How To Make Wine At Home

Here is an article I wrote and submitted to various
directories a short time ago. Enjoy!

To make homemade wines with the recipes and ingredients
here all one needs is a gallon-size glass bottle, a
saucepan and a polyethylene pail. Make certain to use
polyethylene as some plastics are not suitable. Do not
use aluminum, copper, or enamel vessels to make your
homemade wine with.

Sterilization is mandatory for all utensils, bottles
and corks, especially corks. One should use commercialy
available plastic corks until you know how to properly
sterilize natural corks.

Ordinarily, baker's yeast and white granulated sugar
are used by the average homemade wine maker. A special
wine yeast and invert sugar makes the best wine
possible.

Wine yeast is capable of producing eighteen per cent of
alcohol by volume (32 proof), against the fourteen per
cent of bakers' yeast.

Starting what is called a 'nucleus ferment'or nutrient.
A small jar will do for this. About a 1/2 cup of water
and a teaspoonful of sugar are boiled together for a
minute and then allowed to cool. This is then put into
a sterilized jar and the yeast added in whatever form
it is obtained. Allow to set for 3 days covered with
plastic wrap and rubber band.

Preparing the fruit: Various types of wild yeast and
bacteria are on the fruit naturally and must be dealt
with. Our method, known as the 'sulphiting' method,
does this. For more detailed information on
"sulphiting" go to ==> Sulphiting A Must <==

How to make homemade wine:

Crush the fruit by hand in the poly pail and pour on
one quart of distilled water. Mix well. Crush one
campden tablet and dissolve the power in 1/2 cup of
warm water and mix with pulp. Leave the mixture for 1
or 2 hours. A little discoloring may happen. After
this, take 1/3 of the sugar to be used and boil this
for 1 minute in 3 pints of water. Allow this syrup to
cool and then stir into the pulp. Then add the yeast
(or nutrient) and ferment for 7 days.

After 7 days, strain the pulp through fine cloth and
wring out as dry as you can. Put the strained homemade
wine into a gallon jar and discard pulp. Then boil
another 1/3 of the sugar in one pint of water for 1
minute and when cooled add it to the rest. Plug the
neck of the jar with cotton wool or fit a fermentation
lock and continue to ferment the homemade wine in a
warm place for a further 10 days.

At this stage, pour the homemade wine into the poly
pail leaving as much deposit in the jar as you can.
Clean out the jar, sterilize it and return the homemade
wine to this. Boil the remaining 1/3 of the sugar for 1
minute in 1 pint of water. When this has cooled, add it
to the rest. Refit the lock or plug the neck of the jar
with fresh cotton wool.

After this, the homemade wine should be left in a warm
place until all fermentation has ceased.

Clearing: it is usual to have a brilliantly clear
homemade wine a month before fermentation has ceased so
patience is required here. After all fermentation has
ceased, siphon the clear homemade wine (if not yet
crystal clear) into another jar leaving the deposit
behind. Then when the homemade wine is finally crystal
clear it should be siphoned into bottles and corked.

To get the maximum alcohol and to get total
fermentation the ideal temperature at which to keep a
'must' is between 65-70 degrees F.

Fully ripe fruit is essential if we hope to make the
best homemade wine.

CHERRY WINE (A Delightful Sweet Wine): 8lb. black
cherries, 7pts. water, 3 1/2lb. sugar (or 4lb. invert),
all-purpose wine yeast or Bordeaux yeast, nutrient.

PLUM WINE (Port Style): Dark red, fully ripe fruits
must be used. 10lb. plums, 7pts. water, 3 1/2lb. sugar
(or 4lb. invert), port yeast, nutrient.

GRAPE WINE Homemade grape wine is much more difficult
and requires 20 pounds of grapes so unless you own a
vineyard it is not cost effective to make homemade
grape wine.

Summary: A summary of the foregoing is this: after
several batches you will get the rythm of making
homemade wine down to a tee. With further knowledge you
will be able to make homemade wines with a strength,
clarity, flavour and bouquet of which you will be
justly proud.

For a complete resource about homemade wine making
Go To => Wine Making Recipes <=