I have a kit in the fermentation stage at a commercial shop, but in the meantime I began a one-gallon recipe this afternoon. The recipe calls for combining yeast, sugar and concentrate, covering with a balloon and waiting about six weeks. Here’s my question: What happened to racking, stabilizing, filtering - all the steps that the large batch involves?
And if I could ask another question, are there ways to make, say, a dozen instead of 30? That would enable us, a couple, to have more variety.
Maybe one day I’ll have better questions, but for now, that’s it. Thanks. (I’ll create a signature soon.)
I’m amazed you found a kit that calls for using a balloon. As far as I knew, no one has been recommending that method for at least 30 years.
Home brewing technology has advanced since the balloon method used in the 1970s; I wouldn’t expect too much from any kit that uses such old methods. If you are in the US, check out the host’s web site for 1 gallon kits made with more modern methods.
In general, making beer involves pretty much the same method if you are doing one bottle or a hundred - variations are really only due to the constraints of the equipment used, and ingredients are pretty much simply scaled. Really big batches like are done in breweries don’t follow that rule exactly, but homebrew does. So if you want to make a 2.5 gallon batch, just use half the ingredients in a kit.
thanks for the response. This is not a one gallon kit, just a recipe I found online. However, I looked at 1 gallon kits and they come out quite expensive. There must be a cheaper way to make wine, at least as cheap as what I can get at the liquor stores.
He has an amazing listing of recipes for (mostly) country wines, meaning wines made from fruit other than grapes. There is also some decent wine-making instructions. Some of them are also dated, but not to the “use a balloon” stage.
I have to warn you though in general, unless you live someplace with outrageous tax rates on wine, or grow your own fruit, you won’t be able to make wine for significantly less than you can buy it for. The reason to make wine is more about the experience. And if you do get great quality fruit, you can make wine that is better than what you buy in the liquor stores.
