These web pages chronicle my attempt to make wine, from first batch to liver failure.
Friday, February 11, 2005	A few days ago I sent away for the book Alaska Bootlegger's Bible but I was not content to wait for the book's arrival before giving a batch of wine a try. The concept is very basic, so I assume I can figure out how to do it. I took a plastic jar, which once held pasta sauce, and flushed it out with hot water and chlorine bleach. I drilled a small hole in the cap, then flushed the cap with hot water and chlorine also. The hole is smaller than the rubber hose, so that I had to cut the end of the hose at a sharp angle and then force the end of the hose through the hole in the jar's cap--- making an air-tight fit. I also flushed out the rubber hose with hot water and chlorine. The other end of the hose leads to a gravity drop, then into a jar that holds water and chlorine bleach. The hole I drilled in this jar's lid is a bit larger than the diameter of the hose; I also punched a smaller hole in the jar lid so that gases can escape. Into the pasta jar I put grape juice and baker's yeast. (I don't need to use brewer's yeast, since I am not out to make the wine with a high alcohol content.) The juice jar then was placed on the heat exchanger on my propane refrigerator to keep it a bit warm all night. If all went well, I will see bubbles coming out of the rubber hose in the little jar tomorrow morning, and for the next five or six days.
	"Doctor, we have a pulse." Two hours later: The juice and yeast mixture is sending a slow, steady pulse of bubbles into the small jar. I have moved the set-up into my sun room next to the wood-buring stove, since the refrigerator's heat exchanger was not warm enough. I will keep the patient warm all night, and hope that the pulse rate will increase.
Saturday February 12, 2005 "Chateau de Trailer Park" is not doing well at all. I thought it would bubble for five or six days, but it stopped after about 20 hours. I did not put in any sugar, so maybe I should have. I will have to read how to make wine before I try it again.
	Saturday February 19, 2005 The test batch was a total failure, so I poured it out into the river. Fortunately the book I sent away for arrived a few days ago, so now I know what I did wrong and what I need to do. WHAT I DID WRONG Used baker's yeast Did not put water in the juice Did not put sugar in the yeast Did not control temperature Put chlorine vapors into fermenter via bubble hose One of the dogs knocked over the air lock jar WHAT I NEED TO DO Buy wine yeast. I sent away for some Red Star Make a much larger batch Monitor temperature Add water and sugar and Campden tablets Add some lemmon juice and some rasins Do not put chlorine in my air lock jar Keep the dogs off the fermenters Keep a record of what I did when I did it I have set aside an oak log that I will make chips out of, and I will toast them and toss the chips into the secondary a month before I bottle. I have also set aside some hard wood that I plan on turning into charcoal, and use it as a filter if I think the wine needs filtering. There is a store at Baker California that sells bags of mesquite charcoal that would work good, but I will not be around there any time in the near future.