Will my Wine Explode?
 

Ok, so I know that this isn't a beer and wine making forum and I was going to create a poll but decided against it.
Anyway, hope someone can give me a legit answer.

So, I decided to make some fruit wine. I chopped the fruit up, chucked them in a bucket with boiling water and left it to cool.
I then added a bag of sugar and some yeast and covered it so nothing could get in but air could get out for 3 weeks.
I then siphoned off the liquid into old wine bottles.

The result is rather cloudy wine that smells and tastes like wine (sort of).

So now I have several bottles of wine however I am a bit worried that they are going to explode if the yeast didn't finish it's shit.

I released opened one of the bottles after several hours and there was a small hiss as gas escaped.

So, will my wine explode?

Keep the caps on loosely.

If you want to clean that wine just go to any store that sells wine-making supplies and ask for finings. Add the finings to your bottles, which will pull all the sediment to the bottom over the course of a few days. Siphon the clear wine into other clean bottles, then let it sit again for a few days. If you see more sediment then siphon again into clean bottles and you should have perfectly clear wine.


Btw I used to make wine in exactly the same way as you years ago. Made everything from mango wine to crabapple, chokecherry to peach wine. Even made a batch out of mandarin oranges once. Nice to see someone using the same method. Most just use a storebought kit.

Thanks for the tip. I will go get some, I am using pear so it's extra cloudy. Tastes fine but I think the cloudy is a bit off putting. Hopefully I can get it looking good for Christmas.

invite baddog over for some wine testing

All are welcome at Christmas. Including fake nicks.

You said a slight hiss which is not much so I wouldn't worry too much. Cold temps will make the yeast dormant anyway, so if you aren't sure then fridge them or something. Wine and beer bottles are made to handle some carbonation pressure.

You should buy a hydrometer if you're going to continue brewing or making wine or fermented alcohol. That's the certain way to know fermentation is complete. At least get a proper bucket lid with an airlock. midwestsupplies.com or a local brew store will have all you need including detailed info. homebrewtalk is a good board for this sort of thing too.

I have a pear tree in my garden for the last few years it went wasted. Just wanted to make use of, you know.
I am going to put them in my outside shed. It's pretty chilly out so this should be perfect.

I guess by burning question is, how do you know the alcohol content without specialized checking equipment?

The more you do it the better a sense of alcohol content you get, but generally speaking it all depends on how much sugar to yeast you put in, type of sugar used, and how long you let it ferment. If for example you want a sweeter wine with less alcohol you would let it ferment for only a handful of weeks, say two to three. If you want a fruitier wine with a medium alc content you might let it ferment for a week longer (depending again on sugar to yeast ratio).

For dryer wine with more kick, let it ferment as long as it will go (as per above-mentioned hydrometer), something in the 6 week timeframe.

Basically if you keep your wort near a source of warmth, like near a household radiator, and you added in a higher than normal amount of sugar and yeast to match, and assuming your fruit juice concoction is right, if it "catches fire" (as in starts fermenting like the blazes) and you let it go for like 6 weeks you should have some pretty damn potent wine.


By the way, I don't know if you did this or not but when you first boil your fruit it helps if you first put it into a clean pre-boiled (sterile) white pillow case, then boil it in that. Once the boiling is done and the batch has cooled, just lift the pillow case, wring it out good into the pot, and something like 99% of your impurities will be instantly removed. The rest can be cleaned after fermentation via the finings method I mentioned above.

Pear wine sounds great, btw. You may also in future want to try a pear & apple blended wine. It's incredible.

I think I have gone too soft then I guess it's only 4 or 5%. I just used a bag of sugar to a couple of spoons of yeast, it wasn't exact by any means. I guess I should have left it another week or so but I am going away so didn't want to leave it too long.

It's been in the kitchen for 3 weeks which is pretty warm. I honestly don't know, guess I will drink a bottle and if I fall over I know it's stronger than shop wine if it takes two then I will know it's not as strong.

Like the idea of using the pillow case. Trying to get the wine from bucket to bottle is really a two man job.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BporE-hV_C...600/hooch1.jpg





:stoned

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