Winemaking
How To Make Wine For Free? Part 2 – Ingredients
In Part 1 of “Can You Really Make Wine For Free,” we discussed the basic equipment costs you will have to budget for when making wine and discovered that for about $35.00, you can get yourself ready to start fermenting juice. You can of course spend much more than that on other equipment and chemicals,…
Read MoreCleaning And Sanitizing Wine Bottles – Three Essential Pieces Of Equipment In Home Winemaking
If you’ve decided that home winemaking is for you, you’ll want to know how you can save some money and make the process more efficient. One way to save on costs is to reuse your wine bottles. Although a case of 12 Bordeaux style 750 ml wine bottles is relatively inexpensive at about fifteen dollars,…
Read MoreHow To Make Wine – Part 1
So you’re thinking about making your own wine but don’t know where to start? Wondering just how complicated it can be? I was at that point once as well, until I received a Father’s Day gift of a wine making starter kit. I was delighted to learn just how uncomplicated home wine making can be.…
Read MoreWhy You Might Need Acid Blend When Making Fruit Wines
Wines that are enjoyable to drink are those that are in balance with acidity, tannin and sweetness. Professional grape winemakers often have to make adjustments to their juices before and during the fermenting process in order to attain the balance they are desiring for the wine they are making. Home winemakers that ferment the juice…
Read MoreHow To Make Wine – Part 2
In the previous article, Getting Started, we discussed what you should get in a good basic wine making starting kit. Today, we’ll take a look at the process of wine making using concentrated grape juice purchased from a wine making outlet. Tonight, I started a Grand Cru Liebraumilch that I purchased from Winemakers here in Orangeville. The staff…
Read MoreWhat Do Winemakers Use in Their Airlocks?
Anyone who has made wine for a while knows the correct level of liquid in the airlock is vital to assuring good wine. But questions come up about what exactly one should put in the airlock to protect the wine from air and other contaminants. Some suggest just plain water, others say a sanitizing solution…
Read MoreHow To Make Wine – Part 3
If you’ve been following along here, you’ll recall that we began with “Getting Started – Part 1” where we discussed the basic components of what you should look for in a home winemaking starter kit. Then in “Getting Started – Part 2” we looked at how simple it was to being the winemaking process. The…
Read MoreWhat is a Metheglin?
When doing research one home winemaking, some may come across websites, books and articles where the making of meads is also discussed. Although there is some debate about whether a mead is technically a wine, it is made with the same process – that of using yeast to ferment honey and water mixed together. Some…
Read MoreHow To Make Wine – Part 4
If you’ve been following along, this is week #2 of our 4 week home winemaking kit. For those who have reached this article without having read the first few, links to the earlier articles are at the bottom of this one. Last week, we racked the wine from the primary fermenter into the secondary carboy.…
Read MoreA Haze in Your Wine? Maybe You Need Pectic Enzyme
Often a home winemaker that makes wine from fruit will discover a haze in their wine. Often, this is caused by the presence of pectin which can hold flavors. The haze are actually the presence of gelatin solutions. Those who make jams and jellies are probably familiar with pectin as an addition as it does…
Read MoreHow To Make Wine – Part 5
Items Needed: 1. 30 sanitized bottles. 2. Syphon tube. 3. Sanitizing solution. 4. 30 corks 5. Bottle corker (Often, the store where you purchased your kit will lend or rent a corker to you. You may want to consider purchasing a hand corker if you are going to make wine at home on a regular…
Read MoreFining Agents – Bentonite
A question that seems to come up regularly on home winemaking bulletin boards, newsgroups and faq’s have to do with fining agents. A fining agent is something that is added to the wine at some point before bottling to help it clear. There are quite a number of differing fining agents – even egg whites…
Read MoreFining Agents – Eggshell
A few years ago, I had some problems with a Mead I was making that wouldn’t clear. I had tried a few different fining agents but to no avail. In retrospect, I probably could have given it more time as I let the mead bulk age for another couple of years before bottling it but…
Read MoreHow To Make Wine For Free? Part 1 – Equipment
I’ve seen a number of advertisements online suggesting that you can make wine for free. There are “experts” who apparently claim they can tell you how to make wine at no cost to yourself. Can you really do this? Well… yes and here’s how: First, let’s assume you have a vessel of some sort like…
Read MoreDegassing Wine
Most wine kit instructions do stress the importance of degassing wine. But they are usually pretty short on instructions. This article will fill in the details for you.
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