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Homemade Wine
Making
Homemade wine making is one which is quite
complex but which can be understood rather
easily, if you are willing.
There are five basic steps that are involved
in homemade wine making, which are:
harvesting, crushing and pressing,
fermentation, clarification, and aging and
bottling.
The Homemade Wine Making
Process
Harvesting
or picking is always the first step in the
home wine making process, as you
need to have gathered the materials for your
wine before you can begin making it. A
combination of science and old-fashioned
tasting go into the harvesting process, and
harvesting can either be done mechanically or
hand, whichever you prefer.
Crushing
and pressing is next in the process and
crushing the whole clusters of fresh ripe
grapes is one of the most important steps of
all. Today mechanical crushers are typically
used to trod the grapes into must, and by using
these mechanical presses a lot of speed is
gained in the process as it would take much
longer to do the crushing yourself.
The next
step in the home wine making process involves
fermentation. This is really where the magic is
in the process and if left to its own devices,
the must or juice will begin to ferment
naturally within about eight hours, with the
aid of wild yeasts in the air. In clean
wineries and vineyards however the fermentation
process is quite different. Once fermentation
begins, regardless of the chosen path, it will
normally continue on until all of the sugar has
been converted to alcohol and a dry wine is
produced.
Once this
fermentation process is completed the
clarification process begins. Filtering and
fining are also usually done at this stage,
filtering which can be done with everything
from a course filter that catches only large
solids to a sterile filter pad that wipes wine
of all life. Fining on the other hand, occurs
when substances are added to a wine to clarify
them.
Finally in
the home wine making process is
the stage of aging and bottling. You can either
bottle the wine immediately, or further aging
can be done in bottle, stainless steel or
ceramic tanks.
You can
really personalize this process and make it
your own as long as you include the basics, and
you will have a lot of fun and produce some
fantastic wine that you can share with your
family and friends. home wine making is a
time-honored tradition, one that has become
incredibly popular in the world of today. If
you have not tried making your own wine before
then it is definitely something that you should
try out sometime in the near future.
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