Getting Started with Wine Making |
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Wine making has been around since pre-recorded history. Nowadays we can just buy a bottle at the supermarket without putting much thought into the tedious process that goes into making wine. Whether it’s due to rising costs, lack of a good selection, or worry about the chemicals and preservatives added to commercial wines, many people are getting interested in home wine making. If making your own wine interests you, there are a few things you need to know before you get started. The Two Basic Ways to Make Wine Wine making is divided into two methods: using real grapes and using a kit. Using a kit is a low risk, inexpensive, and easy way to make wine, especially for those who have no experience. There are kits out there to make a variety of different wines and they all include instructions. Wine making with real grapes is much more complicated. It is challenging and the results are very uncertain if you don’t have experience. However, if you do get a successful batch, it is very rewarding. Beginners should always use a kit however because it is a very difficult process. Go to your local wine making store and ask for a beginner’s kit. After getting some wine making experience under your belt, you can try making wine from your own grapes but first you will have to find a grape supplier and arrange to have the grapes shipped to you. The date of delivery will be approximate since harvesting time varies depending on the weather. Make sure you find someone with a truck and a flexible schedule to help you with shipping the grapes. What to do With the Grapes Once you get the wine making grapes, the next step is to crush them into a pulp and juice. You can leave the stems in if you want the resulting wine to have more tannins or take them out otherwise. Then you must press the pulp in order to get every last drop of juice from the grapes. In the next step, the grape sediment will separate from the juice. The juice will then be transferred into a vat to settle. Yeast is added to start the fermentation process. The fermentation converts the natural sugars into alcohol. When the yeast dies, it is cleared out by adding bentonite to the wine. The bentonite also prevents the wine from fermenting further. The wine is then racked and the sediment at the bottom is ready for bottling. Before bottling the wine, you have to make sure all of your equipment is sterilized and the wine must be filtered in order to kill bacteria. So there you have it. This just a very basic description of what goes into the wine making process but it should give you a better idea of what to expect. Unless you have the help of an experienced vintner, you’ll probably want to start off with a kit and go from there.
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