Making wine is actually pretty idiot proof, with the right stuff, equipment, and sanitizing again and again.
In this Instructable, you'll learn how to make fruit wines, including grape wines. This instructable will focus on the techniques, equipment and materials, rather than recipes.
You'll need to procure some equipment and some chemicals but don't worry. Most of it will last many batches with the proper cleaning and maintaining.
EDIT: Wow. 200k views! Never thought I'd actually get this many. I will be preparing another batch before too long, so I'll try to include some more photos.
In this Instructable, you'll learn how to make fruit wines, including grape wines. This instructable will focus on the techniques, equipment and materials, rather than recipes.
You'll need to procure some equipment and some chemicals but don't worry. Most of it will last many batches with the proper cleaning and maintaining.
EDIT: Wow. 200k views! Never thought I'd actually get this many. I will be preparing another batch before too long, so I'll try to include some more photos.
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Signing UpStep 1: Legality and Warning
Winemaking, also known as Homebrewing, is completely legal in the US and many other places. As follows is what I KNOW is legal in the US(1):
1. You can make up to 100 gallons by yourself or 200 max, if you live with other people, annually.
2. You may not sale your homebrew.
3. You must be 21 or legal drinking age to make and drink your homebrew. *
4. You may not distill spirits.
5. You may share and taste homebrewed beverages
*Technically it is 18, but you'd 99% of the time be seeking to consume or possess alcohol, which is illegal.
Since you are producing substance that kills more people a year than most forms of cancer, you will need to treat alcoholic beverages with the respect they command.
1. Do not drink and drive.
2. Do not drink while pregnant.
3. Do not drink if you suffer from liver, heart failure, or anything else just about.
4. Consult your doctor if you are unsure how alcohol will interact with any drugs you are taking.
Home wine making is not making moonshine. It will not cause you any more harm than consuming alcohol does. You will have few, if any, methyl alcohols that cause blindness. You would die from alcohol poisoning long before having to worry about this.
Additionally:
Almost all commercial wines contain sulfites. This Instructable teaches users how to add sulfites if needed. This may be left off if sulfites cause alergic reactions to you or those you want to consume the wine. Potassium Metabisulfite MSDS
Sodium Metabisulfite MSDS
Potassium Sorbate is potentially added if additional sweeting is required. Do not add if you are allergic to it. Here is it's MSDS Potassium Sorbate MSDS
Finally, your final product will be about 12-18% alcohol. Keep that in mind when serving.
With disclosures and warnings out of the way, let's go to it!
1= Wiki Link
1. You can make up to 100 gallons by yourself or 200 max, if you live with other people, annually.
2. You may not sale your homebrew.
3. You must be 21 or legal drinking age to make and drink your homebrew. *
4. You may not distill spirits.
5. You may share and taste homebrewed beverages
*Technically it is 18, but you'd 99% of the time be seeking to consume or possess alcohol, which is illegal.
Since you are producing substance that kills more people a year than most forms of cancer, you will need to treat alcoholic beverages with the respect they command.
1. Do not drink and drive.
2. Do not drink while pregnant.
3. Do not drink if you suffer from liver, heart failure, or anything else just about.
4. Consult your doctor if you are unsure how alcohol will interact with any drugs you are taking.
Home wine making is not making moonshine. It will not cause you any more harm than consuming alcohol does. You will have few, if any, methyl alcohols that cause blindness. You would die from alcohol poisoning long before having to worry about this.
Additionally:
Almost all commercial wines contain sulfites. This Instructable teaches users how to add sulfites if needed. This may be left off if sulfites cause alergic reactions to you or those you want to consume the wine. Potassium Metabisulfite MSDS
Sodium Metabisulfite MSDS
Potassium Sorbate is potentially added if additional sweeting is required. Do not add if you are allergic to it. Here is it's MSDS Potassium Sorbate MSDS
Finally, your final product will be about 12-18% alcohol. Keep that in mind when serving.
With disclosures and warnings out of the way, let's go to it!
1= Wiki Link
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Again, thanks!
It's such a rewarding hobby, and it seems to be an ever growing passion which is obviously proven by the 200k views on your article. Congrats on that by the way.
To any newbies reading this, who want to start making delicious wine as soon as tonight, I highly recommend Mike Carraways - How To Make Homemade Wine. It contains pretty much everything you'll ever need to know and it's downloadable. Sandra.
Why would you use a pasteurized juice that is made out of concentrated juice and then add bacteria when you could just press you fruits with the bacteria already in them? There would then be no need for adding sugar for example.
Other than this, it is an interesting process but it does not sound natural to me at all and I can not see the point of all this if you have to use industrial ingredients...
Let me know if there is something I have not understood (I'm French after all lol).
Mickaël
Wine is best known for it's grape origins. However, any juice liberated from fruit and fermented can be called wine. Apples = apple wine, plums= plum wine, etc.
The bacteria in the fruit/juice is not yeast. Yeast is what is responsible for giving us the flavor, mouthfeel and alcohol. Almost all brewers, big and small, rely on prepackaged yeast if they do not have their own line.
While one could go ahead and press the fruit and liberate the juice themselves, I found it to be outside the scope of the instructable, I figured I'd go cheap, fast and easy.
The sugar and other stuff? I explain why those are needed respectively.
Again, thanks for your comment. I can definitely understand how some if seems pretty strange.
Natural yeasts (those on the skins)can be used, but are unpredictable at best and can ruin a good wine at the worst. Sulfite, if used is tipped into the must either beforeafter the grapes go through the crusher. The yeast is pitched a day later. The wine is pressed some days after skin contact (with reds) when enough colour has been obtained.
From Wikipedia: "The English word "wine" comes from the Proto-Germanic "*winam," an early borrowing from the Latin vinum, "wine" or "(grape) vine", itself derived from the Proto-Indo-European stem *win-o- (cf. Hittite: wiyana, Lycian: oino, Ancient Greek οἶνος oinos, Aeolic Greek ϝοῖνος woinos)."
Since the ENGLISH word "WINE" does not come from the French language, the French cannot claim that it only applies to fermented beverages made from grapes. Until such time as another word is "invented" for fermented drinks made form other fruits, I think wine is a good word to describe them.
Reading the well documented wiki, I seem to understand I am not to far from being on the right path. That is of course from the french legal point of view. If you make a beverage out of anything else but grapes, it is illegal, again in France, to call it wine. But it might be ok to sell it abroad.
I'll talk to a friend of mine who happens to be a wine maker and check all this for you.
The use of the word "Vin""over here is strictly controlled, hence my missunderstanding for its english equivalent "wine".
I'll keep you posted on what I find out if you are interested.
I'm curious about the control and regulation of terms.
It sounds very close to American Bourbon vs. American Whiskey. In the US, you can only legally call whiskey "Bourbon" if it fulfills certain requirements, including the mash being a certain amount corn and the barrels being new, etc.
Be sure to follow up!
As for the definition of acids, wine and so forth, it differs region to region.
That said, grape wine, or as most know as just wine, is produced in the same manner as most other wines are. Take plum wine or apfelwein as an example.
As for wine varieties, such as Champagne, etc., these are tightly controlled names that have certain requirements in order to be labelled and called such.
As for the fresh grapes, the majority of the fermentation is likely due to wild yeast vs bacteria. While bacteria can produce ethanol, you would likely end up with vinegar if they were the principal.
As for acids, K2S2O5 would classify as a salt. Using it in conjunction with fermentation from wild yeast would yield a better product than none at all.
Thanks again for raising such good points!
If you need a number, where 1 is garbage juice and 10 is a fine wine with the mastery of it's maker and quality subtly imbued into every smell and sip, I'd say this is a 6-8, given the budget. It'll give anything you buy a run for it's money for sure.
Before filling your cleaned bottles, sanitizing EVERYTHING that will touch liquid will greatly decrease the risk of spoilage due to any bacteria or microorganisms. The includes the caps/corks. See the sanitizing step.
If you boil the water with sugar, which is a good idea if you are not lazy like me, then squize a lemon into the water. This will help the sugar to invert into simple sugars. Acid also supports the growth of yeast and insufficient acid might result in off taste. I am quoting from C.J.J. Berry.
I like the tip with the turkey baster - I am using a 50ml syringe with a piece of thin plastic hose attached.
I would definitely want to have a hydrometer too, if you buy the equipment, buy a hydrometer as well, this will let you have much more control over the fermentation.
Buy pectolaze to get rid of some of the haze, it IS cheap, invest if you want to have wine from fruit you can have jam from. Not tried yet but there is also an enzyme getting rid of starch haze.
Just read this and thought it was very helpful for a DIY state-of-mind...
:)
If you're set on the balloon approach, however, you can keep an eye on it for the first week, then it will probably be fine, as that's when the highest amount of CO2 is created.
It'll be fine. I would use a straining bag, or if you can't find one, cheese cloth to filter it out before bottling. That pulp can clog up the hoses and filling mechanisms easily.
To use, simply siphon from the fermenter into another bucket with the liquid passing through a straining bag(which is usually big enough to go around a bucket or through a funnel with a hose on the end with cheese cloth in the middle.
Don't forget to sanitize anything that comes in contact with the liquid!
but if you are going to make a lot of wine it quickly becomes a good thing to get a corker. mine was 35 dollars i think...
I went through all the steps, you simply rock!
I greatly appreciate the legality, warning, and health related (allergy precaution) stuff that you have posted on the first page itself. Few wine-makers bother to mention this.
Best regards,
Jason,
Easy Homemade Wine Recipes