What could be wrong with my homemade wine?
February 23rd, 2010 | Published in Wine | 7 Comments
I’ve been trying to make the easy/cheap homemade wine I’ve heard about with juice+yeast+sugar. I finally got a batch to turn out decent. The only problem is it kinda smells like rubbing alcohol. It tastes okay, nothing great, but I haven’t gone blind yet. So what do I do to improve the taste and smell? I let it sit for about 3 weeks and didn’t let any air get to it. I made about 20 ounces and used around 1/4 cup of sugar. Could it be that I let it sit too long/short? Do I need more sugar?
Please no responses unless you actually have some kind of experience with this…
February 23rd, 2010 at 6:35 am (#)
I’m not a “pro” when it comes to “brewing” wine, but I’ve done some “home brew” (beer). It’s easy to get an “infection” (some bacteria and/or mold/yeast) from the air and it’s difficult to create a sterile environment at home. So even though you do things “right” sometimes you still get some “funk” in the brew from contaminants. The best bet is to “try, try again.” Good luck and keep it CLEAN!
February 23rd, 2010 at 7:23 am (#)
you would need to know if the amount of sugar was right before you add the yeast. Look up some wine supply companies online and many offer home recipes for good wine. The ingredients can be bought at the local grocery most of the time. The questions I would ask you are amoung a few, did you use lukewarm water to disolve your yeast or did you use hot water? Did you allow the mixture to vent the gases out or did you seal the top? Why did it only sit for 3 weeks? Most of the recipes I’ve seen call for 4 weeks minimum. Good luck
February 23rd, 2010 at 7:39 am (#)
you might want to try a different yeast brand. Some are better than others. Did you stir the mixture in the process it needs to be stirred at least every other day?
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:02 am (#)
I’ve made the same 21 day wine with None Sweeten Grape Juice, Cranapple Juice, Sugar and Yeast. To me it seems you didn’t give it enough sugar.
Its fun to make that type of Wine except its hard to wait to try it out…
Experiment around and you’ll get the right mix that you like the best.
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:08 am (#)
If you really want to make it yourself, there are places that rent the “containers” to make your own wine and beer. Thats here in MO though. Its really a cool idea though, I love wine and I have thought about doing this myself.
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:05 am (#)
OK OK I’m not a wine maker, I have however made lots of beer, mead, hard cider, distilled spirits & soda. but sorry I have not tried my hand at making fruit wine.
The first thing I would like to tell you is about the whole myth of going blind. It is simply untrue & practically impossible. If you were however making 100 gallon + sized batches of distilled hard liquor the miniscule amounts of methanol created, if created at all you would have had to drink impossible amounts of your homemade creation you would have died long before the remote chance you of going blind, you would of course be dead & not very concerned any way with that out of the way
The most common problem with allot of homemade alcoholic beverages are either poor sanitation causing bacteria & of course wild yeasts to run ramped. Wild yeasties are not very good at producing the wonderful ethanol we have come to love & enjoy, they tend to produce higher alcohol and esters not very yummy and can leave a bad taste in your mouth, not to mention a nice headache the following day. The bacteria culture we call wort, must or bath is allot of time perfect for them to reproduce and live happily You did not use bread yeast I am hoping
next on the list we have oxydation. this is of course good for yeast in the beginning as they need oxygen to get going, this can play a large role in the finished product & cause many off flavors & other problems. oxydation is caused by an agitation or transferring of the product while it is cooling, and any other time besides before you pitch the yeast it can cause problems. Basically the only time you want oxygen to mix into your wine at anytime is right before you add the yeast.or when you poor it into a glass. It is impossible to keep this from happening completely you do need to do as much as possible to avoid it.
Anyway these are the two most likely reasons for fouled up home made products on a pretty long list of other possibilities & I hope this has been of some help to you. Good luck & if you want a really easy homemade beverage you might want to try your hand at making some sparkling hard apple cider ,Yummy
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:17 am (#)
There are some useful tips here.