Basic Winemaking Kit Instructions

The Basic Winemaking Kit contians:

Fermenting Equipment Testing Equipment Bottling Equipment Sanitizing and Cleaning Equipment

In addition to the kit, you will also need:

Overview of the winemaking process

The following is an overview of using the Basic Winemaking Kit to make a batch of wine from a typical grape juice concentrate kit or recipe. The purpose is to demonstrate how all of the equipment is used from start to finish. Because every wine recipe is a little bit different, you should always follow the de­tailed instructions that come with the kit or the recipe.

Making the wine

Rehydrate the yeast (optional). Redydrating dry wine yeast (which is included with most wine ingredient kits) facilitates fermentation. Liquid wine yeast does not need to be rehydrated, however be sure to follow the manufacturer's directions for incubation. To rehydrate dry yeast, boil ½ cup of water and allow to cool to 95°-105°F (approximately body temperature). Add dry yeast to the cooled water and allow it to rest for 15 minutes.

  1. Sanitize the primary fermenter. While the yeast rehydrates, sanitize the 7.9 gallon bucket, the lid, and the fermentation lock. Make up a One Step sanitizer solution (1 tablespoon of One Step per gallon of warm water), and make sure all surfaces that will touch the must (the vintner's term for unfermented wine) remain in contact with the One Step solution for 1-2 minutes. See the section titled “Sani­tation” for more details.
  2. Prepare the must. Mix the grape juice concentrate with good-quality drinking water in the sanitized primary fermenter – refer to the instructions that came with your ingredient kit for proportions and amounts. The kit may also call for additives such as oak chips or Bentonite to be added as well.
  3. Take a hydrometer reading (optional). Take a hydrometer reading and record it. See the section titled “Using a hydrometer.”
  4. Pitch yeast. Pour rehydrated yeast into the must; dry yeast can be sprinkled on the surface and stirred in with a sanitized utensil.
  5. Seal the fermenter. After you pitch yeast into the must, fill the s-shaped fermentation lock with a small amount of water (about a tablespoon), and insert it into the small, grommeted hole in the bucket lid. The fer­mentation lock is a one-way valve, which allows gas to escape, but does not allow air back in. Snap the lid on­to the fermenter in order to keep out dust and contami­nants. It is advisable to insert the fermentation lock in­to the lid before you snap the lid down, just in case you need to adjust the grommet. Place the fermenter in a appropriate place – most wine yeast ferments best at 65-75° F.

Beginning of fermentation

Fermentation should begin within 48 hours. The more fresh, healthy yeast you add to the fermenter, the short­er the “lag phase” (the amount of time before fermenta­tion begins). During the most active stage of fermenta­tion, you may see the fermentation lock bubble. One of the disadvantages of using plastic buckets as fer­menters is that they are inherently “leaky”. There is a very large area where the lid connects to the bucket where gas can escape. Sometimes, you will not see any activity in the fermentation lock.

After the wine has been in the primary fermenter for one week, you should start taking hydrometer readings to see if it has completed fermentation. It's okay to re­move the lid to get a sample. When you take two identical readings on consecutive days, then the fermentation is complete.

See the section titled “Using a hydrometer” for more details.

Secondary fermentation and beyond

During secondary fermentation, the wine will improve in clarity and flavor. It's important from this point forward to exclude air as much as possible; for this reason, the wine should be siphoned very carefully and stored in an airtight glass carboy with a rubber stopper and fermenation lock.

When primary fermentation has finished, transfer the young wine to the secondary fermenter. See the section titled “Siphoning” for more details.

  1. Sanitize the six gallon carboy, rubber stopper, airlock, and the siphoning equipment.
  2. Siphon the wine from the primary fermenter into the secondary, being careful to splash it as little as possible.
  3. Follow the ingredient kit instructions regarding any stabilizers or finings to be added at this point.

After a few weeks, the clarity of the wine will be much improved.

Some kits or recipes may call for further racking, or transferring, of the wine to aid in clarification and separation of the wine from the solids. This optional step can be done by adding a second 6 gallon carboy to your system, or by cleaning out and re-sanitizing the included six gallon carboy while the wine is temporarily held in another sanitized vessel.

Bottling

Once the wine is clear and has been stabilized it's ready to be bottled.

Assemble and sanitize equipment. Assemble and sanitize the Auto-Siphon, siphon tubing, the bottle filler, and wine bottles.

Add final additives. Refer to kit instructions or recipe for any additives to be added to the wine at bottling.

Prime the siphon. Set the carboy on a chair or counter above the bottles. Place the bottle filler into a bottle and prime the Auto-Siphon; refer to the section titled “Siphoning” for details.

Bottle away! There is no completely drip-free way to bottle wine, so it is best to place a dish towel on the ground in the area where you will be filling bottles. Place a bottle on the dish towel. Insert the bottle filler into the bottle, and push it all the way to the bottom. This will depress the valve on the bottom of the filler. Fill the bottle almost to the very top, then lift the filler up. This will close the valve on the bottle filler, and stop the flow of wine into the bottle. When you remove the filler from the bottle, you will be left with about two inches of head space, which is ideal.

If you have two people, pass the bottle to your partner, who will cork the bottle. If you are working alone, just set the filled bottle aside and seal it later.

Corking bottles is simple. The corker has a chamber that allows you to load a cork. Once loaded, center the corker over the bottle, and push down both levers. The corker's jaws will grip the bottle neck, and the plunger will push the cork into the bottle. You can adjust the depth of the plunger stroke using the two nuts at the top of the corker, above the plunger.

Natural corks can be softened and lubricated, if necessary, by dipping them in lukewarm water right before corking; sulfite is optional. Don't soak the corks for too long, or they will become mushy and hard to work with.

Conditioning and storage

After the bottles are corked, stand them upright for three days. This allows the air that was pushed into the bottle by the cork to seep back out and the bottle pressure to equalize. After three days, the bottles can be laid on their sides for long term storage.

Bottles to be cellared should be stored neck-down or flat to keep the corks from drying out. Keep the bottles in a cool, dark, humid spot.

Enjoying

Uncork the bottle and gently pour the wine into a clean glass. Watch the bot­tle carefully when pouring, as you may wish to leave behind the wine at the very bottom of the bottle. Sediment will collect at the bottom of the bottle, which will cloud the wine in the glass. Enjoy the aroma and flavor of your handcrafted wine. Repeat as necessary.

Sanitation

Sanitation is one of the most important steps in beer brewing. Most flaws in home made beer can be traced back to improper sanitation. There are a wide range of bacteria and wild yeast that can cause off-flavors in beer. It is a big disappointment to discover that your work, time, skill, and money have been wasted producing a bad batch just because you did not spend the few extra minutes and cents that it takes to sanitize properly.

Sanitation vs. Sterilization

Sanitation is not sterilization. If something is sterile, it is 100% free from any contamination by microorganisms. Sterilization is prohibitively expensive, and is not a goal of most brewers. Brewers seek a more attainable goal: sanitation. Sanitation is the reduction of the number of organisms down to a level where they can no longer have an impact on your beer. You will never be able to eliminate all of the contaminating organisms from your beer, but proper sanitation will reduce the exposure to a point where a real infection can not take hold and spoil your final product.

Sanitation vs. Cleaning

It is not possible to sanitize a surface that is not clean. A surface is clean when it is free of organic deposits, films, etc. Visual inspection is the best way to determine if a surface is cleaned. We make a distinction between cleaning and sanitizing chemicals. Cleaning chemicals are very powerful, often alkaline, chemicals which effectively remove organic deposits. Cleaning chemicals need to be thoroughly rinsed after use. Examples of these chemicals include B-Brite and Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW).

Contact Time

All sanitizing solutions need to be in contact with a surface for a certain amount of time to effectively reduce the number of microorganisms on that surface. This is called the “contact time” of the sanitizer. During this time the surface should be fully immersed in the sanitizing solution, not just wiped down with it.

Rinsing

All tap water, even chlorinated tap water, contains bacteria. This bacteria is normally not harmful to people who drink it, however it can be a potential source of contamination in brewing. The best way to combat the bacteria in tap water is to not rinse your equipment after sanitizing it. This can be accomplished by using a no-rinse sanitizer. These sanitizers are very effective against bacteria, but harmless to beer and people when used as directed. One Step and Star San are examples of no-rinse sanitizers.

What needs to be sanitized?

Everything that comes into contact with beer should be sanitized. This includes fermenters, tubing, spoons, rubber stoppers, fermentation locks and bottles. There is one exception to the above rule: it is not necessary to sanitize prior to boiling beer wort. Part of the purpose of boiling is to ensure the sanitation of the wort. Kettles, spoons, etc. will not need a separate sanitation step.

Procedure for using One Step

All of Northern Brewer's starter kits come with One-Step sanitizer. We choose to include One Step with our starter kits because it is inexpensive, environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and also because it can be used as both a cleaner and a sanitizer. It does not require rinsing.

Siphoning

Siphoning is an important skill for any homebrewer to master. Siphoning allows you to transfer beer from one container to another without disturbing the sediment, and with minimal oxidation. This starter kit contains the Auto-Siphon, which is the easiest and most sanitary way to start a siphon.

To siphon, place the container you are siphoning from at a higher level than the receiving container. Connect the 5 foot length of 5/16” I.D. tubing to the Auto-Siphon. One stroke of the racking cane will normally be sufficient to pump beer all the way to the highest point in the siphon assembly. Once the column of beer gets past this highest point, gravity will do the rest of the work. All the beer in the top container will drain into the receiving container.

At the bottom of the Auto-Siphon is a black plastic tip. The purpose of this tip is to prevent the siphon from sucking sediment off of the bottom of the carboy. With this tip in place, you can lower the Auto-Siphon almost to the very bottom of the fermenter; just don't submerge the tip in sediment.

To minimize wasted beer, tip the top container slightly by wedging a small object about the size of a hockey puck underneath one end. With the top container tipped slightly, you can siphon out of the low corner, and get nearly every ounce of beer out of the fermenter without transferring sediment.

Beer that is or has recently fermented will often have a lot of carbon dioxide dissolved in it. When exposed to turbulence, the carbon dioxide can come out of solution, forming bubbles. These bubbles can gather into one large bubble, and this can cause the siphon to fail. The bubbles normally form at the juncture of the rigid plastic tube and the flexible siphon tubing because there is a slight change in inner diameter (and thus, turbulence) at this point. If you see bubbles forming there, pinch the flexible tubing where you see the bubbles, and they will be forced down stream.

As with everything else that touches your beer, make sure the siphoning equipment is sanitized.

Using a Hydrometer

The hydrometer is an instrument designed to measure the density of liquids. Because the density of beer wort is closely related to its sugar content, and because its sugar content is closely related to its eventual alcoholic content, the hydrometer can be used to determine the potential strength of beer wort. The hydrometer is also a very important diagnostic tool, because it allows you to monitor the progress of fermentation.

The hydrometer we include in the starter kit has three scales on it. The most commonly used scale is specific gravity. The specific gravity of a liquid is defined as its density relative to the density of water. By definition, water has a specific gravity of 1.000. To get the hang of using a hydrometer, and to make sure it is accurate, try it out. Fill a test jar with enough water to float the hydrometer, and lower the hydrometer into it. (The tube the hydrometer comes in can be used as a test jar.) The stem of the hydrometer will protrude above the surface of the water right at the mark that shows a Specific Gravity of 1.000.

A “typical” beer wort might have a specific gravity of 1.042. This means that the beer is 42% heavier, or denser, than water. If you were to measure the specific gravity of a beer during the course of fermentation, you would see the it continuously decrease. This would last about a week, until the specific gravity didn't change anymore. When the gravity stops decreasing, the beer has finished fermentation. We can say that it has reached its “final gravity”. The final gravity of a beer should be less than 35% of the original gravity reading. Subtract 1.000 from each Specific Gravity reading before attempting this calculation. For example, for a beer with an OG of 1.050, you would expect the final gravity reading to be (at maximum) 1.018. 

(1.050 – 1.000) * 0.35 = (max. final gravity – 1.000)
0.050 *  0.35 = (max. final gravity – 1.000)
0.018 = (max. final gravity – 1.000)
1.018 = max. final gravity

Using a hydrometer is the only fool-proof way to know when the primary fermentation has finished. After one week of fermentation, you should take a hydrometer reading every two days. When you take two consecutive readings that are the same, your beer has reached the end point of fermentation, and is ready to transfer to a secondary fermenter, or bottle.

The hydrometer can also be used to estimate the alcohol content of the beer. To do this, take a reading before the fermentation begins, and another after it ends. For this reading, you should use the “potential alcohol” scale. Subtract the original reading from the final reading.

The easiest way to get a sample for testing is to use a thief. The thief is something like a big drinking straw. Immerse it in the beer, and put your thumb over the hole at the very top of the thief. Withdraw the thief, and position it over your sample jar. Lift up your thumb, and deposit the sample in the jar. Repeat until you have collected an adequate sample.

Tips for getting an accurate measurement

Hydrometers are only accurate at a specific temperature, usually 60º F. The hydrometer includes a temperature correction chart for you to use if your sample is at a different temperature. Unless the sample is very hot or very cold, you will only need to adjust the reading by 1 or 2 points.

When taking a hydrometer reading, make sure the hydrometer is not rubbing up against the side of the sample jar. The friction from the contact with the jar can cause the hydrometer to get “stuck”, causing an inaccurate reading.

Gas bubbles that cling to the hydrometer can distort the reading. This often affects hydrometer readings taken during or after the fermentation, as there is a lot of carbon dioxide dissolved in the beer. Spin the hydrometer to dislodge the bubbles, and take a reading before they form on the hydrometer again. Or, you can de-carbonate the beer by pouring it back and forth between two glasses.