Last month I was able to locate 100lbs of Cabernet grapes from Nappa. The price was great, they were already de stemmed and seeded so I bought in on the deal. I could not believe how simple the process really is; well compared to making all-grain beer.

We met at a location where we divided up several thousand pounds of grapes into 100lb units, then placed into a large plastic vessel. Pitch in some nutrient, some pectic enzyme and yeast. It sits for a few weeks and you basically have wine. Everyday you are required to “punch down” the must so that the skins and seeds left over are in constant contact with the must. The skins gives red wine its color, and mouthfeel or body.

On pressing day, I added 12cc of sulphuric acid to get my pH lower and I added a maloactic culture to balace the sweetness and get rid of any other nasties before the wild stuff sets in. Pictured below is me pressing the grapes. It was 1.5 hours from start to clean up. DLB helped out.

Well I officially own a brewery now, er I mean I built a brew cart to make beer more efficiently. The project was pretty simple and I did it entirely under $200; most commercial units cost over $1000. I got the idea from a few guys on the BrewBoard who helped me with the details on gas lines and electrical. So far I have completed the frame, gas lines, and all the kettles. Soon, I will add a March pump, and a water filtration system to allow for even less of a complicated brew day. I am posting a pictorial of this project, plans, and an spreadsheet containing costs and parts numbers.

Use the following documents to create your own. You need MS Excel and Adobe Acrobat reader Brewcart Plans 01
Brewcart Plans 01
Brewcart Plans 01
Parts Listing

I made my first Hoegaarden clone. So far smells great and took off almost 8 hours after pitching.

Ingredients: 9lbs German Pilsner Malt (no Belgina on hand) 9lbs Wheat malt (Briess, ) 2oz Hallertauer 4.6% AAU 1oz Corriander 1oz Bitter ornage peel

White Labs 400 Yeast

Single infusion mash at 152deg. for 95min. Mash out with 180deg water to raise temps to 168 or so. Stuck sparge! Runnings to make 11gallons. Boiled for 60min with 1 hop addition at the beginning of the boil. Last 15 min I tossed in the spices and forgot to grind the corriander, oh well. Cooled to 80degrees and pitched a big starter. Took off in less than 8 hours. I will keg this in 7 days or so. Looking for a target gravity of 1.010 or less.

OG: 1.056 (a bit high, may cut back on the extra pound of Pilsner or wheat.)