Making Homemade Wine
73Forget the Moonshine, that is so old school. The new hip thing to do is to make your own wine. Homemade wine has made a comeback in the past few years and tastes much better than Moonshine, is legal to make and won't hurt you by just drinking it in moderation. Personally, I LOVE it if it is made correctly with the right balance of fruit, flavor and sugar. Also, many homemade wine is sulfate free...which is great for not getting hangovers!
So to start you on your amazingly tasty wine brewing experience, you will need some basic equipment. The following is the short and necessary list:
- A plastic water bottle or glass jug (unscratched on the inside)
- Rubber stopper (#8 or #9)
- Airlock (balloon, pvc pipe, or commercial airlock)
- Stirrer small enough to fit through opening of bottle
- Funnel
- Turkey Baster
- Old wine bottles (for final product, sterilized)
- Siphon (vinyl tubing)
- Sanitizer (bleach or other recommended alternatives)
- Now comes the fun part, choosing what flavor wine you are going to make! You are going to need as much juice of the fruit you choose for the size of your container. So if you have a 10 gallon container, you need 10 gallons of juice. You can get your juice in two ways.
- Buying juice from the store (make sure it does not contain additives other than vitamin C.
- Making your own juice from the raw fruit (a different process in itself)
Many places have juice just for the purpose of making wine or you can go to your local grocery store and find your favorites.
2. Sugar (what type and amount will determine flavors)
3. Yeast (care must be used in choosing your yeast)
4. Chemicals (many of these you must be careful of allergies!)
- Potassium Sorbate
- Sodium/Potassium Metabisulfite
- Yeast Nutrient
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Step One
Gather your ingredients and equipment that is called for in the recipe
Step Two
SANITIZE PROPERLY! This cannot be stressed enough and must be done often and carefully. You will quickly ruin a batch of wine without following this step properly. I cannot stress how important sanitizing is so just trust that you will quickly be dumping all your hard work if you do not do this properly.
Step Three
Find and follow
the recipe you want to use. Follow the instructions according to the
recipe and soon enough you will understand the process enough to make
your own recipes.
Step Four
Wait. While you are waiting you might want to think about what to call your wine. You can order or make your own personalized wine labels to place on your finished bottles. This can be a lot of fun, especially if you are giving your wine as a gift.
Step Five
Drink and enjoy. If you have followed your wine recipe then your wine is ready for consumption now. Please be aware that you are making a potent alcoholic drink, ranging from 12%-15%, so care must be taken when indulging. DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!
Thank you.
Making Homemade Wine - The Video
Below is a video that shows how to make homemade wine from store bought grape juice. Enjoy!
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This would be a great hobby to start. I might have to give it a try when I get a chance...
A great hobby and yummy too...there are sooo many flavors you can make! Much more than your typical grape wine.
I've tried making my own beer before but haven't tried wine, I'll definitely have to give it a go.
Manifik! Very well-written.
I remember in Scotland we had family friends he was a senior minister in the Church and made amazing fruit wine - definitly alcholic- we were allowed it as kids - I remember sleeping very well on visits there - maybe that was the point!
Mireille - I believe if countries like the US and increasingly Australia got rid of this stupid "thou shalt not drink" stuff for kids there would be lot less teenage binge drinking - if drinking is part of a family meal you learn how to cope with it!
Wow nice hub. I do love me some wine, esp. a nice easy red with dinner. It just never occurred ot me that I could make my own.
I was introduced to homemade wine by my late father. He made amazing wine, and from a juice concentrate!
Mmmm, home-made wine. Sounds great! I think Step 5 (drink and enjoy) is the one I'll be best at!
Great hub
Going to start this hobby very soon! I've got strawberries, cherries, and rhubarb I've harvested in the freezer waiting. Should be lots of 'experiments' and fun!
Excellent hub, and include me in the "had a bit of wine now and then as a child" club. Better children learn to drink and treat alcohol responsible guided by their parents then are forbidden all alcohol until the age of 18 and then let loose! SY
Great tutorial. Of course, there will be some trial and error before you make a wine that you truly enjoy.
Good information and will have to try it!
Mireille G 2 years ago
With the way things are going today I need a glass of that stuff. When I was a kid my grandfather made wine for the household for the whole year. We did not make it for sale, just for the family but it was a really fun time we all took turn to crush the grapes. We did not start from juice! we had to make the juice. The first wine (before it aged) was called claret and was always a little tangy. We could only get a little of that because we had to let it age.
Supposedly this kind of wine could not make you sick even if you drank too much, which of course as a kid I could not have done. So I don't know if it is true.
Don't be shocked to read that I had wine as a child, I grew up in France where every kid has tasted wine and has water with a little wine diluted in it frequently. It did not hurt me, nor did it make me an alcoholic.