Hello from Vermilion,Ohio!

[chachi44089]

Hello all. I have been lurking on here a bit and decided to join and take the leap into home wine making. I have wanted to make wine for many years, but always thought it would cost too much. But after doing a LOT of reading and picking up supplies here and there I am finally ready to try a batch. Seems like there are a lot of very helpful folks on here willing to share their knowledge. Just what I need..lol.. I think I am just going to start out with a Welches wine, mostly so I can learn as I go and not mess up a fine batch of premium stuff. I think this would be a good way for me to learn to look, and smell what I am doing. And if I mess up, no big loss, just try again. I am sure I will be talking "asking" to you all very soon.
Sean

 

[Tom]

Welcome to our forum.
I would suggest for you to get a wine equipment kit and a kit wine for your 1st. If you can read you can make great wines from kits.
Either look local, or one of our sponsors here

 

[Wade E]

Welcome chachi, you can make a Welches wine first but I must say a kit is much easier and very little can go wrong as its all there in black and white and everything is right in the box for you and kits can make a great wine but beware some arent as good as others. Let us know what kind of wine you like and we can recommend a kit for you. If you want to go the kit route then let us know what your retailer offers for kits or which sponsor above you would like to go with as with all the people on here we pretty much have made most of the kits available. If going with the Welches concentrate I would advise you to use 3 1/2 - 4 cans per gallon and dont use any sulfites in the very beginning as these concentrates are already treated.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome aboard!!

 

[jtstar]

Welcome Chachi also take notes as you go that way you won't forget what you have done.

 

[chachi44089]

Thanks for the advise. I too thought I might be better off with a wine kit to start. These are the supplies I have so far. 5 gallon food grade bucket and lid "new" for primary, siphon kit that has the long plastic clear tube with end so I dont siphon up sediment, that came with about 5 feet of clear hose and a bottle filler end that you just push down to fill, also has a plastic clamp to shut off or slow the flow. 5 three piece airlocks, 5 bungs drilled to fit primary and jugs, 12 one gallon glass jugs to use a secondaries and till I find a 5 gallon glass one, 100 campton tabs,4 oz. of k-meta, 4 oz. of sorbate, triple scale hydrometer, 2 packs of red star Montachet yeast, Italian corker "not floor" , 25 number "8" 1 3/4 corks. Any additional advise for supplies would be helpful. I do see that many recipes call for acid blend and nutrients and such. I will have to keep adding as I learn.
I will have to go back to the supply place and see what the brands and types of wine kits they have and let you know. My wife does not like dry wine, but I do..lol..We like red or white.So I see making at least two different types. But I better make her happy first.
I kinda avoided the wine kits after purchasing the supplies because of the look on my wifes face when she saw the prices..hehe..The cheapest was about 70 bucks..Being disabled with limited income I need to take it slow money wise. At least for a little while.
I have made beer before but this is a bit different and new to me.

 

[Runningwolf]

Welcome aboard. Remember kits makes 30 bottles, so that's just a little over $2.00 a bottle.

 

[woodsxdragon]

howdy! i'm also from ohio, specifically Wooster. my grandparents actually live just outside the city limits. Buell is their last name.

 

[Duster]

Welcome aboard Sean, May I suggest that if you do not wish to start out with a kit wine then make sure your up on how to finish and stabilize wines. Also back sweetening and adding an F-pack. A lot of this info is available on the forum.
I too did not start out making kits, nor have I ever made one (yet) I did end up dumping a few gallons down the drain before I figured a few things out. If your not making a kit I would start out making 1 gallon batches first so that you don't have to lay 5 gallon to rest. It won't be long after you have made a few 1 gallon batches till you will be ready to move on to larger ones.

 

[J-Gee]

Hey Sean.... a hearty welcome from s.e. Ohio!

 

[Wade E]

OK, when making wine from concentrates or fruits and especially when using Red Star Montrachet yeast you will want to use yeast nutrient and or yeast energizer as most fruits and concentrates dont have the needed nutrients to supply the yeast with what they need, just like we need nutrients to survive yeast is living thing and needs this stuff also. Montrachet yeast is one known yeast that has a problem fermenting low nutrient musts (unfermented wine) thus producing off flavors and smells and usually ends up with H2S problems (sulfur smell like rotten eggs) and this can be a problem to get rid of but if for some reason you encounter this give us a chance to get you out of this mess as there are a few ways to rid your wine of this. To make kit wine you are going to need a 7.9 gallon bucket and a 6 gallon carboy but I guess you can get away with the 6 1 gallon jugs you have, just a lot more work doing it that way. As far as equipment I highly advise you to get an Autosiphon, this tool is very cheap and makes your wine work much easier. I also advise you to get a drill mounted mix stirrer to thoroughly mix your wine and or ingredients and mainly to degas your wine which means getting rid of the trapped C02 in your wine which fermentation produces and if you dont get it out it will prevent of make clearing your wine very hard as the trapped C02 will keep sediment in suspension. I will chime in some more a little later as right now Im filtering a bunch of white wines. If your supplier doesnt have any of this stuff or if you just want to compare prices check out the banner advertisers on this site above as they are some of the best out there and they support our site also. Truthfully there are a a few of the best places to buy wine and beer related supplies and pretty much the cheapest ones also due to great volume which in turn means good turn around meaning fresh kits and ingredients where some other places might have supplies such as sorbate and stuff that are actually out of date!

 

[Duster]

I will chime in some more a little later as right now Im filtering a bunch of white wines.

What a guy, filtering while replying to a post, if I tried that I would end up needing a new computer for sure.
Keep up the good work wade

 

[Wade E]

I use the cheap Vinebrite gravity filter which is pretty slow, like 45 minutes per 6 gallon carboy usually give or take.

 

[Redtrk]

Hello all. I have been lurking on here a bit and decided to join and take the leap into home wine making. I have wanted to make wine for many years, but always thought it would cost too much. But after doing a LOT of reading and picking up supplies here and there I am finally ready to try a batch. Seems like there are a lot of very helpful folks on here willing to share their knowledge. Just what I need..lol.. I think I am just going to start out with a Welches wine, mostly so I can learn as I go and not mess up a fine batch of premium stuff. I think this would be a good way for me to learn to look, and smell what I am doing. And if I mess up, no big loss, just try again. I am sure I will be talking "asking" to you all very soon.
Sean

howdy! i'm also from ohio, specifically Wooster. my grandparents actually live just outside the city limits. Buell is their last name.

Hey more Buckeyes! Welcome Chachi. I have a good friend who lives in Vermilion. He and I have ridden motorcycles together. You have some good wineries up your way that I like to visit. But then that's just another reason to ride and bring home wine.

 

[chachi44089]

Thanks for the welcome, and the advise.. Think I will keep collecting supplies and doing more reading on here. Lots of very good info and advise on here.
Hey Redtrk! You might have to ride out this way and give me some pointers.. And I can take you to Quarry Hill winery for a nice glass or 5 of some wine that I am sure will be much better than mine, but will keep me inspired to learn more..lol

 

[Redtrk]

Thanks for the welcome, and the advise.. Think I will keep collecting supplies and doing more reading on here. Lots of very good info and advise on here.
Hey Redtrk! You might have to ride out this way and give me some pointers.. And I can take you to Quarry Hill winery for a nice glass or 5 of some wine that I am sure will be much better than mine, but will keep me inspired to learn more..lol

That sounds good to me. If i'm riding up i'm sure my Vermilion friends Bob & Kay will join us when I get there.
RTW's, (Ride to winery's) are one of our favorite things to do in the summer.