Can anyone give me a idiots/beginners guide to brewing home made wine?

Question

How difficult is it....where do i start....??!!!

Answer 1

Google home brewing

Answer 2

Get any book by CJJ Berry. He wrote several and all are pitched at beginners.

Answer 3

Whew, I'll try to make it short:

The hardware:

1- 5 gallons carboy or fermenting bucket

1 bottling bucket

cork

airlock valve

siphoning equipment

bottling equipment

bottles

corks

The software:

Favorite variety of grape juice

wine yeast

Add yeast to juice in primary fermentor. Add cork and airlock valve. Go away for a few weeks. When the airlock valve is no longer gurgling and the particulates have sunk to the bottom, siphon liquid into secondary container, leaving the yeast at the bottom of the primary. Leave everything to settle a bit more and bottle.

That's the nitty, gritty short version. You can go to midwestsupplies.com for more info, supplies, brewing equipment kits, and wine ingredient kits.

Answer 4

Not that difficult but it takes time and attention.

1. Obtain a source for good wine grapes OR buy a kit that uses concentrated grape juice.

2.  Going with the whole grape process:  Crush and destem the grapes.  Put into a suitable fermentation container.

3. Sulphite the fruit to 60 ppm to kill of wild yeasts.  Wait one day

4. Pitch your yeast using a suitable strain for the variety of wine you are making.

5. Ferment for 5-14 days, punching down the cap 5x per day.

6. Press the wine from the seeds and skins.  Place into an airtight container (carboy) with an airlock to finish any residual fermentation.

7.  Age until your liking.  Oak using extracts or chips if you like.

8.  Bottle and cork.

That's the basic process.  You can literally obtain a phd in the whole process if you want.  A good book is "Making Wine at Home"  published by UC Davis.

Have fun.

ps   Kits are a lot easier and the results are more predicatable.  But they are kind of like using cake mix vs. making a cake from scratch.