Link back to an existing thread:
https://i.imgur.com/aGzIHDr.png
Making a big batch o hooch wine from Aldi ingredients. Including bread yeast. After adding 3,1/3cup sugar the specific gravity came to 1.075 so ~10%abv if it ferments dry. I did a yeast starter with some water+juice and all 3 packets. It went pretty nuts within 15min:
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https://i.imgur.com/PEnkhkB.png
Yep, quite a vigorous ferment last night. Enough to foam up into the air lock. I’ll just swap it out for a clean one.
5gal batch should yield about 25x 750ml bottles worth. At $35 in ingredients that is only $1.40/bottle. The wife likes sweet wines so I’ll split the batch and try backsweetening some. That is it’s own delema since the yeast will happily continue munching on sugar. There are a few options to handle that though.
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I agree. CC is very underrated IMO. Classic 1 (smallish) cube. Tasty memories.
I was told my grandmother had a small glass of CC every night - for medicinal purposes. 
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When my grandmother turned 90, her doctor recommended a glass of red wine a day to help with some problem or other. Gran, who was a lifelong abstainer, refused this suggestion and told him that she “didn’t want to become an alcoholic”!
Geoff
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My grandmother (also around 90) received the same advice from her doctor. She followed the Dr.’s suggestion for a month or two, but then quit. When asked why she quit the nightly glass of wine she replied “I was enjoying it too much”. Different generation!
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I am trying to go on a hiatus until IowaDIY. Will be one month of not indulging. Just need to reset things.
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Update on the wine:
I swirled the fermenter a few times durring the first week to degass it. Eventually, the final time, I tried there was no noticable gas release. No noticable airlock activity for about a week up to today (indicating primary fermentation likely stopped). I took a gravity reading. Looks like 0.999, or just in the “dry” region. I’ll leave it in the primary fermenter for another week and take another reading. If no change then we can be pretty sure the yeast isn’t going to do any more with the current situation.
Now.. I could just pour the measuring cylinder back in the fermenter since I sanitized everything… But where is the fun in that? So I poured it in a glass instead. Decent color and already getting pretty clear, The nose is suuper earthy.. like natural gas scent, or maybe a garbage dump. Doesn’t sound great, but this wine isn’t even 2 weeks old. I’m told that the yeast will clean up after themselvs a bit.. breaking down some of the most offensive compounds over a few more weeks. Then long term aging slowly allows other compounds to break down on their own. Finally the taste: Very acidic to the point it largely covers up much other flavor, reminds me of acidic french reds. Not my most favorite, but if back sweetened that can bring out a bright tartness. Or add something like potassium bicarbonate to neutrilize some acid. The cheap way is with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) but that can give a salty taste.
I’m wondering if alot of the acidity came from the few bottles of “Black cherry plum” juice that was likely a large percentage apple juice in reality. So maybe that was a bit of a mistake. Oah well. Can still work with it at least.
If anyone is interested in the specific gravity stuff:
The numbers vary by temperature, but pure ethanol is roughly 0.790. Pure water should be about 1.000. Sugar will bring that number higher. The number goes back down as the yeast reduce the sugar by processing it into alcohol. So below 1.0 means there is little sugar left.. To the point that the ethanol content is able to bring it below pure water gravity.
The calculation for ABV = (OG – FG) * 131.25
OG is original/starting gravity. FG is final gravity.
Since I started with 1.075 and sofar finishing at 0.999, that leaves an ABV of 9.975%. So pretty much 10%.. Since temp differences can alter the result and the meniscus of the liquid makes it tough to get an exact reading.
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Ever use Campden tablets?
I am currently in a reset mode after realizing since my unemployment began I have been hitting it a little too much and too hard.
Picked up a 12er of Sierra Nevadda NA last night, two IPA, one “golden” and one that tasted like Corona with a lime. I did not care for the last one, the wife did so no waste. The other three were relatively convincing.
Bonus, it is likely the overweight side effect of sedentary lifestyle and excessive drinking will be mitigated due to cutting a significant number of carbs along with being released to the gym after my wrist injury.
That being said, I have no intentions of quitting long-term, just until Iowa comes around. After that my plan is to limit my intake and keep on top of the gym.
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No, I haven’t. Have you? What benefits do you see from it?
So I tried the wine again today. IDK if my palate just reset or what, but this time seemed much less overpoweringly acidic. I then dissolved ~1/2 teaspoon of granulated sugar in the glass and that realy woke up the flavors without tasting sweet. Once the smell cleans up a bit I think this will be a perfectly servicable table wine with at least a little back sweetening. 
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Missed it, which yeast?
Regular bread yeast from Aldi 
Came in a 3-pack so I just dumped in all 3. That was probably not necessary though (and potentially not desirable? maybe).
Some folks actually prefer bread yeast with concord juice. It aparently preserves the bright berry flavors better than wine yeasts. Wine yeast tends to tone that down and give a bit more of a “darker” traditional red wine flavor profile. I guess that doesn’t work out the greatest with concord. Sounds like a “work with the strengths rather than against them” kind of scenario.
I think it was $35 for everything. But only used 3 and 1/3cup of the sugar. That and could probably be fine with using 1 yeast packet per 5gal batch. becomes even cheaper. Probably around $1.25 for a 750ml bottle of it.
Regular bread yeast can be very clean up to around 10%, trying to push it past that can often yield some undesirable tastes. IMO, the extra yeast does not affect taste and gives the other yeasties something else to eat. They are a bit cannibalistic. Champaign yeast has a clean taste up to and easily past 10%.
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Yeah the more I research it seems there may be a “butter zone” for fermentation. Too fast and it could produce alot of volitiles all at once that are harder to break down in such quantity.. But, if you make the yeast strain too close to stall point It seems can also bring in bad flavors.
I do not have a good understanding of winemaking. I have a better understanding of making homebrew. Attenuation in beer making refers to the difference between the starting and the final gravity, how much sugar has been converted into alcohol. I guess the yeast will very much slow down before reaching their alcohol tolerance.
In many ways this was easier than beer. So easy it kinda felt like cheating 
No boil. Higher abv requires oxygenation. But shaking each bottle enough to mix in 1/3rd cup sugar before dumping in the fermenter checks that box pretty well. Starting up the yeast with some juice probably wasn’t necessary… More an experiment to see how vigorous bread yeast was.
Swirling the fermenter every few days to offgas did feel a bit foreign. but I got over it