How to Make Wine at Home
Learning how to make wine at home can be a very rewarding experience. Not to mention that all of your friends will be very impressed with your new found talent! Basically making wine is the process of squeezing grapes and fermenting the liquid until it turns into wine. But it is not as easy as that sounds. It is an art. Just as painting a picture, it will take a little skill and a lot of patience.
You should count on about ten pounds of nice ripe grapes to make a gallon of wine. You will need a large plastic vat to start. Most supplies needed can be purchased at your local wine making shop or online. For some things you may even improvise.
When the grapes have ripened and been harvested place them into the large plastic vat. Then they must be crushed. I am sure that you have seen photos of fair young maidens stomping the grapes with their bare feet. Modern technology has made that a part of history. But hey, you can do it your way as it is your wine! But you will probably want to use just your hands or a potato masher. This will work fine for a small scale operation.
Unwanted yeast can produce premature fermentation. To stop this yeast growth you will need to add Campden tablets. They contain potassium metabisulfate. Cover the vat with a towel and allow it to sit for a day.
The next day you will want to add wine yeast to the crushed grapes. There are many kinds of yeast, so make sure that you get the correct yeast for wine making. The most common types are montrachet and prix de mousse. This will get the fermentation process started. At this stage the mixture is called the “must”. As you add the wine yeast to the must use your hands and pick out the stems. Remove any grapes left on the stems and put them back in. Try not to leave too may stems in the must. Then cover the plastic vat once again with the towel. In a day or two the mixture should begin to fizz. After that it should appear to be boiling. And normally within a week this should stop and it is time to move on to the next step. You will separate the wine from the seeds, skins and pulp. To stain you can pour it through mess bags or cheese cloths. Then you will squeeze that to get the last drop of liquid. This liquid is put into a glass carboy or wine barrel.
No air should come into contact with the wine from this point forward. You should have an airlock for your carboy or barrel that lets gases out, but no air in.
It only takes about two to three weeks in the container for all of the fizzing to subside. At this point, you will need to rack the wine. Racking is the process that removes the wine from the lees which is the spent yeast and grape bits that have fallen to the bottom of the barrel. You can use a hose to siphon the clear wine into a carboy and clean out the lees from the old container. Then pour the wine back into the original container. After about two to three months the wine is ready for a second racking. Three to four months after that, do a third and final racking. Wine can be aged in a cool completely dark place. It is also important to top off the barrel. This can be done by using a similar wine. At this point, the wine is able to be tasted but, the longer a wine ages, the better it is.
Obviously there is a little more to it than this. But if you want to learn how to make wine at home, this will give you a very good idea of the process. It takes planning, patience, and dedication. But normally anything worth while does! The rewards make it all worthwhile.
