LeadDog Posted September 17, 2006 Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 Grapes You make wine. That really is about a ton of grapes in the two bins. I thought some people here would be interested to see how easy it is to make wine. The grapes needed to be crushed so they will ferment. That is my high tech crusher smashing the grapes. The crushing activity draws a crowd. After the grapes are crushed I dumped them into my fermentors. Currently the only thing that need to be done is to "punch down" the cap 3 times a day. Some wineries only do punch downs twice a day. I think I'll update the photos when it gets to fermenting really good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeDJ16 Posted September 17, 2006 Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 You know, we could probably accept the grape crushing photo a whole lot more if it were a nice feminine leg verses a hairy dudes leg! -=Jasen=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeDJ16 Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Since we are on the wine subject now! Here are photos of my home made press. It is on a stand now, these were very early photos of it. I should get off my butt and get new photos. I had also planned on making a crusher/stemmer too, but never got around to it. I would love to make one that could crush apples as I love hard cider! -=Jasen=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeadDog Posted September 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2006 You know, we could probably accept the grape crushing photo a whole lot more if it were a nice feminine leg verses a hairy dudes leg! That leg is for the women to enjoy looking at. The men can't have it their way all the time. Nice looking press. The only bad thing I can say about it that the wood make for a nice home for some nasty organisms to hang out. I was surprised no one asked why I didn't add anything to the grapes to make wine. That is because the grapes have everything that is needed to ferment them in and on them right from the vine. The whitish powder on the grapes is yeast so you don't even need to add that. The grapes where crushed Saturday afternoon and this morning they had started fermenting really well. Everything is looking fine so far. I should end up with plenty of wine to have with the food that is cooked in the KK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeDJ16 Posted September 19, 2006 Report Share Posted September 19, 2006 Nice looking press. The only bad thing I can say about it that the wood make for a nice home for some nasty organisms to hang out. I was surprised no one asked why I didn't add anything to the grapes to make wine. That is because the grapes have everything that is needed to ferment them in and on them right from the vine. The whitish powder on the grapes is yeast so you don't even need to add that. Well, I have never had a problem with wood as long as proper cleaning and sanitation procedures are performed ahead of time. Pretty much any amateur or antique wine press I have ever seen has wood in it (I am gonna take a guess here and say that wood in a press would go back millenia). Not to mention, as you well know, there are much, much fewer funky monkeys that can effect wine unlike beer. I can only think of two main ones: wild yeast and vinegar bacteria. Unlike yourself, wild yeast is one of the things I protect mine against as I would rather use a cultured known yeast strains rather than wild for more consistent results (though I have in the past used wild). You got me wanting to run go get a glass of wine now - hehe - not that it takes much - hehe! -=Jasen=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samantha Posted September 19, 2006 Report Share Posted September 19, 2006 That leg is for the women to enjoy looking at. The men can't have it their way all the time. If that is the case, you haven't shown nearly enough to entertain.....unless some lady has a foot fetish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeadDog Posted September 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2006 Oh now we have a different point of view about yeast. The adding of yeast to crushed grapes is done by many wineries all over the world but not by all of them. This is a choice that is made for different reasons just like many of us will cook our meat a different way. I wanted the wine to express the vineyard and all that it has to make the wine taste a certain way. The French have a word for this called "terroir ". We don't have a word for it in English so you just have to Google it and read about it. I'll talk about presses when I go to press my wine off. One of my first wineries had serval huge wooden presses that they used to press wine with when they first started making wine. They did very well using them so using wood isn't the end of the world. This is just a leason in how easy wine can be made but there are choices along the way that can add to the work load of making wine. I like the easy way it is less work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeDJ16 Posted September 19, 2006 Report Share Posted September 19, 2006 Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that the wood is completely sealed too. Also, look at all of my projects in this section and you will notice that nothing about them had anything to do with ease. I enjoy building the stuff - hehe. I actually had more fun designing and building them than using them. -=Jasen=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeadDog Posted September 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2006 Time for a picture update. The yeast is now converting the sugars in the gapes into alcohol, CO2, and heat. I just stuck my punch down tool through the cap and you can see the wine bubbling below. The CO2 given off by the fermentation carries all of the skins to the top of the vat and makes a cap. The cap is punch down three time a day so it doesn't dry out. There are some nasty organisms that can grow in the cap if you let it dry out and make your wine taste bad. Seems that I'll be getting ready to press the grapes in a couple more days then I can tell one of the good things that I noticed about Jasen's press and design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeadDog Posted September 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 I tasted the fermenting grape juice tonight and it is no longer sweet. This means the fermentation is done or real close to being done. I'll put the "wine" into barrels and kegs tomorrow night. Maybe I'll get some pictures posted then too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeadDog Posted September 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2006 Ok I moved the wine from the fermenters into some barrels and kegs last night. First thing I did was get rid of of the skins that were in the wine and dump them into a bin. That left me with some really easy to bucket wine in the fermenter. Then I just put a funnel into the barrel with a screen on top to catch any more skins and poured the wine into the barrels. Easy as pie. Next year I'm getting a pump and a press. Now there must be someone out there wondering why I didn't press the skins. I like free run wine. Free run has less tannins in it. I dumped about a gallon of wine away because I didn't have any more containers in which to put the wine. What would I have done with all of the wine if I had pressed it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeDJ16 Posted September 27, 2006 Report Share Posted September 27, 2006 So, you gonna invite us all over for a wine tasting soon?? hehe -=Jasen=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeadDog Posted September 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 So, you gonna invite us all over for a wine tasting soon?? hehe -=Jasen=- Sure there are over a hundred wineries in the area and if you are with me you get an industry discount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeherd Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 Sounds like we have our first destination for the Komodo Klub Konvention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeadDog Posted September 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 Ok back to what is going on with the wine. I put fermentation bungs into the barrels to let the wine finish fermenting. The wine is still giving off CO2 and these special bungs let the CO2 out and doesn't let the air back in. The wine/grapes have malic acid and I'm going to let the natural bacteria convert that acid into lactic acid. I do this because malic acid isn't stable and I could end up with a wine that has problems if I don't do malolactic fermentation. Up until this point you will notice that making wine has been really easy. I will use a lab test to see when the wine has converted all of the malic acid to lactic acid. There are easy tests that you can get as home winemakers that will let you know this information also. The other thing I wanted to point out is I made about enough wine for 800 bottles. You just need to take your favorite bottle of wine and multiply it's price by 800 to see how much my wine could be worth. I said I'd say a few things about presses so this is as good of time as any to cover them. A press really only seperates the skins from the juice. The press is also a good place for nasty organisims to get into the wine. This is a time when the wine is really vulnerable to going bad so a clean press is really important. All the presses I have every worked on we cleaned them all the time very carefully. Jasen's press is made of wood but it is sealed. I have seen it said that wooden presses are a good place for nasty organisms to hang out since they are hard to clean. Jasen's press is different than the normal wooden basket press. Jasen can fill his press full of what ever he wants to use to clean his press. This will made sure that the cleaner gets into every nook and cranny. There is another nice feature about his press. It is inside a keg so if the wine squirts out between the wooden slats it hits a wall and doesn't go on the ground. Jasen have you ever thought about putting a bladder in the press? Then it would be really great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeDJ16 Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 Yeah, when I was designing my wine press, all presses I had ever seen were open and I really could not figure out why. So as usual, just because my ideas do not follow standards does not dissuade me from making them anyway. I was pretty happy with the results too. Basically what you said, is exactly what I do for cleansing - fill with whatever the latest best antibacterial cleanser is at the time, scrub and let soak. One thing you cannot see from the picture that I forgot to mention; the press comes completely apart for heavy duty cleaning. The wooded slats are attached to two separate spring bars that expand to fit the inside of the keg. So you just pull one side in and remove, then do the same for the other side. The false bottom is also removable. Fun and function! The whole thing is also on adjustable legs now; back in those pics I sat in on a cooler to use. Now, making it a bladder press? I assume you mean for squeezing the press plate? I can already exert a tremendous amount of force on the press plate with that acme threaded rod on it now - but it might be fun to build anyway. -=Jasen=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeadDog Posted September 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 Here this page has bladder presses and explains how they work. http://www.stpats.com/Presses.htm Just think how much better a KK cooker is and that is the way I feel the basket bladder press is over a regular basket press. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeDJ16 Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 Well the conversion would not be too hard, but finding an appropriate size bladder would be fun indeed. Especially since they do not give bladder dimensions for the ones they do sell. Oh well, I will probably just stick to the ole acme threaded rod and press plate. I do have a muslin cloth bag, that fits my press, in which I place the 'must' before pressing; that helps a lot. -=Jasen=- I sure could go for some home made plum wine right about now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porkchop Posted September 29, 2006 Report Share Posted September 29, 2006 plum wine?!?!? isnt that just old prune juice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeDJ16 Posted September 29, 2006 Report Share Posted September 29, 2006 plum wine?!?!? isnt that just old prune juice? But with a bit of a kick! -=Jasen=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
