The last post was rather tongue-in-cheek, but if (heaven forbid) you did actually try to start a batch of wine, you're going to need to know what to do on Day Two and onward.
Step 11. Add some potassium metabisulphite or campden tablets. These kill all the yeast that naturally is in the berries. I believe this is done so that the winemaker controls the amount of yeast available.
12. After giving that a few hours to work, add the yeast and stir it up!
13. Day 3+ stir it once a day. You can see how foamy it gets when stirred. The little yeast buddies are eating all the sugar and turning it into alcohol. This process will be 7-10 days, then it will start to settle down again. That is when you know you're ready for step 14. All that hot pink juice dripping down the ALE PAIL means that the primary fermenter isn't big enough!
14. Rack it into a secondary fermenter (carboy, pictured below). The work is done! Now it just needs to be aged, and maybe racked one or two more times to get rid of the sediment. There are other chemicals to add to the wine to enhance it, but they are not included in this crash course. You can find some recipes at
E. C. Kraus, and if you know where to look, you can even find some pretty good information on wine making.
So that concludes this crash course, unless I am able to find some of the photos I took of bottling wine. In the meantime, check out my guest post over at
Balance and Blueberries!
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