Equipment To start making your own wine you need wine making equipment. You can either buy a kit which has the basic needs of all you will need, a demijohn, funnel, fermentation lock etc.. This is a good starter pack and you can find it in any wine making or home brewing specialist stores, sometimes even some department stores have them.
Receipe book The next item you need is a step by step amateur wine making book, you want one that has easy to follow recipes, and use of kitchen appliances if possible. For example put a stool upside down, and when draining your liquor, use the four legs to support your linen towel and let it drain through a funnel into your demijohn.
Now to how to make wine, always make sure all your equipment is thoroughly clean. This is very important as any dirt can contaminate the wine.
Ingredients You can start by using fresh fruit. It is always advisable to buy fruit which is in season, this reduces the cost, and also makes a good wine. Or you can buy grape concentrate. By using grape concentrate to make wine at home, you can choose dry or sweet, light or full bodied, white rose or red this should give you a density of between 3-5%. It is easy with this method and ending in good results. You must follow the instructions and with all wine do not rush it. Concentrated grape juice wines are usually ready to drink within two months.
But if you want to really get into how to make wine at home use fruit, it is much more satisfying and I think a better result and should give you a higher density.
Method Now to make from fruit, every fruit is different but it will tell you in the recipe how much fruit you require. Basically you need a clean bucket, X amount of fruit and 5 litres of hot water. Pour the hot water over the fruit. X amount of sugar depending on how sweet or dry you require the wine to be. Stir all together, and cover the top with a linen cloth, when luke warm add the wine making yeast. Stirring occasionally for the next 24 hours. Different yeast makes different tasting wine, there is a port yeast, sherry type, tokay yeast that makes a rice wine taste out of this world.
Now the turned up stool. Sieve the contents of the bucket through a gauze or even a pair of ladies stockings, into the demijohn, this lets the liquor run through and leaves the sediment behind. The remains of the fruit you throw away, the liquor in the glass vessel you add a pectin enzyme capsule, this helps assist fermentation, clear the wine and improves the colour. Your then put the fermentation lock with fluid in on top of the demijohn and leave in a warm place.
You will notice bubbles coming out of the fermentation lock, this is basically the yeast eating the sugar to turn into alcohol and so releasing gasses.
The sediment settles to the bottom of the demijohn, and the wine starts to clear at the top. If the fruit is fleshy, and the liquid still murky after about a month, you may need to re-rack your wine. This means, get a tube and drain off the clear liquor leaving the sediment behind. Put this into the demijohn again and put the fermentation lock back.
on At all times keep the wine in a warm place.
Final Result When clear it is ready to drink.
Tips If the wine is taking a long time to clear, add some clean egg shells to the demijohn, this is a natural protein, does not add any taste to the wine, but clears it and gives it an added kick.
That is the basics of how to make wine, either with a ready made concentrate or fresh fruit picked from your garden. Whichever you choose it is a worth while hobby.
