Brew Your Own Cheap Wine

Posted on Jun 08 in Cultureby Frater OzPrint

As the title says, this is cheap wine. This hobo-wine is certainly not for connoisseurs. This is more for those who do not expect quality, but want to try an enjoyable, cheap, and easy educational project.

Another way to make an inexpensive wine at home, is to obtain unconcentrated varietal grape juice and some basic equipment from a homebrew supply store; the results are pleasant to drink. The procedure is also simpler; one pours the juice into a sanitized bucket and sprinkles yeast and then rests the sanitized lid over the bucket.

Ingredients

The following quantities make a gallon of wine.

• 2 cans of juice concentrate (room temp). You can use any type of concentrate like Welch’s concord grape, strawberry, kiwi-whatever, etc., as long as it doesn’t contain any preservatives, artificial flavors or coloring.
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 packet of active dry yeast (more will not increase alcohol content but will impart a bad “yeasty” flavor)
• Water, dump between half and a third of the water out of the jug. At the end, top up the bottle using tap water (boil it if it contains a lot of chlorine)

Steps

1. 

   
   

   Sterilizing

   Never underestimate the importance of sanitizing! Sanitize everything you’re going to use to hold the fermenting wine, to keep bacteria from growing. The easy way to sanitize everything at once is to use your dishwasher at the high heat setting, with appropriate detergent. Some dishwashers are designed especially to sanitize your dishes (183 degrees F water temperature), this will at least reasonably clean the equipment, and it makes the task really easy. After the machine finishes the dry cycle you will be ready to start making the wine. If you do not have an automatic dishwasher, wash with detergent, then bleach the funnel and anything else you may use. You do not need to clean the jug, as it has only had pure water in it. Air dry.

2. 

   
   

   Boil the water

   Buy a 1-gallon plastic jug of water at the store. Bring the water to a boil and turn down the heat setting to a slow boil. Allow to boil for a few minutes in order to kill any bacteria in the water. Remove from heat and let cool.

3. 

   
   

   Add juice

   Add the room temperature juice concentrate to the clean, dry jug. Use the funnel if needed.

4. 

   
   

   Add sugar

   While the hot water cools, dissolve 2 cups of sugar into the water. Stir while pouring.

5. 

   
   

   Activate the yeast

   There are different schools of thought here. You could activate the yeast following the directions on the packet. Another method of activating the yeast is to place 1 teaspoon of sugar into a separate bowl. Add 1/4 cup of hot water (100-110 degrees Fahrenheit). Add the yeast and stir briefly. Let sit for 10 minutes. The yeast should become very frothy. However, simply sprinkling the yeast on top of the juice and sugar mixture will give you a higher live cell count than re-hydrating in most cases, and will be far less trouble.

6. 

   
   

   Mix

   Pour the dissolved sugar-water into the jug filled with the juice concentrate. If it is too warm, cool it by placing the jug into a sink filled with cool water; add ice cubes to rapidly cool the mixture and limit the time the open container is exposed to bacterial contamination.

7. 

   
   

   Add the yeast

   Touch to make sure the mix is cool, then add the yeast. Cap the jug and shake thoroughly to completely mix all the ingredients .

8. 

   
   

   Balloon method

   Remove the cap of the bottle, and follow one of the directions mentioned below, with the check valve being the preferred method.

   • Option 1: Place a balloon over the top. Secure it by putting a rubber band or tape around it. The yeast produces CO2 and the balloon will expand. Very important: Poke a hole in the balloon with a pin. This will always keep the pressure positive in the jug and balloon to let CO2 out and at the same time does not let air in. (Air cannot be introduced to the mix or it will become vinegar.)
   • Option 2 (Preferred): Instead of a balloon, use a US$1.25 check valve used in an aquarium. The check valve is a one-way valve which lets out the CO2 but does not let any air in. Run a tube from the check valve to a cup of water just so you can see if it is fermenting properly, by watching the CO2 rise in the brew itself by the next day.
   • Option 3: Use play-dough to seal a tube into the mouth of the jug and place the other end in the bottom of a glass of water. Bubbles will be seen occasionally as the CO2 exits.
9. Keep the jug at room temperature and do not expose it to direct sunlight. After a few days, if it does not start to bubble, throw it away and try again being more careful to use sanitary equipment. Otherwise, wait 10-14 days, when the mixture will suddenly go from cloudy to clear. Then transfer into another bottle or smaller bottles, leaving the sediment on the bottom of the first bottle, and then enjoy!

Tips

• If you do not have a large enough pot, it is perfectly acceptable to use two pots instead.
• Not all of the water fits back into the gallon jug. Before boiling, dump out enough water to fit in jug.
• When done fermenting, strain as you pour into a wine bottle or glass, leaving the clumpy yeast in the jug. Make sure to wash and sterilize again.
• When adding the yeast, the juice should not be too hot or it will kill the yeast and ruin your wine. The jug should feel just warm to the touch.
• The quality of the wine produced depends on the quality of the ingredients. Try experimenting with higher quality juices and different types of yeast (See Warnings).
• When purchasing your juice, pay attention to the ingredients list on the label for “Preservatives” because these are intended to inhibit fermentation and spoilage.
• As an alternate buy a gallon jug of apple juice (no preservatives), pour yourself a glass (for head space) pour in 1 cup of regular cane sugar, and 1 pack of wine or ale yeast, replace the cap just loose enough to allow the CO2 to escape. In 3-5 days you have hard cider. Let it settle, pour off into an empty leaving the trub. Foolproof.
• Tips for adding the sugar – put the kettle on! 2 cups full from the 2ltr water bottle. Dissolve the sugar into the two cups of hot water. Then when its cool enough add it to your mixture.

Warnings

• Yeast consumes and consumes until there is no food left (in this case sugar), then it becomes dormant (or until the alcohol content is so high that the yeast cannot survive). By adding more sugar, you increase the brewing time and also raise the alcohol content. Theoretically, if you add a lot of sugar you could ensure it would be very sweet when finished, but it would also be very potent, and take a long time to finish; however, likely, the yeast would die from the high alcohol content before it can produce more alcohol.
• Use dry wine yeast, not the sparkling wine variety or baking yeast. When wine yeast is unavailable never use “rapid-raise” types.
• Don’t assume the alcohol content is as low as your average glass of wine. Plan not to drive for a while after consuming!
• Do NOT use “Brewer’s yeast” as sold in health food stores – this is dead yeast, and won’t do anything!

Things You’ll Need

• 1 gallon water container (use a water jug that is 60 cents at the store)
• Bleach
• Funnel
• Rubber band
• Balloon
• Pin (can be a safety pin, earring, tac, etc.)

  

Sources and Citations

• http://www.leftofme.com/how-to-brew-cheap-wine/ Original source of this article.
• http://www.wikihow.com/Brew-Cheap-Wine

Incoming search terms for the article:

• legal bud reviews

Popularity: 1% [?]