This is about the level your wine should be after emptying and rinsing your bag. You'll need to top it up to 6 gallons. It looks brown and cloudy now, but someday, it'll look like white wine!
Once you’ve got your supplies purchased and ready to go, you can get that wine kit started! I started mine on February 24th (just so you have an idea on the timeline.) As a note, this’ll be a long post, so I won’t be posting the whole thing on the blog page. Be sure to click through to “read more.” It may be a little drier reading than I usually post unless you’re actually trying to follow along at home- or if you’re super curious about the home winemaking process from a kit.
Step one was to mix up my cleansers and sanitizers in my old vinegar jugs. I recommend just following the recommended dosage from the labels on whatever products you are using. I did one batch of Easy Clean (cleanser,) one batch of Iodophor (another food safe cleaning agent,) and one of the sanitizing agent Potassium Metabisulphite (KMS.) I usually use the powdered version of the KMS, but my local store was out of it, so I used the tablet form. You have to crush them up for sanitizer, so it felt like a little bit of a waste. I still like the powder best. Also, be warned that the fumes from the KMS solution can be pretty potent. You can wind up with some coughing and nose burning if you don’t keep it ventilated well! I usually mix mine up over the bathtub and leave the window open.
Once you’re all mixed up, then you’ll want to use all 3 products on each of your tools. Be sure to cleanse and sanitize (if scrubbing, use a plastic brush only) the following very thoroughly:
· Plastic fermenter and lid
· Mixing spoon
· Wine thief (this is a cool little tool that lets liquid in when you stick it down in the bucket or carboy, or whatever, but then due to gravity pulling on the pin in the end, doesn’t let the liquid back out till you push the pin back in. It’s the primary tool you’ll use for drawing samples of your juice and wine out through the process.) Truthfully, in this step of the process, I think the thief is optional, but it does make things easier.
· Thermometer
· Hydrometer
· Test tube
You’ll also want to get your de-capper ready.
Read through the instructions for all steps of the winemaking process that are included in your kit. Even if you don’t 100% understand some of the later steps without seeing them, it’s good to read through it all.
My kit instructed me to empty the juice bag into my primary fermenter, which I carefully did. The trickiest part for me, the first time I did it was getting the neck of the bag to sit properly in the hole in the top of the box, as intended. You can see what it is supposed to look like here:
Step one was to mix up my cleansers and sanitizers in my old vinegar jugs. I recommend just following the recommended dosage from the labels on whatever products you are using. I did one batch of Easy Clean (cleanser,) one batch of Iodophor (another food safe cleaning agent,) and one of the sanitizing agent Potassium Metabisulphite (KMS.) I usually use the powdered version of the KMS, but my local store was out of it, so I used the tablet form. You have to crush them up for sanitizer, so it felt like a little bit of a waste. I still like the powder best. Also, be warned that the fumes from the KMS solution can be pretty potent. You can wind up with some coughing and nose burning if you don’t keep it ventilated well! I usually mix mine up over the bathtub and leave the window open.
Once you’re all mixed up, then you’ll want to use all 3 products on each of your tools. Be sure to cleanse and sanitize (if scrubbing, use a plastic brush only) the following very thoroughly:
· Plastic fermenter and lid
· Mixing spoon
· Wine thief (this is a cool little tool that lets liquid in when you stick it down in the bucket or carboy, or whatever, but then due to gravity pulling on the pin in the end, doesn’t let the liquid back out till you push the pin back in. It’s the primary tool you’ll use for drawing samples of your juice and wine out through the process.) Truthfully, in this step of the process, I think the thief is optional, but it does make things easier.
· Thermometer
· Hydrometer
· Test tube
You’ll also want to get your de-capper ready.
Read through the instructions for all steps of the winemaking process that are included in your kit. Even if you don’t 100% understand some of the later steps without seeing them, it’s good to read through it all.
My kit instructed me to empty the juice bag into my primary fermenter, which I carefully did. The trickiest part for me, the first time I did it was getting the neck of the bag to sit properly in the hole in the top of the box, as intended. You can see what it is supposed to look like here:
At this point, they recommended that I rinse the bag with warm water and dump that into the fermenter as well, just to maximize the juice extracted from the bag.
Since I knew I’d need water of a particular temperature later in the process anyhow, I decided to boil a kettle of water as well as keep some regular room-temperature water handy. This gave me control later on when I needed to get my juice between 70 and 75°F. I use only filtered water, just to be safe.
Once my juice was in the fermenter, and I’d mixed in the bentonite clay (I recommend you just follow the instructions here,) the goal was to get the juice up to the 6 gallon mark and get it to the right temperature and sugar level for the yeasties.
Since I knew I’d need water of a particular temperature later in the process anyhow, I decided to boil a kettle of water as well as keep some regular room-temperature water handy. This gave me control later on when I needed to get my juice between 70 and 75°F. I use only filtered water, just to be safe.
Once my juice was in the fermenter, and I’d mixed in the bentonite clay (I recommend you just follow the instructions here,) the goal was to get the juice up to the 6 gallon mark and get it to the right temperature and sugar level for the yeasties.
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