Chapter 259: Author Note 11/10: Open with FAST PASS

Some of you asked me to tellyou when I start my new book, so here it is:

NetherSky by Maomii

If anyone had asked Xao Yuning, the richest young master in Z City, if he was happy with how his life was going right now, he would have smiled shyly and nodded.

It was a shame that this happiness and life was ended by a piano. Luckily he didn't stay dead; somehow, by a twist of fate, he was transmigrated into the broken body of a boy who shared his name…

A boy who lived in the distant future of 2525… A boy who is unable to speak a word…A boy who had no income to his name… A boy who has a younger sister depending on him… A boy who has only a year to live...

Xao Yuning couldn't understand how his life became like this, but that didn't mean he would give up. He will find a way to save this new life of his, by any means possible.

'What?! You can make good money from playing a virtual game called Nethersky? This young master has played a computer game called that in his old life…wait, it's the same game?!'

It is a VRMMO novel but It won't be similar to Haven i.e no farming/bl in this book. If the summary piques your interest please do search it up.

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Don't read just need to make it 1k words

In theory, making wine is very simple. Yeast meets grape juice in an environment that allows fermentation. Just nature being nature. No doubt wine was first discovered by happy accident thousands of years ago: Natural yeasts, blowing in the wind, settled down upon a bunch of squashed grapes, whose juice was pooling in the shaded bowl of a rock; soon after, some lucky passerby stops and stoops down for a taste...and likes what she's discovered.

From there, the process of winemaking will be refined, as you can imagine, and the environment carefully controlled, to the point where winemaking becomes both science and art.

And DIY home winemaking? Well, it probably falls somewhere between the curious stone-age wanderer and the modern vintner who applies artful science to the process. Let's take a look.

Red wine and carafe | Photo by Meredith

How to Make Homemade Wine

Winemaking at home requires several pieces of inexpensive equipment, serious cleanliness, and a mess of patience. Turns out, Tom Petty was right: "The waiting is the hardest part."

Equipment Checklist:

One 4-gallon food-grade-quality plastic bucket and lid to serve as the primary fermentation vat

Three 1-gallon glass jugs to use as secondary fermentation containers

A funnel that fits into the mouth of the glass bottles

Three airlocks (fermentation traps)

A rubber cork (or bung) to fit into the secondary fermentation container

Large straining bag of nylon mesh

About 6 feet of clear half-inch plastic tubing

About 20 wine bottles (you'll need 5 bottles per gallon of wine)

Number 9-size, pre-sanitized corks

Hand corker (ask about renting these from the wine supply store)

A Hydrometer to measure sugar levels

Ingredient Checklist:

Lots and lots of wine grapes

Granulated sugar

Filtered water

Wine yeast

To the above basic list you can refine the process by adding such things as Campden tablets to help prevent oxidation, yeast nutrients, enzymes, tannins, acids, and other fancy ingredients to better control your wine production.

Making Wine

Part 1

Ensure your equipment is thoroughly sterilized and then rinsed clean. (Ask at the wine supply store about special detergents, bleaches, etc.). It's best to clean and rinse your equipment immediately before using.

Select your grapes, tossing out rotten or peculiar-looking grapes.

Wash your grapes thoroughly.

Remove the stems.

Crush the grapes to release the juice (called "must") into the primary fermentation container. Your hands will work here as well as anything. Or go old school and stomp with your feet. If you're making a lot of wine, you might look into renting a fruit press from a wine supply store.

Add wine yeast.

Insert the hydrometer into the must. If it reads less than 1.010, consider adding sugar. If you're adding sugar, first dissolve granulated sugar in pure filtered water (adding sugar helps boost low alcohol levels). Stir the must thoroughly.

Cover primary fermentation bucket with cloth; allow must to ferment for one week to 10 days. Over the course of days, fermentation will cause a froth to develop on top and sediment to fall to the bottom.

Part 2

Gently strain the liquid to remove the sediment and froth.

Run the juice through a funnel into sanitized glass secondary fermentation containers. Fill to the top to reduce the amount of air reaching the wine.

Fit the containers with airlocks.

Allow the juice to ferment for several weeks.

Use the plastic tube to siphon the wine into clean glass secondary fermentation containers. Again, the purpose here is to separate the wine from sediment that forms as the wine ferments.

Continue to siphon the wine off the sediment periodically (this is called "racking") for 2 or 3 months until the wine is running clear.

Part 3

Run the wine into bottles (using the cleaned plastic tubing), leaving space for the cork plus about a half inch or so of extra room.

Insert corks.

Store the wine upright for the first three days.

After three days, store the wine on its side at, ideally, 55 degrees F. For red wine, age for at least 1 year. White wine can be ready to drink after only 6 months.

Enjoy!

Wine Recipes

Here's a recipe for making wine that calls for frozen juice concentrate -- and another that turns pesky dandelions into a tasty beverage.

Homemade Wine

Dandelion Wine

The Best Wine and Food Pairings:

Discover the best recipes to pair with Cabernet Sauvignon.

These 12 recipes go gaga for Pinot Grigio.

Here are the best recipes to pair with Chardonnay.

Find the right wines to Pair with Appetizers.

These simple recipes prove that Champagne Pairs with Almost Everything.