As some of you know, Pam gave me some winemaking equipment for Christmas. About a week ago, I disinfected the equipment, filtered about 20 litres of water with our Brita, and added it, along with about 8 litres of juice concentrate, some yeast, some oak chips, and other goodies to my “primary fermenter” (i.e., a large 7-gallon food-grade plastic pail). Since the “must” (i.e., the juice mixture) needs to be at a comfortable temperature in order for the yeast to do its work, I set the pail in L and K’s bedroom—they have a heater in their room so it doesn’t get as cold at night. It wasn’t long before the entire upper floor of our house smelled like a winery. The must starts out heavier than water and ultimately, when the yeast has stopped converting sugar to alcohol, ends up lighter than water. Yesterday I tested the wine with my hydrometer and its specific gravity was in the appropriate range to be “racked” into my “secondary fermenter” (i.e., the large clear-plastic jug). So that’s what we did.
L was fascinated by the siphoning process and I had to explain to him how the liquid could continue to flow through the hose even though nothing was pumping it. It’s too early to tell if the end result will be drinkable, but we’re hoping. Does anybody have some empty wine bottles lying around? I’m eventually going to need about 30 of them, and although I’ve already taken some from our neighbours’ recycling bins, I’m a little reticent to be seen poking through my neighbours’ garbage.