Making Wine, Building a Rack

[4X4]

So I'm on to my 3rd batch of wine, bottled one and bottling the 2nd one in a week or so. The idea is to accumulate a hundred or so bottles, then make some better wine that needs 9-12 months to be fully fermented.
I really only drink red, but I'll probably make some white just for the heck of it.
If anyone here has advice or do's and donts, I'm all ears.

But my other question was whether anyone has ever built themselves a wine rack. I have plenty of space, and access to pretty much any tool I need. I think it'd be fun (and I guess, rewarding) to build the rack myself.

Assuming that a bottle is ~3" diameter, and the separator would be 1", then some end pieces, a rack about 5'x5' would accomidate about 200-225 bottles. That's about 7 batches. I could then do a batch every few months and always have a supply of decently aged vino...

So, any winemakers here with something to add?

[troutman]

Excellent. We just got into the hobby ourselves.

We have bottled two batches of red (valpolicella and migliore), and are now fermenting a white (sauvignon blanc).

We picked up some easy to build wine racks from Ikea. One unit can hold 72 bottles (9 X 8, lying on the side). These units connect to other Ikea shelving like modules. Found another decent wine rack at a garage sale.

We are enjoying our wine now, though we are told it will be better in 8 months.

We noticed a few of our first bottles were leaking - I would not use the synthetic corks again. The sawdust corks seem to work much better.

My man Steve at Wine Kits (Varsity) is very helpful. He says some clients don't even bother to bottle - they just go down to the cellar every night and siphon off a carafe from the carboy!

[McG]

I should mention that this thread got my attention because of the second half of the thread title. hehheh i thought that there might be before and after pictures!

Those ikea ones are awesome. they are expandable and work like modules. they are great.

my advice for budding wine (and beer) makers is that you cannot sterilize enough...but for pete's sake make sure that you remove all of the sterilant when it comes time to use the sterilized item.

as for siphoning off of the carboy, they either have lots of carboys or they are really desperate.

in my experience...home made wine and beer gets markedly better with just a wee bit of aging.

i guess it all depends upon how desperate you are!

but i really like the idea!

[troutman]

Here it is (GORM):

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/store...mber=S49829079

The one pictured seems to be 14X8 (112 bottles)

[4X4]

Well, when you say IKEA, I think cost effective... Maybe I'll check that out instead.

About the sterilization... How will I know if I screwed that part up?

And another question I always for get to ask when I'm at the wine store... When I switch from the primary fermenter to the carboy, it says to mix for five minutes after adding the things to add. Can I overmix at this point?

[4X4]

Originally Posted by troutman

Here it is (GORM):

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/store...mber=S49829079

The one pictured seems to be 14X8 (112 bottles)

Pfft. Forget about making a rack. $111? I'm heading to IKEA tomorrow morning.

[McG]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Well, when you say IKEA, I think cost effective... Maybe I'll check that out instead.

About the sterilization... How will I know if I screwed that part up?

And another question I always for get to ask when I'm at the wine store... When I switch from the primary fermenter to the carboy, it says to mix for five minutes after adding the things to add. Can I overmix at this point?

i think that the troutman will have an answer as well to this...

You will know if there are sterilization issues in 2 ways...the first is that if you under sterilize you run the possibility of bad bacteria getting in and affecting the taste...or worse...the fermentation. meaning that you kill the yeast and no fermentation occurs. that's bad.

regarding not rinsing off the sterilant...same thing. you kill the yeast and no fermentation occurs.

so...oversterilize and over rinse. and for pete's sake limit putting your stuff down on counters and etc. teeming with bacteria.

regarding the mixing...the intent is to get oxygen into the fluid to help fermentation during secondary or tertiary fermentation. at this stage, you will have a vapour lock on the carboy and the "air" should only be moving one way...out. the risk is that the longer you stir, the greater the chance that a bacteria sneaks in. but no, you cannot technically over mix the wine that i am aware of.

[McG]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Pfft. Forget about making a rack. $111? I'm heading to IKEA tomorrow morning.

its the wine cellar that is expensive!

[4X4]

So far, what I've been doing is cleaning off the counter with windex (I use windex to clean everything. It's the only cleaner I buy!), then I mix up some sterilant and basically rely on swishing ie, I'll put some sterilant in the primary fermenter, then swish my spoon around, then swish the stuff around in the primary fermenter and tghe carboy... Is that ok? I don't have to bust out a scrubby thing and go hard, do I?

[McG]

Originally Posted by 4X4

So far, what I've been doing is cleaning off the counter with windex (I use windex to clean everything. It's the only cleaner I buy!), then I mix up some sterilant and basically rely on swishing ie, I'll put some sterilant in the primary fermenter, then swish my spoon around, then swish the stuff around in the primary fermenter and tghe carboy... Is that ok? I don't have to bust out a scrubby thing and go hard, do I?

you don't have to go scrubby hard all the time...no. scrubby hard removes visible stuff primarily. and scrubby hard brushes also acquire bacteria.

what you describe works perfectly especially if you already got your wine to work!

i meant to add that i sterilize all of my stuff before i put it away for next time. i have found that this and the immediate rinsing reduces hard scrubby stuff because you are putting away a sterilized item. you still have to sterilize it again before you use it...but you have killed any bacteria that might have grown on your equipment.

my dad was using saranwrap over his sterilized carboys when they were unused but between batches to keep anything out.

my personal rule is that i never put anything down once i have sterilized it and then picked it up. When i have something that i need to do twice, i will buy 2 things and sterilize them both. for example, different sets of hoses. its easier, its faster, and it removes all doubt about sterilization.

i just watch garage sales for people ditching their stuff. i built up a pretty good collection of double and backup items that way. oh yah and it lets you easily up production hehehe. so you can do more batches both consecutively AND concurrently.

i want to add about windex. its good for what it is...but it isn't sterilant.

but you know what? if it works, you should keep doing it.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by McG

my dad was using saranwrap over his sterilized carboys when they were unused but between batches to keep anything out.

Love that idea...

Originally Posted by McG

my personal rule is that i never put anything down once i have sterilized it and then picked it up. When i have something that i need to do twice, i will buy 2 things and sterilize them both. for example, different sets of hoses. its easier, its faster, and it removes all doubt about sterilization.

i just watch garage sales for people ditching their stuff. i built up a pretty good collection of double and backup items that way. oh yah and it lets you easily up production hehehe. so you can do more batches both consecutively AND concurrently.

Love that idea too...

Originally Posted by McG

i want to add about windex. its good for what it is...but it isn't sterilant.

In my world, everything gets cleaned by windex. The counters, the coffee tables, the TV, the desks, dinner table... Everything except my winemaking supplies. They get sterilized.

[Ford Prefect]

I used to make a lot of wine and beer, but haven't recently due to lack of time.

My general advice would be:

Sterilization is important, but you don't need to be over paranoid. As long as you're dilegent you'll be fine.

I wasn't a fan of filtering ... I found it affected the flavour. Rather than filitering I just racked the finished product a couple extra times to get away from the sediment.

Red wine needs to be aged longer than white. It seemed most reds peaked around 9 to 12 months, whereas whites peaked around 4 to 6 months. Reds kept better too. Sauvigon blanc was the white I had best results with, and pretty well any reds. If you like German wines, I found piesporters are a good quick wine ... they are pretty good after a month or two, but crash fast. When I was low stocked I'd always rattle off a batch of piesporter to drink first while I aged my other wines.

I found beer wasn't worth the effort ... too much work for an unpredictable and often disappointing result. Apple cider turned out pretty good though if you're into cider.

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by 4X4

In my world, everything gets cleaned by windex. The counters, the coffee tables, the TV, the desks, dinner table... Everything except my winemaking supplies. They get sterilized.

the toilet?

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

I wasn't a fan of filtering ... I found it affected the flavour. Rather than filitering I just racked the finished product a couple extra times to get away from the sediment.

Really? My 1st batch was a Valpolecella and so is my 3rd. I filtered my 1st, but I won't filter my 3rd, just to see if I can detect the difference.

FTR, my 2nd was a pino nero. Don't know how that'll turn out b/c I forgot to soak the wood chips in hot water before chucking the teabag into the batch. I may have been drinking wine at the time.

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

Apple cider turned out pretty good though if you're into cider.

OK, while I was in Rome, a buddy got me into cider. It's frickin good. Like alcoholic apple juice. I love it. Unfortunately, none of the ciders I've found in Canada do European cider justice.
Care to elaborate on what you're making? Duration of batch? Tools required? Bottling process?

Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp

the toilet?

Hells yeah! Just spray that sheeit all over the throne and grab a handful of paper towels... Windex - my all purpose cleaner.

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Hells yeah! Just spray that sheeit all over the throne and grab a handful of paper towels... Windex - my all purpose cleaner.

haha sickkkk.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Really? My 1st batch was a Valpolecella and so is my 3rd. I filtered my 1st, but I won't filter my 3rd, just to see if I can detect the difference.

Maybe it's just me, but I found the taste better with unfiltered wine. My father-in-law always filters his, and it just doesn't taste as natural to me. If you're not going to filter though you pretty much have to keep racking and letting it settle to get away from all the sediment. If you'd rather not go throght the extra work, filtering is proably the better method.

As for the cider, it's pretty much an identical process to beer, and beer bottles are what I used for bottling. The first batch I made was from a kit, but it seems to me I just used cans of concentrated apple juice after that, and followed the instructions from the kit I'd bought. It's been a while since I made it though, so I might be forgetting something. I'm sure Google would yield some good advice. As I recall the amount of sugar used for cider was a bit tricky. Too little and the cider wasn't sweet enough, and too much sugar made the alcohol content too high. Not that a high alcohol content is bad, but it can throw the taste off, kind of like with beer.

On the topic of increasing the alcohol content of beer, I experimented with boosting the percentage in my beer. I made one batch that was about 8 or 9 per cent alcohol, which is pretty much the max you can get, but it tasted kind of like a boiler maker. Yuck.

Something I forgot to mention before is to keep a diary about each batch you make. I found that quite useful so I could refer back to it and see what worked and what went wrong with various batches.