Fermetting in a carboy?

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Date: 18 Oct 2006 12:41:21
From: 416freeze
Subject: Fermetting in a carboy?

For years I've watched my father buy the grape juice (years before that
we squished them ourselves), ferment it in the wine pails for a couple
days, then trasnfer to the barrels where they spent the rest of their
time.

I don't have access to the barrels anymore, and was wondering If the
follwoing would work (suggested by a winery by me):

Purchase the juice, pour into a carboy... and allow it to ferment in
there. Once complete, transfer into bottles.

Of course I'll need a stopper, and the aparatus that allows air out,
nothing in.

Can the juice be fermented this way? Anything re: taste changes?

Any help is appreciated for newbie wine maker!

Date: 19 Oct 2006 02:07:37
From: Adam Preble
Subject: Re: Fermetting in a carboy?

416freeze wrote:
> Can the juice be fermented this way? Anything re: taste changes?

Yes and a lot of home vintners will do that. However, you'll notice the
lack of wood touching the stuff if you've had some much experience with
barrels over the years. For this people put in oak chips or even an oak
essence.

Some would be very fussy and insist some aging happen in the barrel if
you want the taste as you had it. There's something about the reaction
with all that wood which imparts a unique flavor.

Of course you can go to the winemaking newsgroup as everybody is going
to recommend in a chorus... ;)

Date: 18 Oct 2006 21:20:04
From: Bart Goddard
Subject: Re: Fermetting in a carboy?

jasonalves@gmail.com wrote:

> I don't have access to the barrels anymore, and was wondering If the
> follwoing would work (suggested by a winery by me):

Wine? Bleh! Who drinks that swill anymore? If you absolutely
have to have alcoholic grape juice, just mix up some Welches',
put in directly into the bottles and top off with a couple
ounces of everclear. You'll never notice the difference.

Bart

--
The man without a .sig

Date: 18 Oct 2006 14:49:53
From: The Artist Formerly Known as Kap'n Salty
Subject: Re: Fermetting in a carboy?

Date: 18 Oct 2006 19:49:41
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Fermetting in a carboy?

On 18 2006 12:41:21 -0700, <jasonalves@gmail.com > wrote:
> For years I've watched my father buy the grape juice (years before that
> we squished them ourselves), ferment it in the wine pails for a couple
> days, then trasnfer to the barrels where they spent the rest of their
> time.
>
> I don't have access to the barrels anymore, and was wondering If the
> follwoing would work (suggested by a winery by me):
>
> Purchase the juice, pour into a carboy... and allow it to ferment in
> there. Once complete, transfer into bottles.

Sure, that's probably how most people do it.

> Of course I'll need a stopper, and the aparatus that allows air out,
> nothing in.

Yeah, a stopper and an airlock. Any homebrew store should carry that
stuff. You can order them online if you don't have any place local.

rec.crafts.winemaking may have more information though. Most of the people
here are discussing beer brewing.

John.

Date: 19 Oct 2006 17:25:04
From: stephen
Subject: Re: Fermetting in a carboy?

416freeze wrote:
> For years I've watched my father buy the grape juice (years before that
> we squished them ourselves), ferment it in the wine pails for a couple
> days, then trasnfer to the barrels where they spent the rest of their
> time.
>
> I don't have access to the barrels anymore, and was wondering If the
> follwoing would work (suggested by a winery by me):
>
> Purchase the juice, pour into a carboy... and allow it to ferment in
> there. Once complete, transfer into bottles.
>
> Of course I'll need a stopper, and the aparatus that allows air out,
> nothing in.
>
> Can the juice be fermented this way? Anything re: taste changes?
>
> Any help is appreciated for newbie wine maker!
>
You can do it directly in a carboy.. although make sure you have enough
headspace. Personally I would start in a bucket (foodsafe sanitized with
some kind of cover to keep the fruit flies out).

Also, I reccomend pitching a well known yeast strain (depending on the
variety of juice). I've seen too much wine go bad because people let it
"naturally" ferment. Lalvin has some good dry yeast that should be very
cheap at your local ubrew http://www.lalvinyeast.com/strains.asp .

You'll want some oak chips as well. There are many different types of
oak chips, so you'll have to figure out what kind to match the wine
(toasted, untoasted, french, american etc). A shop could recommend quantity.

I would also reccomend racking (moving the wine from one carboy to
another) at least once, to get it off the yeast if you are going to be
long term aging it in the carboy. When racking you should also add a
minimal amount of metabisulphite to prevent oxidation.. this can be done
using campden tablets (probably the easiest for most people).

Then just sit back and let it age. If it doesn't have enough oak you can
add more chips and wait or use oak extract. If you find it has enough,
you can rack again off the oak chips. Remember, when sampling always use
a sanitized wine thief.

416freeze wrote:
> For years I've watched my father buy the grape juice (years before that
> we squished them ourselves), ferment it in the wine pails for a couple
> days, then trasnfer to the barrels where they spent the rest of their
> time.
>
> I don't have access to the barrels anymore, and was wondering If the
> follwoing would work (suggested by a winery by me):
>
> Purchase the juice, pour into a carboy... and allow it to ferment in
> there. Once complete, transfer into bottles.
>
> Of course I'll need a stopper, and the aparatus that allows air out,
> nothing in.
>
> Can the juice be fermented this way? Anything re: taste changes?
>
> Any help is appreciated for newbie wine maker!
>