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.
Results
The wine is good, a tiny bit more sour than I'd like, so if I make this again, I won't add the citric acid. I back-sweetened just a little. My original numbers were quite a bit off. I ended up needing 6 bottles of juice for 5 gallons. It made 21 bottles, but I also spilled a lot in the process (and drank a bit at various stages). I think 5 gallons should make 24 bottles.
Still, it was about $30 for the juice, negligible for the rest; $1.50 / bottle is pretty good. I'm looking at wine kits that run ~$70, that will be about $2.30 / bottle.
Kits
These look good