Make Your Own Wine, Ten Basic Tips

Make your own wine

If you would like to learn how to make your own wine then here are some of the basic steps to get you started making wine that is drinkable.



1) The real basic fact is that if you put yeast together with sugar then the yeast will act on the sugar to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. The taste comes from whatever fruit you use.

2) Grape wine is made from the pure fermented juice. This usually contains enough sugar to produce the right alcohol content. If you are making wine from other fruit then you may need to add more sugar to produce the right amount of alcohol.

3) Cleanliness cleanliness (get the idea?) cleanliness! It is very important that you exclude unwanted bacteria and wild yeasts at this stage in your wine making. It might work in some traditional alcohol producing industries but starting out in wine making you want your equipment to be sterile.

I use chemicals (campden tablets for example). They are easy to use, effective against the bugs we want to get rid of and readily obtainable. Simply soak everything in a solution according to the instructions, rinse and use.

4) If using another fruit than grapes then the technique is very similar for almost anything. First we need to get the juice out (along with the flavour). Mash or boil  (recipes vary) add water and sugar.  I put all this into a large, plastic, food standard bucket with a tight lid.

5) Add campden tablets to kill off unwanted yeast then allow to cool. Usually overnight. Too hot and the yeast will die a horrible death.

6) Add a yeast of choice. A good wine yeast can be bought from suppliers. A teaspoon per gallon is usual.

7) Leave a week to allow the flavour to be extracted. During this time there will be a fairly vigorous fermentation.

8) Strain (a muslin bag and a funnel work well) into another fermenting vessel. These are usually glass and can be fitted with an airlock to let out the carbon dioxide but keep out the outside world.

9) Leave to ferment on. After about 6 weeks then it is time to move on the liquid (called must). Using a siphon which will not disturb the yeast at the bottom of the vessel is a good idea. Dead yeast will flavour the wine.

10) Add campden to kill the yeast and move on again. Do this until the wine clears and finally bottle and store. How long is up to you, but it will improve with age.