Easy wine making really consists of a healthy balance between factual knowledge and common knowledge. A combination of these two, along with a good wine-making grape will result in a delicious glass of wine for you and your family to enjoy.
Crushing & Pressing
Wine
Generally speaking, 50 pounds of grapes yields five gallons of wine.
Once you harvest your grapes, you must place them in a plastic vat (found at any wine-making shop) for crushing. Always make sure to fill your vat only 2/3 so as not to waste any of the smashed grape mixture.
Foot grape crushing methods have proved to be effective and easy to employ. For smaller amounts of grapes, you can crush them with a potato smasher, or simply your hands.
Once the must (name given to grapes after they are smashed) is done, you must add potassium metabisulfite in order to prevent the growth of unwanted yeasts that can affect the taste of your wine. This chemical can be purchased in Campden tablets, and the recommended dose is to be added to the must. The mixture is then covered with a cloth and left to sit for a day.
Fermentation Process
The next day, the wine fermenting yeast must be added. Wine yeast must not be confused with bread yeast, since these two are not interchangeable.
After adding the yeast, work it in the mixture using your hands to increase the temperature for the yeast to be activated. Comb out most or all stems, cover, and leave to rest. You will notice that the mixture will begin to fizz, and will look like its almost boiling by the peak fermenting time (72 hours). Within a week the fizzing will cease and you will have to strain the wine to remove any seeds, grape peel and pulp. To do the straining you can use a cheesecloth or mesh bag, squeezing out the wine thoroughly to extract as much juice as possible.
The wine is then to be placed in a wine barrel or in a glass carboy, depending to taste and/or resources. It is important to keep the wine away from air exposure to preserve its taste and ageing process. An airlock is a popular choice amongst winemakers, as it keep oxygen out, but it allows for the release of the gases caused by the on-going fermentation of the wine.
Racking
An average of 2-3 days is, usually, how long it takes for the fizzing to halt. Once this occurs, you must rack the wine in order to remove the lees (yeast and grape residue) that normally remain at the bottom of the barrel/carboy.
The most effective way of doing this is to siphon the wine out of the bearing container, remove the lees, and return the wine into the original container.
A second racking will be needed 2 to 3 months after the first racking, and a third racking will be required 3 to 4 months following that.
Once the third racking is completed, the wine is ready to be aged. Aging must be done in a very dark, cool place, with just one rule of thumb that is easy to remember: the longer the aging, the better the wine.
Easy Wine Making
Pierre Duponte is a grape growing expert. For more detailed easy wine making instructions, as well as grape growing information visit http://www.grapegrowingwinemakingtips.com/.