Home BrewingMaking Home Made Wine is Easier Than You Think
Some people wonder about who was the geniuos that invented wine. Well, wine wasn"t invented. It was discovered by accident when someone left a bottle juice laying out andit ferment.
Although you can still find wine recipes that tell you to let your must sit out in the open, it is no longer necessary, or even recommended, to let wild yeasts make there way into our wine to ferment it. In fact, you could end up with some pretty terrible tasting wine if you were to do this.
Today we have many strains of yeast to handle this for us. We yeasts designed for champaign, beer, and regular wine. These different yeasts come in all differnt qualities that will control not only the flavor of your wine, but also the alcohol content.
So we now know that we can simple make wine the old fashioned way, or we can take a more scientific approved and use special yeast to perfect our wine. Following is a simple ingredient list to make wine. These ingredients are the basis of almost every recipe that exists today for making wine.
6 lbs of concord grapes
2 lbs of sugar
2 qts of water
1 pkg wine yeast
If kept in sanitary conditions, this will actually make a decent 1 gallon jug of wine. But of course the science doesn"t stop there. We now have many additives that will also control the removal of germs, eliminate wild yeast strains, stop active fermentation, make the wine clearer, and much more. Chemicals such as wine tannin, potasium bisulfite, campden tablets, pectic enzyme, etc. are used today in most wine making recipes to control every spect of the wine making process to improve the flavor.
Today we also have specialized equipment to make the wine making process even easier. Specialized equipment will also improve on the quality of wine. You will find however that most of the available equipment isn"t even necessary if you are looking to just make a cheap bottle of wine. For instance, the above ingredients can be added to an old gallon sized apple juice jug and you could end up making a decent gallon of wine for less than a few bucks.
If you have ever thought about making your own wine and just wasn"t sure were or how to start pay a visit to your local home brew store. They will gladly take the time to help you out and explain how to get started. You could also pay a visit to The Bottled Grape to learn more.