Home Wine Brewing
Here's a quick and easy to follow guide for successful home wine brewing.
To put wine making into one sentence it is simply extracting the flavour from the main ingredient whether it be fruit, flowers or vegetable and adding sugar to enable fermentation.
As with any home brewing the crucial point to remember is to ensure that all equipment is thoroughly washed and sterilised (more so than with any other brew). Lack of sterilisation will result in a complete waste of your time and money, not to mention a drink that resembles vinegar!!
Easy home wine brewing
(following the recipe detailed on our affordable home brew wine page)
- The grape concentrate will have instructions on it detailing how much water to add to prepare, follow these as advised and prepare in one of your food grade containers or demijohns.
- Dissolve the sugar in boiling water and add to the concentrate. (A rough guide is 3lbs of sugar per one gallon will make a medium wine, therefore adjust the amount to reach your desired taste). Once all of the sugar has dissolved, put the lid on the and allow to cool down.
- Add the yeast and citric acid then attach the bung/gromet and airlock and leave to ferment. Try to aim for around 21°C for at least 7 days, ideally 2 weeks to achieve optimum results.
- After a minimum of 7 days siphon the wine into your second container or demijohn, re-attach the bung/gromet and airlock and continue with the fermenting process.
- If you are using a hydrometer now would be a good time to check the reading and add further sugar if required.
- When you are ready to stop the fermenting process add the campden tablet (if using). This will not only aid in the preservation of your wine but will also kill off any yeast that may still remain.
- Siphon off the wine into your other container/demijohn and leave in a cooler temperature to clear.
- A good time to add the finings is just before you bottle the wine as this will result in clear rather than cloudy end result.
- You can either leave your wine to mature in the container/demijohn or transfer to bottles.
How long should I leave the wine to mature?
How long you leave the wine to mature depends on how patient you are! As a general rule, for home wine brewing, the wine prefers to be left to mature for at least a few months, if not longer.
Wine brewing sugar
This 1kg bag of brewing sugar is suitable for most homebrew kits. The sugar ferments easier, increases yield and gives a cleaner flavour than household sugar
