Making Homemade Wine and Beer

Clean and sanitize your primary fermenter with either bleach, oxi-clean, one step, or iodine solution. Personally, I use oxi-clean or a one step sanitizer. I have used bleach, but you really need to rinse several times to remove any residue. As for iodine, it seems to messy for me.

Clean fruit (if using fresh fruit) and crush. Use a potatoe masher for small batches, (less than 5 gallons) a colander and a large plastic bowl. If you have an electric juicing machine, you can use that also. I usually use one for my peach wine.

Pour juice, sugar and water into primary fermentor (6 gallon bucket)

Check with hydrometer. Your must should between 1.080 - 1.095. Adjust as needed. Too high add a little water, too low add a little sugar.

Test for acidity

Add acid blend, yeast nutrient, grape tannin, pectin enzyme and campden tablets as needed. Cover with a large mesh bag and tie shut.

Let the must sit for 24 hours before adding the yeast

It might take a day or 2 for the yeast to start working. After it starts, stir at least once a day.

After about 5 days, remove any sediment floating on the top and transfer to your secondary fermentor

Let the wine ferment for 3 - 4 weeks and transfer (rack) it again. Be careful to leave any sediment on the bottom, on the bottom.

Continue racking every 6 - 8 weeks or until clear. When clear, I usually add oak chips, campden tablets and potassium sorbate. I usually sweeten my wine at this point by adding either sugar or Splenda. About a 1/4 cup per gallon mixed with about 1/4 cup of water to top the fermenter.

I let the wine sit for about 6 weeks after adding the oak chips. Then I transfer it to 1 gallon jugs and let it sit for about 4 - 6 months before bottling.

Last step is bottling. Usually I try a little out of each jug to make sure that it is worth bottling. Nothing worse than bottling a bad wine and hoping that aging it will make it better. Sometimes, it works, but in most cases it doesn’t.

Bottling Your Wine

The first step in bottling your wine is to determine if you want to use screw top bottles or cork type bottles. Personally, I prefer the screw top bottles because they are easier to use. Once this is done gather up your bottles for the second step.

The second step would be to clean and sanitize your bottles. I use “One Step” to sanitize my bottles and I have used “Oxi-Clean” with great success.

The third part is where I deviate from what you read in the books. The books tell you to siphon the wine into bottles, or to use a filler tube. At bottling time, I usually have racked my wine to one gallon jugs. I then clean and sanitize a funnel and proceed to fill the bottles. Some people will tell you that this procedure will oxidize your wine, but hey, most of your wine won’t make it pass a year because you have “enjoyed” it.

Fourth step, either cork the bottle or put the screw top on. If you are corking, make sure that you use the real cork if you have a hand corker. The other stuff is really difficult unless you are using a floor corker. Also, make sure that you soak the cork in water with sanitizer. It makes it easier to cork.

Last step is to wait a few months and then open up that bottle to enjoy your masterpiece.