No homemade wine thread?

Not OP but I brew beer too. I doubt if it'll explode because it will run out of sugars to feed off of. What is more likely is, when you open one foam will immediately start flowing out. So open it over a sink. I've had contaminated batches, but they never exploded.

One thing I would recommend is replace all your plastic hoses. I brew quite a bit and just replace those every 3 months because those are often the culprit. I use glass for primary and secondary but if you're using plastic for primary and you keep getting contamination either replace it with new plastic or glass. Plastic ultimately gets scratches to where the sanitizer can't get at the beggars.

I brew mostly with blueberries we pick ouselves because there's a u-pick farm close to us and it's cheap with high quality berries. When brewed to dry the wine is much like a good merlot. We stopped using campden tablets and just pasteurize the must by heating to 180F and holding for 30 minutes. It's been working really well - no bad batches the last 3 years. Have to use pectic enzyme though to prevent it from jelling.

A friend of mine brews with kits and he told me there's a big difference in quality. He said you might have to pay a good bit more to get a quality grape but that it's well worth it. He researches it pretty hard every time he buys one to try to get the best quality for the price.

Thanks for the info that puts my mind at rest knowing I don't have bottle bombs under my bed. The infection was 100% unpreparedness on my part though. I wasn't ready to brew a 5 gallon batch and left one of my 3 gallon carboys without an airlock, then to compound the problem took a week after it was ready for conditioning to find enough bottle space. I don't think it will linger in my siphon or carboy since I boiled the siphon and plan on bleaching the carboy. Hopefully the brew doesn't turn into vinegar or something like tasting. Just crossing my fingers at this point.

>making wine with anything else than the grapes from your own or family's vineyard and it's indigenous yeasts
>calling it 'making wine'

*Anyway, forget my disdain for plebs and have some interesting information:
moundtop.com/

>being that harsh

Some of us haven't been "blessed" in that way and have to make do with what life throws at us. Maybe if my utter crap situation turns around I can get some land and START my own vineyard. SE Ohio has some really bad soil, (clay and limestone), so it should do nicely for several varieties. Like they say, bad soil makes for great wine.

>mmmmmm!

Blueberries! Those were already on my list for later this year.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be that rude. With microvinification nowadays you don't need a vast vineyard to make some wine. The smaller the scale, the closer to brewing beer regarding temperature control, but with different temperatures. I wish you the best, user.

So if it was fully fermented, the bottles really shouldn't explode. After you run out of sugar, there really aren't that many fermentable reactants to build up a massive amount of pressure. I would be more worried about if the infection made the beer undrinkable.

Careful with the EC-1118, leave some extra headroom on the carboy as it tends to foam very aggressively. Nearly lost 2 batches of metheglin last time I used it. Otherwise it's incredible if you're looking to make a dry end product.

What's your room temp? EC-1118 is aggressive and tends to start up pretty easily but if It's too cold wherever you're doing it that could be a big factor.

Yeah, as a precaution I always use a blowoff tube for the first few days.

Perfect, yeah, even then I recommend a bit of extra headspace, first time around I had head foaming through the tube haha

No offense taken. Life threw too many curve balls at once and things simply fell apart. I'm originally from the city, and while I was still young my parents moved to the burbs, to the sticks, then back to the burbs by the time I reached adulthood. Life hasn't afforded me much in the line of "luck" to be able to move back to the country, where I like it best.

Coincidentally, I also found out my father was adopted, so we didn't know what his genealogy was until March of 16. Verified French, from the Alsace region. Always wondered why we seemed to prefer grapes (especially the sweeter whites) over any other fruit. (Blueberries are a very close second.) I figured I'd dabble a bit on some cheap stuff before trying to go all out on some good stuff. Natural fermentation has always fascinated me.

May your vineyard always be full.

According to the chart I'm well within the parameters of 10-30 C. It's being used on Niagara White, starting SG was set to 1.150, and the room temp is steady at between 68 and 70 F (20-21 C). I just looked at it within the past hour of this posting and it looks like it's starting to do something. There's about an inch and a half space for it to foam, if it does take off. Smells a little odd, but that may be due to a "slow" start and variety. Since I don't have a clear bucket/carboy to do this in, I had to remove the lid. Bubbles were zipping up from the bottom and the lid was "wet" with residue from the bubbling. Just not enough action to be visible in the airlock... Yet. Midnight, my time, so if this thread is still up, I'll update in the morning.

FTR - I dumped in the EC-1118 slurry after 3 days of inaction of the D47. The place I got the yeast from locally had a sign up saying they had just moved all yeasts to the cooler. My guess is some of them may have tanked, even though the dates said they had plenty of time on them. The RC 212 I used on the Concord was a little slow to start, too. Two days. Stuff happens...

>French
>natural fermentation has always fascinated me
It seems we have things in common. To me, white wines are a whole lot more difficult than red wines. Lack of hygiene is unforgivable. Sulfites are mandatory, especially if you're not making dry wine. Good luck.

>Dont do it
It tastes fine. I'm more into fortified wines anyway and cooking yeast doesn't make it taste any less like MD.

UPDATE: Pretty much the same as last reported.
>Bubbles were zipping up from the bottom and the lid was "wet" with residue from the bubbling. Just not enough action to be visible in the airlock.

Wrapping the heating-pad around it and keeping turned up may have helped to jump start things. (fingers crossed) Though I'm not quite sure how to describe the odor of it. Never smelled anything like it before. Definitely not vinegar. Maybe just one of those "wait and see" type things.

>strange smell during fermentation

I've had that before too, usually kind of a sour or sulfurish smell. At first, I figured the wine would be trash, but it never was, so I don't worry about it anymore. I think sometimes, for whatever reason, sort of like people, yeast produce strange smells.

I live near some high bush blueberry patches. I'll have to do that this summer. Then distill it to make blueberry brandy.

I'd like to distill some of my blueberry wine too and I'm thinking about getting that setup like the guy from Maine has in that thread where he distilled some god awful potato fermentation.

Yeah... I guess that is what it kind of smells like. After looking at the "Dummies" book as a quick reference, it says that if you find that smell to be present during the fermentation process you should aerate it when you rack it. It also says that if it's hydrogen sulfide you can stick a 12"-18" piece of copper tubing on the end of your racking tube to run the wine through to remove them. Just be careful that it doesn't make contact with the copper too long or the wine could end up with a metallic taste.

>inb4 "Dummies" book, lolz
Years back I took a Computers for Dummies book and learned enough to build my first PC. With only a little more learning and some trial and error, I've built multiple stable systems. Some old single core systems are still running today.

Does anyone have any advise on back-sweetening or back-blending in order to make a dessert style wine? Red or White.

Bump for interest

I wonder what has become the user who lost his grandfather just after the vintage. I hope his wine turns out well this year and the followings.

Sulfites?

If you know spanish (or try with Google translate) use this page, its top notch

vitivinicultura.net/#article/2295

Dig around, they even talk about different disease that affect the vines, or the correct soil and care for them.

I did a mistela, it was fucking awesome.

Here's some mead i just finished racking for the third time
Also bread yeast works just fine, champagne yeast is a meme