Homebrew wine

 

Homebrew wine is easy to make, will explain how I make it at home.

Recipe:

  • 4 liter Grape juice (with no additives)
  • 550 gram Sugar
  • 7 gram Yeast (bread or wine yeast)

Requirements:

  • Airlock with stopper
  • Big glass fermenting jug a 4.3 liter
  • Disinfectant cleaning agent (star san?)

How to:

Clean the fermenting jug, and disinfect it, also clean the stopper and airlock. Fill the airlock with the disinfectant or for example vodka (40%), this will ensure no fruit flies can enter the jug. Mix all ingredients together in the jug and shake it until all sugar are dissolved into the juice. Best to first fill the jug with only 50% of the juice, this makes it easier to shake/mix. When everything is mixed and filled up, you can place the airlock with the stopper. This will ensure no more oxygen will enter the jug. Temperature needs to be around room temperature (17 to 22 degrees Celsius). In about a couple hours to 2 days the fermentation will start en you will see bubbles leave the airlock (from inside to outside), this is carbon dioxide the leaves the jug. Alcohol is made by yeast that converts sugar into Alcohol and Carbon dioxide (in a non oxygen environment). Now wait for at least 1 month and bottle the wine!

To be safe you can measure the SG (Specific Gravity) before and after the wine making process. When you bottle wine that is still fermenting (yeast is still active) the build up pressure in the bottle can become too high and break the bottle, because no gasses can leave the bottle when closed.

If the wine is too sour, something went wrong. Maybe the airlock did not close the jug good enough? Maybe a fruit fly had access to the wine? Simple rule is always, when it does not taste good, throw it away.

Handy formules:

ABV(% Alcohol v/v) = 131 * SG.begin * (SG.begin - SG.end):

SG.begin (kg/l):
SG.end (kg/l):
ABV (%):

Sucrose addition to water (density calculation):

Works from 0 to 35 %w/w sucrose solution (in water). Sucrose = table sugar.

Added sugar into 1 liter water (g):
SG water&sucrose solution (g/l):