Old Guy, New Wine Maker

[bkisel]

Hi Folks,

Since starting in January of this year I've got two low end RJS wine kits bottled and a third, cellar classic, kit in the making. Started drinking the Pinot Noir about a month ago and just last night opened the first bottle of Pinot Grigio. While my wife prefers whites and I reds we found that we liked both wines. Nothing to rave about but pleasantly surprised considering they are from low end kits. I'm anxious to taste the RJS CC Merlot that I'm working on now but that'll be 4-5 months down the road.

I was going to start this hobby years ago but got totally turned off by a friend at church who has been a long time wine maker. When I first expressed an interest to Ed he overwhelmed me with yeast varieties, temperature charts, this, that and the other thing. [BTW, Ed is an Engineer which might help explain his approach to making wine.] I got totally turned off to the idea of making my own wine.

About 8 month ago it happened that I renewed an old friendship. John is also a wine maker. In the course of a conversation with John I mentioned how I had once considered starting making my own wine but was turned off by how involved and technical Ed made it sound to me. John assured me it needn't be that involved and that he'd get me started after the holidays. John said he even had enough extra equipment of his own to where he could set me up with enough to make my first batch of wine. John recommended we start with a wine kit to keep things simple. January rolled in and true to his word John got me started with my first kit. He and now I do business with Maltose Express, a home brew and wine making supplies business, located in nearby Monroe, CT.

Degassing has been/is the hurdle for me. It seems that no matter how long I've stirred with the drill driven paddle I still spend about 10 days pumping out co2 with one of those small wine bottle hand vacuum pumps. With this last batch of wine I tried pumping with a cheap brake bleeder pump from Harbor Freight but found that the wine bottle pump actually worked better. Not a biggie I guess but a part of the process that I'd like to accomplish more efficiently.

Any way, I feel I've learned a lot in the past 6 months and hope to continue to learn more. This forum has already been helpful as I've found my way here a number of times as the result of Google or Bing searches on wine making topics.

Take care,
Bill

 

[Julie]

Hi Bill

Welcome to winemakingtalk. I'm glad you had a friend who talked you into this, it is only as hard as you make it to be. And for degassing, let your wines age some before degassing. I degass after I rack my wine for the 2nd time.

 

[Runningwolf]

Welcome to WMT.

 

[Sammyk]

Welcome Aboard!

You need to invest in the All in One Vacuum pump. Maybe you and your friend if he is close enough could split the cost. Honestly the de-gassing drove us both nuts and we were ready to quit making wine. It will make you life so much easier. Now we would not even consider racking or bottling with out it. Look for the thread about the pump and read the reviews. Steve the owner is just awesome with help and quick to reply back.

 

[wood1954]

I totally agree the vacuum pump method of racking will lead to much better wine. Steve's system is very well thought out and easy to use. It never made much sense to me to stir in all that air into the wine before bottling it. Get a bicycle CO2 tire filler and you can also sparge your carboys and bottles as well.

 

[cimbaliw]

Welcome Bill, glad you're here. I've come to the conclusion in my short 7 month wine making tenure that if degassing is a hassle, fermentation may not be done. In the wise words of my dear ol' Dad, "just let it come to you." Great narrative introduction, by the way.

Bill C.

 

[Fordguy]

Welcome aboard Bill, winemaking can be as technical as you make it. I find that I just make something (Peach, blackberry, watermelon etc) that I am interested in, then do my best effort. Blackberry was a great success, watermelon was a failure....no big deal just learn from it and move on.

There are some very knowledgeable folks here and they are friendly as well.

 

[bkisel]

Thank you so much for your warm welcomes, advice and encouragement.

I've got a few questions; I'll see if they can be answered by using the forum's search engine. I'll post to the appropriate forum ifin I can't find the answers through a search.

Thanks again...

 

[AKsarben]

Don't worry about equipment to degas wine. I won 1st places a LOT out at the Boeing Employees Winemakers Club in Seattle when I worked for Boeing and never degassed. Let it come to room temperature and rack. The colder it is the more it holds dissolved gasses. At the winery we even introduced a bit of CO2 to our newest wine, a wine called Vino Verde *meaning "Green Wine". It is from wine grapes picked before ripe, usually white, fermented without sugar additions and bottled with a spritz of CO2. A light refreshing drink in some countries. I would not worry about CO2 in the wine. It will come out. We makes tens of thousands of wine at our winery and we rarely worry about CO2 gas. Only when we try to bottle cold wine that is new into the bottling season. Then all we do it put it into the bottling tank several days ahead to warm up. It has to do with the filler machine and wine overflowing on the carousel while filling. It even gets a "spritz" of CO2 just before filling.

 

[DaveL]

Welcome to the forum. I'm sure you'll find all the answers you need here. Often however there are several different answers, none more right then the other, and you you will need to decide what works best for you. Degassing is a great example. You can stir for hours or wait for months. Both will work.
I think I have been guilty of overwhelming new winemakers. I have led several people into the hobby nut in my exuberance to share my new passion I may have overloaded them with info and scared the bejeebas out of them. It can be as simple or as consuming as you want it to be. Lately I just answer any questions asked and try to lead them to this site where they can decide for themselves how deep they want to go. Then I just try to share in their exitement with them.
Good luck