Making homemade wine is great fun and not as hard as you might think.
Most people are familiar with the idea of making their own beer as a hobby but did you know it’s also quite easy to make wine?
While it’s generally understood that wine is made from grapes, it’s also possible to make some wonderful varieties of wine from other fruits, vegetables and grains.
This gives you a huge scope for experimentation for flavors and blends that suit your own individual tastes.
When you’re first learning how to make your own wine it’s important to learn a bit about the basic stages of flavor extraction and fermentation. Correct bottling procedures and adequate aging are also required in order to complete your home made wine making venture. Some types of wines can take days or weeks to create while others may take months or even years to develop into the fine drinking wine you expect.
Before you begin making homemade wine you should look into some of the equipment you’ll need as well as some the basic ingredients.
Making Homemade wine
Basic Equipment
Most of the basic equipment you need to make home made wine can be found in kit form at specialty winemaking stores and some of the larger online stores.
For example you can find quality kits and Wine Making Equipment on Amazon
- Plastic bucket or container with secure lid
- Large Nylon mesh bag for straining
- Funnel
- Fermenting container with bung and airlock
- Plastic tubing
- Wine Bottles
- Hand corking machine
- Bottle brush for cleaning
- Hydrometer to measure sugar content
If you intend to make your wine from fresh grapes or if you want to experiment with more creative recipes, then you may require some of the following:
- Grape Press
- Juice Extractor
- Thermometer
Ingredients
Once you have your basic equipment prepared it’s time to consider the ingredients you will need to make your own wine. Of course you’ll need the initial fruit from which you’ll be extracting juices and flavors, but there are some other things you might need to add to your wine.
These can include:
- Wine yeast
- Yeast nutrient
- Grape tannin
- Campden tablets
- Pectic enzyme
- Acid blend
- Water
- Sugar
- Potassium Sorbate
Depending on the homemade wine recipe and the type of wine you choose to make, you could potentially require a few more ingredients. It’s always best to double check your recipe so you will be adequately prepared before you begin.
Step One: Your Homemade Wine Recipes
If this is your first attempt at making home made wine then try to choose a simple recipe and stick with grape wine to begin with. You’ll find it easier to judge your own results as you should already have an idea of how grape wines should taste and it’s easy to find grapes or grape concentrate for your recipes.
If you choose to use real grapes for your recipe it’s important to be sure you inspect your grapes properly. Be sure you don’t have any that are rotting or beginning to discolor.
Step Two: Sterilization
It’s vital that you use all sterilized equipment for your winemaking. While it is possible to sterilize your bottles and equipment using boiling water, you should consider using perhaps some of the products suitable for sterilizing baby bottles.
Step Three: Flavor Extraction
Making wine goes a little deeper than simply squeezing grape juice into a bottle. You have the option of extracting different aspects of the flavor by either boiling, crushing or cutting your fruit. You can press the grapes to help give off different aromas and palettes or you can soak them to intensify other flavors. This extraction is called the “must”. It’s important you follow the recipe carefully at this point.
Step Four: Additives
In your fermentation container you’ll need to blend some additives to your grape extract “must”. The additives you introduce to your wine are necessary to help add flavor and to help with the shelf life of your wine.
You will need to add a Campden tablet to help prevent oxidation of wild yeast when you’re trying to promote the growth of cultured yeast. Some recipes will require the addition of a pectic enzyme to help promote flavor and assist in the acid extraction. Sugar and yeast are also added to produce the alcohol content.
Step Five: Fermentation
While you should leave your initial mix in the primary fermentation container for a few days, you’ll need to transfer your wine into a glass container for fermentation.
Strain your wine and pour the liquid into this glass container. You’ll need to fit your container with a fermentation trap, or an ‘airlock’, and then leave your wine to ferment for a further few weeks.
After this time, you’ll need to siphon your wine off the sediments and move this liquid into a secondary fermentation container. Depending on the recipe and the base fruit you’re using this may need to be done more than once over the duration.
Step Six: Bottling
When your wine is clear it’s time to bottle your efforts. Simply transfer your wine into sterilized bottles using a length of clear plastic pipe. Avoid filling your bottles all the way to the top and be sure your corks are secured properly and tightly.
If you’ve created a white wine then you should age your wine for a minimum of 6 months before taste testing your creation. If you’ve created a red wine you should wait at least a year before sampling.
If you have created home made wine, or have some homemade wine recipes that you would like to share with others?. We would also love to know your thoughts on our recipes! Please feel free to share them.
