I have brewed beer twice. The first batch was rancid piss water and the second turned out decently - it was an amber bach beer in which I cooked my own hops and barley and all that.
Now I have my sights set on wine and have been researching it thouroughly. I can’t tell if it is easier or more difficult than brewing beer due to the various opinions I’ve recieved, so I’d like yours. I know that it can become as complicated as you want to make it. I’d love to make a Merlot or any dry red wine.
Have any of you made wine and have your first batch turn out? Any recipes you’r reccommend? I have brewed beer, so I know a little. I just want to know how probable it is to end up with a good batch.
I’ve used 4 wk and 6 wk kits with great success. It’s actually easier than beer, in that you pour the juice/concentrate mixture into your plastic fermenter, add water and come back in a few days rack it, come back in a few days drop in some stuff, come back in a few days bottle. No boiling, chilling, racking etc. I would suggest a filter when bottling though. Hazy beer is fine but hazy wine…not that great.
Now kit differences come down to the amount of raw juice present. The 4wk kits have more concentrate than juice and need to be consumed young. The 6 wk kits take longer to mellow out but you can still drink them whenever. I’ve never bothered with pure juice kits (20l).
I’ve only made wine from kits. Coward’s method, I suppose, but it did work, and it meant no further expenditure and mess with buying tons of grapes and mashing them up etc, in tiny kitchen.
I think it would be more sort of clever and satisfying to do it form scratch, but the kit method still lets you try it, and learn as you go along, and, as I say, does work nicely.
When I was a kid, my dad and I gathered up all the dandelions in our lower garden and made wine from them. We had a bumper crop and made close to 7 gallons of the stuff. It’s a taste (and a buzz) I will never forget. We made it all from scratch – I helped with notation and filtering, as well as preparing the mash – and two of the batches were significantly better than the rest.
The product of this experiment: it’s easy to make wine if you have the space and the materials. You should also keep very accurate notes and try making several different batches from the same mash, using different strengths, amounts, types of sugars and yeasts. Also, let the different batches age in different environments. You’ll be most pleased with the results.