Question:
I am going to be teaching a home wine and beer making course and I am looking for some good suggestions for lesson plans
Response:
I am going to be teaching a home wine and beer making course and I am looking for some good suggestions for lesson plans
One other thing I forgot to mention about the classes I taught that I think helps out a beginner winemaker: I give a demonstration of how to make wine. I use a gallon of plan apple juice, add the sugar and show how to test s.g., add tannin, acid blend, pectic enzyme, nutrient and make and add a yeast starter, all showing the steps used in starting a wine. I have started a gallon jug a day or two before the class. Like in a cooking show, I show how to do it, and what it looks like when it is in the process of fermentation. My next class will be in March or April (if I find students). What I plan to do is to have 3 classes, 2 hours each covering 5 weeks. The first class, we will go through the equipment and chemicals like I do in my regular classes. We will then start a wine kit, showing how to make that wine and compare it to making non kit wine. Two weeks later, we will rack the wine, add any clearing or fining agents as required by the kit. We will also have our wine tasting at that time. Two more weeks, we will filter (if needed) adjust and bottle the wine. The class will take home 2-4 bottles of wine made with the kit. Don Winemaker, Landlord, Woodworker, Adventurer
Response:
I am going to be teaching a home wine and beer making course and I am looking for some good suggestions for lesson plans
I don’t know why this didn’t go out, so I am resending it. This was actually my first posting, not the second. I have taught 3 beginner winemaking classes. The following is what I sent out to the wine supply stores that have sponsered the classes. It willl give you a rough idea of what I taught. Topics covered: 1 EQUIPMENT-What do I need to buy so I can make wine? This would cover fermenters, carboys, hydrometer, siphon, bottles, corks, and corker. 2 CHEMICALS-What do they do, when do I use them? Covers common chemicals used in winemaking, what they do, how to prepare and when to use them. 3 WHAT TYPES OF WINE I CAN MAKE?-Making wine from concentrates, grapes, and fruits. I would cover some of the differences in making red, white and fruit wines and making second run or false wines. Also I would cover making wine from different starting ingredients and methods as listed in the title, basic instructions that work for most wines and what to expect from the wines. 4 TROUBLESHOOTING WINE PROBLEMS-What went wrong, how do I fix it? Discussion of common problems that can happen in winemaking and suggested corrections. Making a bad wine is a big reason why people quit making wine. 5 AM I READY TO BOTTLE MY WINE?-Aging, fining, filtering, balancing and bottling. Discussion on clearing wine using time, fining agents and filtering. How to make it ‘drinkable’ before bottling the wine. Also a demonstration of bottling and corking. I bring three bottle of inexpensive wine (mine happens to be apple). One bottle has been doctored up with extra acid, another bottle with extra tannin and one bottle left standard. I have two glasses in front of each student. In one glass, I pour the standard wine, in the second glass is the tannin wine. Taste the standard wine, then the tannin wine. Have your students tell you what diffence they taste. Dump the tannin wine. Now pour the acid wine into the glass. Again, taste the standard wine, then the acid wine. Have the student explain the differences. What I do next is to either blend the standard and acid wine, or add a sugar syrup to the acid wine. This shows how sugar can cover winemaking ’sins’. I also bring some of my wine examples, red, white and fruit to give some examples of the taste differences between the wines. I do have all that information on a 9 page handout pamphlet that includes a glossary and a couple recipes plus a good basic example of making wine from fruits. This is usually a 3 hour class. I charge $20.00 for this class. Well, that’s what I do for my classes. Don Winemaker, Landlord, Woodworker, Adventurer
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