Wine Making with Tim Vandergrift from Master Vintner

hi I'm Tim vandagriff from master vintner and if you're thinking about making your own wine you're in good company the idea of making wine at home is as old as the idea of home itself people have been making wine for tens of thousands of years in fact winemaking is a natural process if you did nothing more than put some grapes into a jar and leave them the juice would run out wild yeast would ferment it and it would turn itself into wine now it would be a little rough and ready so what we've put together is the equipment and the supplies for you to make not just wine but great wine from the very first time so a couple of things about winemaking first don't worry that you don't know anything to start with everybody start someplace second I said you could make not just good wine but great wine and that's the truth you can make wines the equal of those from stags leap vineyard in Napa or sonomas dry creek valley and they'll turn out fantastic the results are guaranteed now you get to decide which one you want to make again don't worry if you don't have a high level of wine knowledge that doesn't preclude you from knowing your own taste do you want to make white zinfandel to have with your chicken salad do you want a great big red to have with your steak or do you want just a nice wine for sipping with friends around the fire choose something that you like to drink in the course of this video we're going to show how it only takes a couple of hours of time all together to make two and a half cases of wine and I'll demonstrate the equipment and the ingredients that you'll be using once you've decided which one to make you're going to need your equipment first there's the big mouth bubbler plastic six and a half gallon primary fermenter this is where the line will go for the first part of the fermentation process there's also a six gallon glass carboy where the wine will go to finish there's also a bung and an airlock these help keep air from entering the wine and oxidizing it you'll also need some cleaning equipment including cloths and some sanitizing products we're going to be using one step no rinse sanitizer and submitted by sulphide solution will demonstrate how to use those in a bit you're also going to need a plastic spoon a bottle filler we've also got five feet of tubing and Ottawa siphon and that's going to help you transfer liquid from one of the fermenters to the other we've got our clean bottle Express wine and beer degasser will be demonstrating that it's very interesting there's also a carboy brush and a bottle brush which help keep everything clean there's 30 corks and a corking machine we've got a thermometer for checking the temperature of our grape juice there's also some stick on thermometers to make sure that our fermenters stay in the right temperature range we're going to need a wine thief this one comes in three pieces and needs to be assembled that's used to take samples to check the wine we're going to be using a hydrometer and test jar that'll tell us the progress of our fermentation we've also got some instructions in a DVD be sure to read those the first step that you are going to take and winemaking is the most important one you need to open the box and extract the single most important item that you're going to get that is your instructions carefully remove the instructions from the box take them out put them back in the box close it and do nothing else until you have completely and thoroughly read your instructions why so much emphasis in the instructions well within them is everything you need to know to make a great wine they've got information on temperature timelines specific gravity readings and the place you can go back to the refer to find out where you are in your process keep in mind that wine kits are made in a winery and they're very carefully crafted they've got the right amount of nutrient they've got the right specifications for sugar for tannin for acid for alcohol all those things but to have them turn out you need to follow the instructions so please do that brings us to an important point if your instructions vary from anything you see in this video obey the instructions we've necessarily made this just a tiny bit generic because some kits contain oak some kits contain sweetening packs and some kids have different timelines when in doubt your instructions of the place to go the first step in winemaking is to get everything clean and sanitized so we can use it cleaning and sanitizing are two separate steps cleaning is the removal of visible residue and stains from your equipment and sanitizing is treating it with an inhibitor that will prevent the growth of spoilage organisms and bacteria for our first day we're going to sanitize and clean our primary fermenter our lid spoon thermometer hydrometer test jar wine thief bung and airlock we're going to use one step cleaner it works great a tablespoon in a gallon of warm water will clean very effectively please don't use any household cleaning products on your wine making equipment almost all of them have high levels of industrial perfume which can sink into your equipment and stay effectively contaminating plastic and even leaving residue on glass once your equipment is clean you can sanitize it most winemakers use metabisulfite it's a solution made of three tablespoons of sulfite powder in one gallon of cool water stir to mix and it's ready to use you can dip or so each piece of equipment in it and then you can either let it completely drift dry or rinse it with clean water you could also put it into a trigger spray bottle and use it that way whichever way you choose to use it don't inhale the vapor from the liquid sulfite solution it's kind of nasty smelling you don't want to breed that in leftover sulphide solution doesn't need to be tossed out you can keep it tightly sealed in a jar for up to a month at room temperature before you have to make a fresh batch alright now that all of our equipment is sanitized and ready to go it's time to dive into the kit the first step will be to have a look at the top of the box and see if there's a product code sticker on top if there is peel it off and stick it on to your instructions this has not only the name of the kit and the type line it is but also a product date code that will be very useful if you have any questions or inquiries about this particular kit next step take everything out of the box and let's have a look at what our ingredients are this bag contains all the ingredients and additives that you need to make your wine it includes a packet of yeast specially chosen for this particular kit it's also gone bentonite which is added to the wine on day one hardly to help us clarifying it and partly to help getting the fermentation going it contains potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite in order to stabilize the wine in the bottle and a fining agent to make sure it clears up on time now different kits have different additives as well this particular kit we're making today contains some oak powder this simulates Aging in the barrel some kids have more than one package if your kid has more than one add all of them when directed other kids may have another smaller bag of juice inside that's a sweetening packet used after fermentation is over consult your instructions the first step is to dissolve our bentonite in about a half a gallon of warm water in the bottom of our fermenter this is pretty easy and there's a just a tiny trick to it the bentonite is a finely powdered clay so if you pour it in all at once it'll tend to clump up and form lumps if you stir the water first and then pour it in it'll dissolve really easily let me show you finally we've got our big beautiful bag of grape juice we're not gonna take it out because it's heavy but I'll show you how you can pour this carefully and easily the next step is to top the fermenter up to the six gallon mark with lukewarm water on the big mouth bubbler it's very conveniently marked off at six gallons right there it's important to use lukewarm water our instructions tell us that this should be 72 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit before the yeast goes in if it's colder than that it's going to slow fermentation down and the wine may not finish or clear on time if it's a lot hotter than that these can get a little crazy and produce some strange flavors so make sure you get it just in the right temperature range it's also very important to go to the six gallon mark on the first day too low and you change the pH of the juice too high the wine could taste watery so let's top it up the next step is to give the juice a really good stir even though it may look mixed the juice has so much sugar in it that it can settle out in a strata in the bottom you need to stir that into solution and get it all evenly distributed get in and give it a darn good stir don't be shy next you need to take your hydrometer reading hydrometer is a device that measures the specific gravity or the density of a liquid since grape juice has sugar dissolved into it it's denser than water so the hydrometer will float higher in the liquid as the yeast eats the sugars and converts them into alcohol a hydrometer will progressively float lower and lower and lower and this way we can tell the progress of our fermentation by taking hydrometer readings it's important to start out with one on the very first day use your wine thief like this dip it in and hold it under until it fills get your hydrometer test jar cover the hole in the top of the line Feith with your thumb pull it out straight up carefully put the tip into the hydrometer test jar and take your thumb off and it will fill up I'm taking the hydrometer reading now there's a scale that runs down the side of the hydrometer and what you want to do is start from the 1.000 mark near the top and read down to the point where the level of the juice meets the markings in this case the reading goes to 1.0 90 technically winemakers often call that 1090 that's a good starting gravity this wine will be over 12 and a half percent alcohol when it's finished good reading so let's write it down in our instructions once we've taken our specific gravity reading it's important that we take a temperature reading as well we can use the liquid in the test jar to do this take out your thermometer dip it into the test jar and leave it for a couple of minutes to let the temperature come up we want it to be between 72 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit before we pitch the yeast again this is crucial don't pitch your yeast if it's too cold and if it's too warm you'll need to cool it down probably the best way to warm it up will be to put it in warmest area of your house if you've got a serious problem and it's 50 degrees or cooler you can fill a bathtub with warm water and very gently sent your fermenter down into it to let it warm up to temperature if we check our reading here we're at exactly 75 degrees Fahrenheit perfect you can return the grape juice to the primary fermenter and now it's time to add any oak that's included with the kit this kit came with two packages so we're going to tear them open and pour them directly on top of the juice technically now it's called a must winemaker word for juice oak smells great it's got a vanilla toasty woody know that's really going to compliment this Cabernet Sauvignon when you've got both packages of oaken grab your spoon and stir it under the surface of the liquid it won't sink on the first day it's wood so it floats however after a couple of days it's going to get waterlogged and it's going to sink and stay in the wine don't worry about it by the time you're ready to rack this from the primary fermenter into your carboy the oak will have given up all of its flavor and the wine will have a delicious toasty vanilla character a lot of beer and wine making textbooks will tell you that it's very important to rehydrate drive winemaking these before you add it this is one of those things that's true but not actually important in regards to wine kits the yeast that's included with the kit is fully sufficient to ferment it well and ferment strongly just by being added dry you don't have to rehydrate it or fiddle with it in any way simply tear the pack of the yeast open and sprinkle it right into the carboy this is the point where this must is now wine as soon as the east touches it it begins to rehydrate grow to culture strength and then it's going to start making delicious alcohol we're on our way finally it's time to close up the primary fermenter and let the yeast do its work attach your lid to the top screw it down and put in the bung and airlock and make sure that your airlock is halfway full of water that fermentation lock is going to keep any air from getting into our primary fermenter but it's going to allow fermentation gases like carbon dioxide to escape finally put your primary fermenter into an area where it won't be disturbed for five to seven days it's been five days since we started our primary fermentation now it's time to test our specific gravity to check and see if it's okay to rack from our big mouth bubbler into our car boy in preparation I've sanitized the carboy a fresh air lock and bong are siphon rod and hose our wine thief and our hydrometer and test jar now let's take that sample and check it to make sure we're where we need to be it has to be 1.0 10 or 10 10 or less if it's not we can't proceed we have to wait another couple of days check the gravity again and make sure it's below 1.0 10 it's very important if we transfer too early we could get foaming in the carboy and it might come right out the airlock and make a big mess so we want to wait until that gravity is the correct reading so let's have a look with our gravity reading at 10 10 or less we can transfer the line from the primary to the carboy we're going to be using an auto siphon today which makes transferring very easy both of these have been sanitized and they're ready to go dip it right into the bottom and if you look there is a small tip on here this will keep sediment from flowing into the hose and blocking it up there's still also a little bit of oak floating around in suspension and this will help keep it out of the hummus dip it straight into the bottom of your primary fermenter let it rest there put the hose into the receiving carboy and then with a good smooth stroke just like a bicycle pump and it goes this transfer everything over in just a couple of minutes when we get to the very bottom we're going to tail the primary fermenter a little bit because we want to carry over all of the liquid that we can we want to leave any visible sediment behind but we do want to fill the carboy up with as much liquid as we can get that's important ten days later we're ready for the next step which is stabilizing and clearing I've checked the specific gravity and it is now 992 so it's below 1.000 which means it's completely finished fermenting take a minute to write that down and we're good to go step one we want to add our sulfite and sorbet these are two stabilizers that are going to help keep the wine from oxidizing or spoiling during aging and storage it's important to dissolve the sulfite in the sorbet in water first if you add them directly to the wine they can clump and settle out on the bottom where they won't be doing their job so just about half a cup of water pour them in and give it a stir once it's completely dissolved you can add it to the carboy and stir it in there traditionally stirring in the carboy is done with a spoon since the big end of a spoon will fit in you sanitize and use the back end however the master vintner series kit comes with an excellent stirring device that cuts down on labour by a big amount this is the clean bottle Express wine degasser it's got some whippy bits on the end that go into the wine and the other end goes into an electric drill with this in only a couple of minutes you can get a lot of degassing done let's talk for a minute about degassing without getting all the carbon dioxide from the fermentation out of this wine the fining agents can't do their work and clear it also if you don't get all the carbon dioxide out on bottling day the wine is gonna have some fizz in it which will give it a flat almost metallic taste it's really important that you follow the steps for the gassing precisely we've got our degasser inserted into the end of a drill and it's been sanitizing it's ready to go one of the really important tips for the de gasser is that you should test the wine first now this batch wine has been sitting at 75 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 days so it's pretty thoroughly degassed on its own the bubbles have mostly come out if your wine is fermented cooler it could be quite foamy and if you go full power with a drill right away you could create quite a mess as it jumps out of the car boy so let's just give it an experimental stir first to see where we're at with the carbon dioxide that looks good so here's the sequence for using a drill mounted degassing whip like this what you want to do is stir in one direction at full speed for as long as you can after a while the line is going to start to climb up the size of the vessel and want to come out at that point reverse your drill and go backwards and that'll keep it from foaming out everywhere do this back and forth four or five times and you'll have gotten most of your degassing done in under a couple of minutes here's how it's done you can see how much work how fast that gets done it's really a labor time-saver next step is to add our finding agent in this case this kit uses a product called Qaeda sin so we're just going to snip open the edge of the packet and pour it straight into the carboy now it's time to stir it again all of the fining agents have been stirred in along with the stabilizers and it's been thoroughly degassed the next step is to reattach the bong and airlock make sure it's still half full with water and put this back into our fermenting area for 14 days keep the temperature at 72 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit and the fining agents will clear this up and get it ready for bottling day our wine is sat quietly in our fermenting area for 14 days and it's ready for bottling but there's a layer of sediment principally yeast cells and fining agents at the bottom of the carboy if we bottle directly from here we could disturb that and get some cloudy wine what we're going to do first is rock of the line from the carboy back into our big mouth primary fermenter and being very careful we won't disturb any of that sediment that will give us a free hand to get nice clear bottles of wine now that our wine has been transferred back into the big valve bubbler we're ready to start bottling first thing we need is some bottles you can save these yourself at home and clean them very very thoroughly by using your one-step cleaner and a bottle brush to get all the stuff out from the inside after they've been cleaned you can store them upside down in a box until you're ready to use them at that point you'll want to sulfite them to make sure that they're sanitary for bottling use alternatively you can purchase brand new wine bottles these don't need to be scrubbed but you still need to sanitize them and we're going to use our leftover metabisulfite solution to do that right now to sanitize the bottles we need to coat the inside with our metabisulfite solution there are trigger sprayers and other devices out there that can do this but you can simply use a funnel and your metabisulfite solution and then transfer and then transfer the liquid from one bottle the next just like this repeat until you have 30 bodies ready to fill with one if you do it this way there will be a tiny amount of sulfide solution left in the bottle that's okay we've actually already added sulfide to the line to prevent oxidation and this is the same stuff and that amount in the bottle won't change the levels of sulfide in any way we can measure however if you're concerned you can rinse them but I never do now that our wine has been transferred over into our primary fermenter it's clear and it's free of sediment if you check it and you notice that it's still cloudy don't rack it over you can't bottle cloudy wine it won't clear up in the bottle you should leave it instead for another few days and checking for clarity first but our wine cleared up gorgeously and it's ready to go we're going to bottle it using a siphon bottle filler this is a acrylic plastic rod with a little needle valve on the end and unless you're pressing up on that valve wine won't flow that will let us fill our bottles neatly and accurately I'll show you how that works in just a second we've got our sanitized auto siphon will connect up our bottle filler and we're going to start filling our first model when you hold the siphon filler deep into the bottle the needles pressed up and wine flows as the bottle begins to fill you get ready watch it going to the neck and stop right when it gets up to the top as you withdraw the siphon filler it leaves exactly the right amount of space for the court to go into the bottle it does drip a tiny little bit so I've set our bottles onto a plastic garbage can lid now that all of our bottles are filled it's time to put the corks in we're going to be using an impact corker and this relies on a plunger to push the Cork's through a sleeve that compresses down like a funnel and sticks them into the neck of the bottle in order to get this to work properly the Cork's need to be soaked for a few minutes I'm using our sulfide solution to do this then when the cork is soaked put it right in get it set up and will use the corker to push it in it's much easier to insert the corks with an impact corker if you're down on the floor where you can get your weight over top of the cork in the bottle we've got our cork soaked here in our sulfide solution put them into the impact corker pull the bottle in closer we can get our weight over top of it hold it down very carefully and it goes and that's it in only four weeks and with just a few hours of labor we've got finished wine now that you've caught your wine it's important to keep it upright for three days this will allow the pressure inside the bottle to escape and equalize with the outside air and it will also allow the court to seek firmly inside the neck after the three day period you can lay the line down on its side for storage when you do that the wine will keep the end of the court moist keeping it sealed tightly and protecting the wine from outside air you can go a little further and finish your bottle with a beautiful label and a matching capsule over the top makes for great presentation whatever you choose to do you're now a winemaker master vintner series makes it easy but you make it excellent thanks for watching I'm Tim vandegrift from master vinegar I

Channel: Master Vintner

Views: 166,070

Keywords: Winemaking (Interest), Wine (Industry), Winemaker (Profession)

Id: GnEasQsVcyo

Length: 27min 48sec (1668 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 03 2015