Clear Wine Bucket

December 9, 2010
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clear wine bucket

How To Make Homemade Wine: a Beginner’s Approach

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

About the Author

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.

How to Make Homemade Wine from Fruit – High Alcohol & Flavor Too-Tutorial + Recipe

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