Why should the beer drinkers have all the fun and satisfaction of home brewing? Home wine making is an enjoyable hobby and probably easier that most wine drinkers realize. At home, it is easy to experiment with different ingredients for wine.
Grapes are the ingredient of choice and a good way to start learning about wine making. Gapes have the correct mix of the following:
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Sugar
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Moisture
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Tannin
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Fermentation nutrients
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Preservative
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Yeast
Wine making has been around long enough that there are plenty of easy, foolproof wine recipes. It is best to start with these. Successful wine making will build your confidence as a wine maker and develop your winemaking skills.
Home wine making will require very few supplies. Some of the supplies that you will need to make a one gallon batch of wine, include the following:
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Large nylon straining bag
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Food-grade pail with lid (2 to 4 gallons)
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Cheesecloth
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Hydrometer
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Thermometer
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Acid titration kit
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Clear, flexible half-inch diameter plastic tubing
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Two one-gallon glass jugs
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Five 750-ml wine bottles
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Corks
The supplies are relatively inexpensive. The expense will drop significantly after the first batch since most of the supplies can be re-used. The supplies can be found on line or at a brewery supply store. When making wine, all supplies should be sanitized. This can be done at home, by using a strong sulfite solution for sanitizing all supplies that will come into contact with the wine. To make your own sulfite solution, mix 3 tablespoons of sulfite powder (potassium metabisulfite) in a gallon of water. Be sure to mix well.
It never gets boring with home wine making because once you master the easy and simple recipes, there are more advanced recipes to move on to. As your skills and experience develops you can even create your own recipes as you learn to experiment with different ingredients and processes.