Tips for Winemaking Beginners

Quality equipment is probably the biggest concern for somebody just beginning in their home brewing ambitions. I want to make it clear that you do NOT need to spend a fortune on your equipment. That being said, you also do not want to short change yourself when it comes to what you will use to make your first batch of wine.

I have met many people who "tried" to brew their own wine at home, and gave up after their first batch or two. Why? The reason they give is usually that their wine came out tasting poorly, or that what they ended up with was not wine at all! You cannot simply shake all of your ingredients in a jug and set it aside and expect a quality glass of wine after a few weeks. It takes a little investment on your eqipment to have a good set up to provide yourself with a tasty wine at the end of the fermentation process.

My personal set up for brewing at home includes the following:

A primary fermenter, a five gallon bucket with a tight seal and a fermentation lock works.

A secondary fermenter, I use two five gallon glass carboys (the second is for racking and clarification).

A large stock pot, used in the initial heating of the must

Fermentation locks

A large wooden spoon

Large Thermometer

Hydrometer (used to determine specific gravity)

Racking Cane and a couple feet of plastic tubing

Bottle Brushes (a small one for wine bottles, and a large L-shaped one for the carboys)

A bottle filler with an automatic stop

A corker

Bottles and corks

A good sanitizer (Iodophor or bleach is recommended)

I found most of my equipment online, and one of my favorite resources for acquiring equipment is Homebrew Heaven. All of the above I purchased for about $300. Definitely a good price tag, but not an unrealistic budget. I can tell you that it was definitely worth the price as I enjoyed my first glass of wine made by Yours Truly!

Not all of the equipment listed above is strictly necessary, but all of it does make my life easier during certain parts of the brewing process. Once you have obtained all of winemaking supplies, it is time to start considering what ingredients you will want to use.

If you are interested in learning more about what winemaking equipment is best for you, click here to find more expert advice!

So what actually goes into a batch of wine? Well, the answer to this is deceptively simple. All wines are made out of thre key ingredients: yeast, water, and a base fermentable such as juice or honey. There are many things to add to your wine in addition to these three things, but these three things are your basics.

Yeast, The Mighty Fermenter
Your yeast is your most important consideration when brewing a batch of wine. In the fermentation process, the yeast in your must (must is your wine before fermentation) goes to work converting the sugars in your fermentable into two things: carbon dioxide and alcohol. Any yeast will do this, yet you DON'T want just any old yeast in your wine. Different strains of yeast have different needs, tolerances and effects on your wine.

What Kind of Yeast to Choose?
There are several companies out there that produce and sell different strains of yeast. You may recognize Red Star, as they produce bread yeasts in addition to brewing yeasts. Other popular companies are Lalvin, Wyeast and White Labs. There are others out there, but the above are the most common ones I've come across for brewing. My favorite is Lalvin, as they have a wide selection of yeasts that produce various different qualities in my finished wine.
My best advice when it comes to yeast is to do your homework! Different wines have diffferent tolerances when it comes to alcohol content, ph levels and other factors. Most winemaking books and resources out there recommend specific yeasts for specific recipes, and these should be followed at first. Once you become more prficient at home brewing, you will want to branch out and explore the different effects, but it's a gamble when you first start out.

Water, The Purer the Better!
The second major component of any wine is plain old water. You want to be conscious of the water yoou will be using for brewing. I strongly advise against using plain tap water, as it may contain additives or impurities that, while they are harmless to people, can have very undesirable effects on your yeast. I tend to use distilled drinking water found in the grocery store, as it is clean and safe for the yeast. Not to mention that it is free of the flavor often found in most tap water that would surely come out in the final product.

Yeast Loves Sugar!
Now, the exciting stuff; your base fermentable! This is where the biggest part of your flavor and body will come from. Unless you are ambitious enough to grow and press your own grapes, you will probably be working with a juice concentrate. Just as with the rest though, not any old juice will do... Winemakers have available to them grape juice concentrate produced just for the purpose of brewing. Most winemaking websites and stores will have a broad selection of juices t choose from. As a rule of thumb, if you like the flavor of your fermentable before you brew it, you'll like it afterwards as well.
One of my favorite things to brew is mead (honey wine), and I spend a lot of time tasting and trying different honeys before I ever settle on one to make mead out of. There are two reasons; 1) honey is expensive and if I invest in enough honey to brew mead with, I want it to taste good 2) honey from different areas tastes VASTLY different. Orange blossom honey from Florida tastes incredibly different from mesquite honey from Arizona.

Additives, Herbs and Other Ingredients
Lastly, you'll want to consider all of the other ingredients that can go into your wine. This includes, but is not limited to sulfites, pectin (for clarification), yeast nutrients and energizers, various herbs and spices, etc. All of these things have a decidedly large impact on your finished wine, and you'll want to know just how much to use, when to use them, etc. Click here to find out more about what to put in your wine. Includes some great wine recipes!

Hey there wine enthusiasts!!! I want to share with you my thoughts on a product that I have found on the web. It's called Home Winemaking: Step by Step

I have been brewing my own wine, primarily mead (honey wine), at home for a couple of years now. I don't really consider myself an expert on the topic, but I do enjoy my own brew immensely. I have been doing some research about home winemaking, and what mistakes are common out there, because I have a genuine desire to help people to make the very best quality wines in their homes. In that spirit, I bought Home Winemaking: Step by Step, and read the whole thing through to get a feel for what was different in this product from the numerous books I already have.

I was very thoroughly impressed with the work. Steven Everett (the author), covers the entire process of making wine at home with incredible detail. There were tips in there that I had never even considered, let alone used. One of the biggest problems with my meads is that I had trouble clarifying them. I often use fruit in my meads, and honey itself is very sugary (obviously), and this lent to many of my more creative meads being very cloudy... Now, they still tasted wonderful, which is the important part! Yet, I like to take pride in what I do, and I know that a clear wine really awes people when they drink it. In my last batch of mead, I put to use some of the techniques in Steven's instructions to clarify. Lo and behold! It actually worked!

Now, if you have been brewing for a while, and have your own rhythm figured out, this book probably will not tell you anything new. I still would say it's worth a gander, because this guy really is an expert and he may just end up teaching you a trick or two to really get your wines to the next level! Yet, I think that somebody relatively new to the hobby of brewing wine at home would really benefit from this ebook. One of the greatest benefits to the beginner in this ebook is the addition of the wine journal.

The wine journal is a great tool to record all of the information about your wine, and it is very organized! I was not very organized at recording the specifics of what I was doing wheen I first began brewing. I wish I had! I have been trying to replicate a batch of cyser that I made really early on, and have never been able to! I don't even remember what kind of yeast I used fo it! A laid-out format to take all your notes on would have been invaluable to me!

Anyways, I think this "short" review has gone on long enough... Check it out for yourself I am positive that if you are new to the world of brewing, these step by step instructions will catapult you into success when it comes to brewing outstanding wine!

Thanks for reading, and happy brewing!