Part 2. Premises and equipment necessary for preparing wine
Much depends on how much wine we are going to produce. To prepare wine up to 200 liters, you can get by with 20 liter bottles. If more, you will need barrels. Well, we won’t touch the barrels for now — We will prepare wine in bottles.
I use glass bottles, but I think you can get by with plastic bottles - the ones in which you carry water. One 20 liter bottle on the table occupies an area of approximately 0.1 m2, — ten – 1.0 m2. So calculate how much space you will need. In reality, a table measuring 1 meter by 1 meter can accommodate 9 bottles.
Of course, it is advisable to have a separate room, or even better — two. And a cellar with a constant temperature of 8-10°C for aging wine, and with shelves for storing wine — not prevent. But this is for those who have such opportunities. In any case, we will assume that we are striving for this.
To begin with, we’ll make do with a small table in the kitchen, somewhere in a warm corner.
I would like to immediately warn you that the utensils and accessories used in winemaking should not oxidize, and therefore we use only stainless steel, plastic, wood, glass and enamel utensils.
We will need the following utensils and equipment:
- Two large plastic buckets for collecting berries. They are convenient for picking berries, convenient for weighing and washing berries, they do not oxidize the berries and do not weigh much. Why two? For an assistant, since it is difficult for one person to collect the required number of berries.
- Two large enamel pans, one for 5 - the other for 10 liters. In them you will crush the fruits, collect the juice and prepare the wort in them.
- Wooden pestle or mallet for crushing berries.
- Enameled basin and bowls for berries.
- Large enameled or stainless steel colander with a fine mesh. Such that it is the size of your pan and does not fall into it.
- A large funnel (the bigger the better), through which we will pour the wort into a bottle with a narrow neck. For the funnel you will also need a colander with a fine mesh.
- 2 and 3 liter bottles.
- 10 liter bottles with a wide neck and caps with a “water seal.”
- 20 liter bottles with a narrow neck and stoppers with a “water seal”.
- Hose 1.5 - 2 meters long, with an internal diameter of 8 mm — for draining wine from a bottle. It is advisable to attach the lower half of the hose (can be with tape in three places) to a wooden or plastic stick, 5-10 cm long above your bottle. By lowering the stick to the desired depth, you can control the location of the hose intake hole.
- It is advisable to have a small ladle with a long handle. Such that it fits into the wide neck of the bottle - for organoleptic evaluation of the wort (taste).
- Gauze or nylon bags for straining juice.
- In addition, you will need scales, even two scales. Some for weighing berries in a bucket - a steelyard (preferably electronic); others with a bowl - for weighing sugar.
- It is advisable to immediately start a diary or journal - whatever you want. Without notes, especially when several bottles of wine are being prepared at once, it is difficult to remember — when and how many berries were picked, how much sugar or water was added to the wort and how much was left to add. And next year, when you want to change something in the wine or repeat last year’s, you will have all the information at your fingertips.
- Naturally, if you plan to extract juice by pressing, you will need a press, and if using a juicer — then a juicer.
I’ll dwell a little on plugs with a “water seal”, which I mentioned in paragraphs 8 and 9.
In fact, such a stopper acts as a valve, the purpose of which is to release carbon dioxide released as a result of the reaction from the bottle with wort and not to allow air into the bottle, which can cause the wort to turn into fruit vinegar. In short, let everyone out and don’t let anyone in.
The designs of such plugs are different and the main requirement that is placed on them — this is tightness.
The classic design of a water seal is a tube (thin hose), one end of which is tightly connected to a stopper (inserted into the stopper), which is also hermetically inserted into the neck of the bottle with wort, and the other end is lowered into a vessel with water (transparent bottle) . The length of the tube must be no less than the height of the bottle. As a vessel with water, it is best to use a liter plastic water bottle filled with water to ¾ volume. Based on the bubbles released from the tube lowered into the water, we are convinced that the “water seal” is working properly. If bubbles do not come out or have stopped coming out, it means the seal is broken.
At the end of fermentation, carbon dioxide bubbles also cease to be released, but this already indicates that the fermentation of the wort is complete.
There are also “water seal” designs that are mounted directly into the plugs. Moreover, there are those that are installed on bottles with a wide neck, and those that are installed on bottles with a narrow neck. All of them have the right to exist, provided they perform their function and ensure tightness during their installation.
The main thing is that they fit your bottle. If we couldn’t find it, the situation is worse, but you shouldn’t despair – we’ll look for a way out.
You can stretch a baby's pacifier onto the narrow neck of the bottle. We pierce a hole in the upper part of the nipple, insert a rubber or polyethylene tube (“cambric”) into the hole, the lower end of which is lowered into a vessel with water. The water seal is ready.
Some winemakers use a children's rubber ball or other rubber products for this purpose, puncturing a hole in them with a needle. The tube in this case is not necessary — the ball itself acts as a valve.
You just need to keep in mind that over time, under the influence of released carbon dioxide, rubber products lose strength and can depressurize.
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