24 Hour Mark

We reached Fermentation Phase 2 tonight when we added water to 5 gallons, 8 lbs of sugar, yeast nutrient and champagne yeast to our monster mash. It didn't take too long, and here are some pictures, courtesy of Joe:

This is what we started with tonight: a watery, runny mixture of strawberries, tannin, pectin enzyme, and sodium metabisulfite. I think.

This is after adding the water to almost 5 gallons. Foamy on top!

Joe creating a vortex to stir in the sugar really well. It actually dissolved better than we thought it might.

This is what's going to sit on the dining room table for the next week as it ferments. It reminds me of traditional men's Saudi Arabian head wear. Current hydrometer reading/specific gravity: 1.083.

Now we wait. Over the next week, it will ferment. When the specific gravity reaches between 1.025 and 1.035, we'll be ready to rack (siphon) and airlock it for three months. At that point, we will decide if we want to start another wine. Hopefully our first one turns out to be a success (as far as we can tell) and will encourage us to make more in the future!

New Adventure: Making Wine!

Hello again! It's been a while since I've posted, mostly due to a lack of adventures. But I've begun a new one with my friend Joe. We're making strawberry wine!

Tonight we bought 13 lbs of frozen strawberries, 5 gallons of water, and a bunch of different wine making chemicals which were all for sale in the liquor department of a grocery store. Then we got to work microwaving the strawberries in batches to make them soft enough to mash. My triceps received a workout, and the potato masher we used to mash the fruit seems, in Joe's words, "a little more concave." The strawberries won a small victory after all...but mostly they lost the war to my mashing skills. I laughed evilly and Joe cowered in terror as I crushed squishy chunks of red nastiness. Pouring it into the primary fermenter made an even grosser noise...kind of like diarrhea. =) I know you really want to drink it now.

The strawberries are beginning their fermentation, without the help of yeast, in a huge 5 gallon food stock pail. That's right - we are making 5 GALLONS of strawberry wine. It is currently being sterilized and breaking down into a syrup. It looks like a monster mash that should go on a shortcake. After the first ~24 hours, depending on what the gravity meter tells us (I still don't know what it tests for), the syrup will be ready to go into full swing fermentation mode with the champagne yeast. And then it will sit for a week and Joe will buy a secondary fermenter to transfer the beginning wine. After that, since we have to wait about three months to siphon the crap out, we will decide whether we want to make another kind of wine, and if so, when to start.

Any thoughts on what we should make next if the strawberry wine turns out to be a success? Anyone know other easy things to start with?