In the beginning...

There was a bucket and some grape juice and grape must, a packet of yeast, and some oak chips (toasted and premium from the kit manufacturer).

Well we're only on Day 2 of our first attempt at making wine. We bought the Deluxe Wine Making Starter Kit from Northern Brewer in St. Paul as our annual joint Christmas present. Being the beginners that we are, we decided to go with a wine ingredient kit which included the items I mentioned above.

The guy at Northern Brewer was very helpful with advice for newbies. He mentioned that we don't have to buy bottles when we hit the bottling stage if we start saving our empty bottles of wine. Cool!

Being a librarian and wanting a good set of reference books for this endeavor, I did some research and found some great books on wine making, including a journal which I'm finding very helpful to stay organized (linked below).

Our first wine is a Sonoma Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, (Selection Estate brand). It included the following ingredients:

Bag of Grape Juice concentrate (not sure how many gallons)
Approx. 1/2 Gallon Grape Must
15g Bentonite
60g Toasted Oak Chips
93g Premium Oak Chips
4g Potassium Metabisulphate
5.5g Potassium Sorbate
Approx. 2 Cups of Chitosan
Yeast: Lalvin's Bourgovin RC 212 (Saccharomyces cerevisiae B.V.I.B)

Probably the most confusing part of the Day 1 Primary Fermentation process (the ingredient kit directions were pretty easy to follow) was testing the specific gravity of our wine sample using the Hydrometer. Turned out to be pretty simple. It involved using the Wine Thief to get a sample of the wine, putting the sample in the tall plastic cylinder, and dropping the hydrometer in the cylinder so that it floats in the wine - all these items were included in the Wine Making Starter Kit. (I'll try to add a picture when we test this again.)

We carefully followed the last step for the Primary Fermentation stage evenly sprinkling the yeast on top of our wannabe wine mixture, and voila! A bucket of wine beginning the fermentation stage!

Now I'm tempted to buy another carboy to start a second batch once this batch goes from bucket to carboy...

Here are the resources (kits & books) I purchased to begin our wine making journey. The Northern Brewer ships their products, so even if you don't have the luxury of St. Paul living you can order their goods.

Northern Brewer Wine Kits
Selection Estate Sonoma Valley Cabernet Sauvignon







Ms. Peterzberg