You can make homemade wine from almost anything, fruit, vegetables, grain, even oak leaves. This is something which is going to take a while, the wine you enjoy drinking takes months or years to become acceptable and homemade wine is no exception, so be prepared.
To get started you will need:
- 2 gallon plastic bucket with securely fitting lid
- 2. Demijohn’s ( glass jars for fermentation )
- Rubber bung and airlock to fit the demijohn
- Rubber bung (without hole)
- Mesh bag for straining (a pair of ladies tights would work)
- Funnel
- Clear plastic tube
- Wine bottles with corks
- Bottle brush
For your wine you’ll also need:
- Fruit. Fresh or frozen
- Water
- Yeast. Used during fermentation to turn the sugar to alcohol
- Pectin Enzyme. Makes more juice and adds colour
- Grape tannin
- Sugar. Needed by the yeast
- Yeast nutrient. Gives the yeast energy to work harder
- Campden Tablet. Used before fermentation and bottling
Now you can really start with ‘how to make homemade wine’.
Firstly make sure you wash everything, get rid of any insects, rotten grapes and stems and sterilise all the equipment.
The next step in ‘how to make homemade wine’ is to extract the flavour from the grapes by chopping, or pressing creating the ‘Must’. You could do it the old fashioned way with your feet, but if you do you must sterilise them first!
You can then move on to blending the additives and adding them to the must in the plastic bucket. Fermentation can begin! Usually this part of the process of ‘how to make homemade wine’ can take anything between 3 and 10 days.
Once the initial fermentation process has finished, you will notice there isn’t much activity in you bucket; strain the must and then using your funnel pour the wine into the demijohn. When it’s all in, fit the plastic bung and airlock and leave for several weeks.
When you notice that the air is no longer passing through the lock you can ‘Rack’ your wine. Using your plastic tube siphon the liquid into the second demijohn leaving the sediment. You will need to do this several times until the wine clears.
You are nearly there – when the wine is clear you can bottle it. Using the siphoning tube fill the bottles and fit the corks. Store the wine upright for about three days and then it can be turned on its side for at least six months for white and one year for red before you try it. That’s it; your homemade wine is finished.
If you follow the instructions of ‘how to make homemade wine’ it should be very rewarding and you will be able to drink it with pride, or if you’ve not made it correctly use it as battery acid for your car. ;-)
Visit these boutique wineries to grow your knowledge of boutique wine and boutique wineries:
