I made wine

Making wine has been on my to-do list for a long time. Especially after I discovered there's a place in town that would allow me to do it as part of a group. There was no way I was going to purchase all the equipment and supplies. I'll let someone else do that and just let me use their stuff.

Fortunately for me, my friend, Savannah, decided she wanted to make wine to celebrate her birthday. I was all too happy to oblige. In January, we went to Vines to Wines, which is located near downtown Des Moines. Admittedly, it was a little weird to go into the basement of a random house, but Savvy and I had been there before for a wine tour, so we were prepared. And, once you realize it's not as creepy as it seems, it's a pretty neat concept. For $45 each, we got to help make a batch of wine. And we'd get to keep three bottles each.

Completed wines fermenting and some bottles for purchase.

We had chosen to make an Argentinian Malbec. The owner had already sanitized all our equipment, which is key, and it was nice to be able to skip that part. Then we added the ingredients in the bucket (more commonly known as a car boy) -- water, yeast, and juice bag. Our particular kit also included grape skins. Mmm.

Once this was all well-mixed, we closed up the car boy and left it with the owner for a few months to ferment.

We returned in mid-March to bottle our wine and bring home our treasures.

Now, is the hard part. Waiting. The wine won't be ready to drink until February 2019.

It was a really fun experience, and I'd definitely do it again. I might have to scan Vines to Wines' events calendar and find another wine I want to make.