The Basic Steps for Making Your Own Wine

Thinking of making your own wine at home? There are some basic steps you’ll need to follow. The process can be quite complex, depending upon the type of wine you are making. Therefore, it is really important to do your research before you get started.

Here, we’ll run through some of the basic steps for making your own wine.

Stock Up on Ingredients, Tools and Equipment

Before you get started, it’s important to make sure you have everything you need. This includes all ingredients, tools and equipment. In another article we’ve covered the different types of tools and equipment you’ll need. However, ideally you should do your own research based upon the type of wine you want to make.

In terms of ingredients, if you’re making your own fruit wine you might want to add some optional ingredients. These include bananas, raisins or white or red grape concentrate. These optional ingredients add sweetness to the wine.

Find a Recipe Online

You’re going to want to follow a tried-and-tested recipe when you’re just starting out. So, look for some good wine recipes online. You’ll find sites such as Pinterest are fab for discovering easy homemade wine recipes.

Remember to look for beginner recipes too. The more advanced recipes tend to require technical steps that you likely won’t be ready for right now. Once you have made some basic beginner wines, you can look at creating your own recipes. 

Prepare the Fruit

Before you make the wine, it’s important to prepare the fruit. This includes removing any stones and seeds from pitted fruit like plums or grapes. This is because the seeds will add a bitter flavor to the wine. Once this has been done, you’ll want to freeze the fruit to help break down the walls of their cell membranes. This makes it much easier to extract the juice.

After freezing, thaw the fruit out and place it into a nylon bag ready to extract its juice. Use a press to do this or add sugar and leave it to extract naturally.

Ferment the Ingredients

Once you have the juice of the fruit, it’s time to ferment it. Different fruits require a different fermentation time, so do your research to see how long the fruit you have chosen should be fermented for. You should also follow specific fermenting advice for the type of wine you are making.

Siphon the Wine Regularly

As the wine is fermenting, it will need to be siphoned into clean containers regularly. So, if using a carboy, you can siphon the wine into a clean carboy as and when it is required. Again, different wines will need to be siphoned at different rates.

These are the basic steps of making your own wine but as mentioned, the process is quite complex. For this reason, it is recommended you learn as much about the winemaking process before you attempt to make it yourself.