Let's talk about wine making!

in #life6 years ago (edited)

Hello Steemians!

Today I am sharing with you my experience so far with making homemade wine. To my surprise, it was not that hard at all. If you have enough desire.

I am lucky enough to have neighbours who make wine for years, they are more than happy to share thеir knowledge and I am wise enough to learn from them.

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It is my first year making wine, but I think I got the basics. It is similar to cooking.

Now lets talk about the most important things:

- Good grapes
I do not know how was it back in the day, but today it is pretty easy. When the grape season comes (mid September) you just go to a local reseller of grapes who comes with a truck load of many kinds and sorts of grapes.
Now in my case, I just bought a big container of 120 litres. Then went with a good company to choose the grapes.

Bought the sweetest grapes I tasted - it was the sort of Cabernet, grown and raised in north/east region of Bulgaria.
Bought 80kg of grapes which is like 2/3 of my container (it increases size during fermentation process so it has to have extra room).
The truck has a milling machine with a hose attached to it and in a matter of minutes your container is filled with almost ready product.

There are "sugarmeters" to check how sugary is your grapes.
But I decided to wing it and put the bare minimum of sugar and see how it goes.
So I put only 1kg of sugar for 80kg of grapes.

- Mix it every day
It is important to mix the grapes every day during fermentation process which is about 45-60 days in dark and cool place at around 16c temp. It is good the grapes to breath fresh air, so make sure you have an open door when you mix it.

- Make it with love
I learned in life that the most pleasure I get is when I share, what I have made with love.

Here is how the grapes look during the fermentation process:

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This is 80kg of grapes milled, mixed with 1kg of sugar, no water added!

I made sure to blend 1kg of sugar with a small part of the grapes and the juice, so the sugar is already dissolved when it gets into the container.

After around 45-60days everyday mixing, the fermentation process will be done. Now you need to filter only the juice through a faucet.

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After 45-60days

Here is how it looks after you faucet it to another container!
80kg of grapes made about 30litres of wine, the rest will go to making "rakia" - a Bulgarian brandy. I will probably make another post about it.

Usually I only drink beer, accompanied with smoking some fine herbs, but I guess winter really is a red wine season, and it is really sweet if you make it your own!
Now you only need to wait a day to let the haze go to the bottom of the container!

It is done!
When the haze settles down scoop the top and it is a clear wine!

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Beautiful stuff, I am amazed!

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Bonus footage of cats chilling

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Thank you for checking out my blog!
@alnedkov

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Wow, this is impressive that you can make your own wine. My sister in law studied this (or was it wine plant growing?)... Anyway, I'm impressed by people that dare to try to make their own foods and drinks from scratch (not cooking, but preserving and wine making!). I hope it turned out very nicely!

I have featured you and this post for a Curation Contest here:

https://steemit.com/curation/@bengy/payitforwardentry-week31-7yznrjonrg

You can also join the fun here:

https://steemit.com/payitforward/@pifc/week-31-pay-it-forward-curation-contest-5c376312a3397est

That is wonderful!

Много добре си описал процеса и бих добавил няколко неща

  1. не е хубаво повече от 2-3 дена да остават джибрите(гроздето) с шарата(сокът).най-добре е да се отделят веднага като се изстиска гроздето до 30% и се слагат в друг съд с вода за ракия
  2. в зависимост от вида вино който произвеждате бяло,розе,червено или плодово трябва задължително да проверите с захаромер.Градусите който аз знам от дядо ми са 21,22,24,25 в зависимост от бяло,розе.....
    3.накрая искам да ви покажа снимка на моето таз годишно вино от диви къпини което лично си произвеждам всяка година
    IMG_20181109_123713.jpg
    иначе идеята ти за етикетите е страхотна.когато ми е готово гроздовото вино и аз ще го направя в бутилки с мой етикет и ще ви се похваля

Браво! Много добре изглежда!

Благодаря.Традиция е в фамилията ми от поколения

Ще се радвам да прочета един хубав пост по темата, снимката е много добра!

Много скоро ще направя

Личи си, че в направата на домашното вино са вложени желание и любов! Скритата истина" също присъства :) Наздраве!

Наздраве!

Хм, цветът е жесток. Предполагам и вкуса :D

Btw, попаднах на блога ти, след като @bengy го препоръча в @pifc. Мислех, че няма мн българи на платформата, а се оказа, че не е точно така :)

Здравей! Радвам се, че се намерихме!

Wonderful post.
I made some "hedgerow wine" one year, mostly because I didn't want to just throw away the pulp after making jelly. It turned out pretty well. I keep meaning to try it again.

I found this post thanks to @bengy who featured you in this week's Pay it Forward Curation Contest. Keep up the great work!

Thank you! Googled hedgerow wine, still trying to figure out what hedgerow wine is.

Well, I made hedgerow jelly which is just a combination of whatever I found in the hedges... damsons, blackberries, hawthorn berries, rowan berries, things like that.
As there's always pulp left behind after making jelly, I couldn't stand to waste it. My method was pretty much what yours was though I had to use a rather inelegant plastic milk jug for my bottle. It turned out all right though. :-)

Sounds interesting! Yes the pulp is still alive!

Когато е направено с мерак, си личи! :) Така си го разказал, че сигурно догодина ще се пробвам и аз, живот и здраве!
А и какъв дизайнерски етикет си му барнал... Браво! :)))

Поздрави,
Дамян


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Благодаря ти! Наистина е мераклийско!

Личи си отвсякъде! :)
Благородна завист ме тресе! :D
Аз съм голям фен на сирата, че е страхотен сорт, става супер ароматно вино и държи много години дори и без специални условия, но и кабернето си е супер по нашите ширини. Да не говорим за подмладяващия ефект :)

Ще проуча този сорт и ще пробвам следващият път ако има! Благодаря!

Since I made my first wine, I don't buy shop wines. This home-made is the best ❤️

So valuable content, start following you 😊

Thank you! Glad you like it!

Uhmm.. interesting and I really want to try this.. but since I live in tropical country, that 16 degree temperature is impossible. Thanks for sharing anyway, never know that simple to make your own wine. found your post through @bengy entry post in the pay it forward contest this week.

Thank you! I know so little about tropical cuisine, glad we found each other.

but this is inspiring me more to try.. I hope that it won't turn my wine to vinegar.. hihihihi

Been years since I have made wine. This really is the best time of year for it.
Sounds like you got a good run. Thanks for sharing.
I sound your blog because of the feature by @bengy for the pay it forward curation.

How neat. My aunt and uncle used to make wine, the didn't make 'traditional' wines. The made chokecherry and gooseberry mostly since everything was on their property it was as fresh as it could get. The chokecherry was just that, it's very dry. The gooseberry was not what I was expecting. It had great flavor.

As you may know you were featured by @bengy for week 31 of @pifc's Pay It Forward Curation Contest. Keep up the good work