Home Brew

February 18, 2008 | by Jason Bordley | Wine Making

I’m excited to say that yesterday marked my entry into the world of wine making. Well, at least actually making the wine myself. The reason I say that is because my actual first experience was about a year ago. My wife had purchased me a wine making package at a nearby wine school that allowed you to go through the process of wine making (de-stemming, crushing, racking, bottling, etc.) at their facility. However, they handled all the technical stuff. Which in my opinion is where all the fun and gratification is at. This was still a cool gift though because the owners were knowledgeable and were able to answer all the questions that I had about the wine making process. Not to mention they had plenty of wine for us to “experience” while we were there. But still, I wanted that hands on experience. I wanted to be able to monitor the fermentation process, say when it was ready to rack, make the decision on how sweet or dry it should be.

So this past Christmas my wife bought me a home wine making kit so I could have this experience. The kit is your typical starter kit that included equipment and juice. The juice that came with the was called California Trinity Red. Which is your standard Bordeaux/Meritage blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. It didn’t state the varietal ratios, which would be nice to know. So after reading a few books and websites on wine making, and thoroughly reading the kit’s insturctions, I started my first batch. It was definitely a learning experience from the start.

First the lid that came with my kit was pre-drilled for an air lock. The problem was half the sites I read stated that you should not use an air lock on the primary fermentation vessel and that air was a very important part of the first fermentation process. The other half (including a book I had picked up) stated to use the air lock and that you shouldn’t let air come in contact during the primary fermentation process (or any of the fermentation processes). So I called the brew shop where the kit came from and they said to use the air lock.

Next I sanitized all my equipment and got all my necessary tools together. I added my juice, only to have a piece of card board from the box it was in fall into the the juice. I picked the cardboard out, but now there were little floaties in the juice. I removed what I could, so hopefully its not contaminated. They tell you EVERYWHERE that contamination is the cause of bad wine for most home wine makers. I checked my gravity level, which gives you the sugar and potential alcohol level, and it was right where it needed to be.

My juice kit came with french oak chips to give it an oak flavor. I poured them in and gave it a good stir. I added my yeast and put on the lid. Now I wait.

So far this morning theres not much action going on. The air lock is just starting to show signs of fermentation action (meaning bubbling in the air lock). The instructions say it takes 24-48 hours for the process to really get going.