How to make wine

Homemade wine

It is the grape harvest season again. I will teach you how to make your own wine.

1. Prepare tools:

The tools for making home wine are very simple. The tools I use include four 10-liter medical wide-mouth bottles, more than ten old wine bottles and large Coke bottles, a plastic or stainless steel rice spoon, a plastic funnel, a plastic siphon (1.5 meters long, available at the market selling goldfish), and a nylon sock for filtering the residue.

2. Purchase of raw materials:

We are not a grape producing area, but there is always a constant supply of grapes from other places in the wholesale market, among which the "Jufeng" variety is the most common. The price is currently around 2 yuan per kilogram. It is said that the price is 1 yuan per kilogram when it is first put on the market in autumn. When buying grapes, choose those that are ripe, plump and disease-free. The darker the color of the grape skin, the better.

3. Wash the grapes:

If you buy grapes locally and know that they were not sprayed with pesticides before harvest, this process can be omitted. To be on the safe side, I still washed the grapes: grapes are now packed in plastic bags and put into plastic packaging boxes, about 5 kilograms per box. After transporting them home, pour the grapes from the plastic bags into the plastic boxes, take out the preservatives, and then put the plastic boxes containing grapes into the pool (I use the bathtub at home) to soak. Shake the plastic boxes several times while soaking. After two hours, drain the water and rinse with clean water. Then put the plastic boxes in a ventilated place to control the moisture.

4. Crushing and bottling, first fermentation:

The method of crushing is very simple, just pick the grapes from the stems, put three or five together in your hand, then put your hand into the wide-mouth bottle and squeeze the grape skin. Note that the bottle cannot be filled up, and it should be stopped at two-thirds. The alcohol in the wine is produced by the sugar in it under the action of yeast. If you like a higher alcohol content, you can sprinkle white sugar or honey in several times in the middle. I add sugar according to the ratio of 10 kilograms of grapes to one kilogram of white sugar. The resulting wine is about 10 degrees, similar to the dry red wine sold in the market. After the grapes are bottled, cover the bottle (don't cover it too tightly, as long as it doesn't get dusty), and put it in a warm place and wait for the grapes to ferment naturally. There are natural yeasts on the grape skins, so we don't have to worry about the fermentation bacteria.

Room temperature of around 18°C ​​is suitable for making wine. Generally speaking, bubbles can be observed in the bottle 24 hours after bottling, and then the juice in the grapes will be found to be precipitated, the grape skins will float up, and the foam will gradually increase. At this time, stir it twice a day with a spoon, press the exposed grape skins in, and let the grape skins be fully soaked in the grape juice.

5. Separation of residue and liquid, secondary fermentation:

After 5-7 days, the fermentation gradually becomes gentle, the grape skin floats on the surface, the color changes from dark to light, and the grape seeds and most of the grape pulp residue sink to the bottom of the bottle. At this time, the residue and the wine should be separated. The specific method is to first use a siphon to suck out the wine in the middle, then put the residue into nylon socks, squeeze it from light to heavy with your hands, and then twist it like twisting clothes, so that the wine in the residue is basically drained out. Finally, mix all the wine together and put it into a wide-mouth bottle to continue fermentation. At this time, the wine is very turbid, you don't have to mind it.

6. Filtration and clarification:

The second fermentation takes about a week, at which time the wine has become clear and no bubbles rise. At this time, the wine in the bottle can be filtered: use a siphon to suck out the wine on the top first, then filter the part containing residue and wine sludge, put it into the bottle and let it stand. If you want the wine to have a crystal clear feeling, you can use eggs to further clarify it. The specific operation method is: crack a small hole in the egg (one egg for 10 liters of wine), pour the egg white into a large bowl (it is not necessary to pour it very clean, you can fry an egg with the remaining part as a side dish), use chopsticks to break up the egg white, don't be afraid of the effort, beat it for at least ten minutes, so that the whole bowl is full of egg white foam. Then use the wine to flush the egg white foam into the wide-mouth bottle, use a spoon to fully stir the wine in the wide-mouth bottle, and then let it stand for two weeks.

7. Storage and drinking:

After the wine has been left to stand and clarified, it is best to store it in small bottles. An old 1.5-liter wine bottle is ideal, and a 2.25-liter plastic bottle for "Coke" is also good. The bottle should be filled up and the cap should be tightly closed. Then put it in a relatively low temperature place at home (it is said that the ideal storage temperature is 13°C). Whenever you want to drink, take out a bottle. It is recommended that you drink half a catty every night. The wine brewed in this way tastes similar to the dry red wine on the market. If you entertain female guests, you can add some white sugar or honey to it, which is enough to make the lady intoxicated in the sweetness.

first step:

When buying grapes, you can choose some ripe grapes, even if they are scattered. These grapes are easy to ferment and relatively cheap. Common grapes, raisins, and mare's milk can all be used to make wine.

Step 2:

Washing grapes Since there is a high possibility of pesticide residues on the grape skin, washing grapes is very important. It is best to wash them one by one, then rinse them repeatedly with tap water, and remove rotten grapes. Some people who love cleanliness like to peel the grapes before making wine, which is also possible, but it will lose some of the unique nutrients of the grape skin.

Step 3:

Dry the grapes and place them in a water-tight container. When there are no water droplets on the surface of the grapes, you can pour them into the wine jar.

Step 4:

Choosing a container: The wine jar can be a ceramic jar or a glass bottle, but plastic containers are not recommended because plastic is likely to react chemically with alcohol and produce some toxic substances that are harmful to human health.

Step 5:

Put the pinched grapes into the container after washing your hands, and then pinch the grapes directly. The operation method is to grab a handful of grapes and squeeze them hard, then put them into the wine jar, and then put sugar on the grapes. The ratio of grapes to sugar is 10:3, that is, 3 pounds of sugar for 10 pounds of grapes (friends who don’t like sweet food can put 2 pounds of sugar, but sugar cannot be omitted, because sugar is an important factor in grape fermentation).

Step 6:

Seal the wine jar for storage. If it is a ceramic jar, you can go to a rice wine shop to get some wine mud, add water and seal it. After sealing, the wine jar needs to be stored in a cool place. Do not turn it over or open the lid at will.

Step 7:

When it is hot, it takes 20 days to a month for grapes to ferment. In this season, it takes about 40 days to ferment wine. After unsealing, remove the grape skins floating on the surface and drink the wine directly. Note that if you like stronger wine, just delay the unsealing time. After unsealing, don't forget to cover the lid of the wine jar every time you scoop out the wine to prevent the wine smell from evaporating.