Make Your Own Wine

Making wine in your home is not tackled by those that are weak of heart or timid in starting a new and taxing enterprise.  Before stepping into this exacting, but interesting venture, a person with this desire should do a great deal of reading about the do's and don'ts of wine making.  One area of wine making that experts seem to agree upon is the way to get started as a novice wine maker.  Most suggest that the new wine maker start out with a wine making kit before tackling the making of wine from scratch, in other words before starting with a fresh batch of grapes.  The kits bypass the fresh grapes step of crushing the grapes to get the juice, as this grape juice is furnished in the kit in the form of concentrated juice from crushings that were done especially for the kits or from excess juice from a commercial wine maker.  This is important as it saves the new wine maker from having to invest in grape crushing equipment and the knowledge of how to do it correctly.  There are already enough difficult steps in the kit making technique that need to be done exactly right and as suggested in the kits.     

Wine Kit Technique

The wine kit technique bypasses the first step in wine making after growing the grapes, which is crushing the grapes to get their juice.  As mentioned before, the kits have the juice included as it is delivered in a concentrated form as part of the kit.  This cuts out the crushing of grapes to get the juice that is part of normal wine making.  This wine making kit includes most of the items listed in the equipment section of this article. 

There are numerous articles on the Net about wine making that show up when doing a search of the subject.  Read as many as you can before getting involved and spending the required money to do the project correctly.   

Equipment

Aside from the crushing equipment, most of this wine making equipment is part of a newcomer’s wine making kit, which includes the following items: 

A 7 gallon pail (26 litre) with a tight fitting lid with a hole in the center of the lid.  This is the plastic primary fermenter. 

The secondary fermenter is a 6 gallon (23 litre) glass carboy

The Air-lock and Rubber Bung will snugly fit the hole in the lid of the primary fermenter and the mouth of the secondary fermenter.  The wine maker fills the air-lock with water, which keeps airborne contaminants out of the fermenter and still lets the wine gases escape. 

A racking tube or siphon hose is included, which is a clear plastic 3/8 inch tube 6 feet long. 

Sterilization of equipment is critical and is accomplished by using the provided sulfite solution.  After sterilization, the equipment must be rinsed thoroughly with warm water.    

A long handle spoon that is about 2 feet long.

Measuring the specific gravity of the wine as it ferments is done to let the wine maker know when to proceed to the next step.  This is done with the provided Hydrometer and Test Jar. 

The correct yeast is provided for the wine making, as bread yeast cannot be used. 

Bentonite is provided in a brown powder that is blended into water and added to the wine to clarify the fermenting wine. 

Isinglass is provided in a gelatinous form and used as a clearing agent. 

Thirty bottles and corks are provided for bottling.  The bottles hold 750ml of liquid.  Since red wine is light sensitive, the suggestion is to use green bottles.

A corker can be borrowed or rented at bottling time, as casual use is hard to justify because of the cost. 

The above list is common to many wine making kits, but there can be variations in kits. 

Wine Grape Technique

This technique is for serious wine makers, as there are numerous steps that must be followed from finding the grapes to crushing them to using the juice to make the wine.  This is more complicated, and a new wine maker may need friends or relatives to help in many of the steps.

The steps mirror what a commercial wine maker may do in making wine from the grapes they have grown themselves.  Although the commercial wine maker is doing the wine making on a grander scale, the process in a person's home is exactly the same to come up with a good tasting wine.  Wine making must be carefully done step by step in order to get the desired result and end up with a great drinkable wine that is able to satisfy the wine connoisseur.  There are no short cuts when the wine maker elects to start with fresh grapes from the get go.  Not all potential wine makers have the needed patience or proper mental rigor to follow the steps to make a good wine.  There is also the investment in the fresh grapes and equipment that can be substantial depending on the amount of wine the maker wants to make for themselves and their helpful friends.  Without the proper commitment by the complete home wine maker, this is a path to a costly fiasco that should be put aside as a dream that maybe should be completely forgotten.  Dreaming about wine making and doing it are two completely different activities that should be considered carefully before attempting from fresh grapes.  The wine making kits are a better place for most novice wine makers to get their start and experience.  This activity should let a person know the price of doing this endeavor and let them see if they are willing to make a bigger commitment to the idea of wine making.