home-made wine
 

Has anyone tried making their own wine? We seem to be going through a lot and its costing a fortune (without giving away exactly how much I can tell you we're talking thousands not hundreds!). I find wine quite expensive in Canada comparred to the UK (or perhaps its just Nova Scotia) so was thinking about trying to make my own. Someone told me Costco has a good kit that tastes reasonable.

Anyone tried this or any other kits?

Re: home-made wine
 

A number of friends here use the local U-Brew outlets to make wine and beer. I've yet to taste any that would persuade me to give up on the local liquor store. We pay c$8.50 for acceptable table wine (Californian), which doesn't seem a whole lot different to the UK.

We brewed our own wine in the UK for a while and had mixed results - the crisp dry whites were fine, whereas most of the reds never seemed as successful. I guess a well chilled white can disguise either a lack of, or poor flavour. We stopped brewing once we had a few hundred bottles stored - got bored with all the parafinalia, sterilising etc etc.

Re: home-made wine
 

I used to brew my own wine/beer/spirits in the UK, both "kit" types and "country" wines (ie, pick your own fruit etc).
The best wine kits in my opinion are Canadian. In England I used to buy Selection/Beaverdale kits . Over here, I have purchased nothing buy Selection. In England, Selection were virtually top of the tree, over here, they are upper mid range to upper range (if you know what I mean). A Selection Chardonnay will be indistinguishable from a $30.00 bottle to the unwise and they cost around $100.00 for 30 bottles in Calgary. With such kits you can get virtually any type of grape varietal.

They are pretty idiot proof but, as with most things, you must follow the instructions. I have seen the kits in Superstore and Costco and, whilst I haven't tried them, I dobut they would be a patch on Selection. From memory, they cost about $70 in Calgary so, for any extra $30, I would go with a Selection one. Each to their own though.

Here is a link to a messageboard linked to the supplier I used to use in England. http://www.homewinemaking.co.uk/cgi/yabb/YaBB.cgi

They have shipped some stuff to me here so that is always an option. On the messageboard "FermentingTom" is a renowned wine judge in England and he publishes materials all over the world. He is a really nice guy and what he doesn't know about brewing isn't worth knowing.

I can assist you as far as I am able but Tom is the man for virtually any query. Feel free to PM me if you think I can assist.

HTH

Re: home-made wine
 

We are doing this for the first time. :thumbsup:

Just walked into the shop yesterday told them what kind of wine and liked and voila, my wine is being made as we speak. All I had to do was add the yeast give it a mix and on October 26th at 2:45 EST I will go in and bottle it. How excited am I.

The one I choose was $114 this makes 30 bottles, :thumbsup::beer::beer: plus there is a cost of $50 for them to brew it for you as it were, $0.99 per bottle if you choose to use theirs, all labels and corks are included in the price.

Re: home-made wine
 

Just out of interest, how long does this take ? On a kit that costs that much, they should leave it to mature in bulk at least 3 months, preferably 6. The longer it is left in bulk, the better the end result

Re: home-made wine
 

I know there's a nice feeling of 'I've made this' when the end result is produced (though personally this seems to be largely diminished when a store is doing all the work bar a stirring), but if the intent is to save money, it's hardly justifiable - you're paying thick end of $200 for 30 bottles of wine (if they supply the bottles), that's approaching $7 a bottle. If the wine's not darn close to commercially available products in terms of quality and taste, I can't really see the point.

Hope you end up with a great vintage :thumbsup:

Re: home-made wine
 

oh god, im going back in time and remembering how drunk i got on my dads home made wine, it was just lethal. i hope yours isnt quite as potent.:o

Re: home-made wine
 

Really:confused:

This is taking 4 weeks.

Re: home-made wine
 

I was told it will be. :unsure:

The kit I bought was the 'ultimate Piesporter' of course there were cheaper ones but I decided on this one, next time I'll try one of the cheaper ones just to see if there is any real difference.

hits submit button feeling like she's been ripped off

Re: home-made wine
 

We've done a red kit from Costco and found it really good value. It was a double kit that made 30 bottles of Merlot (which was ok, but I'm not really a merlot fan anyway) and 30 bottles of Cab. Sauv. (which was v.nice!) I don't know the exact cost but IIRC it was around $70 for 60 bottles worth!!! :lol:

Re: home-made wine
 

4 weeks is how long most of them take to "finish", ie, ferment out, de-gas, and clear (particuarly if finings are used) At that stage, it will be ready to bottle and will "mature" in the bottle. The longer you can bear to leave it before driinking it, the better it will taste. But...... the top quality ones will mature massively, if left in bulk for at least 3 months before they are bottled.

At the cost of your kit, you are getting a very good one so the maturity issue is more important than the other types of kits mentioned above. Your kit will still tasts very good if bottled straight away (and will probably taste as good as most commercial wines available at average liquor stores, but if you can bear to leave it (very difficult I know) it will be superb.

When we first came over here, to build up our collection we brewed 2 lots of each wine. Bottled one kit straight away and left the others in bulk. By the time the bulk ones were ready, we have virtually made it through the quaffable stuff. Now it doesn't matter if each batch takes 6 months to be ready as we have a large supply. We usually bottle 60 bottles a month. It is an expensive exercise initially but, in my opinion, well worth it.

Best of luck

Re: home-made wine
 

Thanks for that I feel much better now. Leaving it like you say (although it will be hard) :blink: was not explained at the time, however I will mention this next time I go in.

Glad I was able to pick a half decent one though. :thumbsup:

Re: home-made wine
 

Does anyone know of anywhere in Calgary that does this?? Sounds like a lot of fun!!! :D

Nicky

Re: home-made wine
 

I don't think it is allowed in Alberta.:curse::curse:

I've heard of people going into B.C. to have it done.

Re: home-made wine
 

Damn...and I thought that's what basements were for....:rofl::rofl::rofl: