasting beer (like an alcohol-y fruit juice that isn't wine), I would love to try some out

 

[Bodenski]

Welcome to the forum.

The most important part of wine-making to really enjoy is the process. There is a long "flash to bang" time (to use an Army expression) of getting to the final product, so it's important to enjoy the journey!

 

[meadmaker1]

Craig, definitely open to getting chemistry questions! I will say I still dont understand the computer thing very well. I took one programming course in college and I pretty much lived in the teacher's office haha. I have tried so hard to like beer over the years, but I keep running into one problem - beer has a beery taste! If you have recipes for not beer tasting beer (like an alcohol-y fruit juice that isn't wine), I would love to try some out

Im with you on the beer.

 

[bionerd]

Im with you on the beer.

LOL Keith I take it you are more of a mead person. I have never tried that before. Would that be something a not beer but wine drinker would enjoy. Its the bitterness of the beer that gets me

 

[meadmaker1]

I have bees and access to all sorts of fruits for free and a willingness to fail.
For my money I think strawberry FULLY degassed or a sweet cranberry, make a wine you can sip on the patio or use to wash down food.
Early tastes before degassing have a flat beer taste but its temperary.

 

[Bodenski]

For my money I think strawberry FULLY degassed or a sweet cranberry, make a wine you can sip on the patio or use to wash down food.

I've got a cranberry wine I'm going to bottle in the next few weeks. I saw many differing ideas on how much to back sweeten. I think I took it up to 1.006. I might need to make a sweeter one next time to see the difference. How sweet would you take the cranberry?

 

[meadmaker1]

When my.wife says your there its sweet enough.the first batch I did blew off a couple of corks so is back in carboy. Ill test a batch of apple cran that I like and post. Its a simi sweet.
Thinking about mixing a bit of jaom with some for thsnksgiving. Cranberry sauce in a bottle.

 

[wpt-me]

I took mine to an s.g. of 1.012 and thought it was on the money.

Bill

 

[bionerd]

I havent thought of cranberry wine, but that sounds perfect for getting tipsy on Thanksgiving!

That is also a good idea to measure SG after sweetening. I usually just add sugar/ fruit concentrate until it tastes sweet enough, but that probably isn't the best way to quantitatively try different levels of sweet.

 

[meadmaker1]

I didnt measure after and haven't finnished any thing since discovering I might should.
Seems the way to correctly to categorize for competitions. ??
Ill measure next time I open some. Has been up and down for taste. Was great going in the bottle. Opened some 2 months latter and it tasted watered down. Left it out for half an hr and it tasted like cleaner. Its been bottled since dec 1 and going to a big 4/20 weekend gold camp trip. Lots of folks. Will be opening some there, I ll check it before I go.
We buy a brand we find at the or coast. And going there next week. Ill measure it too. Bought some for my world traveling aunt she descibed it as yummy.