Wine Making At Home - How To Make Your Own Wine At Home
Making wine from home is actually easier than you think and it is quite fun to do.
Here are 2 ways to make wine at home. The simplest way is from a kit that includes a wine making tutorial and is usually made with something along the lines of grape concentrate. The other way is to do it step by step from scratch. This method is much more satisfying. And although wine making at home step by step takes longer and is more difficult the results are much better as you have total control of the the finished product. If you are prefer to make wine cheaply and quickly and are not too concerned about the end result then a wine making kit will be good enough. To start the wine making process continue reading.
When making wine from home there is no reason to limit yourself to using just grapes. You can literally use just about any fruit in the world.
Here are the supplies you will need to make your very own fine wine.
'Container to store fruit juice mixture in
'A fruit press of some sort to extract the juice from the fruit.
'A glass vessel that will be used to ferment and store the fruit juice. You can get containers used for this purpose from a brewing shop.
'Plastic tube.
'Yeast
'Sugar (grocery store)
'Sterilizing solution
First step in home wine making
Press the fruit to extract the juice. You will want enough juice to fill the glass jugs you are using.
Frequently a wine making instructions will recommend watering down your juice to get the volume you need. If you want the absolute best results do not do this as this will cut down on the flavor of the end product.
Do not be afraid to get creative. It is fine to mix the juice from several different types of fruits together to make your own unique blend of wine. In the beginning if you are a beginner to making wine from home you may not want to experiment. You can follow a step-by-step recipe. An great website for literally hundreds of winemaking recipes as well as supplies (where to get wine making supplies free) and other making wine from home instructions is the home winemakers inner circle.
Next step...add the sugar
If you are already using a very sweet fuit like ripe grapes you may not want to add sugar. The reason why we add sugar is the sugar gets converted into alcohol. Fruits that are already sweetened like grapes will not need the addition of sugar. If you decide to add sugar generally speaking add anywhere between 1 - 2 pounds of sugar per 1 gallon fruit juice (use less for a dry wine).
If you are in an experimentive mood try several different batches of the same wine changing up the sugar amount that you use in each batch so if you have a five glass vessels for example use a different amount of sugar for each vessel making note of how each batch comes out. You can also experiment with different fruit combinations. Over time you will be able to manufacture your own personal brand of wine that no one else has. Remember the more sugar you use the higher the alcohol content will be of the wine when you are finished.
Add the sugar to the fruit juice by warming the fruit juice in a pot stirring in the sugar. This will guarantee complete and even mixing of the sugar.
Step number three to making wine from home - add the yeast
Make sure your glass jugs are sterilized with sterilizing solution, boiling water, or the sterilizing tablets. Put the sugared fruit juice into the glass vessel. Add the powdered yeast and a little warm water and sugar into a cup to dissolve it. Leave it to set for a couple of minutes. This will cause the yeast to start becoming active. Add the yeast to the fruit juice mixture. Put your airtight lid on top. The yeast will convert the sugar into alcohol as your wine ferments.
The most important step #4 - patience
Put your fermentation vessels (the glass jugs with the sugar wine yeast mixture) in a warm place generally speaking between 70 and 85 F. Let your homemade wine ferment for up to a year. For best results up to a year. For best results patience is necessary here.
For many people this waiting part is the most difficult step as they are wanting to to drink their own homemade wine.
As your wine begins fermenting you should see the accumulation of dead yeast cells on the bottom of the glass jug. Leaving this dead yeast in the wine mixture will affect the taste quality negatively. The way to handle this is once every 30 days siphon the wine out into a new glass vessel making sure not to siphon the dead yeast from the bottom of the original glass vessels.
Check on your wine every few weeks. Depending upon how much this dead yeast is building up you may want to siphon the wine a more or less often.
Step #5 - Bottling your wine
Place the wine in a cold place for 10-15 days however make sure you do not freeze it. A temperature from 40-50 degrees is perfect. This improves the wines clarity making it have a nicer taste. Bottle the wine and cork it. Wine bottle labels can be purchased online fairly inexpensively
Do not forget to keep accurate records of the the exact recipes you use to make each batch of wine. This way when you make a superb batch of wine you will have the exact recipe for that and you can replicate it for years to come.
You could also let your wine sit on a rack for a year or more. Take half the batches of wine you have made and rack them and enjoy the other half now.