guide to making wine

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A Quick Guide to Making Wine.

Generic Wine
(28 day recipe)

DAY ONE:

Wash all equipment with a chlorine based cleaner and rinse. Sterilize all equipment with sodium metabisulphite and rinse. In your primary (plastic pail) fermenter mix the grape concentrate and the correct amount of lukewarm water. Now check your specific gravity with a hydrometer and record the reading. Add any packages suggested by your kit mfg.

Rehydrate your yeast in 200 ml. of lukewarm water and 2 tsp. of sugar, allow to sit for a maximum of 15 minutes. When the temperature is between 25°-30°C then add the yeast provided, there is no need to stir. It can be advantageous to have two strains of yeast. To accomplish this add another strain purchased from your supply store . Attach an airlock half-filled with sodium metabisuphite solution. Leave the fermenter at 20°C for 24 hrs then move or lower the temperature to 16-18°C.

For the first three days remove the airlock and insert the handle of your spoon, after sterilizing it, and stir, this keeps the yeast suspended and supplies oxygen that the yeast needs at first.

DAY TEN:

Siphon (rack) the wine using cleaned and sterilized equipment, being careful not to disturb the 'lees'(sediment) into a clean & sterilized glass carboy. From this point on always keep the wine topped to the base of the neck of the carboy. This may be accomplished in two ways:

1. Rack your wine into a 20 litre carboy, this carboy actually holds 21 litres and is exactly the right size for racking the remainder of 22.5 litres of wine.

2. Top up your 23 litre carboy with boiled & cooled water or even better with wine. If you fail to keep the wine topped up to the base of the neck it is very possible you may oxidize your wine and in most cases render it unfit to drink.

DAY TWENTY:

Fermentation should now be finished. check your SG with your hydrometer taking care to sterilize anything contacting your wine, it should read .995-.990. Again siphon your wine into another clean carboy, taking care to leave the sediment (lees) behind, add stabilizer and clearing agent and stir.

DAY TWENTY-EIGHT:

Filter your wine into a clean and sterilized container and prepare your bottles by cleaning and sterilizing. Siphon your wine into the bottles and cork. Stand the bottles upright until the corks seat (about 3-7 days) and then lay them down.

EXTRA!

READY TO DRINK

Your wine will be ready to drink now, but will, as most wines, benefit from ageing.

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