Hows my little Wineo?

On my laptop I have a nice blog started about dropping lasagna, but an event occurred today which is of much greater significance.

I began making wine today.
With the always lovely Sarah M. Fuller as my assistant, and Jason's equipment on loan while he blogs in Japan. It began with a trip up to wine creations here in Duluth, a store solely devoted to making wine, and a few beer materials here and there. After short deliberation I decided to make the only kind of wine I know for sure I like, Pinot Grigio. With a swipe of some plastic and some words of wisdom the creating could begin.






It included some easy to follow directions, but reading my book a little and random tidbits picked up from brew master Staab, lead me along the way.



First we began by stirring warm water.
Vigorously.
Then we added some stuff in a packet, and the concentrate. I bought the concentrate because apparently you need 100 pounds of grapes to produce 6 gallons of juice for wine.
Sarah stirred the concentrate with much enthusiasm.



Then we took our first Measurement with a hydrometer, which can detect the approximate amount of alcohol in my wine, it was at 9%. Which is not enough. So this week I am going to see if I can find a way to make it more buried in my book. I might just have to take what I can get for the time being.





Then we took the tempeture, which read well, turns out Jason has a floating Thermometer, which was one of the cooler things I have seen in a while.



So we added yeast, which makes alcohol...I think. What I DO know is that it starts the fermentation process which leads to alcohol.






After all of our scientific measuring we decided to try the unfermented wine. I nabbed a picture of Sarah while she was sucking it down. I thought it tasted a lot like apple sauce in juice form...oddly enough.



then we capped the bucket not to look at it for 5-7 days, right when I get back from memorial actually. that little clear thing on top of the bucket is a sweet little gadget that forces Gas (CO 2 I think) out but does not let air in, if it starts bubbling like it does with Jason's beer I'll take a little picture for ya or video.



So that was day one, I have 6 gallons of potential wine right now, but I have to pour it into a big glass container, only 5 gallons big...any tricks for me? I might pre bottle one just to see what exactly happens.

Oh and ummm if it turns out good (or bad for that matter) I will be selling it for 5$ a bottle to try and knock the price down a bit from me. I will have plenty available as 6 gallons makes 30 bottles of wine.


Summer school is going well too.