WHAT EVERY HOME WINE MAKER NEEDS (ONE OPINION)

What do you need to make homemade wine?

Most of the required equipment will already be available in your kitchen, but there are some thing that you will probably need to buy like preservative (sulfur dioxide), a water seal, a fermentation container, siphon and yeast. You can buy these things new at a home brew store, your local department store or online. They are usually part of a wine making kit. But when you do not know if you are going to like it to make homemade wine it is also an option to buy used equipment online.

A very basic description of a wine making process

It all depends on the recipe you are going to follow, when you buy a wine making kit we advise you to use the recipe that comes in the box. If you are going to do without a kit, we advise you to look online for a good recipe. In general the process of how to make homemade wine goes as follows:

Make sure you have all the ingredients like wine grapes, yeast, wheat, eggs and sugar. (follow your recipe)and crush the washed grapes in an earthen jar with lid.  The egg whites need to be whipped.
Add all the ingredients, the sugar and the egg whites to the grapes, stir and close the lid tightly.
Stir the contents daily for three weeks and make sure you close the lid every day.
Then let the mixture stand for three weeks without stirring, strain the clear wine with a nylon cloth

Very important tip: sanitation

Every website you will read, every book you buy, every recipe that will come with a kit to make homemade wine, will stress the importance of sanitation because a single bacteria can ruin your whole batch of wine. And you will have done all this hard work for nothing. Not only the ingredients should be treated as clean as you can but also the utensils and the work space where you make homemade wine.


The webmaster does not use egg whites in his own wine making.  Readers opinions are welcome.

Service from E C Kraus

WINEMAKER'S GLOSSARY
FLOCCULATION:
A term that is used to describe the clumping together of yeast
cells that occurs towards the end of a fermentation. As the
fermentation begins to slow down the yeast will become less
active and flocculate together into larger particles. These
larger particles settle out more quickly, shortening the time
necessary to clear the wine.
Flocculation can also be used when discussing fining agents or
clarifiers. Most fining agents are able to take elements out of a
wine by causing them to flocculate in to larger particles--which
again--will settle out more rapidly
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-- To learn more about other wine making terms see our
Winemaker's Glossary on our website.

2009 PREHARVEST REPORT

This year Taylor Ridge has experienced no serious frosts. Consequently we have good crops in most varieties. We have had a cool July but we have been blessed with a warming August. The harvest will commence on about the same schedule as last year. Early grapes like Reliance, Foch and Millot will probably begin September 10th to 15th. The mid season grapes should start September 21st to 26th, later grapes from September 26th to October 15th. We may have small amounts of Marquette. We are expecting good crops of Seyvel, Lacrosse, and Dechaunac, while Noiret and Landot 4511 are somewhat smaller than last year. Cayuga White is also in good supply.