Making Your Own Wine At Home

Want to experiment with some fruits and make your own wine at home? We’re here to help you! Here are two recipes of homemade wine that you can make today!

You don’t need much to make your own wine at home but before we get into it, let’s get to know the interesting laws and regulations by the US Government regarding homebrewing or in other words, making your own wine at home.

You can make up to 100 gallons by yourself or 200 if you live with another adult, annually.
You can not sell your homebrew.
You must be 21 or of legal drinking age to make and drink your own homebrew.
You may not distill spirits.
You may share and taste homebrewed beverages.

Before getting started, let’s get it out of the way that you’re producing a type of alcohol, so you should not drink and drive, should not drink if you’re pregnant, should not have any serious medical conditions and consult your doctor before consuming any.

Lastly, making wine at home will be messy in short. You’ll need some equipment and you’ll need to maintain cleanliness throughout the process.

They say that the invention of wine was an accident. Ancient people found their grapes had spoiled and fermented which turned into a fermented grape juice. If we really think about it, isn’t it beautiful what nature can do all on its own? But on the other hand, we don’t have to wait for our grapes to ferment on their own. We can simply go buy some wine grapes and get it rolling!

So let’s celebrate the discovery of our ancestors and make some good red wine!

1. Recipe

Here’s A List of Equipment That You’ll Need

One 4-gallon food-grade-quality plastic bucket and lid to serve as the primary fermentation vat
Three 1-gallon glass jugs to use as secondary fermentation containers
A funnel that fits into the mouth of the glass bottles
Three airlocks (fermentation traps)
A rubber cork (or bung) to fit into the secondary fermentation container
Large straining bag of nylon mesh
About 6 feet of clear half-inch plastic tubing
About 20 wine bottles (you’ll need 5 bottles per gallon of wine)
Number 9-size, pre-sanitized corks
Hand corker (ask about renting these from the wine supply store)
A hydrometer to measure sugar levels

Ingredients That You’ll Need

Lots and lots of wine grapes
Granulated sugar
Filtered water
Wine yeast

Directions

Part One:

Ensure your equipment is thoroughly sterilized and then rinsed clean. (Ask at the wine supply store about special detergents, bleaches, etc.). It’s best to clean and rinse your equipment immediately before using.
Select your grapes, tossing out rotten or peculiar-looking grapes.
Wash your grapes thoroughly.
Remove the stems.
Crush the grapes to release the juice (called “must”) into the primary fermentation container. Your hands will work here as well as anything. Or go old school and stomp with your feet. If you’re making a lot of wine, you might look into renting a fruit press from a wine supply store.
Add the wine yeast.
Insert the hydrometer into the must. If it reads less than 1.010, consider adding sugar. If you’re adding sugar, first dissolve granulated sugar in pure filtered water (adding sugar helps boost low alcohol levels). Stir the must thoroughly.
Cover the primary fermentation bucket with cloth; allow the must to ferment for one week to 10 days. Over the course of days, fermentation will cause a froth to develop on top and sediment to fall to the bottom.

Part Two:

Gently strain the liquid to remove the sediment and froth.
Run the juice through a funnel into sanitized glass secondary fermentation containers.
Fill to the top to reduce the amount of air reaching the wine.
Fit the containers with airlocks.
Allow the juice to ferment for several weeks.
Use the plastic tube to siphon the wine into clean glass secondary fermentation containers. Again, the purpose here is to separate the wine from sediment that forms as the wine ferments.
Continue to siphon the wine off the sediment periodically (this is called “racking”) for 2 or 3 months until the wine is running clear.

Part Three:

Run the wine into bottles (using the cleaned plastic tubing), leaving space for the cork plus about a half inch or so of extra room.
Insert the corks.
Store the wine upright for the first three days.
After three days, store the wine on its side at, ideally, 55°F. For red wine, age for at least 1 year. White wine can be ready to drink after only 6 months.

So get your wine bottles, wash your hands, put on your apron and get to work now!

For those of you who prefer a simpler recipe, here is recipe number 2!

2. Recipe

Sometimes we just want to have some fun making some wine on our own and not worry about the results or want to wait for that long to taste it! So here’s a light recipe for those who just want to have their fun and make some wine! You can switch the fruit juice to any flavor of your liking except for citrus.

Ingredients That You’ll Need

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
4 cups sugar
1 (12 fluid ounce) can frozen juice concentrate – any flavor except citrus, thawed.
3 ½ quarts cold water, or as needed

Directions

Combine the yeast, sugar, and juice concentrate in a gallon jug.
Fill the jug the rest of the way with cold water.
Rinse out a large balloon, and fit it over the opening of the jug. Secure the balloon with a rubber band.
Place the jug in a cool dark place. Within a day you will notice the balloon starting to expand. As the sugar turns to alcohol the gasses released will fill up the balloon. When the balloon is deflated back to size the wine is ready to drink. It takes about 6 weeks total.

Hey there! What do you think about these recipes? Let us know what you think about these recipes when you try these out!