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Making Homemade Wine from
Juice
You’d like to try your hand at making wine,
but how do you start? You don’t have a vineyard
full of grapes and how many pounds of grapes
would have to buy to make even a small batch of
wine?
If this is your first venture into the world
of wine making, there’s a very easy way to
start and that’s by making homemade wine
from juice. Juice for wine making is as
close as your local wine making supplier.
Choosing the Right Juice
An
important thing to remember when making
homemade wine from juice is that wines are
usually named after the grapes they are made
from and the same applies when making homemade
wine from juice. If you want to make a
red wine, look for names like Merlot, Zinfandel
or Cabernet Sauvignon. For white wines you will
want Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc or
Riesling.
Most of the juices used in making homemade wine
come in five gallon pails and have already been
sulphanated for sterilization and have the
yeast added. Once you get the juice home, open
it and smell and taste the juice. It should
have a slightly wine-like scent with a very
mild champagne flavor. This tells you that
fermentation is underway.
Turning Juice into
Wine
At this
point you can transfer the juice to sterilized,
five gallon carboys, leaving about three inches
of headroom at the top. Put the air trap in
place and leave it for about a month. The
plastic pail also works great for primary
fermentation when you are making homemade wine
from juice. Make certain that there is room for
expansion so it doesn’t overflow. Open the pail
once a day for about a week and stir the juice
with a plastic spoon or clean ladle. Replace
the lid, making sure it’s not too tight,
allowing the gases to escape. After the
fermentation has slowed, you can then transfer
the juice to the carboys and place the air
traps.
Fruits of Your Labor
About a
month later you should see sediment in the
bottom of the carboys. You can rack the wine to
a second sterilized carboy, being careful not
to disturb or transfer the sediment. This can
cause an off flavor in your wine. Rack again in
three months and every three months there after
until finished. When fermentation stops the
wine is ready. You can drink the wine at this
time but if you plan to bottle it, be sure to
filter it first.
Making homemade wine from juice is such an easy
way to get started in the hobby of winemaking.
After your first attempt it will be easy to try
other varieties of juices as well as
experimenting with your own blends. The end
product is something that you can share with
your friends or give as a gift and you can have
the pride of knowing you made it
yourself.
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