You think production wine at home is too difficult or need too much time or equipment? Then think again. As far as time is concerned, you will learn that most of the time is spent just... Waiting! Wine is the result of many complicated chemical and biological reactions. In this regard, it is like a living entity. Like any living entity, it takes time to grow up, develop, and accomplish its full potential. All this happens without your intervention. Your role is only to originate the right conditions at the right moment, and this takes very miniature time over the whole policy of the winemaking process.
Regarding equipment, you can get started with only:
Bottle Wine Cooler
- Two 5-gallon buckets
- A lid with an airlock (one is enough)
- Some pipe or hose to exchange from one pail to the other
- 4 Campden tablets, or equivalent (sulfites)
- Some bakers yeast (more specialized yeasts for wine production can be used, but this is a topic that will be covered in supplementary articles)
- A wine stabilizer (most common is Potassium Sorbate, available online or in a specialized wine shop)
- A sanitizing goods (for food-related use)
- If you want to bottle your wine, a corker, plus some corks and bottles (otherwise it can also be kept in any hermetically terminated container)
manufacture Homemade Wine For Beginners
Last but not least, you need the raw material, that is to say the fruit juice from which you are going to originate your wine. Traditionally, the term "wine" refers to wine made from grapes. However, many fruit juices can also make appetizing wines, like cranberry juice, cherry juice... Grape juice is any way the most common and easiest to find. Be particular any way to get juice without added preservatives, as these will forestall fermentation.
Now, here is the step-by-step process to make your first batch of wine.
Clean and sterilize the buckets and all the tool in sense with the wine, using the sanitizing product. Rinse well. Put your juice into one of the buckets.
Dissolve the 4 Campden tablets in the juice. This will forestall unwanted bacteria development. Wait a full night.
The day after, you can add the yeast. First, dissolve the yeast in a small quantity of warm water, wait 15 minutes and then pour it into the juice.
Cover the pail with a cloth towel, or your lid. The airlock is not principal at this stage since the fermentation process releases abundant Co2, which protects the juice from oxidation from the surrounding air.
Wait 7 days. While this time, you will see abundant performance and gas release.
Then, exchange the wine to the second bucket. While this operation, you should be particular not to exchange the gunk lying at the lowest of the first bucket. This gunk is in general made of dead yeast, and it is safer to remove it in order to avoid undesired bad flavor in the wine.
In the new bucket, a secondary fermentation will take place, albeit much less spectacular. It is much slower and does not release principal Co2, so that you should now place the airlock to safe the wine.
This time, wait one month. As I told you, waiting constitutes the major part of the process! Resist the temptation to taste the wine right now, and remember it is still not finished.
After one month, you should repeat the same execution and exchange back the wine into the first - clean - bucket. In the same manner, try to leave most of the gunk at the bottom.
You should now add your stabilizer, in order to block any hereafter fermentation and get a stable wine.
Now your wine is "biologically" finished, but it still needs to be cleared. This is done, again, by... Waiting another month. The wine will clear itself naturally, by easy gravity. All impurities will just slowly fall at the lowest of the bucket. Sure, a cloudy wine could still be bottled, but if you wait, you will get a crystal clear wine, with more pleasant and neater flavors.
Here you are! Now you can proudly bottle your wine, after cleaning and sanitizing the bottles. A small quantity of Campden tablets or sulfites can be added at this stage to safe the wine from oxidation and supplementary stabilize it.
If you prefer to keep it in a container, you can, provided it is perfectly closed. In this case, you will need to exchange the wine (still leaving the gunk at the lowest of the first bucket) into a box fitted with a tap. This will allow you to drink your wine without having to open the box and expose the wine to oxygen.
Finally, remember the wine will taste much good after aging at least 6 to 9 months. Aging in the box is potential too, provided you are very particular about hermeticity and leave a enough quantity inside.
I hope you have a great time tasting your first homemade wine!
manufacture Homemade Wine For Beginners