Wine Making Essentials

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So, you’ve been asking yourself, “How do you make wine?”.

The thought of making your own wine can be overwhelming.

It helps to break the process into manageable steps. The details of the steps will be covered in more detail throughout this site. Let’s get started:

1. Get the flavor from the base ingredient(s) by pressing, boiling, crushing, or soaking them. (That seems easy and doable).

2. Add sugar and yeast to the solution you created in step 1 to achieve the proper ratio.  Cover and ferment for 3 to 10 days in a primary fermentation vessel (most likely, a plastic 5-gallon pail) at 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. (So far, so good).

3. Strain the liquid from mixture you created in step 2, put the liquid into a second fermentation container (a carboy), place a fermentation trap (airlock) on the top of the bottle, and allow fermentation to continue at 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit until all bubbling ceases. This could take several weeks. (I think I can do this).

4. Siphon the wine (leaving behind the sediments) into another carboy (this is called racking). Reattach the fermentation trap. Repeat after one or two months and again before you bottle the wine. (Wait. This doesn’t seem hard to do).

5. When your wine is clear and all fermenting has ceased, siphon into bottles and cork them securely. Leave corked bottles upright for a few days, then store them on their side for six months to a year before opening. If the taste does not meet your expectations, allow to age longer and test again. (It seems like waiting will be the hard part).

That’s it, in a nut shell. In other posts, we’ll give more detail of these basic steps that will answer your question: How do you make wine?