The Basic Steps In Making Wine At Home
For the fine wine expert, the next logical thing to do is make your own wine. Even though the steps of making wine are simple you still have to fully understand them before you begin. In order to make wine at home you will need either grape concentrate or grapes. If you would like to try and make wine from grapes and you have an ample amount of growing area you may decide to grow your own grapes. If you choose to use grape concentrate, keep in mind that you will need to use high quality grape concentrate. The grape concentrate can purchased from brewing stores as well as over the internet. Yeast and brewing equipment are two more things you will need. Since this is most likely your first batch of wine you may want to purchase a wine making kit rather than trying to buy the wine making equipment separately. Now that you have made a few small batches of wine using a wine making kit you can now decide if you want to continue making wine on a larger scale by purchasing various pieces of equipment separately. Depending on what you are using to make your wine, grapes or grape concentrate there is 5 to 8 steps in making wine. If you are using grapes then the fruit will obviously need to be harvested first. After the grapes have been harvested, you will then need to remove the stems from the grapes. You must remove the stems from the grapes, because if you don’t the stems will turn your wine very bitter.
Now that the stems have been removed you need to break the skins to release the juice from the grapes. There are certainly many different ways in which to do this. Squeezing is the preferred way for most winemakers. Depending on how much the grapes are crushed will have a direct affect how your wine will taste. To give your wine a more fruity smell or aroma you may wish to leave your berries almost intact.
Your next step is called primary fermentation. During this step the yeast cells contained in the wine will feed on the sugars. The yeast cells from the wine feed on the sugars during this step. As a result carbon dioxide and alcohol are produced. On occasions you may want add additional yeast. This helps to ensure a stable and consistent conversion which may not be the case if you rely solely on the yeast that is found on the fruit itself. By adding extra yeast you are ensuring a more stable and consistent conversion, something you may not get if you rely on just the yeast in the fruit itself.
You will need to extract more juice from the fruit after primary fermentation. It should be noted that the juice that is extracted in this step is typically not as high of a quality as the juice that is extracted during the crushing phase. This is because the juice that is obtained during crushing, known as free run juice, has had less contact with the stems and skins. The press juice is not useless to the contrary your larger wineries can choose to use this press juice to help increase their output.
A second fermentation occurs after the pressing during the aging phase> You the winemaker makes the determination as to how long a wine has to ferment.
Blending used to create customized wine is another process that is strictly optional. Blending is most commonly used in order to improve two or more batches which may be slightly lacking.
The last step of the process is bottling. Preserving the wine and ending the fermentation process is done during the bottling process which is the last step. Then at last the bottle is sealed with a cork.
You can have a very exciting experience making wine in your own home. As you make different batches of wine you will develop a better knowledge and appreciation of the wine you make.
Posted by admin on December 28th, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized