The Keys to Easy Wine Making

There is no secret to making wine. You simply squash some grapes and ferment the juice until it becomes wine. But easy wine making does not necessarily yield good wine. Good wine is an art that must be practiced, though it is easy to get started practicing.

Another important factor in easy wine making is choosing good grapes. You will need to pick out about 50lbs of good grapes in order to make 5 gallons of good wine. To start, you should purchase some large plastic vats from a wine supply shop. You will place your choice grape clusters inside this vat for crushing. Traditionally, and reportedly still practiced by the best wine producers, crushing is done by bare foot. If you’re not into stepping in grapes, easy wine making can just as easily be done in a smaller vat with a potato masher, or even your hands. Be sure not to fill your vat beyond 65% full. You will cover your vat under a towel for one day.

One thing you will need to be careful about is yeast. Excessive yeast in your grapes will cause your wine to ferment prematurely. Campden tablets are a means of stopping yeast growth with potassium metabisulfite. The amount of this ingredient is carefully measured. You can add the prescribed number of tablets before covering your vat.

It is after a day of being under the towel that you want to add just the right kind of yeast to your easy wine making venture. Make sure you add wine yeast, as bread yeast is an entirely different type of yeast. If you’re not familiar with wine yeast, two common types you can use for easy wine making are montrachet and prix de mousse.  Just for reference,  your wine is referred to as “must” at this stage. As you stir the yeast into your must by hand, be sure to check for any stems that may be left. You’ll want to remove most of these while stirring.

Again, you will cover your vat with a towel. After a day has past, you should begin seeing a fizz on top. Cover and wait another day or two until your must looks lie it is boiling. You’ll want to check it each day after this until the boiling fizz appears to be gone. At this point it is time to remove any leftover artifacts from the juice, such as stems, skins, pulp, and seeds.

Pour the remaining juice through a mesh bag into a strainer that leads into a wine barrel or glass carboy. You may need to squeeze the bag to get all of the juice out of the bag. You can purchase a wine barrel or glass carboy at a wine making shop or on the Internet. You need to prevent your juice from coming into contact with air at this point. An airlock is a simple way to do this, while still allowing gas to get out of your container.

In less than 20 days the fizz should be mostly gone from your new wine. This is the point where you must rack your wine to get ride of the remaining yeast and grape bits that settle in your container. For the purpose of easy wine making, you can simply use a hose as a siphon to move the clear wine to another container. You will need to repeat this process after about 75 days, and again after about 100 days. Fill your wine container completely with your clear wine. Now your wine should be aging in a cool, dark place. This is why wine cellars are popular.