3 Ways To Make Wine
Home made wine is great to have around the house. If you like to entertain, wine tasting parties and dinners that pair with your wine add a new dimension to your gatherings. Wine is also a welcome hostess gift at a dinner party. I make my wine with friends and family in mind because it is a birthday and holiday gift they all look forward to. My husband and I like a glass in the evening as well. There are so many reasons to make wine, including the fact that it’s relatively inexpensive after you’ve purchased the initial materials and it’s really fun.
I have been making wine for a few years. I started with a Brewsy pack and a one gallon bottle of cranberry/blackberry juice and before graduating to the one month wine kits. From there, with the help of a friend, Bev, I went to the big time. I now make real wine out of the fruit I find, grow and buy. It’s become a very fun hobby for me and my family and friends have benefitted from my insatiable need to find new and interesting recipes. There are three ways to make wine and one, or all may fit your lifestyle.
Brewsy
A friend introduced me to Brewsy with a delicious glass of wine. Brewsy is a company that sells packs of wine yeast mixed with potassium bicarbonate, malolactic culture, organic micronutrients, and bentonite. These additional natural items add nutrients to the yeast and keep the wine stable. One pack of these goodies turns a gallon of juice into wine in a week. You can find everything you need to make a gallon of wine, including the gallon jug and wine bottles on the Brewsy website.
The benefit of this wine making method is that finishes quickly. You can put together nice bottles of wine to give as gifts or to use for a special occasion. The wine must be kept in the refrigerator however because it doesn’t contain the ingredients it needs for long term storage in bottles. You can purchase these ingredients from Brewsy if you are going to make a large batch and want to store the wine at room temperature for longer periods of time.
Wine Kits
You can find wine kits at wine making stores and on Amazon. Since I live on an island in the middle of nowhere, Amazon is generally my go-to. If you have a wine shop in your area I recommend you give them a try first. There are lots of companies that make wine kits, and the variety is endless and you may have better luck finding just the right wine kit at a specialty shop. In addition, having a wine specialist to help you along the way is golden.
Wine kits include all of the ingredients you will need to make your wine. You will need to add water to the sugar/fruit liquid that comes with the kit, but the yeast and all of the nutrients and stabilizers you need to turn the liquid into wine will be in the box. You can bottle this wine and keep it at room temperature for longer periods of time. The benefit of making wine from a kit is that you will have a nice bottle of wine within 2 months of the day you start the wine and you can bottle it and keep it in your wine cellar for a long time.
Traditional Wine Making
Traditional wine making takes time. If you truly want a yummy glass of wine, you won’t drink the stuff until 2 years after you make it. Mixing your wine recipe in the primary fermentor takes two weeks, the secondary fermentation in a carboy takes 6 months to a year and then your bottled wine will need to rest for a year. Of course you don’t have to wait that long, you can drink it right out of the carboy, but if you want a delicious bottle of wine, it takes at least a year and a half, to two years. Honestly, my first bottles of traditionally made wine didn’t last a full year, not even close. Now I have enough wine bottles in the queue to pick one that is ready to drink. It took time to get here, so patience is a virtue with this hobby.
Making wine from items you collect is very rewarding for many reasons including taking advantage of fruits, and herbs you find in nature. Dandelion wine is a favorite, and who knew something so lovely could come from the pesky, weed-flowers we gardeners try so hard to eliminate. The island I live on in Alaska has an abundance of wild blueberries, huckleberries and cranberries that I make into yummy wine. A favorite is blueberry/merlot using wild blueberries and merlot juice purchased from a wine shop. If only blackberries grew here.
You don’t have to be a mad scientist to make wine. You can choose one of these three methods and start your first batch today. Using the Brewsy packs to get instant gratification and a great way to start. You may want to get a wine kit to start, or graduate to the kit after you have been successful with Brewsy. You may want to just jump into making wine the old fashioned way to make your own recipes from ingredients you collect or purchase. Whatever your fancy, start making wine, it is fun and rewarding.