While I do not drink alcohol routinely, I started to ferment my own wine at home as a spiritual practice in homage to the autumn equinox. This article explains how to prepare the wine, even with options for anyone without any special wine making equipment or ingredients.
- Here is a comprehensive list of ingredients and equipment that you will need
- Select or make a juice
- Beetroot juice, strained
- 1 part in weight grated beetroot with skin (for tannins in the skin) to 2 parts of water.
- Optional additions: lemon zest, a dash of lemon juice, tannins (See details about tannins below). Simmer for roughly 45 minutes. Sift and discard away solids.
- Homogenously combine sugar. Use one of the following method.
- For a more scientific way of calculating the amount of sugar to add using specific gravity (SG), use a hydrometer. See how in this third party video.
- 1 part sugar to 4 parts unsweetened fruit juice. If you do not have a hydrometer, this is a rule of thumb.
- Optional. Measure the starting specific gravity (SG). Note the SG on the label. This will be compared with the end SG to calculate the alcoholic value.
- Label the fermentation jug with details like the date, fruit type, starting specific gravity.
- Optional. Add pectic enzyme to render the wine crystal clear. The enzyme consumes the pectins in juice that can make wine cloudy. The enzyme is particularly useful for full fruit juices (ie juices made with all of the fruit pulp). You can add this either at the start of end of the fermentation process. However, when adding at the start, you need to use half the amount of what you will need at the end.
- 0.5 tsp pectic enzyme per 1 usg of juice (if added at the start of fermentation)
- (A natural source of pectic acid is citrus fruits and apples)
- Optional. Add tannin. Tannins are responsible for the health benefits in wine because they contain antioxidants. Antioxidants combat free radical cell damage, thereby helping to combat cancer, heart disease and other health problems. Tannins are natural polyphenols that are typically found in plants, bark and fruit skins. This is why adding fruit skin to your must (the juice at the start of fermentation) is a good idea. The consumption experience is a dry sensation and lasting bitterness. Despite the initial turn off, people generally acquire the taste for tannins in wine. Very tannic wines can give some people headaches. However, well balanced wine avoids this problem. Highest tannin concentrations exist in #1 black tea, #2 oolong tea, #3 green tea. Other teas include hibiscus, cinnamon, mint, chamomile).
- tannin powder (often ground charred oak bark extract), 0.5 tsp per 1 usg of juice.
- black tea, brewed, unflavored (as water to dilute juice). I suspect it if fine to add the tea to the pot while you simmer the juice. Experiment to establish the way you will brew your tea for a particular result. This will help to ensure consistency. A good starting pointing from which to test is a strength of 2 tea bags per gallon (ie apx 3,785g) This tea may be steeped in a cup of water in advance and then added to the fruit juice. While tannin is destroyed with heat, over half remains after cooking for periods beyond what is required for simmering the juice. (A study showed that, after cooking for 90 minutes, over 50% of tannin remained in wine.)
- Optional. Add acid. Acidity helps to provide a lively taste to wine and is antibacterial to keep wine safe.
- 0.5 tsp acid per 1 usg of juice (if added at the start of fermentation)
- Protect the must. Cover the container to prevent contaminants or fruit flies from entering into the mixture.
- ideally an airlock
- loosely fitting lid
- Optional. Add sterilizer to kill bacteria, other yeasts within the fruit and prevent mold growth. A common type is the Campden tablet which is made of potassium metabisulfite.
- Optional. Allow the must to stand for 24 hours. This period will give the Campden tablet to work.
- To the mixture, add yeast. Rule of thumb rates are 0.25 tsp per 2 cups of fruit juice -- or 1g per gallon on juice.
- wine yeast
- Baking yeast
- Stir the must daily with a sanitized paddle during the initial days of vigorous fermentation. Bubbles rising from within the liquid is a sign that the fermentation process is ongoing.
- Note the end of the 'primary fermentation' (ie initial vigorous fermentation).
- Use a hydrometer to see whether the fermentation has ended. See others use the hydrometer for this purpose.
- As a rule of thumb, this is when the bubbles slow down to the rate of a bubble every minute through a wine airlock.
- Rack the wine every 30 days until the wine becomes acceptably clear. Wine racking is the process of transferring wine from one container to another. The aim is to siphon the wine into a the target container to separate it from all the sediment at the bottom of the original container. The sediment is spent yeast and therefore waste. The process uses gravity as a natural 'pump'. Regarding the origin container in the above position, you can use a clamp or even clothes pin to hold the racking tube above the level of the sediment. Ensure that your racking tube in the target container should be below the liquid level. This helps to minimize the amount of oxygen you allow into the must. Accept that you will lose some volume of wine within the sediment. Do not try to save it. The yeast sediment should be discarded because, if left for too long in the wine, it can impart an undesirable flavor.
- After racking, top up the target container with some old wine. This helps to minimize the amount of oxygen contact.
- Optional. Filter the wine. There are several filtration methods. Regardless of your chosen method, filtration occurs at your last racking when your wine is already beginning to clear up. Clear wine allows you to read print behind a standard wine bottle. During the last racking, rack well above the sediment level.
- Pour bentonite mixture at the bottom of your target racking container before racking the wine. Stir the wine and bentonite daily to suspend the bentonite in the wine.
- 0.8 tsp bentonite clay per gallon wine. To prepare, homogenously combine the clay with water as follows. For every 1 tsp of clay, add water 0.33 cups of water. Example, if your recipe needs 2 tsp bentonite clay, you need 0.66 cups of water (ie 0.33 cups X 2)
- Optional. Stabilize the wine and rack the wine for the last time. Potassium sorbate is commonly used. This ensure that the wine stops fermenting. After stabilizing the wine, you will be able to 'back sweeten' the wine, ie add more sweetener without fear that yeast will continue to ferment away that sweetness and explode sealed bottles. Stabilizers typically call for 0.5 tsp per gallon of wine. Add the stabilizer to the target racking container. Rack the wine into the target container and then stir.
- Optional. Back sweeten. The taste of a fruit becomes more evident with back sweetening.
CONTENT RELATED TO DIY WINE WITH BREAD YEAST
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