Here is a copied textfile from totse on making homemade wine, which seems pretty simple. My question is, when you siphon from one 2Liter bottle to the other one, when you siphon it back do you siphon it back into the old bottle with the dead yeast? Wouldn't this not work as the yeast is dead? Also, if I got a couple of these going how bad would the smell be?
Enjoy this for yourselves, too. It seems like a pretty good technique.
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Have you ever wanted to make your own wine? but just coudn't afford those expensive kits?, If so, This is for you. In this guide I will explain how to make wine in a few easy-to-follow steps, all for under 15$ (US). First off, wine is not made overnight, It takes a month for it to ferment and achieve alcohol content. If your looking for a quick and easy way to get booze, I recommend you ask a homeless dude or if your 21, buy it on your own. Now, the wine you buy in stores will most likely always be better than any homemade stuff, (becouse they use perfected techniques and equipment) but making your own wine is fun and satisfying. Over time, you can perfect your skill and become a good little wine maker, which is a braggable skill, then you will get lots of pussy, like me.
The Basics
There is alot of classifications of wine and ways to produce it, but when you cut through all the bullshit your left with the two major types, Red and White. 90% of all wine comes from Grapes, Red grapes (red) and Green grapes (white), the other 10% is blush & rose. Here are some examples:
Red Wines - Barolo, Claret, Merlot
White Wines - Chardonnay, Chablis, Chenin Blanc
When you get to the basics, wine is nothing more than grape juice with alchohol. To acheive the alchohol, a bit of yeast is thown in the juice, its then left to ferment, thus producing alchohol. Wine is one of the easiest alcoholic beverages to make next to beer, and is why people 7000 years ago were getting wasted
Supplies
To make the wine your going to need some supplies. All of these things can be found at a local hardware shop and grocery store:
(2) Two liter Bottle's
A hollow plastic tube (This will be used for siphoning liquid)
A Balloon (Regular old fashoned balloon)
Yeast
Welches Grape Juice (Or smashed grapes, I don't recomend untill you know what your doing)
A place to let your wine ferment undisturbed for a month
Wine: Step 1
Okay, so now you know the basics of wine and have your supplies which means your ready to Rock 'n' Roll. First off, start by pouring your welches grape juice into one of the two liter bottles. These bottles will be used to alternate your wine back and forth, Thus clearing out the dead yeast.
After you've poured your grape juice into one of the bottles, grab your yeast, take a pinch of it, (roughly enough to cover the area of a dime) then spinkle it into the bottle. If you made it this far, congrats, your almost done with step one, there is only one more thing to do; seal the top of the bottle. Now, you may wonder why I didn't include bottle caps in the supplies, Well this is becouse during fermentaion the yeast will create gass, thus making pressure build up in the bottle. Using bottle caps will keep the pressure in, which is a bad thing, unless your trying to make champainge. To advoid this we will use a balloon, which will relieve the pressure, and also serve as a lid. To seal up your wine, simply put the balloon around the mouth. As time goes on you will see the balloon inflate as the fermentaion takes process, when you see the balloon is inflated, take it off to let the pressure out, then put it back on, make sure you check on it at least once a day. After you put the balloon on, its time to find a place to put your wine while it ferments. You need to pick a place where its not going to get messed with, and make sure the place isnt too hot or too cold (I use my closest). Congrats, your done with step 1.
Wine: Step 2
Now, your done with the hard part, all thats left to do is wait. After you've completed step one, you need to wait one week (7) days untill you need to siphonin. Once you've waited the 7 days its time to transfer the wine to your other container. The reason why you need to do this is becouse when fermenting, the yeast will eat, produce alcohol, then die. The dead yeast will start collecting at the bottom, so we need to siphonin, seperating dead yeast from wine. Start off by taking the plastic tube and inserting one end into the bottle with the wine, be VERRY careful not to disturb the contents at the bottom, thats the stuff we don't want. To siphonin you should put the bottle with the wine on a table or something elevated, then put the other bottle on the ground, using gravity to your advantage. After the wine is transferd to the other bottle, put the balloon back on and stash it where you have it before. This process of siphonining will take place (3) more times before the wine will be ready to drink. BOOM, your done with step 2, almost there.
Wine: Step 3
Once you complete your 4rd and final siphonin, you will have drinkable, get drunkable wine. Congrats, you've made wine, you've proved your mother wrong, you have acomplished something in your life, Holy shit! Once you have made wine and understand the simple concept behind it you can move on to making other alcoholic things like Brandy (which is distilled wine). If you don't want to get wasted right away, you can always age your brew to perfection. Simply get a wine bottle/cork and some wax. Put the wine in the bottle, insert cork, then melt the wax on top of the cork, sealing it. Then Stick it on a shelf and let it age. However, if you do decide to age it, I would highly recomended repeating siphonining an extra one or two times to get the wine totally pure.
Extra Stuff
Allthough it might sound strange, some studies show that drinking red wines acctually help you live longer. regular consumption of up to 1-2 drinks a day ( 1 standard drink is approximately equal to 5 oz, or 125 ml, of 13% wine ) does reduce mortality, due to 10% - 40% lower risk of coronary heart disease, for those over the age of 35. Compounds known as polyphenols are found in larger amounts in red wine, and there is some evidence that these are especially beneficial. One particularly interesting polyphenol found in red wine is resveratrol, to which numerous beneficial effects have been attributed.
Producing Wine/Alcohol in your home, for personal use is legal. Distributing without a license is illegal however. Allthough, i wouldn't go off telling any cops that your brewing hundreds of barrels of booze in your basement or anything like that.
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