Pages: 1
All Natural Wine?
Hey guys. I want to get into the world of wine making, as I am a beer brewer and would like to learn as much as possible. Coming from the world of beer, wine seems awfully... chemically. Potassium metabisulfite, Sodium benzoate, Potasium Sorbate, Glycerin finishing, anti foam powder, Lysozome? Can I not just choose my grapes, yeast, and maybe yeast nutrient, and just ferment it into wine? Something tells me they didn't have all these products a few thousand years ago so why does it seem every recipe I see uses some cocktail of chemicals?
I really appreciate any help you uys can offer.
No, they didn't have those chemicals back in Roman Days, but wine also didn't last more than a week and they were just drinking that because the water was too dirty and would give you cholora.
From what I immagine, these ingredients were designed and cultured over the years because they made the wine better and last longer. Do you need them, not definatley, but you'll have extremely dry, cloudy wine that will give you the worst hangover you've ever had. You can probably simplify a bit, stick with pectic enzyme to clear and potasseum sorbate to stop fermentation so you can have a sweeter wine that isn't fizzy and won't blow the corks out of the bottle.
Remember the Romans stored their wine in crock pots and do you really want to do that too? The ingredients evolved because the wine evolved as did we. If you really wanted to go old old school don't even pitch yeast, just use the wild yeast in the grapes. If there are more experienced wine makers that have ideas and disagree pitch in, but I think if you want to learn wine it's just the nature of the beast. Sorry it's not what you wanted to hear, wine is complicated. I'd stick with cider...pitch the yeast with some sugar and forget it for 3 months...drink...
not as bad as it sounds. just takes longer to get a drinkable product.
some recipes call to pour hot water over fruit to sanitize the fruit. i just add fruit to water and sugar and add 1 camped tablet per gallon of water to kill bacteria. Then wait 24 hours. add yeast. directions are pretty easy to follow.
When wine is done and ready to bottle i stabilize the wine with Potassium sorbate. then bottle. if you backsweeten the wine you'll need to kill the yeast to prevent refermentation, add campden tablets to do that or you can backsweeten with Splenda, it won't ferment.
Lots of times i just use bread yeast to ferment the wine and backsweeten to taste as the breadyeast will ferment it dry. works great and people never knew i used bread yeast.
i'll be making an elderberry wine from canned concentrate soon. It's ready to drink in 3 months but tastes better if you let it sit longer. i just follow directions on the can. simple. no fruit pulp or skin to get rid of.
DC
sewer_urchen wrote:
No, they didn't have those chemicals back in Roman Days, but wine also didn't last more than a week and they were just drinking that because the water was too dirty and would give you cholora.
From what I immagine, these ingredients were designed and cultured over the years because they made the wine better and last longer. Do you need them, not definatley, but you'll have extremely dry, cloudy wine that will give you the worst hangover you've ever had. You can probably simplify a bit, stick with pectic enzyme to clear and potasseum sorbate to stop fermentation so you can have a sweeter wine that isn't fizzy and won't blow the corks out of the bottle.
Remember the Romans stored their wine in crock pots and do you really want to do that too? The ingredients evolved because the wine evolved as did we. If you really wanted to go old old school don't even pitch yeast, just use the wild yeast in the grapes. If there are more experienced wine makers that have ideas and disagree pitch in, but I think if you want to learn wine it's just the nature of the beast. Sorry it's not what you wanted to hear, wine is complicated. I'd stick with cider...pitch the yeast with some sugar and forget it for 3 months...drink...
potassium sorbate won't stop fermentation once it has started but it will prevent it from starting. Campden tablets will stop and prevent fermentation but leave a weird taste short term. I use both. camped tablets to sterilize the fruit and water, then again if I backsweeten with sugar. Sorbate i use to stabilize but you need ot be sure your fermentation is done.
DC
e_mott09 wrote:
Hey guys. I want to get into the world of wine making, as I am a beer brewer and would like to learn as much as possible. Coming from the world of beer, wine seems awfully... chemically. Potassium metabisulfite, Sodium benzoate, Potasium Sorbate, Glycerin finishing, anti foam powder, Lysozome? Can I not just choose my grapes, yeast, and maybe yeast nutrient, and just ferment it into wine? Something tells me they didn't have all these products a few thousand years ago so why does it seem every recipe I see uses some cocktail of chemicals?
I really appreciate any help you uys can offer.
Sodium benzoate, Glycerin finishing, anti foam powder, Lysozome.
Potassium metabisulfite is campden tablets. that and Potasium Sorbate i use, the rest i've never used and I make a lot if wine. you could try to make wine without the camped tablets and sorbet but your risking getting a big batch of sour wine or vinegar. start out simple and work your way up. i'd advise getting a can of fruit concentrate, not puree, and follow the directions on the can for your first batch.
DC
you could go the easy way... 1 can welch's grape juice concentrate, 1/2 gallon water, 3-4 cups sugar and bread yeast. no weird chemicals, and it's ready to drink in 3 weeks. of course this isn't going to get you a wine that tastes like something that costs $50 a bottle, but it is drinkable.
Hogarthe wrote:
you could go the easy way... 1 can welch's grape juice concentrate, 1/2 gallon water, 3-4 cups sugar and bread yeast. no weird chemicals, and it's ready to drink in 3 weeks. of course this isn't going to get you a wine that tastes like something that costs $50 a bottle, but it is drinkable.
If you are going to go that route, you might as well do it in a toilet bowl and start calling your wife warden.
deafcone wrote:
potassium sorbate won't stop fermentation once it has started but it will prevent it from starting. Campden tablets will stop and prevent fermentation but leave a weird taste short term. I use both. camped tablets to sterilize the fruit and water, then again if I backsweeten with sugar. Sorbate i use to stabilize but you need ot be sure your fermentation is done.
DC
The sorbate won't kill the yeast but will stop fermentation by making the yeast unable to reproduce. If you add the recomended ammount of potasseum sorbate and give it two days for the existing yeast to peter out and die you won't have any more fermentation. Done it with apple wine many times (and that's with backsweetening) and ended up with some great still wine. Never used campden tablets and the corks haven't budged in 6 months. If you use the Sorbate while the yeast is still extremely active than yes, the ammount of yeast floating around will out-do the sorbate, but that's only in situations where you're cutting the wine off short and not letting it ferment out in the primary.
And what brewchez said made me LMFAO. Cheers brewchez, nothing like wine fermented in a radiator to make the harbor hogs come to the party!
Pages: 1
Search Home Brewing Knowledge Base
Custom Search
|