Help: wine making from scratch.?

Question

Okay, here are my issues: How do you make wine? I have access to grain yeast but not fruit yeast. I have an APO address wich precludes many items from being shipped to me. I live in a dry country. Help?

Answer 1

I don't know what the laws are with a dry country and the shipping of yeast but there's nothing inherently wrong with yeast strains specifically for wine.  One could possibly argue they intend to make bread with it.  Anyways, I'd search online and order it if you can.

Plan B...

You could TRY to cultivate yeast from a bottle although success is not guaranteed.  Basically what you'll want to do is chill down a bottle of particularly yeasty wine if you can find one.  This should cause the yeast to settle to the bottom.  From there gently decant the wine off of the yeast obviously in an effort to keep the yeast in the bottle as much as possible.  After you do this reintroduce a small volume of unfermented grape juice, preferably intended for making wine.  Let this ferment for 1-3 days assuming it works.  Repeat this process until you wind up with a healthy slug of wine yeast.  Keep everything as sterile/sanitized as possible during this whole process.  This was a rather glib description, more reading should be available online if you care to search for yeast cultivation methods.

Answer 2

Nearly any kind of yeast will "suffice" in that it will turn sugar into ethanol.  "Good" yeast adds a minimum of extra byproducts (such as methanol) and has a high tolerance towards alcohol, meaning more sugar gets converted.

Grain yeast will work for you, or if you want to do it old-school style, use no yeast at all and live with the luck of the draw.  It won't be the best wine in the world, but it will do.

You will need containers (glass is best, milk jugs will do) that are sterilized IMMEDIATELY before use by boiling water in them.  Right afterwards add your fruit juice and yeast if you have it.  The best way to do it is with grapes or other very juicy fruits, wash them off, and then mash them up.  Alternatively, you can use store-bought grape juice, but MAKE SURE IT IS ORGANIC.  Otherwise preservatives will interfere with the fermentation.  I've heard of frozen concentrates working well once they've been reconstituted, but never tried this myself.  If you do use whole fruit, try to get the stems and seeds out before mashing or juicing them.

Put your yeast, if you have it, in a cup of warm water, wait for the water to get cloudy (don't stir!), and add some sugar.  Stir gently, wait for it to foam, and then put that into your fermenting container.

You also need some way for the CO2 to get out without building up pressure in the container and breaking, and without letting air into the wine.  The modern way is to get something called a fermentation lock and bung, which is sort of like a rubber cork with a looping plastic tube coming out of it.  If you have one of these, put water in so it covers the whole width of the tube on the lower bend.  If not, you can just use a balloon with a few holes poked in the top.

Attach your lock and bung if you have it, or your balloon.  It must fit securely and tightly over the opening.  There should be no possibility of air leaking in around the edges, and if you're using a balloon you may want to fix it on with duct tape or a rubber band.

Put the whole contraption into a warmish, dark place, and wait.  After a month or so primary fermentation should be done, if you want better quality wine you can siphon the wine from one container to another, being careful to let the solid matter stay in the old container.  Set the new container up with a balloon or fermentation lock and wait a few more weeks, siphon off one more time, and then drink.

Alternatively, if you are where I think you are, just make friends with someone with diplomatic immunity at the Embassy.  They can hook you up.

Answer 3

Ouch-good luck.

? Start a smuggling or blackmarket operation.