Saw a bunch of youtube videos on making homemade wine. I'm interested in people's experiences. Is it really as simple as buying fruit juice, poring in lots of sugar and letting it ferment for a few weeks? Also, is it worth taking the extra steps to freeze distill it to remove the water and give it a higher ABV? It's probably not a very practical way for someone who is not currently in prison to drink wine but it seems like it could be fun to try. Thanks

I made a gallon of “balloon wine” when I was a high school kid. Used a large can of frozen grape juice, a pkg of Fleischman’s yeast, a lot of sugar, and a gallon jug from distilled water. Recipe came from “The Last Whole Earth Catalog”. Fermented it for around 21 days, if memory serves. You keep a balloon stretched over the neck of the jug and when it quits inflating the batch is done. We took it to an outdoor concert in Hermann Park and drank it. It tasted pretty bad but packed a reasonably good punch. The girls became intoxicated, anyhow. Good times.

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Like arfmel, a friend and I made some wine from Concord grapes, sugar, and bakers yeast in high school. It tasted like ass.

I made cyser when I kept bees. One gallon of unpasteurized apple juice and five pounds of honey. Whoooweeee.

I'll let ya know on March 3rd. That will have been 4 weeks. I followed "DoingItCheap" on youtube.



"PawPaw" has a bunch of youtube videos on making homemade wine on his DoingItCheap channel. Here's one of 'em and the recipe I followed.




Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...gDQ&feature=youtu.be

^^^ If this comes out good, I want to try making some White Grape Juice wine.

I've been doing it for a couple years.

Usually use regular grape Welch's not from concentrate as we're on city water and the fluoride will kill the yeast.

I do it in the gallon glass jars (from cheap wine). Bought a couple air locks with rubber stoppers from Amazon.

First few batches I used bakers yeast, but lately have switched to wine and champage yeasts as they give a higher ABV. I bought a hydrometer and get up to 15 -16% ABV.

If using bakers yeast I don't suggest using as much sugar as the online sources call for unless you like it really sweet. If you use wine or champagne yeast though it turns out nice.

My last 2 batches were white grape juice with about 3.5 C of additional sugar and champagne yeast and apple juice with 3.5 C of sugar and champagne yeast. The white grape was probably the best tasting batch I've made to date, and the apple juice the worst. The apple is way too tart bordering on vinegar tasting. I use it for cooking and not much else.

I really enjoy this type of wine in the summer over some ice. I sometimes will add fruit to make sangria.

I do my initial fermentation with just a piece of cheesecloth held in place with a rubber band. I set it in a 5 gallon bucket in the closet with a lid just set on top. It will make a mess during the initial fermentation. I then stick an air lock on it and wash the exterior of the gallon jug off with warm water. Put it back in the bucket in a dark closet for a couple weeks until the bubbles are down to 1 or 2 per minute. Then I rack it off into another gallon jug and enjoy. I don't bother bottling it.

Use good yeast for best results. I make a pretty good cider with Costco brand apple juice and Nottingham ale yeast. Ive played with cran-raspberry versions with good results as well. Never made wine, I mostly brew beer.

Never really considered the grape variety but considered honey wine aka mead.

My wife has been making the one gallon kits for several months and enjoys making them. The wine has actually been pretty good. I've taken up beer making in spite of the fact I don't drink much and have made some great beers.

Not since I was 6 or so. My buddy swiped a can of Coors from his dad and we smashed blackberries and added the juice to the Coors to make our version of wine.

I've heard you can make wine in the Instant Pot using the yogurt function.

Great tips. This afternoon I went to a brewing store and bought an air lock and champagne yeast. The rubber stopper for the air lock fit perfectly into the mouth of the plastic grape juice bottle. Didn't even need to buy a nice glass jug. All in for the hardware and ingredients I spent a grand total of about $5! So in about two weeks I'll have a gallon of wine. Hopefully it will be drinkable!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/edworts-apflewine.html

I've made the apfelwein using the recipe at this link several times and enjoy it very much. Beware - It packs a punch and can give you gas like a rhino

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Hi Fundman,
I've been making wine for several years with a couple buddies. We buy Merlot and/or Cabernet grapes from Temecula, CA. I have also made wine using kits from WineExpert, Vitner's Reserve, and Island Mist.

You asked about increasing the alcohol content. As long as you see bubbles in your Air Lock during the 2nd stage of fermentation, the yeast is still eating sugar and expelling alcohol. At some point, the alcohol content will reach an amount that will kill the yeast and the bubbles will stop. There are ways to stop the fermentation using chemicals, but if you just keep you wine in stage 2 fermentation long enough, maximizing your alcohol content will happen naturally. You can add corn sugar to increase the alcohol content, but it will change the body and flavor profile of the wine.

If you are making a dessert wine, adding sugar and fruit will give the yeast more to convert to alcohol. We make a port by adding over-ripe fruit and raw sugar to the cab grapes.

Also, most problems occur due to lack of sanitation. Go back to the brew shop and ask about sanitizers. I use 1Step, and it has done well for me. But you must clean EVERYTHING!!! Bottles, tubes, corks, filters, anything and everything that touches the juice must be sanitized or you risk getting some really funky smells, tastes, & colors in your wine.

Only use distilled water, never use tap or non-distilled drinking water.

When you're at the brew shop, ask if they offer seminars or have a brew night when people come to learn or for tastings.

Find a couple of buddies and get them involved, it makes it easier to spread the cost of equipment 3 ways plus it's a good reason to just get together with a couple of friends and have a BBQ.

I would encourage you to start with an actual wine kit, I think Island Mist (www.MidWestSupplies.com/nsearch/?q=island+mist) are easiest and the girls seem to like them ~ think wine cooler. Most kits produce about 24 full size (750ml) wine bottles, but I will use a Split bottle which is half the standard size at 375ml or 12oz.

Once your sweetie pie likes what you make, it will be a lot easier to make more because she will be the one encouraging you to do so!

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Myself and 2 buddies would make about 500 bottles every year. He inherited all the serious wine making equipment for doing a task of thee proportions. But it was a lot of work, which we made fun out of.We continually "Sampled " the production thru its 4 stages.
We won "Best Wine" in a very large competition one year.
This buying the Grape Juice trend isn't the real experience IMO.

Haven’t in a while, my Dad and I used to make a good bit some good some bad, watermelon looked pretty but smelled terrible, had to Clorox our 5 gallon glass jugs to get rid of the smell, rose petal was light pink sweet wine, my girlfriend loved it. My favorite was rice wine (sake) it had a real kick.
When making wine if you get a vinegar type smell dump it out and clean your stuff with Clorox and start over, wine yeast makes better wine, get a winemaking book and pay attention.

I've have been making wine with my family since I was able to walk. There are photo's of me in diapers stamping the grapes.

Now we simply buy pressed grape juice from the farmer market. It is 100 percent grape juice from specific grapes, no additives. Comes in 6 gallon pails.

We pour it into 4 gallon glass jugs and allow it to ferment. We don't add any sugar or anything else. We also blend the different grapes for different flavors.

Once it ferments we bottle it.

We make anywhere from 60 to 100 gallons a year.

I know there are people with all sorts of apparatus and precise measuring to make their wine, but after over 40 years we just do everything by eye and some times the wine is a little too strong, some times some of the bottles will actually turn to vinegar, but for the most part its good table wine.

Haven't done wine, but have made cider and beer. The process is very similar. Surprisingly easy to do with a small investment of about $200. Have made some really good beers. My friends tell me that my Shiner Bock clone is better than the real thing.

I did several tries. Always had a carboy bubbling.

One of the best ones I remember I did was a Plum wine. Packed some extra fruit/sugar in. Then used Champagne yeast. It fermented up to around %14 if I remember right. It was a cold weather sipping wine!