Just experimenting. Will this work?
1 gallon 100% juice
1 cup sugar
…yeast, airlock and 2 weeks.
1/4 teaspoon sodium metabisulfite…wait 2 days and back sweeten with can of grape concentrate.
Bottle, chill…drink.
Sound right?
May rack in a clean jug for a couple weeks for clarity if needed.
2 additional questions…
Will the meta kill all yeast?
If I bottle in ez cap liters and leave in a cool dark place how long will they last?
Thanks
You would be overpriming. Try just 1/6 can of concentrate to prime 1 gallon wine – this would taste like Lambrusco.
Don’t rush it. It might take longer than 2 weeks. Give it a good 2 months.
Metabisulfite won’t kill yeast, it only stuns them / slows them down / prevents them from reproducing uncontrollably. It’s a good idea to use some at bottling time to help prevent bombs, but it will not kill the yeast dead. If you overprime, you will still get bombs.
Homemade wine can be aged for years, just like the real stuff.
Thanks Dave.
How would I go about killing the yeast? Also…once bottled and chilled hoe long will it last in the fridge unopened?
[quote=“NYdave”]Thanks Dave.
How would I go about killing the yeast? Also…once bottled and chilled hoe long will it last in the fridge unopened?[/quote]
If you are looking to kill the yeast, you could bottle and pasteurize.
The longer you wait before bottling, the more dead the yeast will be when you bottle. When fermentation is complete, let the wine sit for a couple more months, and then bottle. Your yeast will be extremely sluggish and around 90% dead. In my opinion, this might be a “preferred” method, in combination with a little sulfite just to make sure.
You can also try heat pasteurization. I have never done this, but you could run your filled bottles through a heated dishwasher cycle and this should be enough time and heat to kill the yeast. You could also place the bottles in a large kettle of water and bring to about 170 F for about 30 minutes. Either of these should kill your yeast dead. But then you will not get any carbonation.
Wine should last for years, especially if chilled. Or if you have a cool spot in your basement or a closet at like 60 F, it will last a very long time there as well.
Not looking for carbonation so I’m good there.
I do a lot of canning of food so I have the equipment to bring ez cap bottles to 170 for 30 minutes so that should work.
When I’m done fermenting and have reached desired taste I’ll put in meta, wait 2 days, bottle then heat up. Once I’ve heated up I’ll cool and refrigerate.
This sound ok?
One other question…do I fill the ez cap bottles to the very top or leave an inch because of the heating up in water?
Thanks
I would leave some space. Assuming there could be some trapped gas, it would become more volitile at a higher temperature. Should be able to fill into the neck though - leave a couple of fingers worth of space between wine an cap.
Yep, leave at least an inch of space if not ~1.5 inches.
