Home Winemaking Secrets 101 - Make Great Wine From Home

The simplest way to make wine at home is from a kit that comes with instructions and is usually made with something along the lines of grape juice concentrate. The second way to make homemade winie is to do it step by step from scratch.

Making wine from scratch is a lot more rewarding. And although wine making at home without using a kit is more involved and is more difficult the results are much better as you have total control of the type of wine you make, how it tastes, and the quality of the wine overall. If you are looking to create wine cheaply and quickly and are not too concerned about the end result then a wine making kit will be acceptable to you. To start the wine making process continue reading.

Although most people think of grapes when they think of making wine you can actually use any fruit to make wine.

To make wine at home you will need---

#Glass jugs used to ferment and store the fruit juice. You can get containers used for this purpose from a brewing shop.
#Container to store fruit juice mixture in
#Something to squeeze or press the fruit with. The easiest way is to use an electric juicer.
#Plastic tube for siphoning purposes.
#You will also need something to clean your equipment. You can either use boiling water or sterilizing solutions or tablets.
#Yeast (super market)
#Sugar (grocery store)


[1] Get the juice ready
Press the fruit you are going to use to make your home wine either using a hand press or the electric juicer. You will want enough juice to fill the jugs you are using. Often a winemaking recipe will recommend watering down your juice to get the volume you need. Do not do this.

Use your creativity. It is quite acceptable to mix the juice from different variations of fruits together to make your own unique blend of wine. In the beginning if you are new to home wine brewing you may not feel comfortable with this. You can follow a step-by-step recipe.

Time for step #2 - add your sugar
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.
Very sweet juices will not need the addition of sugar to the recipe. The main purpose of the sugar is that of fermentation or the production of alcohol. Fruits that are naturally sweetened like grapes, for example will not need the inclusion of sugar. If you decide to add sugar generally speaking add anywhere between 1 - 2 pounds of sugar per 1 gallon of fruit juice (less for a dry wine and more for a sweeter home made wine). Remember the more sugar you use the higher the alcohol content will be of the wine when you are done.

One thing you can do if you like to experiment is make several different batches of the same wine changing the volume of sugar that you use in each batch so if you have a 4 jugs for example you might use a different amount of sugar for each vessel paying attention too how the different wine batches turn out. You can also experient with different fruit combinations. Over time you will be able to manufacture your own personal brand of wine that no one else has.

Step #3 - Add yeast
Make sure your glass containers are sterilized with the sterilizing solution or tablets or boiling water. 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 for a few 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.

Step number four to making your own homemade wine - the most important step, patience
Put your fermentation vessels (the glass jugs with the sugar wine yeast mixture) in a warm place generally speaking between 70 and 85F. For the best results you want to let your wine ferment for at least six months. For best results up to a year. If you do not exercise patience with this step you will not be happy with the results.

As your wine begins fermenting you will notice 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 deal with 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.

Check on your wine every 15 or so days in the beginning. Depending upon how much this dead yeast is accumulating you may want to siphon the wine a little more or less frequently than once a month.

Bottling your wine
Place the wine in a cold place for one to two weeks 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

When making your wine you want to keep accurate records of the exact techniques, ingredients, and methods you use to make each batch of wine. So if 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 2 years. Take half the batches of wine you have made and rack them and enjoy the other half now.