You are here: Home / Archives for Beginners

How To Make Homemade Wine: a Beginner’s Approach

August 3, 2011 Leave a Comment

First, decide the quantity you want to make. In my opinion, a few gallons is ideal for beginners. It is enough to taste some of the wine during the winemaking process, but still small enough to play with various batches and recipes and build up your experience.

The second step is to decide about your raw material, that is – the type of juice. A part from grape juice, good choices for beginners include muscadine, cherry or cranberry juice. All will produce a good dry wine, except for cherries which usually give a sweeter wine.

The next step is to carefully sterilize all of the containers and equipment you use. This is done using a sanitizing solution. Just pour it all over the surfaces in contact with the wine, before rinsing with hot water.

Now you can put your juice in your bucket, but before putting the yeast it is necessary to sterilize the juice. This is done to avoid any unwanted bacteria development. Crush 4 Campden tablets (sulfites) into warm water, mix well and pour them into the juice. Wait a full night to let them do their work.

For your first batch, you may use the basic bakers yeast, which can be found easily at the grocery store. More specialized strains exist for wine making, and you will probably want to use them once you become more advanced. However the bakers yeast is absolutely fine for beginners.

Now you can incorporate your yeast in the juice. Wait 7 days and watch. You may want to cover your bucket with a cloth towel, or put a lid. For the time being, it is not necessary to put an airlock because the abundant release of Carbon Dioxide will protect the juice during this first stage.

After 7 days, and when no more fermentation activity is visible, transfer the wine into another bucket. During the siphoning, pay attention to the gunk at the bottom of the first bucket, as it should not be transferred. This gunk is made up of dead yeast which can communicate a bad flavor to the wine.

In the new bucket, the “secondary fermentation” will take place. This one is much slower and does not release any significant Co2, so that you should put an airlock to protect the wine from oxygen. You will have to wait at least a month, which is long, but be patient. The wine is still not ready.

After one month, you should transfer back the wine into the first bucket, still leaving the gunk at the bottom.

It’s time to stabilize your wine. A stabilizer inhibits yeast activity. Put the stabilizer, stir the wine well, and then transfer it back to the secondary fermentation bucket.

Now – another long period to wait during the natural clearing process of the wine. All impurities will slowly fall at the bottom, but this takes some time, at least another month. This will yield a bright, clear wine, with fine flavors.

Finally, you can bottle your wine! Clean and sanitize carefully the bottles and fill them with the wine. Use a corker from your local wine shop, or an online shop.

You may now taste your wine, but remember that several months of aging will greatly improve its flavor and taste. Wine is a living product, and it requires patience!

Want to go further? There is an excellent E-book written by a well-known and respected expert, Mike Carraway. It covers all previous points in deeper details, and can be downloaded here for free: http://www.making-your-wine.info

I have been involved in professional wine making for several years in the south of France. I have produced and sold my own wine, as well as worked with other winemakers in the area. Today, I am still passionate about wine making, and about transmitting professional know-how to amateur winemakers and hobbyists.


Article from articlesbase.com

Filed Under Wine Making Grapes Tagged With Approach, Beginners, Homemade, Wine

The Best Wine Guide for Beginners

July 31, 2011 Leave a Comment

People who grew up in the wine sector, or have received some training at home or at a culinary school are comfortable with the subject of wine. People who have little exposure to wines are often frustrated and uncomfortable talking about it, or choosing a bottle for a good meal. People should feel comfortable enough to make wise selections. There are several ways a person can learn and understand more about wine.

Wine Guide

There are numerous amounts of books on the topic of wine. However, whilst extremely professionally put together, they shared a common fault – too much information. A good place to start learning and understanding more about wines is reading a well written wine guide. It provides a concise overview covering all aspects of wine, from grape to glass. A wine guide summarizes the numerous themes of wine, some of them quite complicated, into ‘easy to read’ and understandable sections.

Self Learning

If a person has the financial resources, a great way to learn about wine is to do a self study. As mentioned above, a wine guide is a valuable resource for a person trying to learn about wine on their own. A person will also want to buy a variety of wines and analyze their characteristics. The labels on each bottle typically offer a brief description to help a person learn the vocabulary of the subject. A person must keep a record of each vintage tasted and the impressions it provided. Over time a person will see that they have learned a lot and have developed a great appreciation for the product. If a person does not have a lot of money to spend on their project, they may want to invite friends to weekly tasting parties and share the cost of the food and wine.

]]>

Wine Courses

Many times colleges or adult education institutions offer courses that teach about different wines and foods. They will have experts and vintners give seminars and tastings that will be very beneficial. If no such courses exist, a person may want to request one from a local educational facility or maybe even offer to help plan a community education event featuring wine. Sometimes, senior centers or clubs will be happy to host such an event and are happy to have a volunteer help plan the activity. This may seem like a lot of work but it is sure to prove educational and help introduce a person to the wine industry.

Visit Wineries

A good place to start learning and understanding more about wines is to visit several wineries. Sometimes, these elite places may seem hard to approach, but these are good places to improve your knowledge and experience. Wineries often allow a person to sample some of their bottles of wine from different vintages. Wineries are eager to share information that help a person decide what they like and desire in a variety of wines. It is good that a person tries to visit wineries in several locations or different continents to have a real knowledge base. There are often tours to different countries and locales that specifically tour wineries of that region. In conclusion, a well written and easy to ready wine guide will help a person develop their knowledge beyond ‘inquisitive amateur’.

Ciprian Wine Guide, is dedicated to all things wine. If you’re an ‘inquisitive amateur’ or a seasoned wine connoisseur, my blog has something for you. Develop your knowledge about wine with this well written and easy to read Wine Guide.


Article from articlesbase.com

Filed Under Wine Making Grapes Tagged With Beginners, Best, Guide, Wine

Wine Making for Beginners, First Steps

May 30, 2011 Leave a Comment

Wine making for beginners is intended to help you get started at making great drinkable wines as quickly as possible.

I started out because I wanted to do something different with the fuit we were producing from our garden beside the usual jams, pickles and chutneys. We are now in our third year and although far from being experts we have drawn on information from ome very knowledgeable people to help you out.

When you are starting out I think you should make wine in smaller quantities. To my way of thinking (and trust me, in my own experience) once you get it right you can then up the volumes.

Personally I tend to make in small batches but there are advantages to larger amounts if you have the fruit to spare. The biggest one being that you may actually get to age some rather than sampling them all. The taste of wine that has been allowed to age is far superior.

Now decide what fruit you want to use. If you have a good supply of grapes then you are into the real thing.  If you are using other fruit then you may need to add sugar to give enough alcohol content.  In some cases the fruit/vegetable is just little more than a flavouring and most of the alcohol comes from the yeast acting on added sugar.

Cleanliness is essential. Get the wrong bugs in and the whole batch can be ruined. I use sterilizing solutions and with a large fermenting bucket you can sterilise the bucket and all your preparation tools (mixing spoons etc.) in one go.

Prepare your fruit and whichever recipe you are using put the liquid into your fermenting bucket.  Now comes the first wait!

Cover your container and wait for 7 days. There should be a fairly vigorous fermentation, then once this is over it is time to move the wine on to glass containers (demijohn/carboys) Leave behind as much of the gunk as you can by siphoning and/or filtering and seal with a airlock.
This is when patience is needed. A good month is best.

After the month is up, you will want to transfer it back to your bucket, again making sure that you leave the yeast waste on the bottom. The process of transferring the wine from one vessel to another allows you to get rid of any waste and helps clear the wine.

It may be necessary to repeat this several times until the wine is clear enough to bottle. This is helped by adding a stabilizer to stop the yeast working.

Be sure all the vessels are re-sterilized at each stage.

Patience is a virtue! Better bottle clear, does not taste any different but the look is so much better.

When you are happy with the appearance then the last but one stage is here. Time to bottle.

Make sure again that the bottles are sterile, siphon the wine in and seal them. There is a huge debate in the major wine making world about corks or screw tops.  Currently in the home wine making world corks are the preferred  option.

Once again now is the time to exercise some patience. if you leave the wine in bottles for several months the results will be far better. For some wines then several years is a good idea. It is all down to your own personal preference though, and a bit of trial and error does no harm.
I have made a free wine making book,  with much more detail, available at Wine Making for Beginners where there is much more detail to help you get started.

There is also a blog where I will post my own experiences and would love to hear yours

Whatever you make then I hope you enjoy.

Roger lives in the North West of England. His hobbies include food and drink, with cooking and home brewing and wine making a particular interest

 

http://wine-making-for-beginners.com


Article from articlesbase.com

Filed Under Wine Making Grapes Tagged With Beginners, First, Making, Steps, Wine

Want to Learn Secrets regarding Wine Making For Beginners?

May 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

When people start out to make their own wine the goal is to make a good enough wine to drink. However this can be a tricky task without the right information.

This page is to assist you to steer clear of the many mistakes that people make on their first attempt at making wine at home.

Making wine at home is a growing industry, and is it any wonder when we continue to see rising prices throughout the world for a decent bottle of good quality wine.

It does not seem very long ago when you could buy a good bottle of wine for less that a pound in Spain. Today those prices seem to have increased dramatically even the cheapest wine is at least four pounds a bottle in the UK.

The latest news is that the cost of quality wine is close to twice the price over the past 5 years in many countries.

At this time in the UK there is a growing concern of young people who are overindulging in the use of alcohol and becoming a danger to society. Hypermarkets are now increasing their prices due to pressure from the Government.

The annoying thing is that this is a negative for thoughtful folks that are moderate drinkers of wine. It does appear that sensible people are being penalised for the people that are not able to control their use of alcohol.

This is probably the reason why that making wine at home is becoming more attractive to many people. The facts are it really is a simple task. Wine making for beginners at first may not seem an easy task, but once you get over the first couple of stages then it is great fun especially when you make a excellent batch.

There are many questions that people ask in the beginning to how much wine should I make? And this question is quite understandable as you don’t want to be wasting money. Nevertheless produce enough to get a good stockpile. You don’t want to be consuming it before the wine matures.

The recommended quantity to produce is five gallons that would give you twenty five bottles approximately. The truth is that most folks that produce wine at home can’t wait to taste it so the result is a few bottles can soon be consumed.

The longer you leave the wine in the bottles the better it will taste. The howler that many folks make is not allowing the wine to get old in the bottles.

On the other hand if you are in a hurry you can get going with a gallon that would produce around five bottles. The truth is that most people can get rid of five bottles pretty fast before the maturity of the wine is complete.

The next stage is to decide which type of juice you would like to make your wine out of. Do you want a red wine, white wine? The choices are endless; nevertheless the most common preferences are cranberry and grape juice.

On the subject of the above juices if they are to dry for your taste adding sugar is a simple task when the fermentation is complete and the wine has been stabilized.

If you are looking to make a sweeter wine then many people are very successful with cherry juice.

The next step is essential and that is to sterilize the equipment and then add the juice to the five gallon container.

There are few options regarding sterilizing, plain hot water works or a decontaminator. Rising off all the surfaces after use of the sterilizer is very important. In order to avoid scolding their selves numerous folks choose this method, however the rinsing of all the equipment with hot water still has to be carried out after the use of a sanitizer.

With regard to wine making kits for beginners it is important to read the small print on the packet, here it will give you all the information you need as far what equipment you will need to get started.

I regret it would not be possible to cover all you need to know to make a good quality wine in this article, however I hope this encouraged you get started and save you a ton of money.

The truth is you can produce a bottle of wine for less than 30 pence per bottle, after the initial outlay. The most rewarding part is when you get to make that good batch of wine and share it with your friends and they love it as much as you.

Want more information on the subject of wine making for beginners? Alan is offering a FREE ebook full of essential guidelines to making wine at home at his web site by subscribing to his email course, plus a web site with access to 56 wine recipes and much more……….


Article from articlesbase.com

Filed Under Wine Making Grapes Tagged With Beginners, Learn, Making, regarding, Secrets, Want, Wine

Homemade Wine Making Tips for Beginners

May 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

With the growing number of wine enthusiasts today – either for enjoyment or a form of medication in some part of the world, wines are definitely the one people are after. Unfortunately, wines are expensive. With quality comes with aging, old wines can be very, very expensive.

Now, for the wine enthusiasts who can’t just settle with bought wines, they go for homemade wines, instead – homemade wine making has become the hobby of many, worldwide.

It’s important to do some homework and learn exactly what’s entailed before undertaking the hobby of winemaking. It is not something that can be simply plunged into and then learned along the way. Without the vital research required to have the necessary foreknowledge of each and every critical winemaking step and process, failure is a certainty. When it comes to winemaking, failure can taste as awful as success is sweet.

Winemaking is a fun hobby that can easily be done in one’s spare time and at the end of the process–provided everything goes well–there will be a glorious result. Many people find winemaking to be an addictive past time, because no matter how well they might do they always envision room for improvement, in the next batch. As more is learned about wine making and as more wine making experience is gained the wine will get better and better. As more and more tips and tricks are learned to help improve the final product, and endless process begins of improving the next batch, and then the next batch, and then the next, and so on.

The vast majority of wines are made from grapes for a very good reason: the grape has nearly all of the ingredients necessary to making wine already infused into it. Success in winemaking entirely wrapped up in the balance of chemicals, and the grape has many of the necessary chemicals in it already, in balanced ideal for winemaking.

The right balance of sugar, tannin, moisture and nutrients, are vital to create a quality wine, and it just so happens that the grape perfectly fits the bill. This natural balance allows the grape to ferment exactly as it needs to for successful winemaking. However, selecting the proper grape is only the beginning of a successful winemaking journey.

There are of course many different grapes that can be used in different combinations. As the hobbyist becomes more skilled at winemaking they may want to try adding a bit of some other fruits to the mixture to give the wine some extra depth and flavoring. Reading about the different grapes that can be used in winemaking and how they affect the outcome of the wine making process can be enormously helpful. Knowing what kind of wine the maker prefers will give them a good idea of which direction to set out in.

As with any hobby it is important to keep close in mind that winemaking is supposed to be fun. Mistakes are bound to be made, and no one takes up winemaking without making a few along the way. Don’t let mistakes destroy the fun of the hobby. Rather, learn from them and seek to correct them.

Click here for our top homemade wine making guide

Need more guides? Click here for homemade wine guide reviews.


Article from articlesbase.com

Filed Under Wine Making Grapes Tagged With Beginners, Homemade, Making, Tips, Wine