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770077
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Does anybody brew/ Make wine here?
Hows it going everyone! First post!
I have lurked here for a while but have seen no discussion of brewing/ winemaking. A lot chem/bio teachers I have had have been into making their own
beer and wine (some even into distilling).
Wondering if you guys ever make anything alcoholic and potable, and what? Recipes of course are welcome.
Note: I just started a few gallons of mead going (on the dry side). Has anybody made mead?
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Trifluoroacetic
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Welcome to Science Madness!!!!
I've thought about making wine in fact I have quite a few supplies sitting arround but I haven't had a chance to make any yet. I've been to busy
working on other projects.
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Paddywhacker
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Winemaking is a great hobby. Especially since many fruit and vegetable juices can be fortified with sugar and fermented to yield many an exotic
tipple.
One of the most surprisingly nice ones that I have come across was parsley wine.
One of the worst, I made from many cans of pineapple juice. The nature of the flavour compounds changed completely on fermentation. A friend, on
tasting the final product, claimed I had shat in it.
Any good stories... tips?
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12AX7
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Hah, I wonder if that's due to the pinapple esters (ethyl butyrate IIRC!) breaking down.
I'm going to try watermelon wine this summer. Probably a disaster as I have little brewing experience, but we'll see. If it sucks, I can distill the
alcohol and stockpile it. 
Tim
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hissingnoise
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I was offered homemade wine made from some kind of wild berries---it smelled and tasted of strong cat's piss.
I didn't tell the winemaker as she considered herself a connoisseur of "field wines". . .
And I was looking for a favour!
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unionised
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I often wonder how people come to know what cat's piss tastes like.
I used to make my own home brew a while back. I don't do it so much now ( my friends and I are a bit older and drink less).
I was surprised to find out just how bad garlic wine was; I brewed it as a joke (one of my mates hosted a party wher, it seemed, all the food was full
of garlic. For the next party I brewed an apropriate wine) and it was quite revolting. Still good to cook with though.
Of course I never tryied distilling the product because that would not be legal here in the UK. ;-)
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12AX7
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I'm sure what they mean is, it tastes the way cat pee smells. If they tend to be more literal in their meaning, though, who knows 
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bfesser
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And since the experience of taste is so heavily based upon smell . . . it's a fair assumption.
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hissingnoise
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What! You mean you haven't tried it---a novel experience awaits. . . ?
Seriously though, if you've smelled it, as Tim said, you know what it's like.
It's the kind of smell you want from your stash. . .but not necescelery in your tipple!
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crazyboy
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Quote: Originally posted by hissingnoise  |
I was offered homemade wine made from some kind of wild berries---it smelled and tasted of strong cat's piss.
I didn't tell the winemaker as she considered herself a connoisseur of "field wines". . .
And I was looking for a favour! |
It's possible it was "corked" (tainted with 2,4,6-Trichloroanisole) it's detectable in parts per trillion, or your friend sucks at making wine.
Personally I brew beer wine and mead.
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setback
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Brewing is a good hobby indeed, you can make a very high quality product at home if you do a little reading and work. It's fun and you can take pride
in knowing you made an excellent beer with your own hands, the old fashion way. No rice or corn here!
Anyway if you're interested in brewing check out homebrewtalk.com (I hope that's ok). It's a BB dedicated to making beer, wine, mead, and cider at
home. In the majority of the states home brewing IS legal (not distilling though).
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Hennig Brand
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1x2Kg bag of sugar on sale for $1-1.50 ca. = 2 x750mL of vodka
and thats retrieving probably less than 80% of total available alcohol.
I wonder what it realy costs the distillers and government, and what with the economies of scale and all.
I looked it up and here in ca. the average total tax on a bottle of hard stuff(excise+gst) was about40%, or about $10 on a $25, 750mL bottle. Beer and
wine where normaly taxed about %20, and some beer and wine only 10% or so but that stuff was mostly crap.
The health argument isn' t there either I believe because vodka is among those taxed the most, and it is without doubt the best for you(baring alcohol
poisoniong). The impurities are far more destructive of your health than the ethanol(methanol,acetone,higher alcohol and other). Of coure unless your
booze is realy bad stuff , the biggest threat is in consuming too much ethanol.
note:percentages are based on quantity of ethanol in product.
[Edited on 16-6-2009 by Hennig Brand]
[Edited on 16-6-2009 by Hennig Brand]
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1281371269
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But, Vodka is what teenagers drink at parties and get totally and utterly smashed and take up valuable hospital time. I agree however, it's not really
the main cause of long term health problems and those are what really cost the health service a lot.
You also need to factor in the prices of energy for distilling and special yeast / nutrients and the space and labour. On the other hand, the sugar or
rotten potatoes in the case of vodka would be bought in mass and would thus be even cheaper Still, extremely cheap.
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setback
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Home brewing isn't really all about making lots of hooch cheap, it's about making a quality product the old fashion way. Also, while not as much now
with all the microbrewers, it's about trying new things. Since most American "macro brew" is utter crap that lacks any variety.
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Hennig Brand
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As far as I'm concerned good quality vodka is about as good as it gets. No hang-overs to speak of, everyones heard of a wine hang-over I would
imagine. Vodka can be mixed with almost anything, it is super versatile! Some wine is realy good, and I definately love a good beer, especialy on a
hot day. However making a good quality beer for example with any level of repeatability is difficult for many. I guess I find it more friggy and
requiring more space to make good beer/wine in reasonable quantity in a reasonable amount of time. I do know people who do a realy good job of
beer/wine and realy love it. I definately wouldn' t turn away a sample of someones home beer or wine.
You are right in the sense that a hobby like this should not be just about turning out a bunch of cheap booze, or feeding your or someone else's
alcohol problem for that matter. I do believe that someone can take as much pride in micro distilling skills and products as they can in micro brewing
skills and products. I know there are legal issues with this depending on and varying with location but unless selling your product I see no moral
issue whatsoever regardless of what we are told.
[Edited on 16-6-2009 by Hennig Brand]
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770077
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homebrewtalk.com
^ that website has some really good FAQs and how-to pdfs on it!
As far distilling massive amounts of cheap vodka goes, that is sort of an art as well, because you have to build the still you do it on. And that
presents all kinds of wonderful engineering challenges to be tackled. Especially because you end up having to make the whole thing out of copper or
stainless steel most times, and copper is not cheap. 20$ for a connecting-T guys. Much more if you want a 2" threaded piece.
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Elawr
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I brew beer..
mostly ales, because they brew at a convenient temperature and ale is my favorite beverage. I make 5 gallons at a time and put it up in stainless
steel kegs. Much easier than bottling.
Anyone know of a good mead recipe?
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merrlin
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When I was a kid I read that pirates drank rum and that rum was made from molasses. I put some molasses and yeast into a glass jar, screwed the lid on
tight and hid it in my closet. A few days later I opened it up and it foamed all over the place, smelling vaguely like something out of my parents'
liquor cabinet.
Years later I got involved in a friend's annual winemaking project. He typical did both red and white, 50-70 gallons in 5 gallon glass carboys. One
year we added pieces of oak to simulate the effects of a cask. Clear, unidentified crystals about a millimeter in size formed on the oak. Another year
we used CO2 from sublimating dry ice to pump the wine during bottling, instead of the traditional siphon. The idea was to exclude oxygen. We were
never able to get a red that could be aged for more than a couple of years without turning. The CO2 didn't help the aging, but it gave the wine a
slight fizz. Home brewing/winemaking certainly combines the art and science of amateur experimentalism.
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User
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I do some home-brewing.
No wine , one needs a lotta grapes for that 
Just fermenting sugar to +/- 18% and several distillations.
Then adding a couple of grams of burnt sugar and some oak pieces and leave it for a while.
Makes nice cheap as hell rum.
Iam thinking of making some nice esters to add, but i still have no idea what.
Any suggestions ?
What a fine day for chemistry this is.
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Hennig Brand
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I guess I am involved in brewing and wine making at some level. When you ferment grain for whisky/whiskey you are essentialy making a beer, a hopless
beer but definetaly a beer. For whisky it is an ale that is used, actualy in Scotland many Scotch distillers get their yeast, already used at least
once from Ireland where it was first used to make Irish ale beer. Aparently there are advantages to using yeast that has already gone through a
fermentation cycle(less impurities, better taste,etc). It is survival of the fittest with yeast and after the first fermentation more of the strong
survive and multiply and they get less stressed under less than ideal conditions and therefor produce less impurities and off flavors. When one makes
a sugar wash, or a molasses wash, or a fruit wine for brandy then you are making wine. Contrary to many peoples beliefs rotten fruit and grain
generaly makes bad tasting booze. It does produce alcohol of course, but the flavor will suffer, and maybe be ruined. It is probably as important to
distilling to make a good beer or wine as it is to winemaking/brewing. The exception could maybe be when using a still that is either fractionating or
has a high reflux ratio. When a still turns out alcohol at over 90% pure very little flavor is carried over. With this type of process activated
carbon is usualy also employed(after, or in between distillations)to further purify and strip any flavors(good or bad) from the product.
Making good rum, whisky,brandy,and others probably requires most of the same skills as brewing and wine making actualy I guess. Many of the flavors
that are created by choice of sacharian matter, and the fermentation process are carried over in the distillate. I would definatly avoid rotten
anything unless making fuel alcohol I think.
[Edited on 17-6-2009 by Hennig Brand]
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User
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I am currently fermenting 3.5Kg of sugar in 10 liters of H20.
Recently i bought some kind of turbo-yeast that can bring the total mixture up to 18%.
Its Bubbling heavily through its waterlock so there is a lot of activity going on.
Another 5 days till its finished.
I will be distilling a couple of days because the biggest flask i have equips 2L
If all goes well ill build a big one out of copper and a deceased boiler.
One thing is for sure alcohol this way alcohol costs next to nothing.
Some of it will be used in my lab.
The rest of it will be for consumption by adding flavour and letting it rest with oak for a couple of months.
I like some very innocent chemistry once in a while.
Anyone any ideas of what esters could be interesting for using, if this is even advice able.
Or maybe other ideas for providing some nice non-natural flavour.
[Edited on 4-7-2009 by User]
What a fine day for chemistry this is.
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Saerynide
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Blend up some strawberries and put them in the vodka. Let it sit and extract for a couple days and filter out the mush. The result is a beautiful
red vodka that smells like heaven and is juicy and smooth enough to sip straight
I do it all the time with store bought vodka.
I tried another variation with pears. Tasted like jetfuel. Ack!
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setback
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You should try brewing beer or even mead. It's a fun and rewarding hobby, nothing like tasting the fruit of your labor. It takes a good amount of work
to do all grain, but it's worth it. You can make a world class beer at home, and you're in control of everything.
Apfelwein is another good one, it's simple to make and very tasty. Google apfelwein and follow the first link "edwort's apfelwein."
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halogen
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Been at it for about two years now; and I would say, certainly in the vein of experimentation, I once made a bacon-flavored batch on a wager with a
friend. Straight, as I expected, it tasted fairly unpleasant, but on distillation it turned out surprisingly well - delicious in fact! Who would have
thought...
Also, various teas are a wonderful thing to use as a base.
F. de Lalande and M. Prud'homme showed that a mixture of boric oxide and sodium chloride is decomposed in a stream of dry air or oxygen at a red heat
with the evolution of chlorine.
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User
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For giving it a bit of a chemistry touch i thought of collecting some nice herbs such as basil and others, and steam destilling it.
Collecting the oils and be able to fine tune the recipe.
I have no idea if this is useful at all , but it might be worth the shot.
At least it would be fun to do so.
What a fine day for chemistry this is.
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