Making Wine at Home With Grapes or Pre-Pressed Juice

Making wine with grapes rather than pre-pressed juice is definitely my preferred method. The total cost is twice that of using juice and 5 times as much work, but it gives you additional control and a higher quality product in the end. The concentrate kits that can be bought these days have come far compared to the terrible cans that preceded them. If time’s a factor, then I recommend using Winexpert kits. These kits create a higher quality wine and are available throughout the year. This is great because you don’t need to make fifty gallons in one go or all the same kind. You have the freedom to make wine when you like and you are not limited by the seasons.

Don’t forgot the most important rule of brewing at home – Sanitation, Sanitation and Sanitation!

For making wine use Sodium metabisulphite, Use 1 tablespoon for each gallon of water used and soak for about 10 minutes. And then drain it. Rinsing isn’t necessary. If some solution remains, do not worry, it’s the same stuff that will be added later.

If you’re using buckets of juice to make wine, this is what I recommend:

Day 1:
Pour your juice into a sanitized, larger, food grade standard container that leaves about 10 to 15% head space and add in one packet of yeast. Don’t fill the fermenter to the very top! The initial ten days of fermentations is going to be foamy and vigorous. Leave lots of room between the airlock and the must. Oxidizing and splashing the juice in the beginning is only good at this point. It helps create a full fermentation and helps reduce the quantity of sulfites within the juice. Numerous batches that I have personally tested actually have much greater levels of sulfite than is recommended (100 ppm), this ensures a stable product for shipping. This could cause problems at a later point by destroying too much yeast or/and preventing malolactic fermentation, something that matures and softens wine

Yeast: Adding cultured yeast into juice or grapes helps produce more consistent wines year to year. On occasion the additional sulphites kill off too much of the yeast and there isn’t enough cells to complete the process to dryness. There’s 100′s of yeast strains on grape skins. Adding a high quality yeast culture will eat the majority of sugars and prevents less wanted yeasts from adding and eating off flavors.

For white wines, peptic enzymes should be added. However, this isn’t always needed, it’ll ensure that your wine comes out clear. It is better to include it and to not have a need for it, than to not use it and create a hazy wine.

1st Racking:
After the first ten days, rack (which means to siphon from one vessel to another) into a demi-jon or glass carboy and leave 1 to 3″ of headspace. You can add oak chips at this point if you like. My preference is after the 2nd racking.

Racking: Whenever racking, ensure that you transfer from the bottom of the 1st container into the bottom of the recipient container to avoid oxidation. Racking early is recommended highly. It will help create full fermentation and to produce a wine with a clear appearance. If you agitate the yeast you will add just a little oxygen into the must and this makes it easier for the yeast to ferment all of the sugar. Should you end up with some sediment (called lees), so not worry, you will some next time.

Timing: The time that you wait for this first racking is not critical. You will want to do it early though, while the yeast is healthy and young. The 1st racking “triggers” the yeast and adds in some oxygen that helps produce a fermentation that is more complete.

2nd Racking:
After 4 to 6 weeks you will need to rack again, but top off headspace using wine this time.

Dead Yeast: This particular step helps to avoid autolysis (decaying yeast). As with all dead things, yeast rots if it is left by itself for an extended period, and dying yeast will create an off-tasting wine.
Add Oak: For those that have not yet added oak, or those who would like more woody tannins, you should add the chips at this point. It will help fill up the fermenter and helps give the wine an oaken-barrel like finish, without going through the hassle of actually using a barrel.

Oak chips come in a variety of flavors to improve the flavor of your wines. {Light, medium or dark toasted American, French or Hungarian wood.|Each has its own distinctive flavor.}

Aging:
After 4 to 6 months do another rack and add in 1/4 of a teaspoon of potassium based meta-bisulphate to every 5 gallons. Perform this step sooner should you see a considerable amount of lees.

Sulphite: It is an important step to add sulphite into your wine to prevent oxidation and browning. It is a good idea to use a sulphite test kit and maintain levels of 80 to 100 ppm to avoid infections and spoilage. In spite of it’s wrongly deserved reputation, sulphites are definitely a good thing to add to wine.
Sulphites don’t cause headaches for 98% of the population. The main cause of wine triggered headaches are a result of an allergic reaction to the tannin antioxidants found in grape skins, or by fast and hot fermentation that creates fusel alcohols. Improper handling and storage of completed wines is another major suspect for causing headaches.

Bulk aging is best for wine rather than bottle aging. Rapid temperature changes and vibrations are damaging to wines. Should the temperature of your wine room change by 10 degrees between morning and night, your bottle will change by 10 degrees too. Greater volumes such as demijons and carboys only change about 2 – 3 degrees. You have to figure if the advantage of bulk aging out ways the need to free the fermenter for your next batch.

Bottling:
Following a year of fermentation, the wine should be ready for bottling. Sanitize your corks and bottles for twenty minutes will be fine. It is not recommended to boil cork bottles and corks. Don’t forget the rule – bottle one, bottle the lot! You cannot leave half your wine, now open to air, for very long. After bottling, allow your bottles to sit up for a couple of days so that any pressure, created while forcing the cork in, is allowed to stabilize by pushing out the air as opposed to pushing a little bit of wine out.