Wine Making

This is something I want to try someday, maybe someday soon. I want to try this approach to get started - it looks cheap and it's supposed to produce a pretty good wine.

http://www.michiganwines.com/buy-sell-grapes

http://www.klinekrestcertifiedorganicproduce.com/KlineKrestCertifiedOrganicSmallFruits.htm

Equipment

• Primary Fermenter: Just a bucket, $30 / 3
• Glass Carboy: $38
• Bung and Airlock: $10
• Hoses $6.25
• Hydrometer & jar: $6
• Corker $12

Starting Cost: $102

Materials

• Sulphites
• yeast $7 / 10
• yeast nutrient $8 / lb
• juice
• sugar
• bottles
• corks ~ $0.10 each
• Campden Tablets $0.06 each ($5.50/100)

Single Concord Batch Estimates

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRa4vGyyjEU
• http://the-gift-of-wine.com/how%20to%20make%20grape%20juice%20wine.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_483697&feature=iv&src_vid=MVjr2obchpI&v=AWWho1u8FUQ

To make a single batch (~4gal) of Concord Grape wine (basic recipe), about 20 bottles.

• Juice: 2 x $3.50
• Corks: $2.00
• sugar
• yeast nutrient
• Pectolase
• Wine tannin
• 2 Campden tablets $0.10

Need calculations to find the amount of sugar necessary.

So, probably around $15 for everything, coming in just under $1/bottle.

Considering a bottle costs us about $8, the break-even is around 15 bottles.

Time

It looks like it will take about 3 hour, but only about 30 minutes will be active work.

Wine sits in the primary fermenter for 4 days. Secondary fermentation can take up to 2 weeks.

Notes

Look at the price per volume in bottles.

It looks like roughly a 1:4 ratio of juice to water.

Look into using frozen fruit. Watermelon wine looks good. Orange wine. Actually, some pumpkin wine recipes look good (with raisins and cinnamon). Beet wine. Lemon.

Also, look into freeze distilling in the winter.

With our water, I'll want to use a charcoal filter.

For more alcohol look for "high gravity" wine or yeast. When using it, add sugar slowly over several hours while it's fermenting.

Grapes

All the grape juices I've found (at least so far) that are intended for wine-making are highly marked up. I'd like to try making it from grapes. I could do a few batches over the late summer as various types are available.

Beer

I should also make some beer for Lauren.

Malted barley looks like it costs around $2.50/lb and around 2.5lbs/gal. Hops run around $20/lb but only a few oz are needed for a few gallons.