Price of wine and spirits is increasing day by day. It is not legal to your own spirits and it is not so easy, needing some form of distillery equipment. But wine is different and of course easier to make.

My father always made his own wine, and whilst it was cheaper to make than to buy, there was a waiting time between brewing and drinking! Once made, however, you have 6 bottles of wine and as long as you begin a new brew about once every two weeks, you will never run out! The one thing you will find with making your own wine is that it does not taste the same as wine purchased at the store. Their wines are refined with this and that to give them a specific flavour, smell and overtone. Your wine will taste raw, and decidedly fruity.

So how easy and cheap is it to make your own wine? Well relatively cheap, and easy – although decidedly messy! You will need 4 or 5 gallon demi-johns (a large glass jar required for fermenting the wine), 6 bottles, corks, a corking machine, labels, tablets for clearing and yeast. These are basic equipment requirements and can be purchased for around £20 – that is 4 bottles of good wine. With this equipment you will make batch upon batch of delicious home made wine. All you pay for from now on is your ingredients!! You make back your £20 from the cash you will save from not buying wine from the store, and therefore with your first 6 bottle batch of wine you already begin to save money, afterwards you are saving £30 with each batch!

What ingredients do you need? Sugar is a must, as is yeast – these cost a few pounds. After that, your costs are whatever you want them to be! I have made wine from pineapples, grapefruit, raspberries, home grown strawberries, and best of all black currant cordial!!!!! This was my dad’s recipe, and I am now going to share it with you (luckily he doesn’t read my articles – I hope!):

1 large bottle of supermarket brand cordial (1 litre)
3 lb sugar
Yeast and nutrient

(These ingredients will cost £3 and will make 6 bottles of wine – it is a rose that is quite sweet and powerful, but smooth and well balanced also)

Dissolve the sugar in warm water add cordial and boil for 20 minutes – stirring frequently. This kills preservatives. Allow to cool. Pour into your demi-john. Add yeast and nutrient. When ferment dies down, top up to shoulder and continue to finish.

Leave it to ferment for around 8 weeks, somewhere warm but not hot. When you return to it, you will find a clear pink liquid that tastes just great. Not only is this a cheap wine to make, but also clears fantastically due to the fact that there is not any fruit pressing involved in the process and therefore no “bits” in the mixture.

You can now syphon it into the bottle and enjoy!! Let me know how you get on.

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Your Supplies

The easy way to make your own wine would be to simply buy a kit to make your own wine. The prices are pretty steep but putting together your own supplies and totally doing it on your own can be a lot of fun. You will need: A few five gallon buckets to make and store the wine (some should have air locks for the fermentation process); a winepress (optional); a hydrometer to take readings of sugar and alcohol; a destemmer; a siphoning hose and some bottles, corks and a corker. Sterilize everything before you begin to make your wine.

Grapes (of course!)

I normally make roughly 5-6 gallons per batch when I make wine at home. This should give you about 24 bottles of wine. You are going to need quite a lot of grapes. You will need about 45 pounds of grapes. If you want, winemaking supply stores also sell bottled grape juice just for making wine at home.

Juice Those Grapes

You can obviously skip the step of making grape juice if you’ve bought the bottled juice. If not get that winepress working if you have one or start squishing grapes! Please note that red wine grapes must be fermented with the skins for several days before juicing.

Prep Your Juice

So you have you juice, now take out your hydrometer and take a reading of your sugar content. Check to see if the alcohol scale reads between 9% and 13%. If you are below that level add some sugar until your hydrometer gives you the green light to continue.

Ferment

Pour the juice into an open container about halfway. Next add yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme and potassium bisulfite. Wait a day and then gently sprinkle yeast (one package every 5 gallons) into your container. Let the fermentation process begin! Bubbling will occur in about 12 hours. Make sure you stir daily and have your containers lightly covered with a clean cloth.

And Again

You are almost there after five or six days. Move your fermenting juice into a clean bucket with an air lock. The sediment from the first bucket should stay there! Be carefull. Take another hydrometer reading to let you know if you are done fermenting. Almost there. Your wine will start to separate from the sediment at this point and needs to be taken out. This can take quite a while; several weeks to maybe even months.

Bottle Your Batch

After your liquid has cleared prepare for bottling. I usually strain my wine before bottling to remove any left over sediment. This is not necessary but a good habit to have I feel. Siphon the wine into your bottles, cork them and store them in a nice cool, dry place until you want to drink. Age it as you see fit. Enjoy!!

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