My first wine making experiences

In mid 2007 I decided to look into making Blackberry wine. This is something which I have been thinking about for a few years already and was resisting because I did not want to waste the blackberries on vinegar. So began my journey.

After an accidental blackberry fermentation on my fridge, I started doing abit of reasearch on winemaking and fruit wines I decided to jump into the whole winemaking adventure... well with a couple of toe's first. OK maybe not quite a jump. I picked up the basics from Bosa foods, a local Italian owned store in the Vancouver area which in addition to a great selection of imported food, carries a wide selection of wine making supplies at a great price.

My shopping list

Sodium Metabusulphate - used to steralize the containers.
Vinometre - similar to a thermometer this handy little device tells you the alcohol content of your wine
Hydrometer - required tool which tells you the potential alcohol in your wine as well as a few other measurements which will be of use to you in making your wine the way you want.
1 Gallon Jugs - Because I am getting into winemaking slowly, I decided to go with smaller carboys. These one gallon jugs work perfectly.
Airlocks - These are used to keep oxygen from hitting the wine during secondary fermentation.
Wine bottles - for obvious reasons
Thermometer - very handy as wine making relies heavily on the proper temperature
Yeast - Although most wines will ferment on their own - eventually - yeast will help the process along
Yeast Nutrient - The Yeasty-beasties need some food
Yeast energizer - It is good to have this in wine-making just in case your must stops fermenting pre-maturely.
2 Gallon glass jars - You can use buckets, but I found these great glass jars in the kitchen section of a local department store. They have a loose fitting glass lid which lets Oxygen into the must but keeps the fruit flies out - for the most part.
Honey - Instead of using sugar I wanted to try something different.

That was pretty much it, some people use Campden tablets of some other sulphite to preserve the wine after fermentation, however being the stubborn Kraut that I am, I decided to do things my own way. Hopefully the wine doesn't spoil but we will soon see.

Cheers,

Heinz