Beginner Winemaking

Your first decision when setting out to make a batch of wine is probably going to be what KIND of wine to make. The options are virtually limitless. Here are a few of you basic options:

traditional grape wine

sparkling wine

Mead, aka Honey Wine

and Fruit Wine

These are just the most popular choices, especially for those new to making wine at home. As I said, the options are Virtually Liimitless! I have piles of recipes here for wine made from herbs and spices, flowers and even vegetables! Your imagination is the only real limit when it comes to this. I'll delve into the popular ones here.

Grape Wine
This is the traditional wine you find in the store. Be it Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Malbec, etc. It's all grape wine. The myriad of different names comes from different species and varietals of grapes. This is probably the most popular kind of wine to make at home. Vineyards and other companies often sell the juice from their grapes just for home winemakers.

Sparkling Wine
Do you like Champagne? I know I do. Unfortunately, only Sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France can be called "Champagne". The rest of it is known as Sparkling Wine, and is accomplished rather easily. Before bottling, a carefully measured amount of sugar is placed in the bottle, which results in a secondary fermentation inside the bottle. With carbbon dioxide being a byproduct of fermentation, the pressure in the bottle increases, and produces carbonation. It is FUN to make your own sparkling wine, but please be sure to have the right bottles and sealing equipment. Other wise, you'll have a sticky mess on your hands...

Mead
Probably my personal favorite of home winemaking. Mead is made from Honey, and is quite possibly the oldest alcoholic beverage known to mankind. There's a lot of debate around that, but we won't get into that here. There are many types of mead ot there, including cyser, metheglin, braggot, melomel, among others. The name changes depending upon what other ingredients are present. Mead is as varied and complex as traditional grape wine, and also has a culture that surrounds it just as does grape wine.

Fruit Wine
Though you don't find much in the way of fruit wine in the stores, it is probably the most common form of wine that you'll find people making in their own home. For every fruit out there, there's probably at least a few people who claim it as their favorite and brew it into wine at home. Passion Fruit, Cider, peaches, cranberries, pears.... all of it can be mad einto delicious wine!

As I said, there is countless combinations of varieties of wine to make. The sky trully is the limit. For a more in-depth look into the different wines you can make, please visit Home Winemaking: Step by Step

Well, quite honestly, I could write a book on what you can use to make wine. Fortunately for both of us, there's already plenty of books out there on this topic. Some of the best suggestions I have seen for what you need to make wine are in Home Winemaking: Step by Step. However, here is a list of the true basics that you need to get started:

A good sanitizer. Bleach works, but is harmful to the environment and you. Iodophor is a much less harmful alternative, and is popular among both commercial winemakers and home winemakers.

A primary fermenter. Commonly this is a bucket with a very tight seal, with a hole drilled in the lid, where a fermentation airlock is placed. There are other options, but this is the most likely and affordable.

A secondary fermenter This is usually a glass carboy (it looks like a Culligan Man water bottle, but it's made of glass). These are probably the signature item of home winemakers and brewers. This vessel is utilized for clarifing the wine and finishing out the fermentation process.

Acessories. Now, this is where this list can get very, very long. I recommend that you stick to the basics here, as these can get expensive really quickly. I recommend:

a racking cane with an auto-siphon,

a large bottle brush for your carboy,

a fermentation bag (a fine mesh bag used to hold in and easily remove fruit and other ingredients from the primary fermenter),

extra fermentation locks with drilled rubber stoppers,

a hydrometer,

a large thermometer,

a corking device,

corks and some bottles.

Aside from these things, you will probably already have everything you need lying around in your kitchen.

If you really get into making wine at home, your list of supplies will quickly grow beyond this. However, I say start with the basics, and then move up to the fancier gear and supplies once you decide that this is rreally the hobby for you. If you want somereally good and detailed advice on what kind of supplies to gather, go to Home Winemaking: Step by Step. There's pages and pages of what kind of equipment is best and the details on why in there.

This is probably the difficult part for most beginners. What does Pectic Enzyme do? What is a Campden tablet? What's the difference between yeast energizer and yeast nutrient? Should I use Lavin EC-118 yeast, or Lalvin D-47? This is where budding home winemakers often drop of the radar.

It is invaluable to know what it is you're putting into your wine. Especially if you are one like me, who is sensitive to sulfites and avoids wines with those in them. You CAN brew wine without anything besides the yeast being added to the mix. However, every additive plays a specific role in determining the quality and successful completion of a fermentation.

If you trust the source of the recipes that you are using, then by all means, go ahead and utilize the ingredients they suggest. You will more than likely be happy that you did. However, if you are pulling a recipe from random schmoe on the internet, then do your research and find out what each of those strange ingredients does, and how much to use for your batch size. I may do a whole lens on these additives in the future, but until then, be vigilent.

Better yet, got to Home Winemaking: Step by Step and find from an expert what the best ingredients are to use, and when to use them :-)