A first go at wine making, and i need some help

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

tankedhank

Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2012
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
So I've been doing homebrewing (beer) for a little while and have a decent understanding of the process of making beer in addition to a pretty good setup of equipment. I have all the equipment to make 5 gallon batches, but I want to use it to make wine. I saw a recipe online that went like this: buy 6.5 64oz white grape juice, top off to 5 gallons with a sugar water (boiled) solution, and ferment with wine yeast. I understand that some grape juices have chemicals that prevent fermentation but I bought 100% juice red grape juice that seemed to be void of any additives. So, can I make wine using this method? Thank you
 
You can make wine like this, it is how I started out. Just follow the recipe and yes you will have wine. With that being said, your wine will probably not win any awards and will not be competitive in the industry. If I were you Id buy a cheap kit too start out with, It comes with instructions and at least then you know you are going to end up with a drinkable product.
 
Using the bottled juice will not have much flavor. Take a glass of the juice and mix it with a glass of the same size water. Not much taste right? That is how your wine will taste.
I would add at least 10 cans of frozen juice concentrate. Or use the bottled juice with no water. It will not make as much but the quality will be much better with just the bottled juice.
I make wine out of juice frequently and use 4 cans of juice for each gallon.
We like the white grape and peach and the white grape and raspberry is good too.

Do you have a hydrometer? If so, you want a SG of 1.080 to 1.085. Fruit wines should not be over 1.085.
 
Thanks, I appreciate the input. I'd rather not use a kit bc for me it takes away from the idea of making your own drink. I'm not trying to win any awards but I do of course want to make a good enough wine. To increase the quality, I was thinking cut out the sugar water solution and use all juice and then somehow add these fresh blueberry's I picked at a local orchard. I'm definitely open to suggestions on how to do that haha
 
Thanks sammyk, I definitely agree with you. And Yupp I have a hydrometer but I wasn't sure what the range was so I appreciate it
 
You need the sugar because that converts the liquid to alcohol.
I just started a gallon of apple, kiwi, strawberry on Sunday. I used 4 cans of Old Orchard frozen juice, 2 cups of sugar and about a little over a gallon of water, 4 really ripe bananas and peels, 3/4 teaspoon of pectic acid.
Added 1.5 campden tablets waited 24 hours, added pectic enzyme 12 hours later and then 12 hours later part of a pack of Lavlin 71B.
The reason for the little over a gallon was to end up with over a gallon so the extra can be used for topping up. OG was 1.085.
You will lose some must from fermentation and if you start with just a gallon then you have to top up with water. I do not add water when topping up as that dilutes the water.

This spring I had several 1 gallon carboys going in assorted flavors just for topping up.
With this batch I used a 2 gallon food grade pail and will rack to a one gallon carboy when the gravity is around 1.020. The left over will go in a quart jar in the fridge to be used at subsequent rackings for topping off.
 
We only make fruit wines, either from the fresh fruit or fruit juices (frozen cans). We do make a couple of gallons of wine in the fall from our muscadine vines but other than those grapes we much prefer fruit based wines.
 
You make wine from muscadine grapes? Wow, do you live in Texas? Do you add sugar, and remove the skins?
Sorry, rather could I have the recipe please!
 
Found some recipes on line. We have a ton growing wild, they are so acidic they burn just to touch. Didn't think them good for much but apparently I was quite wrong.
 
What we have are domestic muscadines that we bought many years ago at a nursery here in NC. Very sweet and makes a great wine. Muscandine grapes are very common here in the south and the wine is very popular.
 
Yeah, I'm not sure they are even the same grape now. Locals call them Mustang grapes. I have a couple 5 gallon oak barrels I use for wine. Some day I'll experiment with them. I've made a jelly with them and chile pequins that was good.
Sorry to hijack the post!
 
Thanks, I appreciate the input. I'd rather not use a kit bc for me it takes away from the idea of making your own drink.

If you're wanting to "make your own" wine and not use a kit, using fresh/frozen fruit is the way to go in my book. My dad makes great fruit wine and I'm pretty sure he's never used a kit. Any time fruit goes on sale or is in season he'll get a batch going. Anything from strawberries to pumpkins to zucchini (still waiting on those results) is fair game. Heck my grandfather even made a batch of tomato wine that turned out beautiful and not at all what you would expect. Find a recipe and give it a go!

So, depending on the season, it might actually be easier/cheaper to use fresh fruit. You might need to get your hands on a bucket if you only use carboys for beer.

Hope this helps :mug:
 
Cheesy goodness I grow tomatoes for BLTs and salsa and what not, how good was this tomato wine?? Do you know what kind of tomatoes he used??
 
Cheesy goodness I grow tomatoes for BLTs and salsa and what not, how good was this tomato wine?? Do you know what kind of tomatoes he used??

I'm not sure to be honest. The wine itself tasted nothing like tomatoes though. It had a really sweet taste to it and a clear, golden-like color if I remember correctly.
I'm still trying to figure out how it worked the way it did, because he didn't add any typical ingredients (pectic enzyme, acid blend, etc) but instead used "real world" ingredients (golden raisins, lemons, etc). To top it all off he used bread yeast :drunk:
I'll message you the recipe if interested.

Sorry for the :off:
 
I have a recipe for tomato wine in a winemaking recipe book, I would be interested in the recipe maybe to compare it to the one I have and see if there are any differences. I never thought tomatoes would make good wine but who knows they are technically a fruit.
 
Back
Top