Wines For All

As you contemplate the prospect of making your next batch of wine you will need to decide whether you want to use fruit, such as grapes, or packaged fruit juices. Packaged juices are known as concentrates and can be easily purchased online as well as in home brewing stores. There are many advantages to using concentrates, including the fact that they come with easy to follow directions and usually all of the extra ingredients you may need. Many novice winemakers ... Read More »

Most people commonly associate wines with grapes; however, it is entirely possible to make wines from fruits other than grapes. The production of wine using fruits other than grapes has become quite commonplace as the hobby of home winemaking has become more pronounced in just the last few years. The process of making wines from various types of fruit is no more complicated than making wine from grapes. The only difference between making wine using grapes and other fruits is ... Read More »

One of the decisions you will need to make before you start your next batch of wine is whether you are going to use fruit or concentrates. Concentrates are often preferred by many beginners because they provide a rather easy way to produce very good wines quite consistently. This can be important if you are concerned about starting your first batch of wine and whether or not you will get good results. You will notice when you purchase concentrates that ... Read More »

As you go along with the winemaking process there may come a time when you have a batch of fruit that you think would make a great batch of wine. If you do not have a recipe available you may be tempted to begin throwing some things together and creating your own wine recipe. If you have been making some wine for some time, this is not normally a problem as long as you may sure you include important additions ... Read More »

Racking is one of the most essential parts to making stellar wine. Generally, you will need to rack the wine at least two times and in some cases you may need to rack it as many as four times. Making sure that you rack in a timely fashion will ensure the wine is properly clarified as well as prevent off flavors. If you are not familiar with racking, it is important to understand that racking does not refer to bottling ... Read More »

Whether you are a beginning winemaker or you have been making wine for some time and have experienced some problems, it is important to understand the most common mistakes made in winemaking so you can learn how to avoid them. By far, the most common problem in most winemaking failures can be attributed to equipment that is inadequate. Many people make the mistake of using common household items for their winemaking because they seem to be familiar to the carboys, ... Read More »

The process of racking involves siphoning the wine away from the sediment. Sediment is primarily comprised of inactive or dead yeast cells. While yeast is beneficial to the must in the beginning, over time it becomes multiplied many times over. As each new generation of yeast is produced, older generations die off. Most of what you will see at the bottom of your fermentation container is dead yeast cells. As the fermentation nears the end of the cycle, there should ... Read More »

Winemaking can be an extremely satisfying activity and hobby with a wonderful end result that also makes for wonderful gifts. If you have already experimented with brewing ales and beers you may already be familiar with many of the steps associated with the process of making wine. Winemaking is generally the next step for many home brewers. If you have already done some brewing at home, you probably already own much of the equipment that is required and are familiar ... Read More »

One of the most common questions you may have when you begin considering making homemade wine is what type of wine you should make. There are certainly plenty of different types of wines from which to choose. Understanding the different types of wines can help you to narrow down the choices and select the type that would be best for your first, or your next, batch of wine. First, it is important to understand that while wine is generally made ... Read More »

Two of the keys to making a great batch of wine are testing and making adjustments based on those tests. There are two critical areas where you will need to perform tests and possibly make adjustments. Those are sugar and acid levels. As you are already aware, the sugar level of your wine is incredibly important as it is the sugar that the yeast feeds off of in order to produce the alcohol. The amount of sugar that you start ... Read More »