You have been asking yourself Where do I start with Home Wine Making, well in this series of articles we will try to answer that question, and show you the steps involved in making your own wines at home.
  
Wine Making is an old time tested art, and despite this it is actually really easy, and can be done at home very easily. The basic processes involve combining fruit or concentrate together with a few other key ingredients, then sitting back and letting mother nature to take over and do her work with them.

Your role in Home Wine Making

Of course it does take your intervention to make good wines. Your part in the Home Wine Making process is to bring together the right wine making supplies, in the right quantities, and then providing the right environment for those wine making supplies to mix and work together in forming the finished wine.

Find a suitable recipe

Home Wine Making Recipes can be found in a number of places, and in general are not difficult to follow. The easiest place to find recipes is in home wine making books, a number of which you will find in our wine making supplies shop right on this website.

Starting with a Winemaking Kit

This is probably the easiest place to start on your home wine making journey. Wine Making kits usually come in two flavors (not wine flavors, but types of kits), the first being just the wine making equipment you will need to start out making wine at home, while the second type of wine making kit includes all the equipment you will need, plus the ingredients you will need to get underway making wine at home are all included, making these the ideal starting place. Starting out with a kit makes your first batches of wine so much easier to make, mainly because the insrtuctions and recipes you will get in the kit work exactly with the supplied ingredients, making the whole process so simple, even a cave— can do it ….

Wine making from Concentrate

Concentrates are a great way to make wine at home. using concentrates means you do not need to start out with grapes, and as concentrates are available all year round you can make your favorite wines all year round.

Things you will need to make wine at home

There are a few ingredients, that whether you go it alone, or start making wine with a pre-populated kit, you will be coming into contact with these elements:

  • Yeast. This is the real worker in the ingredient set. Yeast is the thing in your wine that turns the sugar in the mix into alcohol. No yeast, no wine.
  • Yeast Nutrient. This is energy for the yeast, not the actual yeast. Yeast nutrient will make sure that the yeast you use will ferment, and that it will make enough alcohol.
  • Yeast Energizer. The yeast you use always demands certain nutrients are present for it to do it’s job properly. Yeast energizer is used instead of yeast nutrient when you are fermenting fruits that lack the nutrients that the yeast you are using requires.
  • Pectic Enzyme. This helps in breaking down the fruit during fermentation.  While not entirely necessary, it does help you in the wine making by extracting extra flavor from the fruit, and helps to make sure your wine will clear up.
  • Acid Blend. Control of the sharpness of the wine you are making is achieved with acid blend, especially in wines that without this will taste flat.
  • Tannin. This will increase the character of your wine, and will help in the wines  fermentation.

The tools of home wine making

There are only a  few basic things that you actually have to have to make wine at home.

  • An air tight  container is required for fermenting your juice before it becomes wine. This container really needs to have an air-lock to allow gases to escape without letting other things to fall back into your wine.
  • A siphon hose is required to be able to move your wine out of the fermentation container, while leaving the sediment and residue behind.
  • Some sort of filter is important, especially if you are going to make wine from fruit as you will need to remove the pulp and any seeds etc.
  • you will also need a hydrometer, which is used for measuring the alcohol content in the wine.