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- An outline of winemaking from grapes!
- For the home Vintner
White and red wine making will pretty much
be the same procedures with some definitive differences. As you will see
from the steps below, red wines will need pulp fermentation for color
extraction, whereas white wines will not need this. It is however worth
noting that some vintners do leave the skins in contact with the juice for
up to 48 hours prior to starting fermentation on some white wines.
Day 1 (Harvest)
Ideal measurements at
harvest: Sugar 1.080 Acid .7% to .8% Tartaric
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Grapes are harvested and handled
carefully, keep in clean containers.
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Remove stems from grapes, either by
hand or with a de-stemmer
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Place the grapes in a sterile plastic
container or other appropriate container
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Crush the grapes, breaking open the
skins.
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Add potassium metabisulfite to the
crushed grapes
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(White Wine) Press the grapes with a
grape press, and let run off juice strain through straining bag
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Test the juice for sugar and acid
content. Adjust if needed.
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Make a yeast starter with some of the
juice and nutrient
Day 2
- Add yeast starter to the must.
- Do not top up container, you must leave room for
foaming.
- Secure with airlock if you want, or just cover
loosely with something
Day 6 or 7
- Transfer must to secondary container, top up and seal
with an airlock.
- For red wine, press the
skins now, and combine juice with original must.
1-2 Months Later
- Wine should be finished and resting on lees, and/or
spent yeast
- Rack wine into clean container, top up and seal with
airlock.
2 Months Later
- Rack wine again and move to cool area
3 Months Later
- Rack wine again.
- Bottling can be done now if desired, or wait an
additional few months.
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