Forget the Moonshine, that is so old school. The new hip thing to do is to make your own wine. Homemade wine has made a comeback in the past few years and tastes much better than Moonshine, is legal to make and won't hurt you by just drinking it in moderation. Personally, I LOVE it if it is made correctly with the right balance of fruit, flavor and sugar. Also, many homemade wine is sulfate free...which is great for not getting hangovers!

So to start you on your amazingly tasty wine brewing experience, you will need some basic equipment. The following is the short and necessary list:

• A plastic water bottle or glass jug (unscratched on the inside)
• Rubber stopper (#8 or #9)
• Airlock (balloon, pvc pipe, or commercial airlock)
• Stirrer small enough to fit through opening of bottle
• Funnel
• Turkey Baster
• Old wine bottles (for final product, sterilized)
• Siphon (vinyl tubing)
• Sanitizer (bleach or other recommended alternatives)

1. Now comes the fun part, choosing what flavor wine you are going to make! You are going to need as much juice of the fruit you choose for the size of your container. So if you have a 10 gallon container, you need 10 gallons of juice. You can get your juice in two ways.

• Buying juice from the store (make sure it does not contain additives other than vitamin C.
• Making your own juice from the raw fruit (a different process in itself)

Many places have juice just for the purpose of making wine or you can go to your local grocery store and find your favorites.

2. Sugar (what type and amount will determine flavors)

3. Yeast (care must be used in choosing your yeast)

4. Chemicals (many of these you must be careful of allergies!)

• Potassium Sorbate
• Sodium/Potassium Metabisulfite
• Yeast Nutrient

Gather your ingredients and equipment that is called for in the recipe

SANITIZE PROPERLY! This cannot be stressed enough and must be done often and carefully. You will quickly ruin a batch of wine without following this step properly. I cannot stress how important sanitizing is so just trust that you will quickly be dumping all your hard work if you do not do this properly.

Find and follow the recipe you want to use. Follow the instructions according to the recipe and soon enough you will understand the process enough to make your own recipes.

Wait. While you are waiting you might want to think about what to call your wine. You can order or make your own personalized wine labels to place on your finished bottles. This can be a lot of fun, especially if you are giving your wine as a gift.

Drink and enjoy. If you have followed your wine recipe then your wine is ready for consumption now. Please be aware that you are making a potent alcoholic drink, ranging from 12%-15%, so care must be taken when indulging. DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!

Thank you.

Below is a video that shows how to make homemade wine from store bought grape juice.  Enjoy!