At-home winemaking

[yiostheoy]

I picked up a great book on at-home winemaking and after reading it cover to cover, have made several batches of wine at home.

Homemade wine tastes so much better than store bought wine because it is not loaded with chemicals.

I have made several batches of strawberry wine already, and now I am fermenting my first batch of cherry wine.

There are special yeasts for everything, and I got a specific fruit wine yeast at the brewing store for this batch of mash which I am trying out.

The cherries were easy -- I got frozen ones at the local food store. These are already pitted.

So I blended the cherries in a blender with bottled water, added sugar, and boiled it in a covered pot.

After cooling it in the fridge, I added the yeast starter solution which was already foaming nicely, proof the yeasts were alive.

Now it is all mixed together in my 2 gallon fermentation vat.

Fruit wines have a tendency to start foaming like a volcano for the first 2 or 3 days so you cannot lock down the lid of the vat. You need to keep it closed lightly and then stir the mash a couple of times each day. Then when the foaming stage finishes you can lock down the lid and add water to the air lock. The air lock will then bubble at the rate of 1 breath every 5 seconds for the next several weeks.

After 2 to 3 weeks the wine will be finished and ready to siphon, pasteurize, and bottle.

My strawberry wines tasted really good, so I am looking forward to finding out what this cherry batch will taste like.

Berry wines normally do not need to be aged. They can be drank right away. Grape wines normally need to be aged for about a month before they taste good.

"Making your own" is a fun hobby and a back to nature activity.

Wine and Philosophy go together naturally. And natural home made wine is perfect for any dinner or Philosophy session.

If anyone else here home brews I would like to hear about it.

[yiostheoy]

The first few days of a fruit wine mash fermentation is volcanic.

The pulp from the fruit in the mash floats to the top from the carbonic action of the yeasts gobbling the sugar and giving off CO2 gas.

This gas attaches to the pulp and floats it to the top of the mash. It then forms a mushroom-like cap of jam.

This cap is then pushed up by further continuous bubbling of the yeast, which forms a foam under the cap and above the liquid mash.

The gas pressure of this foaming from the breakdown of the sugar in the mash to alcohol and CO2 pushes the cap all the way up the sides of the vat, and if you have a lid firmly attached it will explode. That's why you cannot fix the lid into place during the first few hours.

This morning when my cat woke me up at 5:30 a.m. as usual to feed him and let him go outside to play, I could see that the foam was already oozing out of the vat where the lid was loosely laid on top of the vat.

So I lifted off the lid, rinsed it off, skimmed off the jam cap and foam with a big plastic spoon and disposed of it in the other sink.

Then I stirred the mash some more and it foamed even more. This is a very good sign that the yeasts are alive and well and working hard to make alcohol out of sugar.

This volcanic foaming will continue for a few days, during which time I will need to skim it and remove it again.

The mash has a fresh cherry dessert scent to it right now. Eventually this will change to a cherry beer aroma from the yeasts, and then finally after a couple of weeks of fermenting it will smell like red wine. By then the air lock will have stopped "breathing" and that will tell me fermentation is complete.

So for the first night (6 hours) of the fermentation process everything has gone peachy keen. Peachy keen is a 1950's expression meaning A-OK. A-OK is a 1960's expression from the space race which superseded it.

Back in the 1950's I was tabula rasa gathering data Empirically about my environment while riding my bike around the immediate neighborhood as a little kid. Back in those days everything was fascinating -- worms in the rain -- and butterflies and bugs -- catching bees was big game hunting back then because it could get you stung. Children are collectors of bugs and beetles and things. I remember collecting a jar of snails and putting it into the fridge to keep it cold. My mom and the maid were both appalled.

That's when I learned Rule #1 -- don't put snails in the refrigerator.

Rule #2 soon followed -- don't play with fire.

The tabula rasa quickly filled itself up nicely.

Needless to say I have since become an Empiricist Philosopher but who also accepts the 4 classic proofs of God: (1) First Cause, (2) Prime Mover, (3) Artistic Artificer, and (4) Purposeful Designer. The "ontological argument" of "just because I can conceive of a God must mean there is one" does not resonate for me however -- it seems like more of an argument for Santa Claus and the Tooth Faerie. Anti-Theists love to pick on the ontological argument because it is the weakest link in Theism ... or Deism. I am really a Deist -- I having observed that God seems to be like a giant clock maker. He came, He saw, He made the clock, and then He chose to disappear into seclusion as the ants and people did their thing here on Earth and wherever else He may have planted them.

As far as home winemaking the tabula rasa is quite thoroughly complete by now although with every day I still learn something new:

- sterilize everything first with chlorine bleach spray and rinse thoroughly with hot water;

- boil everything first covered to sterilize the mash and the starter mix and let it cool to room temp in the fridge before adding the yeast;

- 2 tablespoons of wine yeast with 1 1/2 cups of cooled boiled water and 6 oz of sugar for the starter culture;

- after couple of hours when the starter culture is foaming, add this to the mash in a food grade fermentation vat, stir, cover, and let set;

- you need a metal thermometer to measure all the temperatures and make sure 80F (27C) has been achieved before you add the yeast;

- after several hours of fermentation skim off the volcanic foaming and jam from the fruit pulp and stir the mixture;

- repeat this process for the first few days;

- after volcanic foaming has finished, tighten the lid and add a shot of water to the air lock mechanism to keep oxygen out;

- after 2 to 3 weeks, siphon the wine off the dregs and then pasteurize and cool it;

- siphon it a second time into bottles and chill it in the fridge;

- keep home made wine chilled in the fridge and drink it within a few weeks.

Best wine you will ever taste! You cannot buy its like in the stores.

Homemade wine goes best with a home cooked meal of hunted venison, home grown carrots, and home grown corn.

You can use some of the wine to make a gravy with the meat too.

Life Is Good -- optimistically speaking!

I am always happiest whenever I am making a new batch of new wine at home.

[henry quirk]

https://www.yuppiegadgets.com/product-c ... ne-making/

[Dalek Prime]

Yio, try red currants. My parents used to make this stunning wine out of them.

[Harbal]

Back in the 1950's I was tabula rasa gathering data Empirically about my environment while riding my bike around the immediate neighborhood as a little kid. Back in those days everything was fascinating -- worms in the rain -- and butterflies and bugs -- catching bees was big game hunting back then because it could get you stung. Children are collectors of bugs and beetles and things. I remember collecting a jar of snails and putting it into the fridge to keep it cold. My mom and the maid were both appalled.

This is supposed to be a philosophy forum, not a platform for your autobiography. I think you're more Facebook than philosophy.

[Hobbes' Choice]

I'm really horrified to learn that this guy was alive in the 1950s. I'd excused his ignorance and weirdness believing to be YOUNG: a kid on too much sensi, or never having eaten real food. - with hope left to reform and repair.
Now I learn he's just an old alcoholic.

[yiostheoy]

Tabula rasa is fundamental to Empiricism.

Only someone who knows nothing about philosophy would not know that.

[yiostheoy]

Yio, try red currants. My parents used to make this stunning wine out of them.

Ok thanks. I'll try to find the fruit to make that next time around.

As of right now my cherry wine is still volcanically erupting and I will need to skim off more foam from it.

This will go on for several more days.

It is the early stages of a typical fruit wine fermentation.

Honey wine does not do this.

[Harbal]

Ok thanks. I'll try to find the fruit to make that next time around.

As of right now my cherry wine is still volcanically erupting and I will need to skim off more foam from it.

This will go on for several more days.

It is the early stages of a typical fruit wine fermentation.

Honey wine does not do this.

This is riveting, I can't wait to hear what happens next.

PS. Have you ever tried making tabula rasa wine? They say the bouquet is dominated by elements of pretentiousness with subtle undertones of prattishness.

[yiostheoy]

Ok thanks. I'll try to find the fruit to make that next time around.

As of right now my cherry wine is still volcanically erupting and I will need to skim off more foam from it.

This will go on for several more days.

It is the early stages of a typical fruit wine fermentation.

Honey wine does not do this.

This is riveting, I can't wait to hear what happens next.

PS. Have you ever tried making tabula rasa wine? They say the bouquet is dominated by elements of pretentiousness with subtle undertones of prattishness.

Tabula rasa applies to any Empirical process -- including at home winemaking.

[Harbal]

Tabula rasa applies to any Empirical process -- including at home winemaking.

You can keep repeating "tabula rasa" till the cows come home but I'm determined not to google it. I don't want to be the type of person that knows what it means, I want to preserve my self respect..

[yiostheoy]

Tabula rasa applies to any Empirical process -- including at home winemaking.

You can keep repeating "tabula rasa" till the cows come home but I'm determined not to google it. I don't want to be the type of person that knows what it means, I want to preserve my self respect..

Jeeze you are dumb. Especially for someone on a Philosophy forum.

[yiostheoy]

Currently at T+12 hours since I mixed the yeast starter solution with the cherry mash last night, the fermentation is still going at a volcanic rate.

The foam from the mash pushed up through my air lock and blew off the cap.

So I had to remove the air lock so that the foam could escape through the quarter sized hole in the lid to the 2 gallon vat.

The vat is still in the kitchen sink so that the foam can run off and into the sink rather than all over the counter top and onto the floor.

For fruit wines, this is typical.

If you have never made your own wine at home you are missing out on a great experience and the best tasting wine on this Earth.

Dalek's mom and dad were cool !! They made their own wine at home too.

Good wine is on the short list of things worth living for and experiencing on this Earth during this life.

[Harbal]

Currently at T+12 hours since I mixed the yeast starter solution with the cherry mash last night, the fermentation is still going at a volcanic rate.

Wanker.

The foam from the mash pushed up through my air lock and blew off the cap.

That does tend to be a consequence of being a wanker.

The vat is still in the kitchen sink so that the foam can run off and into the sink rather than all over the counter top and onto the floor.

You store it in a vat? In the kitchen? For God's sake man, just wipe it up with a tissue and throw it away.

[yiostheoy]

Currently at T+12 hours since I mixed the yeast starter solution with the cherry mash last night, the fermentation is still going at a volcanic rate.

Wanker.

The foam from the mash pushed up through my air lock and blew off the cap.

That does tend to be a consequence of being a wanker.

The vat is still in the kitchen sink so that the foam can run off and into the sink rather than all over the counter top and onto the floor.

You store it in a vat? In the kitchen? For God's sake man, just wipe it up with a tissue and throw it away.

Your wanking habit is not applicable to wine making.

The kitchen sink is the best place for a new batch of wine in any size fermenter, whether 2 gallon or 5 gallon.

Jeeze get a life. And stop wanking -- it will make you go blind -- or so they say.

You need to find yourself a girl mate -- as Johnny Depp would say in Pirates Of The Caribbean.