Dehydrating Wine?

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Juxtapose

"aka Shannon" - Mom, Artist & Crafter
Joined
Feb 22, 2023
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Location
San Diego, CA
I want to make some CP wine soap.
But I want to do it with powdered wine.

Anyone ever dehydrate wine? :D

Only a slightly mad experiment.
But when I found someone online that does their goat's milk soap from powdered, it got me thinking.

Whatcha think? Am I crazy or what?

Shannon
 
I make wine soap (3 varietals plus a cider soap for a local winery). I just simmer off the alcohol. Why take the extra step to dehydrate when you're going to rehydrate it anyway. I also use goat milk and buttermilk, not the powder. I use equal amounts of lye and water then add an equal amount of whatever liquid (wine, cider, milk) to my oils.

20230319_095426_HDR.jpg
 
I make wine soap (3 varietals plus a cider soap for a local winery). I just simmer off the alcohol. Why take the extra step to dehydrate when you're going to rehydrate it anyway. I also use goat milk and buttermilk, not the powder. I use equal amounts of lye and water then add an equal amount of whatever liquid (wine, cider, milk) to my oils.

View attachment 71427
Love these. 😍

Do you happen to have or could point me to a good recipe? I’d love to make a batch for my wine making friends.

Shannon
 
I want to make some CP wine soap.
But I want to do it with powdered wine.

Anyone ever dehydrate wine? :D

Only a slightly mad experiment.
But when I found someone online that does their goat's milk soap from powdered, it got me thinking.

Whatcha think? Am I crazy or what?

Shannon
I make hot process soap and prefer powders overall. Pine rosin, beer, honey and wine I like adding as powders after the cook or in oils before lye. I found some nice wine powder online
 
Why just half? Why not all wine?
I've done all wine before but if there's any alcohol left in the wine, it will volcano (had that happen a coupe of times) when you add the lye. Now, I do a split; I dissolve the lye in water (equal amounts lye and water) and add the remainder (wine) to the oils just before adding the lye.
 
You could cook down the wine on the stove to concentrate it; that way you don't have to replace too much water.

Another thought:
My brother once made homemade fruit leather for camping by spreading it on a baking sheet and doing it in the oven, low and REALLY slow. I'm not sure if that would work with the wine concentrate. The problem I'm thinking of, is that wine is predominantly water, without anything else like pulp or starches that would thicken it up to be able to dry-out enough to actually be able to powder.
 
If you replace the water with wine, you can remove most of the alcohol be bringing the wine to a boil in an open top container then turn the heat to low and let evaporation to occure. Water alcohol is an azeotrope that means you can’t just boil it to separate the alcohol from the water. To do that you reduce the wine volume by half then add back water to the original volume, and repeat the reduction to one half. If you do that twice you will remove just about all of the alcohol. The little remaining once you return to the original volume will not be a problem in making your soap. I’ve use this method for a high concentration wine that was fortified and I had no volcano on the CP soap I made. I hope this helps.
 
You could cook down the wine on the stove to concentrate it; that way you don't have to replace too much water.

Another thought:
My brother once made homemade fruit leather for camping by spreading it on a baking sheet and doing it in the oven, low and REALLY slow. I'm not sure if that would work with the wine concentrate. The problem I'm thinking of, is that wine is predominantly water, without anything else like pulp or starches that would thicken it up to be able to dry-out enough to actually be able to powder.
I did similar to this with soup stock. I cooked it down until it was a syrup, spread it on parchment and put it in the dehydrator, later grinding it up in a coffee grinder. So now I have my own homemade bullion powder. It took days in the dehydrator. I don't know if it is worth that much work to do for wine when you can simply just use wine as a water alternative. But it might be good as a colorant!

edit: I forgot. After I ground it up and let it sit in a covered jar for a few days, I felt like it still had too much moisture, so I spread the powder out on parchment again and dried the powder longer. I do this second step when I powder mushrooms too.

I didn't come up with all of this on my own lol. I watched a yt video on dehydrators and she had a series on powders and making your own bullion powder out of soup stock. I make my own stock and can it in quart jars, so it was a cheap experiment for me. But it worked!
 
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I reduce wine/beer down to a syrup consistency and add it near trace.
That way all the alcohol is cooked off, you won't have to mix lye with the booze and you are getting a concentrated amount in your recipe.
Generally I'll reduce a bottle down to about 2 oz, just be careful not to burn it
 
If you replace the water with wine, you can remove most of the alcohol be bringing the wine to a boil in an open top container then turn the heat to low and let evaporation to occure. Water alcohol is an azeotrope that means you can’t just boil it to separate the alcohol from the water. To do that you reduce the wine volume by half then add back water to the original volume, and repeat the reduction to one half. If you do that twice you will remove just about all of the alcohol. The little remaining once you return to the original volume will not be a problem in making your soap. I’ve use this method for a high concentration wine that was fortified and I had no volcano on the CP soap I made. I hope this helps.
@Dan9250 I’m just researching how best to use wine in soap and came across your post. Very interesting! I boiled down my wine once and was ready to soap, but now will follow your process. (It’s -36C Here today so I won’t have a problem chilling it after the second reduction!🥶)
 
I did similar to this with soup stock. I cooked it down until it was a syrup, spread it on parchment and put it in the dehydrator, later grinding it up in a coffee grinder. So now I have my own homemade bullion powder. It took days in the dehydrator. I don't know if it is worth that much work to do for wine when you can simply just use wine as a water alternative. But it might be good as a colorant!

edit: I forgot. After I ground it up and let it sit in a covered jar for a few days, I felt like it still had too much moisture, so I spread the powder out on parchment again and dried the powder longer. I do this second step when I powder mushrooms too.

I didn't come up with all of this on my own lol. I watched a yt video on dehydrators and she had a series on powders and making your own bullion powder out of soup stock. I make my own stock and can it in quart jars, so it was a cheap experiment for me. But it worked!
The trouble is I think once it takes days in a dehydrator and the small amount one ends up with I do not find it very cost effective. Knorr liquid bullion is so good and highly concentrated that I find it much easier to buy. Even in my Excalibur dehydrator which dries quicker than most dehydrators, it would not be very cost-effective plus the energy spent to cook down the bone broth before.

As for the OP, I always boiled down my wine and beer, even chilling before using it. I had a horrible volcano once even after thinking a craft beer had been boiled enough to cook off the alcohol. It ruined the finish on my cabinet and believe me, my husband never let me forget it, until the day we sold the house, about 12 yrs later. I will add that over the years I went to the 50/50 method and just added the cooked-off wine or beer to my oils and used 50% lye solution when making beer or wine soap, much safer.
 
I want to make some CP wine soap.
But I want to do it with powdered wine.

Anyone ever dehydrate wine? :D

Only a slightly mad experiment.
But when I found someone online that does their goat's milk soap from powdered, it got me thinking.

Whatcha think Wein? Am I crazy or what?

Shannon
I still don't see how this is possible, but Katadyn is selling packets of dehydrated wine from one of their subsidiary companies' websites and it's only available in select countries in Europe. They claim it is 8.2% alcohol, but how would you dehydrate alcohol??? Is there a small shot that you add after you reconstitute the powder???
 
I am wanting to purchase a freeze dryer, and freeze drying wine is a great idea! There won't be any alcohol as once it's gone, it's gone...you can always add everclear, lol...also want to freeze dry vinegar...will let everyone know what and when I start freeze drying!
 

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