Thoughts

[Dend78]

First off I will say hello! I just stumbled into the idea of making wine and thought I would give it a shot. This is my first time trying something like this so I chose to go the super cheap method. Currently I have two batches going, small batches 1/2 gallon, one is blueberry the other is peach.

first the peach

1 can peach slices in heavy syrup
roughly 1.5lbs sugar (may be a lil heavy here)
Bakers yeast

My initial plans were to let this ferment for roughly 7-10 days strain and drink, but I think after more research I am looking at something along the lines of letting it run out until fermentation is complete the transferring to a carboy for a secondary for about a week. From there I was thinking of back sweetening with juice after adding some sorbate and a pinch of metabisulfite. Im not worried about color and clarity right now I am going for a fair A% and with a sweet flavor.


second Blueberry

fresh blueberries roughly 1lb (lightly blended)
roughly 1lb of sugar
bakers yeast

I am thinking along the same lines with this as I am with the peach.

As for numbers I have none to give you because i started this all without a hydrometer for lack of a better term Im redneckin my first two batches. Any thoughts, ideas, criticism or anything?

Also one question does the fruit ever sink back to the bottom?


Dend78

 

[SpoiledRotten]

First of all, I'm not a seasoned winemaker but you aren't going to have much of a fruity taste with the little bit of fruit you are working with. The norm is about 6# per gallon for fruit wine. It will be a good experiment for you, but to be honest, I found a "really simple" recipe for beginner wine is not always the best. I thought that simple recipe I started with was so simple that I may as well make 35 gallons to start off with. I ended up pouring 35 gallons of vinegar down the drain!

Good luck with it. There's a great group of people with many years of experience. There's not a question you ask that several here won't be able to give you a perfect answer to. Ask away!

Oh, and welcome to the board!

 

[Dend78]

thanks!

the lack of taste was the reason I thought about back sweetening with some Jumex peach nectar for the peach and some store bought blueberry juice (ocean spray or whatever) for the blueberry so I can regain the fruit flavor and the sweet all at the same time. all i know is the first 2 batches make me nervous, the color on the peach wine is terrible, it looks like sugar water, the blueberry though looks awesome

 

[juventude]

You will end up with some thing, nothing near to wine, ... Why you dont try a cheap kit to begin with... Personally i never done one and still learning from my mistakes... But you know if you dont have a clue better to invest in something that at the end you can even try to enjoy..

At least not on the chips as a condiment

 

[olusteebus]

If that does not work out for you, look into making a gallon of Blackberry Jam wine. You will find the recipe here someplace. Do you have equipment.

 

[Dend78]

HAHA, yeah i wasnt shooting for something worth mass producing on my first try, hence the reason i only made 1/2 gallons instead of loading up a couple of 6 gallon carboys, like i said i kinda just fell into the idea, coulda been when i was under the influence of another alcoholic beverage i dont remember.

 

[Dend78]

If that does not work out for you, look into making a gallon of Blackberry Jam wine. You will find the recipe here someplace. Do you have equipment.

none yet, i did go pick up a hydrometer and test tube, gonna grab a small carboy probably a 3 gallon, and a good bucket and raise hell from there. i already told my wife i am thinking of taking up a small portion of a closet that just catches shoes and stuff down stairs, she seemed thrilled

blackberry was actually one of the next ones i was gonna try, depending on how the monsters i have going now turn out.

 

[Duster]

Welcome, Sounds like your on your way.
do not let the flavor and color of your Peach and blueberry discourage you. A kit would be strongly recommended for a beginner however I learned (and still learning) the same way you are.
Kinda sounds like your making prison hooch instead of wine, but hey if you don't live and learn you will always ask yourself "what if".
I would invest in a small equipment kit to get you started like this one http://www.midwestsupplies.com/1-gallon-wine-from-fruit-kit.html This will get you the basics, and you can grow from there.
Good luck and as stated before, search this form or ask a question, you can find the answer to just about anything related to wine making.
P.S. your gonna need a bigger closet

 

[cpfan]

There are a lot of one gallon recipes available (books, internet, etc). These recipes require certain wine making additives (eg wine yeast, yeast nutrient) that will help you to make a decent wine on your early attempts. While just using bakers yeast and a fruit source may seem cheap, it also may produce a result that is not very good, thus discouraging the beginning wine maker.

I strongly recommend finding a 1 gallon recipe that uses fruits or juices that are available to you. This should deliver a pleasnat experience, and encourage you to continue. One source of recipes is the recipes section of this forum.
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f2/

Steve

 

[Dend78]

Welcome, Sounds like your on your way.
do not let the flavor and color of your Peach and blueberry discourage you. A kit would be strongly recommended for a beginner however I learned (and still learning) the same way you are.
Kinda sounds like your making prison hooch instead of wine, but hey if you don't live and learn you will always ask yourself "what if".
I would invest in a small equipment kit to get you started like this one http://www.midwestsupplies.com/1-gallon-wine-from-fruit-kit.html This will get you the basics, and you can grow from there.
Good luck and as stated before, search this form or ask a question, you can find the answer to just about anything related to wine making.
P.S. your gonna need a bigger closet

Prison Hooch is pretty well what it is, simple to start with may not be the best ever but its a start, i was thinking of a kit but i hate starting out the easy way, seem to miss some of the moments. definately got the bug though, already planning my next trip to the fermentation store down the street.

There are a lot of one gallon recipes available (books, internet, etc). These recipes require certain wine making additives (eg wine yeast, yeast nutrient) that will help you to make a decent wine on your early attempts. While just using bakers yeast and a fruit source may seem cheap, it also may produce a result that is not very good, thus discouraging the beginning wine maker.

I strongly recommend finding a 1 gallon recipe that uses fruits or juices that are available to you. This should deliver a pleasnat experience, and encourage you to continue. One source of recipes is the recipes section of this forum.
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f2/

Steve

Thanks for the addvice guys already been tooling around looking at different things around here and ive already learned a ton.


On a side note i opened up my jugs this evening and stirred them up pushing the fruit down, good news it smells like wine although the blueberry still has great color they both smell better than some cheap wines (aka ) ive drank in the past.

 

[bg7mm]

do like i did, go big go big man, buy about 2,000.00 of equipment, buy a bunch of wine kits, stop at every fruit stand you can find, go to the grocery store and empty the freezer section of frozen fruit, put a mad scientist attitude in you and get to brewing. what works you save in a log book, what don't work you dump in the wifes hedges. wroks great as a week killer too in my opinion, on a plus, you'll have all kinds of critters walking around in your yard at night searching for the source of the smell. are you an animal lover?

besides, what your gonna do with a half gallon of wine? buy yourself a 500 gallon tank, add 3000 pounds of fruit, 12 pounds of yeast and stand back, once it's all done then you can have a party

just kidding, get yourself a wine kit, as simple as it is it teaches you the basics of wine making, spend alot of time on this forum and pay attention to the knowledge you gain here, follow what others tell you or what you read and you'll be fine. it's an addicting hobby, i'm on my second bottle of blackberry/blueberry while watching the olympics. after that second bottle i think i can beat micheal phealps in the 200 meter freestyle or that may just be the wine talking

 

[keena]

Wine kit would probly be your best bet, they always have turned out for me. Otherwise I would say do frozen welches concentrate

 

[Boatboy24]

I say kit too. I'm a mere 7 batches into this hobby - 5 have been kits. One was triple berry skeeter pee from a recipe, and the last was peach made from fresh fruit with a recipe i came up with (along with some help from some members here). It's addicting, but starting with a kit will teach you the basics and give you an idea of what to expect during the process. And your odds of success are pretty high.

 

[Dend78]

looks like a kit is where i need to look next i guess

thanks for the advice guys

do like i did, go big go big man, buy about 2,000.00 of equipment, buy a bunch of wine kits, stop at every fruit stand you can find, go to the grocery store and empty the freezer section of frozen fruit, put a mad scientist attitude in you and get to brewing......

thats what i want to do but the warden seems to think otherwise

are you an animal lover?

yes they are delicious!



here is a question for you all i haven't searched this yet but has anyone used Monin syrup's? just saw it and thought hey what better way to back sweeten than with peach and blueberry flavored syrup's rather than the crap juices.

 

[keena]

I know alot of chocolate wines use the chocolate monnin syrup in the recipe so I was actually gunna try a few other flavors myself

 

[SpoiledRotten]

Good luck, again! It's fun and tossing a little wine isn't so bad at first. The wife and I absolutely love my wine now. We haven't bought a bottle in about a year now. I make it just to suite our taste. You can't get that from a wine store!

 

[Dend78]

thats what I am going for with this, i stopped by ther fermintation store and loaded up on stuff, so now im really invested in this here and I havent even tried the other stuff I got going.

acutally speaking of the stuff i have going im shocked its still going as well as it is, im using bakers yeast and im on day 8 for the peach and its still going at a bubble every 1 - 1.5 seconds, i figured by now it would be done but i guess not.

 

[Dend78]

well just an update here,

Peach wine (AKA sugar water with peaches floating at the top)
after 8 days i put this in a secondary, and no further fermentation, went ahead and added some sorbate, and started back sweeting with Juice, 24oz added and wow what a great batch of unflavored wine. you get the initial wine taste and thats it, so 12oz of clover honey and some warm water to thin out the honey and bam we got something worth drinking now. first bit right after adding the honey was sweeter but still not my favorite, I let it sit for about 2 or 3 hours and tried it again and wow, its actually tasting good at least to me. especially since i was expecting something terrible, im going to let it sit in the gallon jug for a while then bottle.

Blueberry wine
after 7 days this was ready to be moved (or i was ready to move it...whatever lol) color looks great smell is very good. i plan to taste first then backsweeten this once im sure its done. didnt even try this with the above mixture something about drinking snow white liquid just didnt sit right with me.

 

[southlake333]

do like i did, go big go big man, buy about 2,000.00 of equipment, buy a bunch of wine kits, stop at every fruit stand you can find, go to the grocery store and empty the freezer section of frozen fruit, put a mad scientist attitude in you and get to brewing. what works you save in a log book, what don't work you dump in the wifes hedges. wroks great as a week killer too in my opinion, on a plus, you'll have all kinds of critters walking around in your yard at night searching for the source of the smell. are you an animal lover?

besides, what your gonna do with a half gallon of wine? buy yourself a 500 gallon tank, add 3000 pounds of fruit, 12 pounds of yeast and stand back, once it's all done then you can have a party

OMG...best advice ever!

 

[southlake333]

looks like a kit is where i need to look next i guess

Yeah, if you're just starting out and really want to learn the process, a kit will be your best bet. All the ingredients are provided and the steps are all laid out for you. Once you have a kit under your belt, everything you read on here will make a bit more sense. Then its time to tap into that inner mad scientist!