Wine making at home

Wine making is an interesting occupation, a great way to show your creative streak and please yourself and your loved ones with a delicious and high-quality drink. However, in order to make home wine really is, you need to use special equipment and raw materials, to follow the technology precisely. You might already know something on this topic. But we want to guide you a little deeper into the topic of home wine making, starting with an overview of the basic equipment and components needed to create wine. 

Grapes and yeast

Obviously, you can’t make wine without grapes: ripe, good quality, of a variety suitable for winemaking. It is grapes that are needed. Although beverages made from apples, plums, berries, and other fruits are delicious, they are not wines in the direct sense of the word.

Yeast is the next necessary ingredient. Ideally, you should buy special yeast for winemaking. If this is not possible, a yeast starter is prepared from sugar and directly from grapes (or raisins), apples, plums, berries – they have natural yeast on their surface. True, the result of their use will be less predictable than with a specialized product. Bread and spirit yeasts are not suitable for winemaking, as their pungent smell interferes with the delicate aroma of the wine.

Container

The most important equipment for the winemaker is the casks for fermenting and storing the wine. Although it is possible, but not desirable, to do without other equipment, it is impossible to produce a good wine without the right container.

The best wines are fermented and aged in oak barrels, but they need to be soaked, steamed, fumigated, and new barrels need to be leached. All of this takes time and makes sense if you plan to make wine for a long time and make hundreds of liters of wine a year. Large glass bottles, cylindrical tanks or stainless steel or food-grade plastic tanks are a good choice for the novice winemaker. These materials are easy to care for, durable, and won’t ruin the taste of the drink you’re making in them.

It is best to store wine in dark glass bottles, this has been proven over time. Although if you have a dark and cool place to store your homemade wine, you can use regular light-colored bottles or even jars. Don’t forget the corks or lids. 

Hydroseal

A small but important accessory is needed to ensure that the carbon dioxide produced during fermentation escapes from the must and that oxygen is minimized, as it can over-oxidize the wine.

The simplest water seal can be made yourself by drilling a hole in the cork of the fermentation container – a tube should be put through it, and the other end of it should be lowered into a container with water. Of course, there are also ready-made water traps on sale. 

Obviously, you will need some small additional equipment, but these are the essentials.