How To Make Champagne Using Cheap White Wine

Came across this short little video on YouTube showing how to make champagne using cheap white wine and a soda streamer. Enjoy!

Learn How To Make Wine In 60 Seconds!

Patrick Johnson recently sent me this cool short video that he made showing in 60 seconds the basics of wine making.

I thought it was so cool that I wanted to make sure others saw it too!

Let me know if you agree that this was well done in the comments below.

Wine Time in 60 seconds! from Patrick Johnson on Vimeo.

As a backgrounder here’s what he wrote introducing his little video:

“Hey Scott,

I’m a hobbiest wine maker (two years running now) and I’ve been checking out your site for quite a while now. Great posts and information!

I also have a passion for animation and always thought that wine making would be a fun subject for a short animation piece. The merging of these two hobbies resulted in the following animation, “Wine Time in 60 Seconds”.

Take a look and I’d love any feedback if you have a second. (It’s done in a populist kid’s style, forgoing detail for brevity)

Thanks,

Patrick Johnson”

Here’s a brief bio on Patrick too!

Patrick Johnson is a hobbiest wine maker and video producer, who makes personal documentaries and animations in his spare time. “Wine Time in 60 Seconds” was made entirely on his computer with Photoshop, AfterEffects, and Final Cut Pro. Visit www.journeymanstudios.com for more work by Patrick.

How To Make Wine: Different Ways To Degas Your Wine

One of the most important aspects of wine making is degassing once the fermentation is completed and this blog post will show you a variety of videos which demonstrate different ways of accomplishing this.

This is the part in any wine kit instructions where they say to “stir vigorously” (with a spoon or drill attachment) for a minimum of 2 minutes so that you can flatten your wine out.  If you’ve ever tasted homemade wine that hasn’t been properly degassed you can tell as it has a bit of a “fizzy” taste to it and it just doesn’t taste very good.

Video 1: The Basics of Wine Degassing

The other issue you’ll have if you don’t degass your wine properly is that your cork could pop out of the bottle or, worse case, your bottle could potentially explode due to the build up in pressure in the bottle.

In An Ingenius Way To Degas Your Wine I showed how you could use a wine vacuum pump (i.e. what you could use to suck out the air in a half-drunk bottle of wine) to degas your wine.

Video 2: Using A Wine Vacuum Pump To Degas Your Wine

I use this method with every batch of wine I’ve made since I discovered it, and the results have been fantastic! The biggest thing you’ll notice is that your wine comes out nice and silky smooth.

The brand of wine vacuum I used in the above video is “Snail”. You can find it by going here (it’s about 2/3rds of the way down the page).

Here are a few other videos that I found on YouTube that demonstrate different ways you can degas your wine. Hopefully one or more of them peaks your interest!

Video 3: Degassing Your Wine Using Your Washing Machine

Video 4: Degassing Your Wine Using A FoodSaver

Other methods I’ve heard used to degas your wine include:

1. The “Manual Method” where you grab your carboy and shake it with your hands (although this sounds really messy if the airlock pops off).
2. The “Sparging Method” where you place an air stone with a tube attached to it on the bottom of your carboy and pump nitrogen through it. The nitogren is an inert gas and will force the carbon dioxide out of your wine. This is a bit more involved (and expensive) and is one I’ve never tried myself.

It ultimately doesn’t matter which method you use so long as you do it!

If you have a different method you use please let me know by leaving a comment below!

To your wine making success,

- Scott “The Wine Making Guy”

How To Make Wine: The Essential Ingredients Explained

I’ve received numerous requests from people asking to explain what the main ingredients/chemicals used in wine making are and why they’re used.

Here’s a quick video I shot today that will give you some good insight into why we use things like:

• Bentonite
• Potassium Metabisulphite
• Potassium Sorbate
• Isinglass
• Yeast Nutrient
• Pectic Enzyme
• Acid Blend
• Campden Tablets
• Sanitol

So if you’ve always wanted to know what each was used for check out the video below!

- Scott “The Wine Making Guy”

Wine Making Using Household Items

Here’s another interesting video that I found on YouTube that shows you how to make wine using store bought grape juice.

 
This type of wine would probably fall under the “Baby Duck” category – easy to drink and it’ll give you a good buzz, but not something that’s going to win any awards.

If you make this wine let me know how it turns out!

- Scott “The Wine Making Guy”

How To Make Wine From Coca Cola

Have you ever considered making wine from Coca Cola?

I can’t really say I had … at any point in time, but I came across this video on YouTube and it peaked my interest.

See for your selfL

Sounds tempting until you see what happens when he tastes his wine “experiment” …

So what do you think? Something you’d try?

- Scott “The Wine Making Guy”