Virgin to Wine making!

[ski]

Hi,

I am a total novice, but decided to try and make some Wine off a vine that grows wild at the back of my allotment, here in the UK.


Managed to collect enough red grape juice to fill a 5 gallon container, added brewing sugar and activated some yeast before fitting a air lock and placing everything up in my loft.

It all seemed to be going well, used to check it every day and it was bubbling away nicely.

Then yesterday it stopped completely after about two and a half weeks?

Is this normal?

Do I need to rack it off into demijohns now?

Any advice is welcome, I have not touched it, read somewhere that you are surposed to dunk the crust or something?

Sorry, I am in the dark with all this ;-)

Any advice would be appreciated - ta

 

[leondz]

Hi,

Sounds like everything's going well so far! You should definitely rack off at the earliest convenience if the wine has been sitting on decomposing grapes for three weeks, though leave airlocks on your demijohns, as fermentation's unlikely to be completely finished just yet. Do you have a hydrometer? If so then you can take readings of your wine's gravity maybe twice a week and wait for it to stabilise - hopefully it'll stick at around 0.994 (give or take) for three readings in a row, by which point you'll know that the bulk part of fermentation is over.

As for dunking the crust, no idea, but I certainly wouldn't dip any crust from winemaking into my tea

CJJ Berry has written a seminal book on winemaking (though it uses a bit too much sugar in some recipes) that you can pick up very cheaply from a local bookshop (they'll order it in, it's still in print) or if you fancy paying delivery charges, Amazon. It covers everything, possibly a bit too much, but has a comfortably written section on viticulture in the UK and making wine from grapes. The book is called "First Steps in Winemaking" and the ISBN is 1854861395.

Good luck!

 

[ski]

Thanks for the reply and advice, not so worried now ;-)

Did as you said and swapped over the juice into another 5 gallon container with another air lock, removing the crud at the bottom.

There is a bit more of air space in the container and swapping it over seems to have excited the yeast again as the airlock is bubbling again, not as fast as before but still on the go.

 

[leondz]

Thanks for the reply and advice, not so worried now ;-)

Did as you said and swapped over the juice into another 5 gallon container with another air lock, removing the crud at the bottom.

There is a bit more of air space in the container and swapping it over seems to have excited the yeast again as the airlock is bubbling again, not as fast as before but still on the go.

Sounds great! You might like to top up the new demijohn a bit, to about 3-4cm below the stopped (depending on your dj design); the reason for this is to reduce the amount of air that the wine has contact with. Air carries bacteria, lots of surface exposed to the air = more chance for infection. You can top up with chlorine-free water (e.g. from a filter), or a wine that's similar to what you're making in flavour and colour. I usually just go for whatever cheap red/white there is lying around that's not been finished yet :)