Hi all,
I know this subject has been bought up before but I cant find the thread now!
What is the bottling process for wines -
Do you need to use corks for some and screw lids for others?
Glass or plastic bottles?
If u used the wrong one would it ruin the wine?
Why do some wines get left for 3+ months in a demi-john while others can be bottled straight after fermentation has finished?
Thats it for now lol
Wendy
Home made wines are best bottled with real corks - better for longer storage periods.
Glass bottles, always - used ones are fine, washed out and sterilised.
Not sure about the 3 months question, I just bottle mine when fermentation ceases - sometimes 3 months, sometimes longer.
Hope this helps.
I have normal size wine bottles and also 1.5L bottles that originally had sangria in, does it matter on the size of the bottle?
Do the bottles have to be laid on their sides when stored? Why is that?
Do they have to be stored somewhere cool?
I have just racked one of my wine, clearing all sediment away and placing into another demi-john. There is more sediment forming. If I had bottled that wine instead of leaving it in the demijohn, wouldnt the sediment have remained in the bottles and ended up in our glasses on drink night?
Thanks again Wendy
The size of the bottles doesn't matter except that once opened it will tend to spoil so you need to be able to drink it all quickly. Sangria is weak so two people can easily finish a litre and a half in a night, but your homebrew may be significantly stronger. Having said that, I'll let you decide privately whether you think you can manage a litre and a half in a night!
You store bottles on their sides so the cork doesn't dry out and shrink allowing air and bacteria in to spoil your wine.
If more sediment is forming your wine is still fermenting and if you had bottled it the bottles might have explode. You can should wait until activity in the airlock dies down and then re-racdk (the sediment from this time can be used as a starter solution for another wine since it contains "clean" yeast). Only bottle when the wine is stable, and consider using half a crished campden tablet per bottle just to kill off any live yeasts that could cause problems after bottling.
Flippin' heck. i haven't done any wine making in donkey's years but it's amazing how it all comes back to you. That bit about using the sediment as a starter bottle floated past my eyes as if I was reading it off C.J.J.Berry.
Tip 1 - When you put the corks in, put a bit of clean string down the side so that when the cork is pushed in the bottom end of the string sits just below the end of the cork, give it a minute then pull the string out. This lets out the air that has been pressurised by the cork, and I think that reduces oxidation.
Tip 2 - Corks best, but I use a few screw tops here and there. Usually find a couple of bottles from each gallon don't need a cork cos they get consumed almost immediately :wink:
Tip 3 - When racking and bottling try not to have the wine splashing about too much - get a slow stream running down the side of a tilted demi-j or bottle to avoid getting too much air into the wine - it's that oxidation thingy again.
I have one more question tho - I have just syphoned my ginger and lemon wine from the sediment. The smell and taste is nothing like ginger or lemon, even tho its supposed to be very strong of either flavour according to the recipe. The elderflower wine is also nothing like elderflower. Both are just smelling and tasting of that horrid vinegary/alcoholy flavour. Is that normal? Is it now while its sitting in its bottles that the flavour is produced?
Cheers Wendy
It's hard to know how to answer that one, except that if your wine really smells vinegary it may have gone bad i.e. turned into vinegar. Don't fling it, use it for cooking (have you seen the price of a bottle of wine vinegar?).
Unless you're one of those people who swears that all wine tastes like vinegar. I don't get that at all but some people are "supersensers" and they have a much more sensitive sense of taste, which sounds great except that apparently most food tastes horrible to them as they can detect the least little bit of anything unpleasant, which everyone else wouldn't be able to taste at all. So maybe your wine is fine.
I don't usually expect wine to taste like the thing it's made from. Claret doesn't taste like grapes. Cider doesn't taste like apple juice. Fermentation changes the taste.
Yes, tastes develop in wine with age. Young wine usually doesn't taste all that great, properly aged wine (up to a limit) is a treat.
So unless you think it has acetified (turned to vinegar) just bottle it, leave it somewhere cool and dark on it's side for a while. In, say, 6 months crack one open and see if you like it. Then maybe drink the rest, or give it another 6 months to mature. Or more. Failing that, use it for cooking.
That all makes sense - thanks!
Problem with bottling and putting somewhere cold is, my house has 3 ft thick walls and is so cool compared with outside but its still 80° in here in the coldest spots. Is that gonna make a difference with the bottling and leaving process?
Me again - will I ever get the hang of this winemaking stuff!
I have just been round with my cork hunting for a bottle to put it with but all the corks are too big. My Dad has just said I need a corking machine which puts the corks under pressure to go in the bottles - is this right? Cant I just put them in by hand?
Thanks Wendy
a corking gun doesn't cost much. alternatively a wooden mallet and small block of hard wood could be used to whack them in, which does sound a bit dangerous.
About the temperature I honestly don't know. The advice in winemaking books etc always says keep them somewhere cool, and that is what I have done. I've never tried keeping them at 80deg so I don't know what happens when you do that. But if that's all you have then that's what you will have to do, and just see how it turns out.
As for the corks, yes you need a device for putting them in. I use a wooden plunger type, a bit like this:
Thanks Chickpea - have seen some similar in the shops over here so will pick one up tomora!
Andyg - thanks too but not sure on the whacking process lol
Hopefully, this time next year, I will be able to give others advice on all these questions, its just getting the hang of it to start with, not wanting to just go ahead and get it wrong and wasting all that precious booze
