Wine Making

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

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41825

Equipment

• Primary Fermenter: Just a bucket, $30 / 3
• 5gal Glass Carboy: $38
• 1 gal Glass Carboy
• Bung and Airlock: $10
• Hoses $6.25
• Hydrometer & jar: $6
• Corker $12

Materials

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

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.

First Batch

I'm going to track the bubbles per minute as rough gauge of CO2 production.

• 6/29 : 22 bubbles / minute
• 6/30 : 10 bubbles / minute