The Basics

1. Get the book "Grapes into Wine"
2. Locate a source of supplies
3. Locate a source of grapes
4. Start with a dry white wine
5. Make a 5 gallon batch
6. Ferment and store in glass
7. Buy the following items
8. Follow these steps
9. Consider the following (Getting a little more technical

Get the book "Grapes into Wine"

This was the first advice I recieved from the winemaking group I joined and it was non-negotiable. This book was their "wine making bible" and it should be yours. It has enough detail that you will use it throughout your wine making career but it is understandable enough for your first batch. It will carefully walk you through each step of the process. This book was written by Phillip M. Wagner, a pioneer in East Coast wine making and champion of the French/American hybrid grape varieties. For your first batch at least scan through this book and read the chapters on making a white wine. Then use it as a reference as you are making your first batch to top of page

Locate a source of supplies

Check your local yellow pages or try Big Yellow for a wine or beer making supply store near you. Check them out and see what they have to offer. If you do not have a local source for supplies don't worry I have a solution and even if you do have a local shop you want to check this out. Call Presque Isle Wine Cellars at (814) 725-1314 and ask to get their mail order catalog. These guys have it all at very fair prices. The catalog is over 70 pages long and lists almost everything any winemaker would want all at one convenient location. They ship to anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. I'm sorry but I have no information for other countries. No North American winemaker should be without this catalog and Grapes into wine.to top of page

Locate a source of grapes

The odds are that you are not reading this page at just the right time of year to order and get fresh grapes or juice so I will start with some first batch alternatives to get you started. I finally gave in and decided to make wine for the first time in early December of 1989. I had fought this decision for a few years before that because I had not so pleasant memories of other's wines made from Concord grapes and even potatoes and raisins. I could afford to buy Chardonnay so why bother to do it myself. Then I tasted some wine made by my friends in a local winemaking club and I was pleasantly surprised. They made good wine that tasted.... well, like wine! But I digress, which you may notice I like to do. Any way here I was in December, 10 months away from the next harvest with a desire to make wine. I got lucky because a local grape grower had an excess that year that he pressed and froze. I got my first batch as 5 frozen gallon jugs of juice. Enough about me, there are a couple of reliable sources of grape juice year round.

1. Get frozen California juice from Presque Isle
2. Use FRESH apple cider if it is in season and available
3. Use Concentrated wine grape juice (Shudder)

I use frozen California juice on a regular basis. This is a superior product at a premium price. (Over $100. for 5 gal. of Chardonnay) If you can afford it, you can get California quality fruit delivered to your door (US & Canada) and ready to ferment.

I know I said "grapes only" but for a first batch, apple cider is a good choice. Fresh cider is in season longer than grapes (In Maryland where I live, from September till at least Christmas) and costs less as well so you won't loose much if something goes wrong. It won't taste the same as grape wine but it is OK and the process is identical. Processed cider in the grocery store may have too much preservative to ferment properly.

Maybe you have noticed that I am not a big fan of concentrated grape juice (shudder) even if it is from a "Noble Variety" of grapes. Much is lost in the processing and the starting fruit is THE most important element in making quality wine. Now with that said let me tell you that if that was my only choice as opposed to making no wine at all then of course I would make it from concentrate. I just encourage you to seek out other sources of fruit in the future.to top of page

Start with a dry white wine

There are several good reasons to start with a white wine, all of which can be ignored if you simply love red wine and want to make nothing else or if you are starting with a concentrate (I shudder at the thought).
If you are getting fresh grapes from a grower that deals regularly with winemakers, you can probably get them already crushed and pressed, leaving you with just the juice to deal with. Red wines are fermented on the skins and this adds several steps to the winemaking process. Keep the first batch simple. Also white wine lets you see what is going on to a greater extent. It will start out translucent, turn to opaque and then gradually clear to transparent. Red wine will start and end opaque in a 5 gallon container. You want to plan on a dry wine again because it is easiest. Wine will ferment dry on it's own but you have to intervene to make a sweet wine by either stopping the fermentation early or sweetening the wine after fermentation. Save that for a later batch after you are comfortable with the basics.to top of page

Make a 5 gallon batch

Why a 5 gallon (19L) batch? Good question, I'm glad I thought of it!
Five gallons is the minimum amount of wine you want to consider making for several reasons. First if you are going to go through the effort of wine making you might as well make enough. Secondly 5 gallon glass containers are readily available. (See the next section) When these are full they can still be handled and moved but are about as big as you would want to get. Thirdly smaller quantities risk the possibility of oxidation if not stored properly. You will get 25 bottles of wine from your first 5 gallon batch. This may seem like a lot but I guarantee that it will be gone long before you ever expected. I currently make between 50 and 75 gallons a year total of several different varieties.to top of page

Ferment and store in glass

As mentioned in the previous section, 5 gallon containers are the best choice for starting amateur winemakers and 5 gallon glass "carboys" are the best containers. These are the glass bottles used in water dispensers (That have now switched to plastic). They are ideal for three reasons. They are transparent so you can see what is going on. They are gas tight so that no oxygen can get to your wine as it ages. And finally they are easy to clean and sterilize. You may want to experiment with oak barrels in the future but for now stick with glass.to top of page

Buy the following items

This is the bare bones minimum amount of equipment I would recommend that you buy for your first batch.

• 1 - book, Grapes Into Wine [~$15]
• 2 - 5 gallon glass carboys [~$15-$20 ea.]
• 1 - plastic air lock [~ $.75]
• 1 - bored rubber stopper [~ $.50]
• 1 - 5g. package yeast [~$.25]
• 1 - 130g. bottle Potassium Metabisulphite [~$1.50]
• 6ft. - plastic tubing for syphoning [~$7.50]
• 25 - corks [~$5]
• 1 - cork inserting tool [~$14] can get cheaper but not as good.

  If I can add properly you can get the above items for under $75.00. Add $20 to $30 for your fruit and you are talking about a $100.00 investment for your first batch of wine. That averages out to $4.00 per bottle for your first batch and once you have the equipment, your next batches will be even less! You will need to start saving wine bottles and you will need some common kitchen items for cleaning and sterilizing but that’s about it. As you will find out there is a whole lot more you can and should get but you can do that at your own pace. This was all I had for my first batch and it turned out fine. Take a look at Consider the following (Getting a little more technical for some more advanced tips.to top of page

  Follow these steps

  If you followed my advice in the earlier sections and got "Grapes Into Wine" you can skip this section if you want. The book covers the process of wine making in much greater detail than I can here. Below is a brief description of the wine making process for beginners. It assumes that you have already purchased your equipment from the above list and 5 gallons of juice and are ready to go.

  1. Place half the juice in each of your 2 carboys.
     

  2. Pour the contents of your yeast packet into about a cup of luke warm water. Stir it up and let it sit for 15-20 minutes to dissolve and revive. No other additions are necessary.

  3. Pour half the yeast solution into each of your 2 carboys.

  4. Plug the carboys with cotton or a paper towel to allow air in but keep bugs out.

  5. The yeast should actively multiply and cover the top of the juice within a couple of days. Once this happen you can put water in your airlocks and place them on top of the carboys.

  6. Combine your fermenting juice into a single carboy as soon as the fermentation slows to a pace where it wont foam over the top. Top again with the airlock. Clean and rinse your empty carboy.

  7. Once the primary fermentation slows almost to a stop and the wine (yes it’s now wine but a long way from being ready to drink) begins to clear, siphon it off into the clean carboy leaving as much of the solids on the bottom behind as possible. This process is called racking.

  8. Add 1/4 teaspoon of Potassium Metabisulphite (Meta) to the wine. This acts as a preservative.

  9. Fill the carboy to within 2 inches of the top with a similar wine or with water if you have to. From now on oxygen is the enemy and air contact with your wine should me kept to an absolute minimum.

  10. Once the fermentation has stopped completely and all solid matter has fallen to the bottom, siphon the wine off into a clean carboy one more time adding 1/8 teaspoon of meta this time. This step can be done after the following optional step if you choose. I hope this makes sense when you read it.

  11. This step is optional. If you have access to a spare refrigerator or during the winter, a prolonged exposure (2 - 4 weeks) to cold will be good for your wine at this stage, especially if you are working with typically high acid East Coast grapes. The term for this is "cold stabilization" and without getting too technical what happens is that at cold temperatures tartaric acid in the wine will crystallize and come out of solution. Getting rid of these crystals will lower the acidity (sourness) of the wine and you wont get these crystals forming in your wine once it is bottled and refrigerated.

  12. At this stage you should have a full carboy of at least fairly clear wine. The work is over and now it’s time for the hard part of waiting. Your wine should be drinkable now but it will dramatically improve with a few month’s rest in the carboy. Once you are on schedule and making your wine in the Fall, you should not bottle it until at least the first warm spell in the Spring. This will allow your wine some time to age and insure that fermentation is totally complete.

  13. When the wait is over, you can finally bottle your wine. Siphon the wine into bottles and then insert a cork into each with a corker. Soaking your corks in hot water for a few minutes will make them softer an easier to put in the bottle.

  14. Congratulations you have done it!
  to top of page

  Consider the following

  With a few improvements to the process described above in Follow these steps you can increase your odds of making consistently fine wine.

  The first thing you may want to do is add the following items to your equipment list.

  • Hydrometer [~$5]
  • Hydrometer Jar [~$2.50]
  • Acid Test Kit [~$10]
  • Acid Correcting Chemicals
  • Sulpher Dioxide testers
  • Fining Agents (Bentonite and/or Sparkolloid)
  • Oak Chips
  • Bottle Washer and Bottle Draining Rack
  • Wine Thief

  These items will give you much better control over the winemaking process from start to finish.

  The hydrometer and hydrometer jar are used to check the sugar level of your juice before fermentation. The sugar level is directly proportional to the amount of alcohol that will be produced if the juice is allowed to ferment dry. In addition to the specific gravity scale, hydrometers for winemakers also have the Brix (pronounced like bricks) scale on them and the scale is read in degrees. The sugar level of your juice should be in the range of 19 to 21 degrees Brix before fermenting. This will result in a wine with an alcohol content roughly in the 10 to 12 percent range. This is a very important step in the wine making process that I left out of the section above only because I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. I strongly recommend that you include this step in your wine making process.

  Testing and correcting the acidity of your juice and finished wine is another important step that you should include if you want to make consistantly high quality wine. Acidity test and correction allows you to offset problems in your juice caused by an off growing year or any other natural cause for the grapes not having the optimum chemistry for wine making. East Coast grapes are typically high in acidity while West coast grapes with their long warm growing season can be low in acidity. Fortunately the wine maker can check and correct minor acidity imbalances with some affordable equipment and chemicals available over the counter. Again I am going to refer you to "Grapes Into Wine" (No I do not have any financial interest in this publication.) for a more detailed description of the acid testing process. As this page develops I may add this in the "advanced" wine making section.

  Sulpher Dioxide testers (titrettes) are available to test the free SO2 in your wine. They are simple one time use devices that will tell you the free SO2 in parts per million (PPM) in your wine. SO2 is introduced into your wine when you make the Meta additions mentioned in the first section. The level of free SO2 in your wine is important if you want to store it for more than a few months. SO2 acts as a preservative and antioxidant in your wine. It is the source of the note "Contains Sulphites" on commercial wine labels. Your wine should have between 30 and 50 PPM free SO2. I keep mine at the low end because I am fairly sensitive to it.

  Eventually you are going to get a wine that doesn’t want to clear on it own or "fall bright" as it is referred to in wine circles. When this happens there are several "fining" agents you can use to help precipitate out (make them fall to the bottom) solid matter. Bentonite and Sparkolloid are are two commercial fining agents that you can add to your wine. They work by attaching themselves to solids floating in your wine and then falling to the bottom of the carboy.

  Oak chips are an economical means of adding oak flavor and nuance to your wines without the expense and hassles of real oak barrels. It’s not quite the same but it’s better than nothing.

  Eventually you are going to need a collection of bottles as you start to make more wine. A good jet bottle rinser will be one of the best investments you make. You won’t know how you ever lived without one. A bottle draining rack is not a necessity but it makes the bottle cleaning process a little easier. Bottle maintenance has to be the least favorite chore of any home wine maker.

  You are going to want to (and you should) sample your wine at various stages in the process. This becomes a valuable tool as you make a few batches and begin to know what should be happening when. Early detection of potential problems makes correction much easier. A wine thief allows you to easily get a small amount of wine out of your carboy for sampling and evaluation. Just remember to top off the carboy when you are done.

  That’s it for the beginner’s section. Go forth and make wine. I hope to see you in the advanced section soon.to top of page

  Return to Main Page

  
  

  This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page