make wine

I am new to wanting to make wine. What I am looking for are resources about how to make wine from fresh grapes and using american oak not glass containers for fermentation. I have found a few decent websites but nothing really good. I'm a biochemist by degree and fine with all the technical stuff. I need more know how. Also where do people source quality grapes in small amounts in the south?

Hello s23 welcome to the forum, I hope you will like it here What specific information would you like to receive?

Well I would like a reference to a good book about how wine travels through the TCA cycle and how the different amino acids give different flavor compounds. Just to refresh the science of this.
Then more importantly I would love some information about actual products need: More about acid testing, sugar testing ect. It looks easy to buy this but I really don't know what brands make quality products.
When using a oak barrel if I find a 10 gallon oak barrel do I need to use a glass container at any time for storage. It would seem to be the same as a large barrel just different scale. I found a place that makes such barrels.
Then I think a good book about wine making basics and possibly a video would be helpful.

Thanks

Well, I cannot recommend the following from personal experience, but I heard it was good and answering most of the questions you asked above, and that would be "Techniques in hom winemaking" by Pambianchi.

s23-
First of all, you don't ferment in oak. Oak casks/barrels are used to age wine which adds complexity and some mellowing to the wine. You don't always want to oak wine, some don't need it a Chablis comes to mind. Where are you in the south? A good way to find a source for fresh wine grapes is to search local food distribution centers where food comes in from all over and gets shipped out in trucks again. You will have more luck searching the closest large city close to you. Also M&M grapes comes to mind, they source grapes from the California/Oregon area. You can find them on the internet just google it.

Oak you can find new but it's expensive, and to get any benefit from it you will need to be bulk aging your wine for a substantial time perhaps a year or more. Aging in oak can mellow some harsh flavors, it usually adds a vanilla nose to the wine in the case of limosine oak (french) but both are super pricey for new, and if you are just getting into this I suggest you try a few newbie kits etc first and smaller batches before you jump in. Its a good way to get acclimated to the hobby. You can always oak with cubes or chips in the meantime. Wine kits often come with oak.

Two very good books I can suggest are, The Way to Make Wine, How to craft superb table wines at home, written by Sheridan Warrick, and The Wine Makers Answer Book written by Alison Crowe who is a columnist for Wine Maker magazine.

When I first started I got a lot of help from a local homebrew outlet. I suggest you get some face time with a proprietor of that kind of place. One other place where I got a lot of information was ECKraus who is an online retailer, the prices are not too bad for their merchandise. eckraus.com is the website. There are a lot of articles on their site. There are tons of other homebrew/winemaking websites though so be sure to shop around for the best price.

Sugar testing is super easy, so is acid testing but there are two tests, PH which I am sure you are familier with and total acidity which is a percentage figure or actual volume. Both matter.

The construction of the barrel is as important as the material, and the "toast" of the barrel is also important as the amount of toasting changes the flavors imparted by the oak. The other thing oak does is slowly oxidize the wine. Barrels should be made of wood that is split not sawed.

Hope this helps you get going!

I hope s23 will log in soon and read it. This is excellent information and most surely helpful to him

Ok First post.. first question.
I am up north attempting to assist buddy down south making his First batch of blackberry wine. I have mailed him the ing. needed. as well the white labs yeast. now this guy is pretty poor. so am attempting to find a way he can make a carboy out of a bucket.
can one use a 5 gal bucket. drill a hole. insert a gromit. and feed a hose in that. then use water in a bowl to have the end of the hose in with a little bleach as an airlock?

You can use any 5 gallon bucket that is "Food Grade". Food grade plastic has a coating on it that keeps chem from the plastic from getting into the food (wine). For primary fermentation you don't really need an airlock, there is so much CO2 produced that it will protect the wine, and initially the yeast needs some O2 anyway. Don't use a used food grade bucket that has had pickles or anything in it unless you want pickle flavored blackberry flavored wine.

Secondary fermentation should be done in something that does not have pores and is inert, like stainless steel or preferably glass since you can see what is going on that way. Secondary you use an airlock, and I suppose you could do it with a tube in water but really you are better off with a real airlock, there is less evaporation and there is also less chance of the tube slipping out of the water and a fruit fly getting in there and carrying bacteria to make blackberry vinegar.

Prices just went up on carboys because the only manufacturer in the US stopped making them, but they still are reasonable around 30-35 bucks, and the airlock is like 5, it's worth spending the money so you can do it right. If you have a bunch of one gallon glass bottles you could do it that way too, it will work, but you still need real airlocks, and with 5 or 6 you increase the chance of contamination and the difficulty of clarifying is increased too since you have 5 or 6 containers now to deal with.

DO NOT USE BLEACH in the water as an airlock. Send your friend some sodium bisulfite, its super cheap, and contains no chlorine which will cork the wine once you bottle it.

To use a bucket without a lid just put some plastic around it and tie it with a string, or put a towel on it and something on top of the towel to keep it from coming off. In the secondary make sure to protect the wine from light, use an old t-shirt or something or a box the carboy came in with a hole cut in the top for the airlock.

Hope this helps. good luck!

Oh one other thing, if your friend can absolutly not affort airlocks etc, use the gallon bottles sanitised with sulfites, and get some condoms and put them over the necks, it will inflate them like a baloon, you have to let some out sometimes and there is still a chance of contamination. Prison wine!

good idea I sent him the sodium bisulfite
honestly do appricate your assistance...
might just have to break down an purchase him a carboy...
he an the wife have been out picking berries. I said if you get enough i will teach you. and they have been blackberry picking fools.

New question:
Corking bottles. I use the floor model corker love it.
BUT lets say you have NO corker available to you..
Would Champaign corks work.
Or screw on lids eeeeeee I know but would they work.
or is there any dyi instructions to making a home made corker.
when one has no corker. NO cash to get one... what would be an advisable way to seal an store the finished product.
{Thank heavens they are still picking berries this gives me time to research all the things I just rather take for granted that I use to make wine.} and I can assure you I will never take them for granted again.

What about tasting corks? You know, the ones with the plastic tops like on some commercial brands of port? Personally I still use a double lever hand corker, have for years. I don't make really huge batches of wine.

DO NOT use champagne plastic corks. They are barbed and very easy in but without pressure inside the bottle, very hard to remove.

I think #8 tasting corks would be best.

Make sure your buddy does not use clorinated water unless he lets it sit out over night.

Hey what's wrong with screw on caps anyway? Honestly if it was not for tradition I would use em, they work better than cork. Good seal, nothing leaks, no air gets in, no mold grows etc.

Thank you again I like this....
{I think #8 tasting corks would be best.}then again I don't know if a possibility.
and excellent point on the water... but think we are dealing
with Mt. well water... shall check.

Mason jar with screw on lid??
or a gallon jug with a screw on lid....???

ooooooooo my beautiful beautiful wine recipe. With the pretty little label's... to bad can't post a pic here...it really is sweet.

BUT THANKS!
this is all good. this is to assist a young couple on a practical Zero budget.. how to spend time with wife an child picking with picnic a lunch, just a young family learning to making homemade gifts for Christmas, or starting a new holiday tradition of serving tastes of home made treasures with other family members. so what would it matter what it looks like as long as it is sealed and tastes GREAT.

This is why I want to double check everything that I am not accustom using.... Just so they don't end up after all there effort with a batch of vinegar.

Thank you for your time, answeers and assistance...

I recommend that your friend find the nearest catering place, see if they have weddings etc coming up and try to get them to save bottles. Regular and champagne bottles both will work with T-corks. Jars? mmmmmm I dunno that is a BIG opening, I like to have something with the least amount of headspace to cut down on the O2. I guess you could add Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid)

Oh yes, jars aren't really suitable I find. But it is a revolutionary idea - I must admit that