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 The time has come (the walrus said) to widely distribute guidelines for making wine and beer without adding chemicals or risking infection. Some of you may be thinking you already have this information, but there have been some refinements and modifications over the months/years. Please take a moment to look them over and save.
Wine Making Equipment
To make your first batch of 30 bottles of wine, you'll need:
a 24-litre fermentor
a 23-litre plastic carboy (which is actually your second fermentor)
air lock and rubber stopper
siphoning and transferring equipment
a long-handled mixing spoon
a thermometer
a hydrometer and sampling jar
a bottle filling attachment
sanitizing and cleaning powders or solutions
a corker
30 corks
30 bottles.
Wine Making Supplies
There are a few essential supplies you'll need in your wine making endeavours.
The first, of course, is the grape juice or concentrate, which you can buy in kits of almost any grape variety from different regions of the world. Depending on the variety, these wine kits will range in price from about $35 to over $100. A kit will make about 30 bottles of wine.
Even before you consider the type of wine, cleaning and sanitizing your equipment and wine bottles are essential to great-tasting wine. There are environmentally friendly sanitizing solutions and bottle brushes designed specifically to reach the contours of all wine making vessels.
A hydrometer measures gravity to fermentation process. It helps monitor the fermentation progress, potential alcohol and help you estimate when the wine will be ready to bottle. A thermometer tests fermenting temperature, which is very important to control.
Beer Making Supplies
To make your first batch of 48 beers, you will need:
a 5 gallon boiling kettle or pot
a 24 litre (7 US GAL) primary fermenter
a 23 litre plastic secondary fermenter
an air lock and rubber stopper
siphoning and transferring equipment
a long-handled mixing spoon
a thermometer
sanitizing and cleaning solutions
48 re-capable beer bottles
48 beer bottle crowns or caps
a crown capper.
Wine
1. Clean everything that comes in contact with the must/wine. Use sodium or potassium metabisulphite. Avoid inhaling. Save in a separate marked bottle. Rinse with hot water.
2. Rinse concentrate bag with hot water to get all juice out and pour in primary. Top up with cold water to about 2" below 23 liter mark. Stir well with non-metallic, clean object
3. Pour dry yeast into a cup of warm, not hot water and leave for 15 minutes. Stir slurry gently and add to must if outside of primary is not hot to touch. Cover primary and let sit at room temperature for 3-6 days (until heavy frothing begins to subside).
4. Rack into secondary (glass) fermenter. Do not splash and do not top up. Air lock must always be on.
5. Leave in secondary fermenter for 3 weeks, then rack off lees. Top up in next carboy with filtered or pre-boiled water, juice or wine.
6. In 4 weeks, rack and top up again. Repeat in another 4 weeks. Bottle in no less than 2 weeks. Soak corks in warm water and 1/8 tsp of sulphite for up to one hour. Stand bottles up for 3-4 days.
Beer
1. Clean everything that comes in contact with the wort/beer. Use diversol and rinse well with cold water, then hot.
2. Pour malt extract, sugar, adjuncts, etc. and water in brew kettle and stir thoroughly. Kettle should be about half-full, or at least 9 litres.
3. Bring to a rolling boil for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Watch out for foaming over. Simmer for 15 minutes. Rapidly cool kettle in cold water in sink.
4. Pour wort (beer) through a ventilated funnel into sanitized glass carboy. Add cold water to 19 litre mark and stir well with end of sanitized, long, non-metallic utensil.
5. Extract 2 litres of wort into sanitized glass bottle. Seal and place in fridge.
6. Pour dry yeast into a cup of warm, not hot water and leave for 15 minutes. Stir slurry gently and add to wort. Attach air lock. Leave for 3 weeks in dark, warm place.
7. Rack into sanitized 19-20 litre plastic or glass carboy. Add 2 litres of wort taken from fridge (solids as well as liquid). Leave 3-5 hours. Bottle or keg.
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