Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!


Making the wine

This documents our first wine making expedition!!

Wine Making Pictures

DAY 1

January 17, 2008

Here's everything that's going into the mix! It's our first batch so we're just using frozen berries, but it's going to be a tasty blueberry, raspberry, and strawberry wine. It should be good!

All the ingredients are juiced.

This is all the equipment that's needed for the wine. Crazy to think that some of it won't even be used for several months or more.

First we add some water. It's gotta get some moisture somehow. Yes....I need a haircut. Next weekend.

Ahhhh.... Now here we go. Here's all the fruit being poured into the fermenting bucket with the water.

We don't want to have to wait for all the pulp to filter out for the next couple of months, but we do want the flavor (makes it a rich red too!) so we put it in a cheesecloth bag. The bag's filled with blueberry, raspberry, and strawberry skins and seeds. Yummy, but we don't want any floaties in the wine. The bunny feet are Teresa's.

This is some of the sugar that's needed. It needs two pounds (this is the first.) Not to make it super sweet, but the yeast turns sugar and oxygen into alcohol and CO2. So it needs sugar, 'cuz, mmmmm, alcohol.

Let's get that sugar in there.

There's everything all in there and mixed. Looks so good I could drink it right now. Again, those are Teresa's bunny slippers. Not mine. Secondly, the tiny ones in the bottom right are Tiger's. He wants to help.

After it's all mixed, we need to test the acidity. Too much and it'll be all tart and too little and it'll be bland. Gotta get it right.

Ok, that's it for the evening. After it sits for 24 hours and the sanitizing tablets kill any foreign stuff in there, we'll mix in the wine making yeast. Stay tuned for more pictures!

DAY 3
January 19, 2008

And we're back, it's been a little over 24 hours, the timing was off and when 24 hours was up, I was at work and wasn't in the mood to do the yeast part at 11:30 at night. So it's time now and here we go!

There's some of the fruit mix pulled out and mixed with the yeast. The yeast is already making a bunch of noise and smells like fruity bread! Mmmm...

Adding some more sugar into it. After a test, there wasn't enough sugar in it to make the proper levels of alcohol.....for preservation purposes of course.

Now that I've added more sugar, I'm double testing to make sure it's at the proper levels. And yup, it is.

Now that it's all ready to go, here's the yeast being poured in. It should start working within a few hours and making this whole process worth it.

It's all ready to go and every thing's in there. Now it's just monitoring and time. The initial fermentation process is going to be taking place over the next week or so with some occasional stirring. Once the second one starts, I'll update again!

DAY 4
January 20, 2008

Here's a quick update. This is the first day after we added the yeast. This is called a wine cap. When it's all done we'll bake it in the oven for a delicious pre-wine treat. Actually, we'll just break it up and stir it back in for now. I can't imagine it tastes very good. Either way, it's bubbling out CO2 so that means its working.

DAY 6
January 22, 2008

Been a few days so I'm stirring the "cap" back in. Basically just some wine yeast that turned the fruit into a layer on top. Pretty easy. Really, just took a little stirring. On another note, I made the mistake of smelling the wine mix. (I was curious!) The fumes from the fermenting just about burned my nose off! Ouch. I don't recommend it.

Now that it's all mixed back up, we're testing to see how much sugar is left. Right now it's about a third of what I put in (after just two days!), but it'll probably slow down a bit since it normally takes about 10 - 14 days and it's only been 2. Although, right now it's at about 4% alcohol. Yes, this is very serious business, even more so than the mess in litterbox in the back.

DAY 7
January 23, 2008

The wine has been sitting for a few days and the yeast has just been doing what it does. As you can see, it's a much richer red, a bit clearer, and otherwise a lot more fun to drink looking. I don't know what the alcohol content is because I didn't check it. Just needed to give it a stir to keep it oxygenated.

DAY 10
January 26, 2008

It's been a week and a half since we started so I figured it was time to do another check. The hydrometer (which is what's floating in the check tube) checks the thickness of the water (or "gravity") and when we started, it was 1.090 (water is 1.000) so that means that the sugar was making it thicker. Last time we checked it was at 1.060, which means it has thinned and some of the sugar has turned into alcohol (it was 4%). You're supposed to rack it (put it into a glass storage jug for a couple months) when the gravity reaches 1.030, however, when we checked it today it was 1.000!! That means it's already 12% alcohol and is either completely turned into the wine we so desperately seek OR it still has a ways to go and it's going to be a very potent wine. If this is the case, that means it'll eventually be thinner than water, which alcohol is, and will be about 14 - 18% alcohol. Either way, considering that it's already this far along, we've definitely been doing something very right.

No matter what the case is, it is now time to rack it for storage. This is the equipment we're going to need.

Here we're putting the wine in a higher location than the bottle it's going into. That way once we siphon it, it'll just drain right out. Keep in mind that I paid attention to the warning label on the side of the bucket. No babies were harmed in the making of this wine.

Here's the siphoning in progress. I couldn't figure out any other means to get it started so I had to "sterilize" my mouth with the cleaning solution and suck on the hose to get it started. Here it is draining into the storage carboy where it'll sit for the next couple of months. The boys are very excited for the finished product and are watching with eager anticipation.

The wine has all been put into the storage jug, as you can see it's quite a nice color!! Teresa and I also gave it a sample taste and...not to brag about our very first attempt at wine making, but it was absolutely delicious. (If we sterilized all of our equipment properly, so that nothing taints it over the next couple of months, this is going to be really really good wine.)

It's now ready for storage and the airlock has been attached. This'll be the last you see of it for a couple of months. As you can see, it's pretty cloudy. What the next couple of months will do is let it get the last of the sugar/oxygen to alcohol/CO2 out of it's system. (The airlock on top lets the CO2 out of the bottle while not letting any nasties in.) In a couple months, we'll siphon the wine out of this bottle and into another one, careful to leave ANY and ALL sediment on the bottom as we do. We want the wine as clear as water when we're done. After that, (about six months), it's on to the bottling stage! Need to make sure all the yeast is out or the bottles will detonate. Seriously....detonate.

That's it for now. There probably won't be any updates until about August or so when we start to bottle, which will be a fun expedition. Also, something else I just thought of is that this is going to be a really strong wine! It's already at 12% alcohol and you usually know it's getting close to being done when the airlock bubbles CO2 out about once every 10 minutes. However, it's still bubbling one out once every 10 seconds!! Only thing is, wine yeast, unfortunately, can't live above 18% alcohol, so that's the cut off point. It'll die after that and the wine is just plain done. However, no matter how you look at it, an 18% alcohol wine is a lot. You can't even buy one that strong in the store unless it's Port. But even then, that's still wine mixed with Brandy.

Time will just tell!! See you then.

DAY 18
February 3rd, 2008

Ok, it's been a while since the last update. As you can see the wine has cleared up a little bit since it was made. However, it's going to need to be as clear as water before it's completely done.

Here's the bottom of the jug. As you can see, most of the yeast has died and dropped to the bottom. It's time to take the wine off the top of it and put it in another glass jug. So we did! There's no pictures though.

Just another picture of the amount of yeast that's died since the wine started to be made. It's served its purpose so it was a worthy sacrifice. The fruits of its labor will definitely be enjoyed.

DAY 30
February 15th, 2008

For starters, there's two new things in this picture. As most will probably be able to tell, this is a completely different wine. This one is orange and was a fun one to make. It's a simple one and I think that it might turn out better than the first one. The other thing that's new is the hand pump. I was tired of the siphoning already so I went and got this nifty device and wow, it was worth it. As you can see, one doesn't have to be higher than the other, I don't have to suck on the hose to get it going, just pump and go! Can't argue with that.

DAY 42
February 27rd, 2008

Ok, so yes, we've been busy! From left to right is mixed berry, pineapple, orange, and blueberry. The blueberry was put into the jug (carboy) yesterday so it still has chunks of berry and yeast floating in it and is bubbling like crazy (fermenting, yeah!). The orange is slowly starting to clear but is still really cloudy. And the pineapple and mixed berry are really starting to clear up.

Well, that's what's new. We have the equipment to do one more and will probably stick with that for a while. *sigh* I want to do more but we're running out of room!
DAY 75
March 30th, 2008

Well, disaster struck last night. I was siphoning the blueberry wine off of the yeast and into a second bottle. Of course, when you get done racking, there's an inch of yeast left in the old bottle, which means that there's a nice empty gap left on top of the new one. For just such an occasion, we had saved a little of the leftovers that wouldn't fit into the 1 gallon jug from the original batch in the fridge. Either way, yeast still slowly ferments in the fridge, but unlike the normal wine, it can have a cap on it since the cold confines of the fridge slow the fermentation process to almost nothing. Key word here is "slow". It still happens! Normally, this isn't a problem and there's a normal little ppppssshhhtt! when it's opened. The blueberry had made a lot of yeast though and the 1/2 gallon jug was nearly 1/2 yeast, so when we opened it, we had a geyser of wine shooting two feet into the air! It was quite a sight and trust me if I had planned ahead for it, there would have been a nice little video for everyone to watch. However, here is the aftermath for your viewing pleasure. Mmm....wine.

DAY 89
April 13, 2008

It's finally time. I was guessing August, but the wine's nice and clear and all the sediment is out, so it's ready to bottle. Here I am scrubbing out some old bottles. I soaked them in water for a little while and then used a scrubber pad to remove the old labels. A little soap, water, and a bottle brush (with LOTS of rinsing, last thing we want is dish soap in there for the next few months/years!) cleaned the bottles right up.

Here's all the equipment needed to fill the bottles. Five bottles, the wine, a syphon kit, corks, a corker, and some additives.

These are the additives all ground up. They help keep the wine from fermenting more (exploding bottles!) and help preserve it over time in case any foreign bacteria or anything got in there.

Here's the wine being syphoned into the bottles. It's starting to look like real wine! Although, in all actuality, it looks like someone's getting a blood transfusion.

Here's the corks being prepared for bottling. They were boiled for about ten minutes or so to help them plump up and make sure they aren't dry. That way, when they're put in the bottles, they slide in easier and fill the neck of the bottle. The wine then keeps them from drying out for over the next few years (which is why wine is stored pointing down!)

It's time to put the corks into the bottles. The corker works by being wedge shaped and when you press down on the cork, it's momentarilly squeezed before it goes into the bottle.

So easy, anyone can do it! Here's Teresa corking a few.

There's all the bottles corked. From here, we let them stay standing straight up for about five days or so, which lets any excess pressure out and allows the corks to stick to the sides of the neck of the bottle. They're overly wet right now so if we were to place them on their sides right now, the weight of the wine would just push them out. After five days, we'll lay them on their sides and keep a close eye on them. A few days of laying on their sides will tell if any of the corks didn't take. 'Till next time!

DAY 127
May 31, 2008

Here's the next two batches. There's a blueberry and a pineapple. As you can see, some time's passed (it's even a different house!) The pineapple was the second wine we made and the blueberry was the fourth. Some just clear faster than others. The orange is still cloudy and will probably take quite a while.

Here's the ten new bottles (with the five "old" ones sitting in the back...just aging away...). There's some more corks on the stove being prepared for them.

We followed the same steps as above and corked these ten bottles as well. They're ready to sit for a while! The longer the better. Still meaning to get some labels for them.

DAY 142
June 15, 2008

It's finally time to label. Took a while to find a place that sells labels that are the right size. Most stores don't really have wine bottles in mind when selling mailing labels.

Here's the labels. Since our wine is called Fuzzyhead Wines (since ferrets are commonly called fuzzyheads, and...wine kinda makes you feel like that too, it seemed appropriate!) The pictures of the ferrets made their way onto all the labels along with their names.

Here's all the labels put on the bottles! Looking good.

Mixed berry wine. "Trouble's Wild Berry"

Pineapple wine. "Mischief's Spunky Pineapple"

Blueberry wine. "Poca's Yummy Mountain Blueberry"

Now to give them the finishing touch, we'll put some foil caps on them.

The caps shrink when you heat them so we started off with the hair dryer to get them in place. From there, we dunked them in some boiling water and they sucked nice tight and smooth onto the bottle. Looks really professional!

And here you have it, the first fully finished bottle from Fuzzyhead Wines! Should be ready to drink the end of this year some time.

Since wine generally gets better the longer it sets, we're designating one of each batch to sit for a minimum of five years. With the amount we're making, we'll have plenty to drink and these'll just be a special treat once they're ready. To seperate them out though, we're giving them a special top, which is hot sealing wax. Here's the wax all heated.

Here's the waxed bottles, ready to sit! It'll be 2013 before any of these are opened.

Here's all the bottles! Done, labeled, and ready to go. Still trying to figure out a place to store them, but I'd better figure it out soon since there are three more batches that haven't been bottled yet. That and with the new FIVE gallon jug my brother Johnny got me, there's at least 25 bottles once that's done. Fun stuff!

Well, that's that. The wine is done. This'll be the last update this website will probably get. There's going to be plenty of more wine to come (an Elderberry, peach, rhubarb, grape, and several others are planned for this summer alone.) Until then...