How to Make Wine
So you’re interested in making your own wine? Wine has been
made for thousands of years and is really quite simple and easy to make. Wine
is the simply result of allowing the fermentation of fruit sugars by yeast over
an extended time period. It relies on very simple principles of chemical
engineering and chemistry: the first being batch reactors, that is a tank or
any other reactor that you add all of your components to and close until the
reaction has completed, and second, desorption, whereby something is dissolved
in something else. Here, we will be dissolving sugar and carbon dioxide into
water. Now wine making takes some time,
so you’ll need to be prepared to wait at least one month before your wine is
done and make sure you have a cool, dark place to place it while it ferments.
Now let’s get started. First you’ll need a few things.
Materials:
Gallon jug of water
Air lock (balloon)
Tooth pick
Frozen fruit juice concentrate (pick a flavor)
Sugar (at least 2 cups)
Yeast – ¼ oz - (Brewers is ideal, but bakers’ or rapid rise
yeast works too).
Pot that can hold half a gallon of water.
Stove or hot plate
Funnel
Sharpie or other permanent marker
Rubber band
Warnings:
Be careful pouring hot liquid.
Wipe down any spills with soap and water. The sugar water
will harden and can crystalize if not cleaned up.
Instructions:
1.
Empty half of the gallon jug of water into the
pot. Pour out an additional four cups of water and dispose of this.
2.
Heat the water to just shy of boiling, where the
first bubbles are starting to form.
3.
Add 2-4 cups of sugar to the pot. If you are
using a very sour juice concentrate (grapefruit or lime) use more sugar (3-4
cups). If you are using a sweet concentrate (strawberry, apple, etc.) use less
(2-3). Varying the sugar amount also determines the dryness of the wine. More
sugar = sweeter wine (moscato, Riesling). Less sugar = dryer wine (Beardoiux,
Cabernet). This will take some fine tuning to find your preference. Start with
less. You can add more after the fermentation process has completed.
4.
Keep heating the water-sugar mixture over medium
heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring continuously. The liquid should be
completely clear.
5.
Once the sugar has dissolved, use the funnel and
oven mitts to pour half of the hot water back into the gallon jug. Be careful
not to spill.
6.
Pour the frozen juice concentrate into the
funnel, using the remaining hot water to melt any large frozen chunks.
7.
Use remaining hot sugar-water to bring water
level up to two to three inches below the top of the jug.
8.
Let water cool for five minutes. You want it to
be warm, but not outright hot. Aim for 80-110 degrees Fahrenheit but it doesn’t
have to be exact. Yeast likes warm water, not hot water.
9.
Pour out a small glass of the mixture and taste
it. If it is unbearably sweet, you will probably want to start over. If it
tastes close to fruit juice but just a little bit sweeter, you’re right on
track for a nice slightly sweet wine. If it is extremely bitter or sour and you
don’t want a very dry wine, dissolve some more sugar in hot water and add to
the batch. This is why we don’t fill the jug all the way on the first try.
10.
Add one packet of yeast. Cap and shake to mix.
11.
Stab the toothpick through both sides of the
balloon. You now have your airlock. The fermentation process produces carbon
dioxide gas and this gas builds up inside and could cause the system to explode
if it was unable to vent and thus it must be allowed to escape. We also don’t
want to allow other gases or bacteria to get inside and spoil the batch and so
the balloon can expand and the pressure of the carbon dioxide on the inside
will prevent exterior gases from entering and the small holes will keep the
internal pressure from getting too high.
12.
Stretch the balloon over the mouth of the jug,
using the rubber band to secure it in place.
13.
Write the date and the name of your wine on the
side of the jug. Store in a cool, dry place like under the sink or in a cabinet.
Keep the cap with the jug. We’re going to need it eventually.
14.
Wait at least one month. Longer waiting times
makes for dryer and stronger wine. You should be able to see the balloon
inflate and slowly deflate over weeks. This is good. The yeast are busy turning
the sugar into alcohol. You can also sample the wine and put it back to keep
fermenting. You can add more sugar if you want it sweeter.
15.
After your chosen time period has passed. Open
your wine. Throw away the balloon and rubber band. Pour out a glass and sample
your wine. If it’s good, great! If not, just try again. Wine making is a
process. The first time I tried, I made several batches at once to figure out
what worked best and you may want to do the same. It only costs about two to three
dollars per gallon of wine so don’t worry if one batch fails. Experiment and
see what works for you!
(Optional) There will be some
cloudy liquid at the bottom of your wine. These are called leets and are
basically the dead yeasts leftover in the wine. They are safe to drink, but
some people don’t like their appearance. To remove them, filter your wine
through several layers of paper towels 4-5 times and allow the liquid to settle
after each filtration. You can also just decant the clear liquid off the top
with a syringe if you would like to avoid filtering but still want clear wine.
Congratulations you made your first homemade wine! Now that you’ve finished one, try other
flavors. One of the best wines I’ve made was from passionfruit concentrate and
it tasted like a dry sherry. You can add fruit, nuts and herbs to your wines
before fermentation to add some unique notes to your final product. You can
also add flavors after the wine has finished fermenting like lemon extract or
some red food coloring to give your wine a darker, fuller color. Really just have fun, try some new things, and
enjoy!
And here's the link if you want to see the images too: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6zFeNnwhshdb0tyLUppdEprTm8/view?usp=sharing
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