Because of how popular wine is in society, many people want to start making their own wine at home, however, many of them don’t know where to start.
Making wine at home can seem like a daunting task, but it can actually be quite simple. You don’t need to purchase an expensive kit or have any prior experience.
In this article, we’ll outline the necessary supplies and step-by-step instructions on how to make your first batch of wine at home. With just a few simple ingredients and tools, you’ll be enjoying your very own homemade vintage in no time!
There are different types of wine and they all come from different areas of the globe, with many people enjoying certain wines from certain countries more than others.
Follow our guide to find out how to make your own wine at home without a kit. You and your friends might find your new favorite wine!
What Is Wine And The Different Types?
Put simply, wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented grapes that has been around for centuries. Because of the different types of wine and the different flavors they contain, people’s tastes vary greatly as to which type they prefer.
Red wine tends to be quite fruity and bitter, usually served at room temperature. They’re great around the winter months and are great to have with certain foods like steak and other forms of beef.
White wine is a lot drier and offers something very different from red wine. For starters, it’s served cold and often enjoyed throughout the warmer months of the year.
A lot lighter in color and texture, this is definitely different from red wine.
Rose wine is a bit of a mixture between the two, however, the texture of the drink is a lot closer to white wine than it is to its red counterpart.
With sweet tones and a fruity flavor, this is great for those who wish to have a drink similar to both of the previous types of wine.
How Is Wine Made?
As we previously mentioned, wine is made from grapes and usually involves five different steps in the creative process.
Harvesting of the grapes is naturally the first step, which is followed by crushing the fruits ready for pressing. The third step is the fermentation of the fruit, followed by clarification. Finally, aging and bottling round off the process.
But if we’re to make wine at home without a kit, we’ll take a simpler approach, including a few short cuts.
How To Make Wine At Home Without A Kit
This is the bit you came here to find out! We’ll quickly outline the different ingredients you’ll need so you can prepare yourself and find the best way to make the perfect wine.
It’s all down to you and where you get your ingredients from, but these are the main things you will need.
Ingredients Needed
- One and a half to two cups of sugar.
- One packet of yeast. This can be any old yeast, there’s no need to overcomplicate things!
- You’ll need half a gallon of grape juice. This is where you can choose if you want to include purple grape juice for red wine or white juice for white wine.
Equipment
- Measuring cup
- A funnel
- One washed balloon
Step 1 – Wash Everything As Much As Possible
You need to make sure that the equipment is clean because you need the wine to be safe to drink, otherwise, you could become ill. Use hot water for the best results.
Step 2 – Pour Out the Grape Juice
In order to make extra room for the ingredients that you’ll be adding, you need to ensure that the ingredients won’t overflow out of the container for the grape juice. Pour it into a cup so that if you need some more, you can add it back in.
Step 3 – Add The Sugar
Here, you’ll want to add around 3 and a half cups of sugar into your grape juice. These are fine margins and will determine how strong the alcoholic percentage of your wine will be.
1 cup will be less alcoholic and 2 cups will be more.
Screw the cap of the bottle back on and make sure that it’s tight because you’re going to be shaking it in a moment!
Shake the bottle for about a minute so you know the sugar is mixed in and dissolved nicely.
Step 4 – Add The Yeast
Next, you’ll need the handy funnel that we mentioned earlier. Yeast is relatively cheap, so don’t worry about some spilling out.
Add a packet’s worth and wait for about five minutes for the magic to happen. Shake again for 10 to 15 seconds.
Step 5 – Place The Balloon Over The Top
Make sure the cap isn’t covering the top of the bottle and place the balloon over the top.
Poke a couple of holes in the balloon with a pin close to the top of the bottle. Then, it’s all about fermentation.
Step 6 – Fermentation And Storage
Place your juice in a dark, cool place and wait for the reaction to happen. The balloon should inflate after a few hours. If not, just wait a bit longer!
Patience is key. After a couple of weeks, the juice will bubble as the chemical reactions turn the juice into wine.
When the balloon has gone back down, the wine is ready! Just give it a taste and bottle up if you’re happy!
Conclusion
That’s all there is to it! It might seem like a tricky task at first, but it’s not as daunting as you might have thought.
Hopefully, after our guide, you can make your own wine and ensure that your own bottle is the best you’ve ever tried.
Not everyone needs a kit to make wine! Sometimes, it just takes a bit of hard work and some time to make.
Thus, Still Cooker was born. When I first decided that I wanted to study myself up on the consumption business, I found it so difficult to source reliable information. I had to spend all day searching for one topic on how beer was made.
As you can imagine, it was a tireless job and I came close to giving up more than once. This is the exact reason that spurred me to create this website - so that you can enjoy the ease of having all of this knowledge in one place.
I hope you’ll be able to learn as much as you want just from my website. As it grows bigger, I want it to be a single stop on your path to greatness. So, enjoy my content and try not to get drawn into a rabbit hole of how to make your own bar inventory.
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