Making Wine at Home

Making Wine at HomeAny trip to a fabulous wine region such as Tuscany, Napa Valley, Mendoza, or Burgundy should be enough to make you want to drop everything and become a winemaker. While becoming a professional winemaker might not be an option, there is no reason why you cannot make wine at home. Your finished product will not be as transcendent as that bottle of Opus One you popped for your daughter's twenty-first birthday, but at least you can now officially call yourself a winemaker.Advice Before You Begin by Peter AligHome winemaking can be fun and challenging, and it may even turn into a lifelong hobby. Your expectations for the quality of the final product need to be realistic and based on how much time and, yes, money you put into the enterprise.Before you start designing your wine labels, here are some extremely important issues to consider before you begin.∙Make sure you have enough space. If you plan to buy grapes and crush them yourself, you will need much more work space than if you buy grape concentrate from a brewing supply store. If you plan on the former, your garage is most logical base of operations. Depending on the size of your garage, you may have to park your car outside as you make your wine. Also, your work area must be somewhat cool and as clean as possible.∙Decide how much money you want to spend.Wineries spend millions of dollars on new equipment and on maintaining their existing equipment. This is not an option for most of us. If you are serious about establishing a home operation, you will have to spend several hundred dollars to acquire the most basic equipment. Again, if you plan to forego buying and crushing grapes, your costs will be considerably lower. It is also possible to rent home winemaking equipment.There are as many as 750,000 home winemakers in the United States. In Sonoma County, California, home winemakers stage a grand tasting once a year and award medals to the best wines.∙Don't be afraid to fail. Experience will be your most valuable teacher. If your first foray into home winemaking does not result in the most palatable wine, your next attempt will undoubtedly be more successful. Keep a journal as you make your wine, noting every step in the process, from the amounts of sulfur dioxide you add along the way to the type of yeast you use. Some techniques you will use again; others, you will discard.∙Purchase a more detailed home winemaking guide. The information in this chapter will allow you to produce a passable wine, but if questions or concerns spring up along the way, here are two excellent supplementary texts, both available from : Jon Iverson,Home Winemaking Step by Step and Daniel Pambianchi, Techniques in Home Winemaking.Gathering the Equipment by Peter AligGood wine is as good as the grapes used to make it, but without the right equipment, high-quality grapes will not have the chance to shine. Here is the most basic equipment to have on hand before you begin. You will need more of certain pieces depending on how much wine you plan to make.∙Grape crusher or destemmer (you can rent one for as little as $30)∙Plastic screen (colander) for filtering out grape solids during pressing (if crushing grapes)∙Basket press (again, only if starting from actual grapes)∙Primary fermenting vessel(s). These vary in size. The best are made of stainless steel, but cheaper options are food-grade plastic garbage cans with lids.∙Glass carboys, around five or so gallons in size. You will need these for wine racking and storage.∙Siphon∙Wine thief, for wine sampling and testing∙Stirring spoons or paddle∙Plastic tubing, at least 10 feet∙Bottle brushes for cleaning∙Air locks for fermentation vessels∙Rubber stoppers for carboys∙Funnels∙Measuring cups∙Brix hydrometer (saccharometer)∙Regular thermometer∙pH test strips able to sustain readings below 3.7∙Bottles and closuresAny employee of a home brewing store will know what each of these is and how to locate them. You will also need to purchase certain wine additives, which are chemical in nature. Even if you decide not to crush your own grapes, these are critical.∙Acid blend (tartaric) for adjustments. These come in pill bottles or bags.∙Active dried yeasts (Prise de mousse)∙Yeast Nutrient, such as diammonium phosphate∙Potassium Metabisulfite powder for sulfur additions∙Sugar, in case you need to raise levels in must before fermentation∙Cleaning solution for hoses, carboys, bottles, etc. Everclear alcohol is a good option.The following additives are optional, though recommended:∙Pectic enzymes, while the least critical of all the additives, do break down the structure of the grape creating more juice and a more clarified wine. Home wine makers add about one half-teaspoon pectic enzyme per gallon of fruit juice prior to starting fermentation.∙Grape tannin, which gives your red wine more structure, if needed.∙Malolactic fermentation culture, definitely not needed if you are making wine from a kit involving grape concentrate.Once you have gathered the necessary equipment and additives, do not immediately start crushing your grapes. First, sterilize everything. Thanks to bacteria and other microbes, your home winemaking experiment can go horribly wrong before you even begin if your equipment is not clean.Getting the Juice Out by Peter AligYou can certainly make good-tasting wine from jars of grape concentrate, but nothing compares to buying actual grapes and crushing them yourself. It is now possible to buy Vitisvinifera grapes in most states. If you live in New England, for example, you can buy California wine grapes from American Wine Grape Distributors, based in Massachusetts, which imports grapes such as Merlot and Chenin Blanc.Before you can decide how many grapes to buy, you need to decide roughly how much wine you want to make. A very rough but helpful conversion is that one gallon of juice can be pressed from about 16 pounds of grapes. A half-ton of grapes will produce one barrel of wine.Once you have your grapes, sort through them very carefully. If any grapes appear rotten or if any have slightly torn skins, remove them from the rest.The U.S. government regulates home winemaking. While you no longer need a permit to make wine at home — this requirement was lifted in 1979 — it is still illegal for a household to produce more than 200 gallons (1,000 bottles) a year. It is also illegal to sell wine made at home, but this does not mean that you can't give bottles to friends.Now comes the most tedious part. If you have bunches of grapes, you must separate the grapes from the stems by hand. Sure, you could buy or rent a destemmer, but they are more expensive than crushers and presses. If you crush the grapes with the stems attached, you risk adding needless astringency and bitterness to your wine. So, invite some friends over, open up some bottles of somebody else's wine, and have a destemming party.If red wine is your goal, then the grapes go into the crusher. For home winemakers, crushers willfit very easily over your fermentation vessel, whether steel or plastic. If you wish to make a white wine from a white grape, you could put the grapes directly into the press and squeeze, thus bypassing the crushing process. The key for any white wine is to minimize skin contact. Presses are designed to channel the precious juice into a container waiting right next to it.Even if you decide to crush white grapes before pressing, you must still press the must (skins, juice, seeds) before you start fermentation. When pressing white whole grapes or freshly crushed white must, it's a good idea to place some kind of sieve over the juice-receiving container, as thiswill trap seeds and other grape matter from mixing with the juice. You want the white grape juiceto be as clear as possible.Preparing the Must for Fermentation by Peter AligAt this point, the freshly crushed must is extremely vulnerable to oxidation, white more than red. You must make your first sulfur addition. In addition, you must test the must for total acidity and sugar level (Brix) before beginning the all-important fermentation. Too little acidity and the must is fair game for microbial spoilage, and the wine will be flabby and lifeless. Too little sugar and the wine will not reach a respectable alcohol level.Sulfur should be your first concern, however. Raise the total sulfur dioxide of your wine, whether white or red, to 50 ppm (mg/L) by adding less than a quarter teaspoon of powdered potassium metabisulfite. If your grapes look a little beat up, you could add as much as a quarter teaspoon, raising the level to 75 ppm. Use your stirring paddle to combine.After you have added sulfur to your container of white juice, seal the container securely and leave it in a cool place. After at least twelve hours have passed, check the juice and you will see that even more grape matter has precipitated out of the wine and settled at the bottom of the container. Using your siphon and tubing, transfer the clarified juice directly into your fermentation vessel, which, ideally, should be composed of stainless steel.Any winemaker, whether working at home or in the winery, will be extremely careful not to add too much sulfur. Too much will not only kill the added yeast, which you need for fermentation, but create extremely unpleasant aromas.Now, you must check the acid and sugar levels. For the former, follow the instructions in your acid test kit. For the former, your target pH should be no higher than 3.7. Use your pH test strips. Add your tartaric acid slowly, no more than a teaspoon at a time, to get to the correct reading. If your total acidity is too high, the yeast you need to add for fermentation will not function!Next, check the sugar level using your hydrometer. A reading of 21° Brix means you can expect an alcohol level of 12 percent in your finished wine. The magic number is 0.575, which you multiply by the Brix reading to get your potential alcohol. If the sugar level is higher than you desire, you can add water to lower it, but check your acid levels again, because adding water affects acidity. Ifyour sugar level is too low, you can add grape concentrate bit by bit until the desired level has been achieved. You can also dissolve one cup of pure cane sugar in one-third cup warm water to create a syrup, which you can also add in small amounts to achieve the desired Brix.Do not acidify with citric acid, an option which may be appealing at first due to its low cost. If you only use tartaric acid, you have a better chance of making a cleaner wine. If you acidify with citric acid before fermentation, the yeast can convert it into acetic acid, and your wine could be rendered undrinkable.When you are ready to start fermenting, make sure that you do not fill your fermentation vessel to the very top. In fact, only fill about 80 percent of it. When fermentation begins, carbon dioxide in the form of foam will rise from the juice/must, and you don't want this to overflow. Also, if you are making red wine, you need room in the tank to punch down the cap.Getting the Yeast Ready to Ferment by Peter AligIf only fermentation were as easy as dumping yeast into your juice or must!For the yeast to even work, the environment in which you choose to ferment needs to be warm, so if you live in NorthDakota and wish to ferment in your garage in January, make sure your garage has a heater. Red wines should successfully ferment amidst temperatures ranging from 65° to 85° F, whereas for whites the temperature should be between 55° and 65° F.When you went to the home brewing shop to buy your bag of yeast, you may have noticed that some yeast are better suited to dry red wine, others to dry white wine. If the yeast bag says Prise de Mousse, that will handle most home fermentations. If in doubt, check with a store employee.The yeast cells also need food to function. Just like we need to have breakfast and lunch to get us through our workdays, yeast need certain nutrients to thrive, mainly nitrogen. Therefore, before you add the yeast to your juice/must, add approximately 12 ounces of diammonium phosphate (DAP) per 225 liters (one barrel) of juice/must you wish to ferment. The package will give you more detailed instructions about how much to add.Finally, just like you can't work and sleep at the same time, you have to wake up your yeast before they can start fermenting. Always read the package before beginning, but here is a good strategy: In a sterile container, mix 10 grams of yeast with 100 ml of 102°F water. Wait 15 minutes, and add 100 ml of grape juice. Wait 15 more minutes, and add another 100 ml of grape juice. Once you see the mixture start to bubble, then you add the mixture to your fermenter full of juice/must. Monitoring Fermentation by Peter AligOnce yeast nutrient has been added, add your activated yeast to your fermentation vessel. Yeast converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide in the absence of oxygen, so make sure you cover your vessel. Make sure your cover is not so tight that carbon dioxide cannot escape. If your cover is too tight, your tank could explode!During fermentation, you must perform the following three tasks:1.Check the temperature several times a day. If it is too hot or too cold, the yeast will not function. The yeastgenerates heat during fermentation, and temperatures of 90° F are typical. If you get sustained reading above 90°, take steps to cool the system, such as adding dry ice.2.Check the Brix level. Simply withdraw some juice/wine and use your hydrometer. Once the Brix reading reaches 0.5degrees, the wine is dry (some grape sugars do not ferment).3.Punch down the cap. If you are making red wine, the released carbon dioxide will push the grape skins to the top ofthe fermentation vessel. If these are not broken apart and submerged, they will form a hard surface over the wine.Because carbon dioxide is produced during fermentation, be sure you ferment in a well-ventilated space. If you do not take this precaution, then you or a loved one risks asphyxiation.You may encounter a situation in which the yeast begin the process of fermentation and then suddenly stop before the wine is dry. This is symptomatic of a stuck fermentation, and while unfortunate, it does not necessarily mean you have to throw everything out and start over. Stuck fermentations usually take place when the temperature gets too high or the yeast run out of nutrients.Before you do anything else, take the juice/wine's temperature. If it is not too hot or too cold, try stirring with your paddle. If this does not restart fermentation, you still have options:Bring must temperature to about 68°F.∙Add another round of activated yeast.∙Add more diammonium phosphate (amount depends on how much wine you are making), or a composite nutrient addition such as Yeastex or Fermax.If your goal is a sweeter red or white wine, you can stop fermentation yourself by lowering the temperature. The will preserve some of the grape's natural sugar in the finished wine. Again, a wine is dry when 0.1 degrees Brix has been achieved. An inexpensive Clinitest can be used to assess dryness.Post-Fermentation Racking and Pressing by Peter AligOnce fermentation has ended for white wine, the wine needs to be removed from the fermentation tank. Its usual next step is a glass carboy or an oak barrel. Using your siphon and plastic tubing, rack as much of the wine as you can off of any remaining sediment and into your chosen container. For red wine, leave the wine and skins together in the tank until the desired color has been reached. Rack the free-run wine off the skins and transfer the mass of skins, pulp, and seeds (pomace) to your press. Slowly squeeze out any remaining wine. Do not press too hard or you will fracture seeds. If you have decided not to invest in a press, put a sturdy sieve over a food-grade plastic trash can, place the pomace in the sieve, and use your hands to press out the remaining wine. (You might want to wear plastic gloves while you do this!)Once you have pressed the pomace, the leftover skins make perfect composting material for your garden.Once the wine is out of the fermentation tanks, you need to adjust sulfur dioxide levels once again. At this point, it might be worth preparing a 10 percent stock solution of potassium metabisulfite for your sulfur additions. It's quite easy to make: Just dissolve 100 grams of potassium metabisulfite in one liter of water. Here is a chart to help you determine how much of the solution to add to your wine:Wine freshly racked out of its fermentation vessel should have its total sulfur dioxide levels adjusted to no more than 50 ppm. If you desire malolactic, or secondary, fermentation to occur, do not make a sulfur addition at this point. Also keep in mind that the lower the pH of the newly fermented wine, the less sulfur dioxide you need to add.Once the wine is in its aging vessel, whether a carboy or a barrel, the wine will have to be racked again. Grape matter will continue to precipitate out of the wine, and since you want the clearest wine possible, you will have to pull the wine out, put it in a temporary container, clean out any sediment, and then return the wine to its original container. With each racking, test the sulfur dioxide levels. It is not necessary to add sulfur at each racking, but you must maintain 30 ppm free sulfur dioxide. Don't forget to taste the wine as it ages.Malolactic (Secondary) Fermentation by Peter AligMalolactic fermentation is the process by which the sharper malic acid is converted into the softer lactic acid through the influence of non-spoilage bacteria. Putting your red or white wine through this process might be desirable if the total acidity of your new wine is so high that wine is almost too tart to drink. In addition, malic acid is a food source for a spoilage bacteria, so getting the malic acid out of the system might be a good idea even if your wine does taste balanced.Malolactic fermentation can take place on its own, but adding a prepared culture will likely yield better results. Usually, malolactic starter cultures are packaged in such a way that one package is good for between five and ten gallons of wine. Once the amount of malic acid drops below .03 grams per liter, malolactic is finished and the wine can be aged further.It is perfectly fine to rack your wine before malolactic fermentation has ended. The key is to keep your sulfur dioxide addition low enough such that malolactic fermentation can finish.A by-product of malolactic fermentation is diacetyl, a compound that creates a butterscotch or butter aroma in white wines. While diacetyl is present in red wines, its concentration is typically not high enough to be detected. The levels of diacetyl produced depend on factors ranging from the bacteria strain used to whether citric acid was used to acidify.Getting Ready to Bottle by Peter AligOnce malolactic fermentation has ended and the wine has been clarified to your liking, you can begin to think about bottling. If you want your wine to exhibit oak influences, but you would rather not spend $1,000 on a new, 60-gallon French oak barrel, you can purchase a pound of French oak chips for as little as $15.Submerge these chips in your carboy and sample the wine every few weeks until the desired flavor profile has been achieved. Adding from one to three grams of chips per liter of wine should work. If you do wish to subject your wine to some degree of aging, make sure to store your carboys or barrels in cool, dark places and check the sulfur levels repeatedly. You can also still adjust the acidity at this stage if you desire.Bottling and Enjoying by Peter AligWhile the process of making wine is part of the fun, nothing beats drinking it. When the time comes to bottle, make sure your bottles are clean. If you choose to use corks, purchase the tapered variety, as these can be more easily inserted by hand. If you buy the corks in a sealed bag or from a reputable winemaking supply store, you do not need to sanitize them.Before the corks go in, make your final sulfur dioxide addition of approximately 30 ppm. (Total sulfur dioxide levels should be no higher than 150 ppm.). Then use your siphon and tubing to move the wine from carboy or barrel to bottle. Be sure to leave no more than a half-inch between the bottom of the inserted cork and the wine.If you choose to soak your corks before inserting them in the bottles, leave the bottles upright for about a week to give the corks time to dry. Then you can lay the bottles on their sides for storage. Homemade wines should not be aged for any significant duration. They should be consumed within a few months after bottling.How do I know how many bottles I will need for my wine?One gallon of wine will require about five standard sized (750 ml) bottles.。