Intermediate Wine Making Class

Intermediate Home Winemaking

No longer one class, we've broken this up into topics. You may attend all of them or select those interesting to you. Please read the notes on each class below - some ask you bring in a product you're working with or have concerns with. You'll get the most out of the class if you have something to bring! 

These will be held on the production floor, with a Q&A/social time after in our lounge. Held Thursday evenings, gathering at 6:15pm and starting promptly at 6:30pm. Topics will run 1 hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. 

Flavor and Balance (April 30th). This is flavor analysis with chemistry! Don't worry, the goal here is not to revisit chemistry class, but instead to see how the numbers line up with what you taste. This will allow you to get an idea of what you need to do by tasting. Please bring something you've made so we can examine and taste (and change it a bit). 

Fermentation Mechanics (May 14th). Yeast, nutrients, temperature, what else? Process? How and why these choices steer and develop the wine we want. We should not select a yeast without knowing what else we're committing to in order to get the most out of it; this class will cover the decisions we need to consider.

It's Not Sleeping (June 4th). After fermentation, in the long rest before we have a finished product, what we do can make or break a wine. MLF, micro-oxidation, stability, and storage options to achieve this are discussed.

Tools and Tricks (June 11th). What makes the process easier? What can assist with what you already have? If you're considering an investment in equipment, or you're looking to maximize what you can do with what you've already got, this class is for you. 

Working with What You've Got (June 25th). Bring your wine, especially something you're thinking of bottling. While we'll slightly re-visit the first class information, there's a lot more to discuss! Clarity, fizzy wine, "smelly" wine, and the many, many degrees of "I like it, but..." - we'll examine these topics with the knowledge that if you've not put a cork in it, we can still change it!