Make Your Own Wine It's Fun

It is a fact that of all the alcoholic beverages there are, wine is the best loved, which is also one of the reasons why it's so expensive. Like many other people, you most likely take pleasure in having a glass of wine once in a while. You may even have a glass every night with your evening meal. For those of you who relish a glass of wine on a regular or semi regular bases, you might want to make your own wine. You may be one of the many people who love drinking wine, but when it comes to making your own wine it may seem a bit daunting or you may fear the possibility of a bad tasting outcome.

Actually it can be easy to make wine. However the easiest way is to buy one of the wine making kits that’s out there. It is actually very cheap. A basic wine starters kit can be bought for low as $50. The ingredients are actually very cheap and you can reuse the bottles for containers every time you make a batch wine. It’s a fun hobby if you like wine and it’s inexpensive.

FYI, you might want to get a brewers guide and I will tell you about a great one a little later. As a matter of fact it’s a whole course on homemade wine making.

Making wines at home can help you save money, as well as give you a fascinating pastime. You will also benefit from the health advantages associated with drinking wine and it’s not really that hard to learn how to make your own wine.

To make your own wine is nothing like making moonshine. Moonshine is grain alcohol and it is very dangerous because of the methods used to distill it and abstract the ingredients. We’re talking ingredients such as battery acid like in the prohibition days. Making wine is safe and it's something you can easy become passionate about. With so many possibilities and flavors you can make, it can never be boring. And can there be anything more satisfying than a product you made and can consume?

Because you don't distill it, which gives it lower alcohol content then moonshine, it is legal to make. Anything that will touch the wine must be clean and sanitized and if you don't put anything exotic in it, say like poke berries, wine making is quite safe.

If you don’t sanitize everything, you risk getting bad bacteria into your wine, which can be unhealthy. But for the most part the bacteria will ruin the flavor and could have an effect on fermentation. You can sanitize by using a solution of two ounces of metbisulfate to one gallon of water or by using a store bought sanitizer. If you skip this step you run the risk of spoiling your wine.

So remember, to make your own wine is safe. To make your own moonshine, not so much.

You want start with good grapes. Vinifera grapes are about the best grapes to use for winemaking and are used to make the more popular varieties like cabernet, chardonnay and merlot. Muscadine grapes can also be used, but they generally produce only sweet wines. So to make your own wine, first choose your grapes. After choosing your grapes, remove the stems and crush the grapes this will release the must. If you’re making a white wine you have to press the juice off the skins.

Here is the equipment you are going to need. First you will need two 5 gallon bottles. These can be plastic water bottles. You will also need 12 to 15 reseal able bottles, one thin sandwich bag, one rubber band, one meter of 1/4-inch inside diameter plastic tubing, 12 to 15 quarts of unpasteurized grape juice, 1/4 tablespoon of yeast, 2.2 pounds of sugar and one quart of clean water.

As I mentioned before everything that touches the wine must be clean and sanitized. Pour the grape juice into the large bottle. Mix the sugar with the clean water and warm it until the sugar dissolves. Then cool it to room temperature, add the yeast and stir. Add the sugar water and yeast mixture to the grape juice.

Put the sandwich bag on top of the large bottle and close it with the rubber band. Within two days the wine should start fermenting. You will be able to tell when the sandwich bag starts to inflates and bubbles appear. If there are still bubbles after three weeks, wait one more week. Fermentation should be complete after three or four weeks when there are no bubbles.

Now you could do all of this or you could just get a wine making kit. The kits come with the basic equipment, instructions and enough juice to make about five gallons of wine. Below are some wine making kits that will help you make your own wine.