How To Enjoy The Fine Art Of Home Winemaking, Part 2

During your home winemaking and other brewing processes, don't forget to take into account what is known as the angels share.  Smaller oak barrels produce unique flavors that are world famous for home brewing and distilling liquids.  Small barrels are a perfect size for aging and storing beverages at home for personal use.  Over time there really haven't been all that many changes in the long-standing traditions of home winemaking and the aging of whiskey, rums, ports and brandies.  Allowing the liquors to breathe adds flavor, color and aroma.  The edge is also taken off, resulting in a smooth finish.  As the aging processes takes place, small amounts of alcohol evaporate.  This is what the angels' share is.

Producing Delicious Vinegars

The vinegars you produce at home in oak barrels will have a complexity, depth and weight that cannot be replicated when using glass or ceramic.  Nothing compares with producing your very own vinegars at home.  You won't ever want to use store bought vinegars again once you have tasted the vinegars you make yourself.  All that is needed to produce extraordinary vinegars is the "mother," wine and time.  The "mother" for vinegar is Acetobacter bacteria.  This bacteria eats alcohol.  That process is what transforms wine into vinegar.  We recommend you use a 5 liter barrel for this process.  As you get started on your home winemaking adventure, you'll want to experiment and explore all of your options.  Try out a wide array of red wines, like cherry, elderberry, sweet Muscats, blackberry, Merlot and Cabernet wines.

Over the course of your home winemaking journey, it's a great idea to write in a journal to capture all the wonderful moments in writing.  You'll be able to enjoy the written account of your adventure for many years.  Your journal doesn't have to be anything fancy.  A simple notebook will do.  By reviewing your journal, you'll know what worked and what's didn't.  Once you start home winemaking, you will probably never want to drink store bought wine ever again.

White oak barrels, due to their strength, sugar content and other excellent characteristics for storing and making whiskeys and wines, have become the standard.  A cooper tapers and sands the oak so that the staves fit into the hoops perfectly.  There are no nails or glue used in the process.  Steam produces the perfect and permanent fitted shape.  While the barrels are still only partially assembled, they are toasted to perfection.  This process produces the vanilla and sweet caramel flavors to your beverage due to the caramelization that takes place in the wood's sugars.

Share And Enjoy Your Home Winemaking

Whenever you would like to commemorate a special occasion or show your appreciation to someone, nothing could be more ideal than to raise a toast with a glass of wine or spirits that you have actually made.  Your home winemaking efforts offers you the ability to celebrate, toast and share the wines you have made yourself with family and friends.  They will certainly be impressed with your creativity along with the delicious taste of the homemade wine that you have aged in your own oak barrels during the home winemaking process.