Making home-made wine is a wonderful and easy way to profit from your home grown grapes and all the work you put into growing them. The basic steps for wine making are:

• Picking the grapes
• Crushing the grapes
• Fermenting the juices
• Clarifying and bottling the liquid
• Aging the wine

For white wine you use white grapes and for red wine you use red or black grapes. However, you can make white wine from red grapes if you first remove the skin. You might also need to remove the seeds and stems. Each component of the grape, including the stems and the skins, contribute to the aroma and flavor of the finished wine.

Materials:

To make one standard bottle of wine (75cl) you will want about two pounds of grapes. Ten pounds of grapes will yield a gallon of wine. In addition to the grapes you will need a few accessories for making your wine. Visit your local wine-making supply store to find the items or look on the Internet for suppliers. Here is a list of the essential items.

• Grapes
• Large vat for crushing grapes
• Hand masher (or use your hands)
• Bottles, corks
• Campden tablets
• Wine Yeast
• Barrel fitted with an airlock
• Syphon and carboy (clean and sterilized)
• Hydrometer (To measure the specific gravity)

A wine-making kit is the easiest way to get started, and as you progress you might enjoy upgrading your tools as you gain experience in using them. You don’t have to crush the grapes by treading on them. This is a good way to do large productions, but for small productions, mashing them by using a hand-masher (or your hands) will do just as well. Don’t fill the vat too full because the grapes will foam and froth as they ferment. When the grapes are mashed, leave them for a day or two before beginning the fermentation. Campden tablets are used to prevent wild yeast from growing during this stage.

Proper wine yeast should be used, not bread yeast, because the flavor is quite different. Stir in the yeast by hand, cover the vat and leave the wine to ferment for about a week. At the end of the week you can strain the wine. The bubbling and boiling effect should have subsided before you strain the wine and throw away the pulp. Pour the liquid into a barrel with an airlock so that carbon dioxide, which forms as the wine ferments, can escape. The wine should be protected from exposure to the air at this stage or it will oxidize and won’t be good for drinking.

Over the next two to three years, sediment will fall to the bottom of the barrel and the liquid will turn clear. After about three weeks the wine is ready to “rack” or siphon into the carboy to remove the clear wine from the sediment. The carboy should be sterilized to prohibit the growth of bacteria. Siphon the wine every couple of months as the wine ages. When you notice there is no fresh sediment, and the liquid is perfectly clear, the wine is ready for bottling. Another test is to check the specific gravity with a hydrometer. It should be below 1.000.

As you can see winemaking is quite easy. Making truly fine wine, however, is an art as well as a science. Aging your wine a few more months in the bottle will improve the flavor, but once it is bottled, you can basically begin drinking it.

If you’re thinking about making your own homemade wine, here are some things you should know about the equipment required to get you started.

First and foremost, we need to talk about cost. You could visit online merchants here, there and everywhere to shop around for the best prices on individual items you’ll need to start making your own wine, but most sites that sell equipment offer some sort of beginning equipment kit that will have all the items you need to get your wine making career started. This is absolutely the best way to go in my opinion. Kits will run anywhere from $ 80-$ 150. That’s a lot of money, but this equipment can be used over and ever and thus will eventually pay for itself.

So what’s included in a kit, anyway? For starters you’ll get a plastic primary fermentation bucket, usually around 8 gallons. After primary fermentation you’ll need something to transfer your wine into for secondary fermentation. This is usually a 5 or 6 gallon glass bottle, called a carboy, although in some kits the secondary is plastic.

Also included will be some rubber stoppers that fit the fermenting vessels, and an airlock, which is a device used to let carbon dioxide out when your wine is fermenting while not allowing air and bacteria in. You should also get a couple of brushes, one for cleaning the bottles and another so you can clean the carboy.

Some sort of cleaning agent and also a sanitizer will be included. Cleaning and sanitizing is a crucial step when making wine. A length of plastic tubing will be supplied, and a sometimes a device called a racking tube which aids in transferring your wine from one vessel to the other. Some kits also include a little device to slip onto the plastic tube that allows you to shut off the flow of wine when you’re bottling.

Most kits include a hydrometer. This is a device that measures the specific gravity of the wine during various stages of development. You can also use it to measure the potential alcohol of your wine. Corks are also in most equipment kits, as is some sort of corker to insert the corks.

This is the minimum list of items, and you’ll find some kits that include much more. What is generally NOT included is an ingredient kit, although some sellers will allow you to add one to your package for a reduced price and if you can afford it, this is a good way to go. Bottles are usually not included either, but are easy to collect from friends and family.

Consider getting started making your own homemade wine today. It’s a fun and fascinating hobby that you can explore endlessly.