Hey Bruce… I had to join membership again just to find out about this post… heh… not that I wont enjoy the rest of the SDMB.
This thread inspired me to do my own wine making. Several years ago I tried to brew beer via the “Mr Beer” contraption sold everywhere. It sucked though I only tried it once. I realized I still had that in the closet somewhere with airlock and tap and 2 1/5 gallon fermenter. I bought 5 white grape concentrates and some Champaine yeast and yeast nutrient from my brew shop. In two days it was bubbling like mad. Only 2 weeks later there were very few bubbles… a week later the same so I got some clearifying (fining) solution from my brew shop and 48 hours later racked 4 two liter bottles of white wine. Heh… a week later I broke down and bought some real wine bottles and corks and a corker and tranfered it into 10 bottles of wine with a nice amount for me to taste left over. Its definatly wine, lol… not much charicter or body but definatly high alcholol content (probably from my choice of yeast). Im letting it age for a month or two then taste it again.
last weekend I started another batch… this time 5 concentrates of white grape/peach (100% juice) and two of mixed berry concentrate. Used a regular white wine yeast and some toasted french oak wood chips to give the taste of wine barreling… its bubbling like mad now… I’ll let you know… heh.
I wish you well with that. I’ve never had good luck with white wine myself. The last time I tried it tasted very bad so I waited an entire year before trying it again. It still tasted like roach-killer.
I am simply amazed at how long the simple baker’s yeast is going. It’s well over 4 weeks now, and everytime I think it’s settling down it just gets stronger. I don’t even have to open the cabinet door, I can hear it. Blop…Blop…Blop. Constantly and consistently since the day it started.
I was sure I would have some by Christmas, but maybe not. That’s ok, I’m going to be patient, especially with attempt #1.
