50Gal recpie? anyone?

[gt_andy]

I have a buddy who has approached me asking about making wine. He has acquired a 50Gal wooden barrel that had raspberry wine that aged for a number of years. We want to make a simple wine that could fill the barrel and let it age. We think it will allow our wine to absorb that flavor.

Any simple wine recipes that would be rather inexpensive and simple to make about 50gallons.

Am I crazy? Can it be done? Worth the time?

 

[pumpkinman2012]

There really isn't any "inexpensive" way to make 50 gallons of wine from fresh grapes, nor is there a recipe, 10 people will give you 10 different variations, but be aware, be careful that the advice you take is from someone that has years of experience and has been successful.
Have you decided on what varietal of grape you would like to make?
To make 50 gallons of wine, you'll want to start with 20 or so lugs of grapes, I would highly recommend California or Washington state grapes, each lug will weigh 36 lbs, 36 lbs of grapes will make approx. 2.50 gallons of finished wine. The total weight will be 720 lbs and this should give you 67(ish) gallons of wine, subtract some of that for topping off, and possibly if the grapes don't render exactly 2.50 gals per lug.
The price per lug will run you in the neighborhood of $55.00 - $65.00 per lug, so you're looking at approx $1200.00, plus you'll need to factor in:
Yeast
Go-Ferm
Enzymes -(Lallezyme, Opti-Red, Booster rouge)
yeast nutrients (Fermaid K & Fermaid O, DAP possibly)
Malolactic Bacteria
Opti-Malo
Oak
Crusher -Destemmer
Press
Fermenting buckets
I personally wouldn't use the barrel that had raspberry in it for a few years, the barrel is probably neutral, and would you really want a beautiful batch of Cabernet or Merlot, or a really nice Bordeaux blend to have a strong raspberry taste, not to mention any other problems that might be resident in that barrel.
If you select the right yeast that will complement the grapes, you will have the natural berry flavors come out of the wine.
Personally, I'd start with 15 gallons this fall, you can purchase 50 liter Hungarian barrels fairly cheap, the cost of the grapes would be in the $450.00 range, much less "sticker shock".
I'd be more than happy to help you out if you choose to pursue this.
I hope that this helps.

 

[jensmith]

The 'guys'or 'booze buddies' that hang out drinking with Dad every night have made hard cider in a old 50 gal wisky barrel for years. They start with fresh cider in the fall and only a mix of brown suger, maple syrup and some white suger on occation. No nutriants, no racking, no sanatizing no nothing else. It does come out drinkable despite all that!
Last year the guys all got bussy so I was drafted to fill the barrel. I washed and sanatized it first. The cider was the best 'they' had ever made. However with its fith or sixth fill, the last of the cider had a wet wood taste. All of the char and good flavore had been leached out of the wood, leaving a wet wood tast. I pulled out the leftover cider and refermented it up to wine status and reoaked it. It is now (whats left anyway!) very nice, no more wet wood flavor!

So. If you want the rasberry flavor to come threw use a mild wine. If it were fall I would recamend apple juice. Fairly cheep and easy to handle. Fresh cider will ferment no matter what Just do not leave the finished wine/hard cider to bulk age in the barrel. Unless you add some fresh oak back into it. Easy enough to do with chips or spirrels.
Personally I would do the first ferment not in the barrel, then rack into the barrel for a couple of months. Then taste and rerack out if ready.


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[max384]

If you're looking to save some money, you can buy grape juice at most LHBSs. They come in many varieties, and can be bought in 55 gallon drums, which I'd imagine could be used as a primary fermentation vessel with a few modifications.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

Unless you're making a white wine, red juice buckets produce flabby wines, this is due to the lack of grape skins/solids to ferment on, the grapes are crushed/destemmed and pressed, treated with sulphite to stabilize it and some manufacturers add yeast.
If you are going to invest that much time and money, do it right, you'll be much happier with your results.

 

[max384]

Those wines may not be as good as making the wine from grapes, but good wine can still be made, and if money is an issue, it's not a bad way to go.