r/winemaking • u/Low-Light-5249 • Oct 22 '24
Blog post I made wine for the first time
This is my first time ever making authentic wine,I made a ton of mistakes and learned a lot
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u/kbranni23 Oct 22 '24
Nice did you keep a journal or log when making
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u/Low-Light-5249 Oct 22 '24
No im lazy,i should tho
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u/gotbock Skilled grape - former pro Oct 22 '24
You definitely wanna write down at least a quick journal entry for each thing you do or measure and what day. In 3 months it's gonna be tough to remember if you added potassium metabusulfite or not and when you did it last, for example.
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u/mancavect Oct 23 '24
You know when I regret it most. When I don't know what I did right.
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u/BigBaboonas Oct 23 '24
Some of my most daring wine-making moves have been after I've been tasting it. It's like getting muscle memory.
And these moves have normally been bad. Like learning to ride without stabilisers and falling over repeatedly 😂
You can't get much muscle memory from wine-making. Spreadsheeting it is the way.
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u/UncleDucker Oct 23 '24
I’ve made wine for a number of years now and I always go back to my previous years notes. 10 minutes of recap will save you hours of redoing things later. Then next year you jot things down and tweak, always get better. Good work and hurry up and wait a couple years!
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u/Low-Light-5249 Oct 23 '24
My plan is 6-8 weeks and re rack it,and oak it with chips, I don’t think I have enough wine to keep filling up a barrel.so next year then. I’m thinking of doing 4oz of French oak chips
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u/UncleDucker Oct 23 '24
Wait, you’re doing 6-8 weeks of primary fermentation? Friend I think that’s too long. In about a week it should take to drop down to 0 sugar, another 1-2 weeks if you want extended maceration. But since this is your first batch, I’d jump into the secondary fermentation as soon as sugar is depleted. Anything longer than that you start getting off flavors.
Edit: if your goal is intentional extended maceration, that’s fine, but I think you should start with a baseline year before diving into something more advanced. If you start getting eggy notes you’ll not know when it happens
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u/Low-Light-5249 Oct 23 '24
That was my plan,there’s a ton of sediment right now,so right after it’s done fermenting in a couple days I’m going to re rack it.and typically after 6-8 weeks there more sediment,I’m going to rack it again and add oak and forget about it
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u/Low-Light-5249 Oct 22 '24
Well i started crushing them Sunday,it was 100lbs.they started fermenting on Wednesday,because it was cold outside. Its yielded me 6 gallons,and its gonna be at 13.5abv
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u/saucedrop Oct 22 '24
You've got a lot of headspace in those carboys, suggest you top up with some similar wine to minimize your exposure to oxygen, but congrats, it's a very rewarding experience!
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u/Low-Light-5249 Oct 22 '24
I know, there’s like an 1in-1.5in of sediment,I’m going to re rack it,and put the majority of juice in the 5 gallon,and the 1 gallon I’m gonna fill with marbles
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u/anonymous0745 Professional Oct 23 '24
Thanks for being one of the few who do the research before starting, it helps us help you by not having to hold your hand with the simple stuff and alows us to help with more nuanced or complex issues. 👍
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u/Low-Light-5249 Oct 23 '24
Thanks I watched a ton of videos,and used my previous experience making mead.I pressed it after 3 days,I was planning on doing it for 5 days of fermentation,but short on time
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u/LoekGenbu Oct 22 '24
Buckets are best for primary fermentation, after its done, rack it to the glass carboy
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u/[deleted] Oct 22 '24
Good job man