You think making wine at home is too difficult or require too much time or equipment? Then think again. As far as time is concerned, you will learn that most of the time is spent just... waiting! Wine is the result of many complex chemical and biological reactions. In this regard, it is like a living entity. Like any living entity, it takes time to grow up, develop, and achieve its full potential. All this happens without your intervention. Your role is only to create the right conditions at the right moment, and this takes very little time over the whole course of the winemaking process.
Regarding equipment, you can get started with only:
- Two 5-gallon buckets
- A lid with an airlock (one is enough)
- Some pipe or hose to transfer from one bucket to the other
- 4 Campden tablets, or equivalent (sulfites)
- Some bakers yeast (more specialized yeasts for wine making can be used, but this is a topic that will be covered in further articles)
- A wine stabilizer (most common is Potassium Sorbate, available online or in a specialized wine shop)
- A sanitizing product (for food-related use)
- If you want to bottle your wine, a corker, plus some corks and bottles (otherwise it can also be kept in any hermetically closed container)
Last but not least, you need the raw material, that is to say the fruit juice from which you are going to create your wine. Traditionally, the term "wine" refers to wine made from grapes. However, many fruit juices can also make delicious wines, like cranberry juice, cherry juice... Grape juice is however the most common and easiest to find. Be careful however to get juice without added preservatives, as these will prevent fermentation.
Now, here is the step-by-step process to make your first batch of wine.
Clean and sterilize the buckets and all the equipment in contact with the wine, using the sanitizing product. Rinse well. Put your juice into one of the buckets.
Dissolve the 4 Campden tablets in the juice. This will prevent unwanted bacteria development. Wait a full night.
The day after, you can add the yeast. First, dissolve the yeast in a small quantity of warm water, wait 15 minutes and then pour it into the juice.
Cover the bucket with a cloth towel, or your lid. The airlock is not necessary at this stage since the fermentation process releases abundant CO2, which protects the juice from oxidation from the surrounding air.
Wait 7 days. During this time, you will see abundant activity and gas release.
Then, transfer the wine to the second bucket. During this operation, you should be careful not to transfer the gunk lying at the bottom of the first bucket. This gunk is mainly made of dead yeast, and it is safer to remove it in order to avoid undesired bad flavor in the wine.
In the new bucket, a secondary fermentation will take place, albeit much less spectacular. It is much slower and does not release significant CO2, so that you should now place the airlock to protect the wine.
This time, wait one month. As I told you, waiting constitutes the major part of the process! Resist the temptation to taste the wine right now, and remember it is still not finished.
After one month, you should repeat the same operation and transfer back the wine into the first - clean - bucket. In the same manner, try to leave most of the gunk at the bottom.
You should now add your stabilizer, in order to block any future fermentation and get a stable wine.
Now your wine is "biologically" finished, but it still needs to be cleared. This is done, again, by... waiting another month. The wine will clear itself naturally, by simple gravity. All impurities will just slowly fall at the bottom of the bucket. Sure, a cloudy wine could still be bottled, but if you wait, you will get a crystal clear wine, with more pleasant and neater flavors.
Here you are! Now you can proudly bottle your wine, after cleaning and sanitizing the bottles. A small quantity of Campden tablets or sulfites can be added at this stage to protect the wine from oxidation and further stabilize it.
If you prefer to keep it in a container, you can, provided it is perfectly closed. In this case, you will need to transfer the wine (still leaving the gunk at the bottom of the first bucket) into a container fitted with a tap. This will allow you to drink your wine without having to open the container and expose the wine to oxygen.
Finally, remember the wine will taste much better after aging at least 6 to 9 months. Aging in the container is possible too, provided you are very careful about hermeticity and leave a sufficient quantity inside.
I hope you have a great time tasting your first homemade wine!
