home winemaking

Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

Yup… we are one more step along the path for the Rebel Girl Gold! I decided that because I am planning on adding a stabilizer, I figured that I needed to move the wine from the carboy into the bottling bucket.

That way I can mix in the Potassium Metabisulfite without stirring up the gunk settled at the bottom of the carboy… because that would be NASTY.

So, stay tuned! Watch the bottling coming up soon.

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Another day? Another task with the Rebel Girl.

Today?

Stabilizing and clarifying. I mixed in the stabilizing chemicals.. and then the isinglass mixture. I am not quite sure, but I think that makes me feel about a surrey with a fringe on top!

I thought isinglass was a type of mica that was used as windows, but obviously I must be confused.

Ooops. no I am not! At least not entirely! Isinglass can refer to gelatin made from the bladders of fish like sturgeon.

Well! Slap my ass and call me Sally! I am entirely shocked to learn that I wasn’t completely confused. And apparently Mrs. Swanson, my elementary school music teacher didn’t screw me over in the knowledge department!

So apparently, my Rebel Girl is not a vegan wine. I am surprised that my wine wasn’t vegan, but then I have never made any before and I was aware that egg shells and egg whites were used for clarification. I have used those items when clarifying soup stock.

But wine? Well it seemed quintessentially vegetarian.. indeed, vegan! No way, it appears!

Ah, just another way that my Rebel Girl takes me by surprise.

As it should.

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I have the bug.

The fermentation bug.

Strangely enough I didn’t catch it when Kevin was brewing beer. But then I don’t really LIKE beer. And it is a much stinkier process with the hops being involved and all… Wine is…well, different..

And as it turns out, I like cider too.

So that is project no. 2. I started my cider today. Only three gallons (or so.. as I will lose some in the mix), on the other hand, I am the only one that likes it. I put in some ginger to make it interesting. I was curious that you use wine yeast to make it as I think of it more like beer. But according to the recipe that I used, it is more like apple wine than beer. No WONDER I like it!

I have even come up with a name for my creation already! Cider of Eden. Yeah. Same reaction I got from Kevin. Phooey! A pox on you all!

And if the cider works out? Watch out MEAD!

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Not a lot of bubbling action here… but the stuff is beginning to clarify itself… although I will have some more clarification to do on Sunday! In the meantime, I think it is looking clearer…

I took one picture earlier this week and got this:

Then today, I notice three different distinct levels within the carboy!

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Seems like it would be simple but really, I can complicate any matter if I start thinking to much. And because this wasn’t just wine for me, but for an internetz project, I felt that my hobo wine should have a name.

I even threw a couple of names out there with the hopes that the 10 of you that read this might comment one way or another or make another suggestions. This did not happen. So, I decided to jump in with both feet. Didn’t even consult Kevin. And named the wine Rebel Girl. Yeah. it has girl in the name, but I couldn’t find any history of great hobo couples… so Kevin will just have to deal.

So now, I unveil for you the label for Rebel Girl Gold!

(ooops… why does that label look blue here and not gold? Oh the problems with Photoshop continue!)

Yeah! I fixed it!

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Has it been 10 days already? Wow! How time flies when you are fermenting in a bucket. At least we think we had been fermenting. How to check? Well, we floated the hydrometer into the now opened bucket and checked the level. According to the directions it was supposed to read 1.o or less… and so it was.

Now of course we must ferment the Hobo Wine secondarily. And to do this we needed to transfer it to the carboy. This was easy enough to accomplish except that we needed to hoist the primary fermenter up onto the breakfast bar on a stack of books in order to get both containers to the correct height.

After this, the process was simple just turning on the spigot and draining the cloudy wine(ish) into the carboy.

Easy Peasy, right? Ok… we closed the carboy with the bung and the airlock and then voila! Kevin hauled it over to the corner where an additional 10 days of fermenting will take place.

FUN!

In the meantime, I am looking for an appropriate name for my creation.

Something hobo-y but with an edge.

I am considering naming it after Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who was called Rebel Girl by the hobos as she tried to get them to become itinerent members of the Industrial Workers of the World and was also a founding member of the ACLU. The name Rebel Girl came to her from a song written by Joe Hill, noted Wobbly and hobo songwriter. She died while touring the Soviet Union and was awarded a state funeral by the Soviet government but afterward, as she had requested, she was interred in Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago beside the Haymarket Martyrs.

The other option is after Alice Mabel Gray. She was a recluse who lived in an abandoned shack in the Indiana Dunes. She was graduate of the University of Chicago with a degree in mathematics (which has destroyed many a sane mind through the years) and went to work at the U.S. Naval Observatory. In 1915, inspired sby Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by George Gordon, Lord Byron, she left civilization to seek the seclusion of the dunes and to live off the land. Known to the locals as “Diana of the Dunes” she can still be seen on moonlight nights skinny dipping in Lake Michigan.

Feel free to let me know what you think… or if you have any other suggestions! In the meantime, I wait.

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I promise that this is the last post of the tank bubbling… unless it blows the cap off the bubbler that is… Geez, I am only human. In the meantime, be assured that thus far, the experiment is working… Whee!

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Is it working?

You will have to click to see!

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ok…. So the fermentation bucket is full… now what?

Well, now we need gallon of hot water…

and then we need to use the hydrometer to check the specific gravity of liquids. Now… What can affect the specific gravity? Well…. alcohol.. but we don’t have any yet…temperature… which is not particulary our issue… or lactose… not that I am intolerant… but for now? Well sugar.

And why is sugar important? Because sugar and yeast work together to create alcohol and and carbon dioxide. Or, as I learned so graphically in high school chemistry, yeast eats sugars and pees alcohol and toots CO2. Ahhh, if so many parts of our universe were so simple to understand….

What now? Well, I was instructed to add cold water until we reached the six gallon level.. mmmK.

Now I needed to mix it all up and check the temperature. Why? well we need a temperature between 65o-75oF for the yeast… Because too hot? Kill the yeast.. Too cold? Make it go to sleep… so temperature is important… and quite frankly.. tempermental.

The temperature of our mix? 58. sigh. this is going to be a problem.

Solution? Well, I have a huge sink that I can put gigantic pots and pans into… (‘cuz I have an urge to clean.. NOT) That being said, I can fit the entire fermenter into my sink… which I did… and filled the rest of the sink with hot water. Why? Well, the density of water means that it imparts its heat/energy faster that through the air. Yup, I am kinding of cheating.. heating the water to the proper temperature fast than it would take if I waited the multiple hours that would be required to lift the water to the ambient air temperature. Yeah… Call me impatient.

But luckily it only took a 1/2 hour to raise the temperature to 70 so I could add the yeast.

Now ironically, the yeast packet in my kit came from Red Star Yeast! Oddly, I consider this to be the yeast of me making bread.. but I guess, ultimately when you know one yeast, you know them all… The rule for mixing it into grape juice is that you don’t mix it in with a spoon, but let it works its way in.. and so I did.

After that, the instructions are simple. Put on the top and add the airlock. This is a series of tubes with bubbles in the middle. When you add water into the center it creates a vaccuum. When alcohol and the is excess carbon dioxide is produced it is released into the bucket.. when the bucket fills with it… it is released slowly through the airlock.

Now it is just wait and wonder.. sigh.

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After being chased around the kitchen and whacked with the mixing spoon, I finally managed to get Kevin to think about moving on this wine making project.

The first thing to remember that cleanliness is the best way to avoid nasty contamination and death… or godliness if you will… so we used the sterilizing agent that came in my kit….

Next in went 1/2 gallon of hot water into the “Primary fermenter” or as Kevin and I finally determined it to be the bucket with the tap… into the hot water when a packet of bentonite. Now, my familiarity with bentonite is from my distant past as an environmental consultant.. (I am like an onion… the more you peel me, the more layers you find..) Anyway, my experience with bentonite is that is used to back fill wells used to sample runoff from hazmat sites. Imagine my surprise that it had an application in wine making? My theory at the moment is that it is used as an early filtration agent? Maybe as something that dead yeast can hook on to… If any one knows and would like to tell me that would be great.. because obviously I am such a dork I will continue to ponder this mystery.

After the bentonite was added and mixed into the water… (word to the wise, don’t pour the powder in and THEN start mixing, bentonite is a form of clay and will seize when it hits water… TRUST ME)

Ok.. after I broke up the glob of clay, Kevin poured our Chilean Chardonnay juice into the fermenter. Naturally the cover would not come off the container… so we improvised. I stabbed the bladder pack with a knife and the juice poured forth. With a beautiful shower of golden goodness…..

Ahhh….

More to come….

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