Home winemaking can be a very rewarding hobby, but it is also one of the more challenging ones out there. Personally, I’ve always been very interested in making things from scratch, so I took to making wine in my kitchen like a fish to water! This article is meant to outline a few of the considerations that one needs to keep in mind before they actually undertake winemaking.
First and foremost is that making wine at home requires a lot of patience. It takes a long time to brew a batch of wine, and I have seen many people give up on winemaking after their first batch, because they don’t want to wait two months to taste their creation. Yet, if you can withstand the anticipation of trying that first glass of home brew, and you have a true appreciation for wine, then this might just be the hobby for you!
Another consideration that many people do not put a lot of thought into is their equipment for brewing… I promise you, that if you try to brew a batch of wine with no more than a handful of yeast and a bucket in your closet, then you will be disappointed with your final product. Conversely, you do NOT need to spend a fortune on your first winemaking kit. Affordable supplies can be found on a number of websites, and your local wine supply store probably has a beginner’s kit and some friendly advice on how to get started.
One thing to remember when brewing is that not all ingredients are created equal! If you want a good glass of wine when you’ve finished the fermentation process, you need to start with high quality ingredients. There are many vendors out there that sell juice concentrates of all the popular grapes used to make all the popular wines out there. Would you be able to buy some regular juice from the grocery store and ferment it into wine? Theoretically, yes… However, I promise that you probably would not like it. The same holds true for the yeasts you use. There are many, many kinds of yeasts being produced for brewing. Each kind interacts with your must differently, and produces a different character in the final product. Find out which ones are best for the wines you want to create before you start hunting for your ingredients, and you’ll save yourself a headache.
The biggest favor that anyone thinking about taking up home winemaking can do for themselves is to do some research. Go to your local bookstore or your favorite winemaking website and fully take into account everything you need to do to get a wine operation set up in your home. It is not an incredibly difficult venture to start, but it does take up a lot of time and space. Read a book or two about what it takes, and if you still feel excited about brewing wine at home, then perhaps this really is the hobby for you!
Author: Joshua Traversie
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Bumper guardian
I’ve seen a number of advertisements online suggesting that you can make wine for free. There are “experts” who apparently claim they can tell you how to make wine at no cost to yourself. Can you really do this? Well… yes and here’s how:
First, let’s assume you have a vessel of some sort like a jug that you can put juice in. We’ll also assume you have some grapes or fruit in your backyard. Remember, we are talking about making wine for free, right? So what you do is you go to your backyard, pick some fruit that is high in sugar content, squeeze the juice out of it into the jug, leave the jug uncovered for a few days. What will happen is that wild yeast will inoculate the juice and begin turning the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. And you’ll have free wine!
But will it be what you want to drink? Probably not.
In all honesty is there isn’t much chance you can make wine that you will enjoy absolutely free. If you try, you’ll more than likely end up with something worse than plonk. The simple truth is that you will need to spend some money if you’d like to make something you can proudly serve to guests and enjoy yourself.
But you don’t need to spend very much.
There are some basic items you will need to make good wine. One of the most important things you will need is a package of yeast that is meant for winemaking. You can pick one of these up for about a dollar for a 5 gram package, enough to inoculate up to 6 US gallons of juice.
Second, you’ll need some type of “fermentation vessel” for the initial stages of the fermentation when the yeast begin to work and start turning sugar into alcohol. A food grade plastic pail is the best choice for this. You could probably pick one of these up for free by visiting a local restaurant and asking them to save both a pail and lid for you. Often food supplies are delivered in various size food grade plastic pails to restaurants and catering companies. After they have been emptied, these pails are often just thrown in with the trash or placed in a recycling bin. Or if you want, you can purchase a pail brand new for about eight dollars.
You will also want a glass vessel of some sort for the secondary stage of the fermentation. Depending on how much wine you plan to make (for the beginner,5 gallons is probably the upper limit for a single batch), you can get various sizes of jugs and carboys. A small one gallon jug could cost about five dollars while a 5 US gallon carboy will pull about thirty dollars out of your wallet.
Enough food grade plastic hose to comfortably siphon the wine from the plastic pail into the glass vessel is all that is really required at a minimum, although a racking wand attached to the plastic hose with a clamp to stop and start the flow is really handy. The cost for this basic piece of equipment is about eight dollars including the wand and clamp.
You’ll also want to purchase a hydrometer and testing tube which will help you in determining the sugar content of the juice you want to make into wine. Without one of these, you will be really shooting in the dark as far as alcohol potential of the juice you are starting with, or how far along the fermentation is. Eight dollars. In order to draw a sample of wine or juice to test the specific gravity, a wine thief is recommended (you could use a sanitized turkey baster) and costs about five dollars.
The last couple of pieces of essential equipment include a rubber bung that will fit the opening of the glass vessel, and an airlock that will fit into the hole in the bung. This protects your wine from the air and all the wild organisms floating around that could do nasty things to your wine, while allowing carbon dioxide gas to escape. Bung and airlock cost: Two dollars.
You will also need to purchase a little potassium metabisulfite. If you don’t have either campden tables (sodium metabisulfite) or potassium metabisulfite, you’re going to risk ending up with lousy wine. Sulfite is important in protecting your wine from bacteria as well as a great sanitizing agent for your equipment. I recommend potassium metabisulfite. Four ounces will be more than adequate to protect five gallons of wine and to make up a one gallon sanitizing solution and will cost about four dollars.
So for the basic equipment, at the low end assuming you managed to get a free plastic pail, your initial costs are about thirty five dollars if you’re only going to make a gallon, or fifty five dollars if you’re going to obtain the 5 US gallon carboy. The yeast and sulfite will need to be replaced as you continue to make more wine, but the other equipment noted above should last you through many batches.
Learning how to make wine is not that difficult, and now that we’ve covered the basic equipment, in Part 2 we’ll look at the ingredients and costs of those. You can do it inexpensively, but it won’t be “free.”
Author: Ian Hugh Scott
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Gadget reviews
If the current economic times have put a dent in your wine-buying power – don’t fret. If you’re settling for poorer quality wines or complaining about the taste of the cheaper wines you’re buying, why not take the more interesting route that millions around the world are taking these days – make your own wine at home.
Now I know what you’re all thinking. I don’t know the first thing about making wine. Don’t fret – it’s much easier (and fun, might I add) to learn than you think. Gone are the days when wine making was complicated. These days, making wine at home is not only easier, but it can lead to better wine. The fact is, most professional winemakers started making their own wine at home. Who knows, you could be the next big thing.
So, without further ado – here are my tips on how and why you should get started:
How to make wine at home tip #1: Buy a great guide book and keep it open for reference at all times.
How to make wine at home tip #2: Make it a fun hobby to share with others. Get your spouse involved. Lost touch with a friend or loved one? Invite them to have a wine making contest. Wine making is a great bonding experience to share.
How to make wine at home tip #3: Join a local group. Wine making groups have been popping up for years around the world. Just do a search on meetup.com or google groups to find one near you.
How to make wine at home tip #4: Try a few different types of wine – do you like strawberries? Try your hand at making a batch of strawberry wine.
How to make wine at home tip # 5: Make your own wine for a special occasion you have coming up. Weddings, anniversaries and parties are a great chance to share your personal vintage with others. Not to mention the money you’ll save!
How to make wine at home tip #6: Get started today. It’s a great way to relax and unwind, and something you can be proud about the next time you have friends over to enjoy a cheeky glass.
So what are you waiting for? That great tasting home vintage is closer than you think. It’s great for special occasions, bonding, and sharing with loved ones, and there are plenty of great resources out there to help get you started. Happy wine making!
Author: James Spence
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Duty on LCD/Plasma TV
Want to learn how to make wine? Imagine uncorking a bottle of your own wine, beautifully labeled, at a fun event at your home. Your friends or family take a few sips and say something like, “oh wow – this is REALLY good wine. Where did you get it?”
And you say, “I made it myself right here at home”.
If you are going to make your own wine at home, there are some things you absolutely need to know before you attempt it.
First is how much you want to make. 1 gallon, 5 gallons? Before you make your own wine, you will need to determine this because you will need a large container, preferably glass or food grade plastic, that will hold your homemade wine while it ferments and ages.
The second thing before you learn how to make wine is the topic of sulfites. Sulfites clean your juice of pesky organisms that can grow and sulfites also act as a preservative to keep your homemade wine from going bad while it ages.
The third thing is sugar content. You absolutely have to have enough sugar in your juice so that there is enough for the yeast to turn into alcohol. How much sugar? Enough to give you and alcohol content of at least 10% but when you make your own wine, 12% alcohol is the minimum recommended amount. This amount also helps to preserve the wine and keep it from going bad while it ages.
The last thing you will absolutely need to need if you are going to make your own wine at home is clarifying agents. If you want your homemade wine to turn out crystal clear, there are several additives that will speed the clearing process. Bentonite, egg whites, pectin enzyme, and other additives will speed up the clearing process so you don’t have to wait months and months for the wine to clear all by itself.
If you want to learn how to make wine, these are the bare essentials to get you up and running. Soon, all of your friends will think you are a master wine maker!
Author: Mike Carraway
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable Pressure Cooker
Making wine at home can be a fun and rewarding hobby. However, many people mistakenly think that home winemaking involves difficult, back-breaking work for very little reward. Not true!
In fact, if you’ve always been interested in making wine at home but never knew if you could do it, these five common myths about home winemaking will help you learn that winemaking is a delightful, easy hobby that anyone can do.
Myth #1 – Making Wine at Home is Expensive
Not at all! All you need is a little basic knowledge of the different stages your wine will go through, and some really good fruits (or juice concentrate). Most of the tools needed to make wine at home can be bought at a specialty winemaking shop or online, and some of today’s top award winning wines were started in someone’s garage.
Myth #2 – You Should Only Use Grapes When Making Wine at Home
Although grapes are the most well-known fruits for wine making, many delicious wines have been made using other types of fruits and flower extracts to give them a signature taste and smell. Experiment with fresh fruit, canned fruit and juice concentrate to come up with your own unique flavors!
Myth #3 – Homemade Wine Always Turns Out Bad
Many beginners feel like giving up when their first batch of homemade wine didn’t turn out right. But the number one reason for failure is actually using unsanitary tools and equipment! Properly sanitizing your equipment before making wine at home is the most important steps you can take – and it’s easily done with household bleach and water.
Now that you know the most common excuses for not making wine at home – you can get started today on creating your own homemade wines and save hundreds of dollars over expensive store-bought wine. Remember, the sooner you start, the sooner you could be enjoying your own crisp, signature wine!
Author: Mike Carraway
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Duty tariff
There’s nothing like relaxing with friends over a good glass of wine. But when they exclaim, “This wine is delicious! What kind is it?” – you know you’ve hit on a hobby that brings you lasting satisfaction.
Making wine at home is easy and inexpensive and only requires a few simple tools. For beginners, it’s important to know the four steps that go into a good wine, so you’ll be well-prepared to make your own wine in the comfort of your home.
1. Get Quality Fruit – You don’t have to use just grapes either. Depending on where you live, fresh blueberries, strawberries, pears, and other fruits may be in season. You can also use concentrated fruit juice.
2. Add Sugar and Yeast – Unless you’re working with a very sweet fruit, you’ll likely want to add sugar to sweeten your wine. Yeast converts the sugar into alcohol and is a crucial part of making wine at home. Be sure to properly sterilize all winemaking equipment (including bottles) to prevent the buildup of bacteria. You’ll know your wine is tainted if you open a bottle and it smells like vinegar!
3. Wait and See – The best wines get better with age, and the same goes for making wine at home, too. Waiting anywhere from 9 months to a year will yield the best wine with the smoothest flavor. Don’t try to hurry this process. The best things come to those who wait! Once your wine has been fermenting for awhile, it’s time to bottle it.
4. Drink and Enjoy! This is the best part! Go ahead and try some before you bottle it all, but put a few bottles away for a couple of years for best results. Don’t forget to label the wine with the year and the type of fruit(s) you added – so that you can do it again next year!
Author: Mike Carraway
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Cool mobile gadgets
There are many videos and online guides on the internet on making wine from concentrated grape juice from the store. But – have you ever tasted the stuff? Not too good. Sure – it’s wine, but it’s nothing like what you would get at a wine shop.
It’s thin, it’s acidic, and really just tastes like grape juice with a little alcohol in it. Not exactly what you would call a quality wine.
But, there IS a way to improve upon this flavor significantly. How do you do it?
First of all, find a wine from a wine shop that you really like. Many of these wines will list the subtle flavors that the wine has on the label. Examples of this are “hints of pepper”, and “blackberry overtones”. Concord juice concentrate has none of these.
So here’s the secret: Add these things to your grape juice before you start the fermentation, i.e., before you put your yeast in.
If you want “Blackberry overtones”, either buy fresh blackberries at the store, or you can even use canned blackberries in water. Be sure and crush them up to extract the juice or you can even use a juicer to get the juice out. You may want to thin the juice out a little by adding some water and then boiling on the stove to sterilize.
Another thing to add is regular raisins. Get a box of raisins, chop them up, and then boil them in water on the stove to extract the natural grape flavor and the tannins. Tannins are a big ingredient in finer wines and if there aren’t enough, your wine won’t have the right amount of “bite”.
One thing to watch out for: preservatives. If you buy juice or canned fruits, be sure and read the label to make sure there are NO preservatives. Preservatives will keep the juice from fermenting.
What about the “hint of pepper”? Simple, get some black peppercorns and put them in water and boil them to extract that peppery flavor.
You can even put everything above into one pot on the stove, boil it, let it cool, strain it, and then put it into the concord grape juice. Once you have done all of this, you are ready to throw in the yeast and let it ferment.
You will be amazed at the difference in flavor you’ll get. Try it and feel free to experiment by adding other fruits to the concord grape juice. Be sure and keep good notes just in case you hit on the “perfect” recipe so you can reproduce it later.
Author: Mike Carraway
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty tariff
Would you like to learn how to make wine from home? The process can range from a very simple recipe to something a little more complex. Whether you want to make wine for your own personal enjoyment or turn it into a great hobby, anyone can make good wine in their own home, and save money in the process!
The process requires only a few things. Most people use grapes to make wine, but for someone who is really into the hobby they may branch out into pears, wild berries, apples, pomegranate and many other fruits. This is a pastime that is really fun.
At first, making your own wine at home may seem difficult or tedious. Don’t let it intimidate you! After the first batch or two, you’ll become more comfortable and it will be a pleasure to reap the rewards of your efforts.
There are some basic steps to learn how to make wine from home. The first step is to choose what type of fruit you want to use. This can be fresh fruit that you pick yourself, or fruit you purchase from the supermarket.
The next step in the winemaking process to to crush to fruit. There are gadgets you can get to do this for you, or you can do it by hand. Make sure to crush the fruit well, and get it as lump free as possible. Crushing the fruit is the most time consuming part of making your wine.
Now, according to what recipe you are using to make your homemade wine, you will boil some ingredients together (usually distilled water and sugar). Once the sugar has dissolved, you will add the fruit in a plastic or glass container. At this time yeast is normally added. Usually a gallon sized container works well for this process.
The next step in most wine recipes is to cover the container with a cloth and secure with a rubber band. This is called the fermentation period. Let the mixture sit for 40 days, then strain to remove pulp. Strain until wine is clear of pulp and peelings.
Once your wine is clear, bottle it and store it for several months. It usually takes close to 6 months time for the wine to be ready to enjoy. It is a slow process, but is well worth the wait.
There are some faster wine recipes that you can make and enjoy almost immediately, but the wines that age are usually much better if you are looking for a good quality in your wine. There are many different processes used in making homemade wine, but most are basically the same.
Now that you know the basic steps of how to make wine from home, find the equipment you need, some good recipes, and get busy! Your whole family will enjoy the process of making and enjoying your own wine. It’s a wonderful hobby and who knows, it could become a profitable business for you!
Author: Angela Cummins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty rate
Crafting quality wines used to be the exclusive domain of very highly trained individuals at renowned wineries throughout the world. In order to enjoy a glass of well-made elixir one would have to purchase an expensive bottle at a retail store or directly from a winery of choice.
In the last two decades, there has been a clear sea change in the wine making and consuming sectors, with a growing number of people opting for the creativity and affordability of making their own wines.
A Burgeoning Industry
During the past 50 years, an industry has grown up around the concept of making wine on an individual level. What began as a cottage industry serving hobbyists has blossomed into a multi-national network of franchises, state-of-the-art processing facilities with labs and wine
experts, and in-store wine making in many areas.
Many winemakers enjoy the process of crafting their own wines, as well as the added affordability factor; wines can made for far less than the retail equivalent. Reputable companies will offer high-quality grape juices or concentrates and a full selection of equipment, as well as offering advice, support, and guaranteed results. Enthusiasts have even found their wines winning competitions against commercial quality wines.
For the uninitiated, the steps involved are simple, and the equipment takes up little space. Usually the ingredients and equipment will come in ready-to-use kits, along with straightforward instructions. Often, wine stores will offer an array of choices for the beer maker as well, and you should look for staff well versed in the process of making beer as well as wine.
For an outline of the thought process that takes a typical skeptic from hearing about the process to being a satisfied winemaker, visit WineKitzNewMinas.ca.
Author: Shauna Arthurs
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Mobile device news
One of the most common concerns people have when it comes to making wine or any kind of booze at home is will the boys in blue come running after me? No they won’t, as long as you are making wine just for yourself. See making wine isn’t illegal, people have been doing it since the ‘Bronze Age’ if not earlier. But making wine at home and then selling it without Uncle Sam getting a cut or proper authorization, well then you are in trouble.
Their are certain things in our society that require the government’s intervention and selling of alcohol is one of it. I think that is a very good thing to have ‘control’ on something like ’selling alcohol’ because of the nature of the beast. But this doesn’t mean you can’t make it for your own pleasure, in the comfort of your own home. You see, selling alcohol and making alcohol for personal pleasure are two different things. Both of them are allowed, but selling of any kind requires a certain type of license.
Making wine at home was actually legalized in 1978 by the Federal government in the United States. Yes their are some restrictions but that is only if you start making gallons of wine or booze at home. Wine making at home today is considered just another hobby as regular as collecting baseball cards or making scrapbooks of your choice. With more and more people becoming home wine enthusiasts, the genre of wine making has really taken off.
These days when people think of making wine at home, they are usually not sure where to begin. I suggest going to your local home brew or wine making shop and meet the ever so friendly wine makers. The city that I’m from is Vancouver, in British Columbia and its one of the most popular cities in the world for wine enthusiasts. I guess you can say that wine making and friendly people go hand in hand together.
Did you know that number one place for wine enthusiasts is New Zealand, even I didn’t expect that one. Followed by Australia, South Africa, Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Italy and the wine country itself, France. Although making wine at home hasn’t caught up yet in Asia, it is definitely an interesting topic and a growing field. This is due to the lack of proper food and drug regulations in some Asian countries and a scarce supply of wine making equipment required.
Bottom line, wine making at home is legal as legal stuff can be. For details, I encourage you to check within your own community or city. As every vicinity have their own laws and regulations. As far as you are making wine for pleasure and do not intend to sell it for profit, you should be just fine. Making wine at home is not only legal but also one of the fastest growing hobbies around the world. I say join the fun and start a very rewarding and fun experience. Don’t forget about all the money you will save by not going to the liquor store every week.
Author: June Beezy
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Netbook, Tablets and Mobile Computing
