Wine making is an equally fun, but slightly more complicated process. Before beginning, you will need to make sure that you have all the required equipment, including a jug, a carboy, an airlock, a hydrometer, a siphon hose, a funnel, a long-handled spoon, a recipe, and anything else suggested in the recipe. All of this can be purchased at any brewing supplies store. Wine kits, which simplify the wine making process and are great for beginners, are also usually available at brewing supplies stores. Before using any tool, you must thoroughly sanitize it; failing to do this can result in contaminated wine that tastes horrible.
Wine is made from four basic ingredients: yeast, fruit, acid, and water. Some recipes call for several other ingredients, such as tannin, peptic enzyme, and sugar. Wine kits usually use a fruit concentrate and sugar instead of fresh fruit, but most recipes will call for fresh fruit. Some recipes do not require added yeast; these recipes rely on the naturally occurring, airborne yeast. In general, the simpler a recipe is, the less consistent the results will be. For example, a wine made from only fruit, water, and lemon juice could turn out very well sometimes, and very horribly other times.
In the first phase of wine making, you combine all of the ingredients in a jug, following the recipe’s specific instructions. You then seal the jug with an airlock and let the mixture sit. After a couple of days, the fermentation process will begin; the mixture will start bubbling at this time. This phase lasts for several more days. You will need to test the gravity (density of liquid compared to water) of the wine using a hydrometer. When the gravity reading is less than 1.02 (or the amount specified by your recipe), the first phase is finished. Next, you will transfer the wine to another type of container called a carboy. The wine will continue fermenting for about two weeks or until the hydrometer reading is around 1.0. Some recipes might call for slightly lower or higher readings; the lower the number is, the drier the wine is.
Next, you add potassium sorbate to stop the fermentation process and allow the wine to settle; the wine will need to about three weeks to settle. You can also use a wine filter, which will make your wine clear and free of sediment. After this, you can bottle the wine. Although you will probably be tempted to serve your wine immediately, most wines are after they have aged for several months. Patience is an important part of wine making.
As with liqueurs, you can be extremely creative with the wines you create. Lots of different fruit and fruit combinations can be used; wine does not need to be made from grapes. You can even use honey instead of fruit to make mead (honey wine).