When you enter the world of home wine making, there are no limits as to the different types of wines you can make. You are free to combine ingredients, add flavors, use locally grown fresh fruit, or berries you grow in your own home garden. You can allow your personal tastes to dictate the dryness or sweetness of your wine, or determine whether you will use fresh fruit or go with commercially available wine ingredient kits for a more traditional wine.
Wine Making Kits and Wine Making Supplies
A wine making kit is a great way to start in the art of home wine making if you are a beginner, because it will introduce you to all the basics of wine making and provide you with the essential wine making supplies and ingredients you need to get started. Once you’re familiar with the process, you may want to make wine with whatever fresh fruits are available at different times of the year.
You will be able to use all of the equipment you got when you purchased any of the different wine kits available on homebrewing.org, and purchase whatever additional supplies you may need to use when making fruit wines. When making fruit wines, the added equipment you need will require additional space, so be sure you understand this before deciding to make fruit wines.
Wine Grape Ingredient Kits
Wine grape ingredient kits allow you to choose from wine grape varieties that come from all over the world. These grape varieties will allow you to make wines from the same grape varieties as the wines you’d typically purchase from wine retailers everywhere. These concentrates give you the ability to make wine from the same grapes that are used to make your favorite European, Californian, or other types of wines that are made elsewhere in the United States or other parts of the world.
The huge range of grape concentrates that are available, and the ease with which you can get them, and the obvious difficulty you’d have in getting comparable fresh grapes means that grape concentrates are probably the best option when it comes to making traditional wines from wine grapes.
Using Fresh Fruit to Make Wine
There is a huge variety of different types of fresh fruit you can use to make your own wine, and it isn’t more difficult to make fruit wine than it is to make wine with grape concentrate. Always make sure you are choosing fruits that are in season at the peak of their ripeness. Consider using strawberries or rhubarb in spring, blueberries, blackberries, apricots, peaches, nectarines or plums in summer, and apples in fall.
When you make wine from fresh fruit, you will have to test the acidity and amount of sugar in your liquid and make adjustments accordingly. You will also need to find out exactly how much fruit you need to use to make a gallon of wine. Home wine making recipes will instruct you as you go through each of the steps in the fruit wine making process.
The decision as to whether to use fresh fruit or wine concentrate is an entirely individual one. When you’re making your own wine you can add anything you want to it to alter the taste. You may want to add dried berries, herbs, or flowers to a grape wine to enhance its flavor, or you may want to use fresh berries to make a sweeter wine. If you are going to use fresh fruit, consider purchasing it from farmers markets because you’ll know that you’re getting it at the peak of freshness and ripeness. Enjoy this fun experience, and invite your family and friends over to savor the taste of your newest creations.
Category Archives: Home Wine Making
How Sweet it Is: Sugar and Honey in Home Brew Wine
Home brewed wine is a beautiful product that is composed, in essence, of three parts – material selection, method of crafting, and time given for fermentation. With the right wine making supplies, intrepid brewers can elevate their collections beyond store shelf fodder by incorporating their own twists on additives and base ingredients. Wine making kits will come with components such as grape juices, yeasts and brewing containers, but curiosity drives many home brew enthusiasts to think outside the box when it comes to wine kits, researching switches and swaps that make vino truly personal. One of the most common changes is the sugar, or sugar alternative like honey, that is used to feed the yeast that ferments the juice.
Honey: Pros and Cons
Honey is a very complex ingredient all by itself – flower pollens and dozens of sugar compounds like dextrose and maltose are all packed into that thick, sweet syrup we all know and love. The taste of honey can vary widely depending on what flowers the producing hive frequents, giving rise to classic types like wildflower and more exotic varieties like orange flower or elderflower. When incorporated into the ingredients found in wine making kits, honey adds a deep complexity and sweetness to wine that many home brewers find more attractive than sugar, but it comes at a price. Due to the multiple sugars present in honey versus the single compound in traditional wine making sugar, fermentation takes considerably longer. According to home brewing enthusiast and blogger Jack Keller of JackKeller.net, 1.25 pounds of honey can be substituted for a pound of sugar in a given wine recipe, though if all of the sugar is exchanged for honey, you’ll end up brewing a honey wine or mead, rather than a traditional wine.
Sugar: Pros and Cons
Sugar, despite being a relatively simple ingredient, also comes in a wide range of forms that affect the wine it ferments. Traditional table sugar will produce wine that is consistent and familiar, but experimenting with more unique forms such as the blonde turbinado sugar or dark muscavado sugar with its hints of molasses will give your palate plenty to explore. The drawbacks of using sugar is that table varieties may not produce the depth of a finished product that you’d like, and the more exotic forms of sugar may be outside of the price range of beginning brewers. Sugar, however, is an excellent and stable ingredient to stretch your winemaking “legs” with, making it a must-have inclusion in wine kits. Sugar can also be added to a finished wine to sweeten it; rock sugar and bar or caster sugar are the most popular choices for this option due to their respective long and short dissolve times.
If you’re interested in home brewing wine, or are already a fan of the hobby, experimenting with both honey and sugar is the best way to find out which one, or what form of combinations, will work for your needs.
How Will I Know When to Use Stabilizer?
Brewing wine or beer at home requires some basic knowledge about the different stabilizers that are used. Although the stabilizers for wine and beer differ, determining when to use the stabilizing agent has certain similarities.
Increasing the Shelf-Life
The most common use of a stabilizer for beer or wine is related to the shelf life of the final product. A stabilizing agent is added after brewing the beer or wine to keep the final product good for a longer period of time.
In the case of beer, stabilizing agents are used to slow the development of haziness. When haziness develops, beer is no longer good. A stabilizing agent for beer can work in one of two ways: it will either degrade the proteins that cause haziness or it will bond to the proteins so that the beer lasts longer in storage.
When it comes to wine, stabilizing agents are added to increase the shelf life and prevent re-fermentation from occurring. When a stabilizer is added to wine, it will last longer even if it is not possible to store it in a cellar or fridge.
Adding for Flavor Maintenance
Although the primary purpose of a stabilizer for both wine and beer is increasing the shelf life of the brew, it can also help maintain flavor in particular situations.
A stabilizer is always added to sweet wines because it is possible for re-fermentation to occur. The stabilizer maintains the flavor of the wine by preventing it from starting to ferment a second time. Although it is appropriate to prevent re-fermentation in sweet wines, it is not necessary to add the stabilizer to a dry wine. Dry wines do not have room for more fermentation.
Stabilizers do not have much impact on the flavor of beers except as it relates to shelf life. If a beer does not have excellent taste before adding a stabilizer, it will not improve when the stabilizer is added.
Equipment Considerations
A stabilizing agent is not useful when the wine or beer has a poor flavor. When brews are consistently coming out with a poor flavor, it is best to look at the cleanliness and sanitation of the equipment or the filtration system. Poor taste is more often the result of equipment problems or minerals in the water than the wine or beer going bad in a short period of time.
The decision to add a stabilizer to wine or beer is a personal choice. Stabilizers can help increase the shelf life and maintain a good flavor, but it does not help if the original flavor was not good. Deciding when to add stabilizers will depend on personal goals and the type of brew.
Best Way to Clean my Homebrew Kit and Other Equipment
Although a homebrew kit and other brewing equipment will have some basic instructions for sanitation, it is not always enough to simply clean off all of the minerals on the equipment. When minerals or organic materials used in brewing are left behind, the next batch of beer will not come out the way it is expected. Fortunately, cleaning the homebrew kit and equipment properly is not a hard process.
Scrub the Equipment
The best way to clean any kit and equipment used in brewing is by scrubbing away the visible dirt, debris, materials and stains. Start the process by rinsing off as much large debris or items as possible.
After rinsing, apply an appropriate cleaner to the equipment. The best cleaner is a powdered brewery wash, or PBW, which is designed specifically for cleaning the kit and equipment. If the brewery wash is not available, then a powdered oxy cleaner, liquid dish soap, or baking soda is also appropriate.
Remove any dirt, stains, or debris with a small amount of water with a cleaner and a scrub pad or brush. If the equipment is plastic, then use a terry cloth to avoid leaving behind scratches. Rinse the equipment until the cleaner is completely removed.
Sanitize the Equipment
Cleaning and sanitizing are not the same process. Sanitizing is only performed after the cleaning is complete because it is not possible to sanitize the debris left behind. Sanitation is the process of killing any microscopic organisms that are left behind after cleaning.
Sanitizing your homebrew equipment is a simple process. A sanitizing chemical, such as One Step No Rinse Cleanser or sodium metabisulphate, is dissolved in water and allowed to sit on the equipment and kit for the duration of time specified in the directions. In most cases, sanitizers will sit for roughly five minutes to bring the level of yeast, bacteria, and other microscopic concerns to a minimum. Don’t worry about knowing specifics; these sanitizers will have specific instructions on how to determine the amount of time and ingredients required.
Similar to wine, there are so many types of cleaners on the market you probably won’t know what is going to work best for you until you try them. If One Step and sodium metabisulphate don’t do the trick you can always try B-Bright Cleaner, Cleanpro SDH or campden tablets. Check out our full line of home wine making cleaning supplies and homebrew cleaning supplies for your system today. Cleaning is not only vital to getting the best taste; it is also a simple process.
Why are Campden Tablets, Acid Blend, Yeast Nutrients and Pectic Enzymes so Important to Wine Making?
When you first start getting into wine making, you’re going to be recommended various brands of Campden tablets, acid blends, yeast nutrients and pectic enzymes. Before you can make an informed purchasing decision on any of these products, you’re going to need to know what they do in the first place. Here’s a brief rundown of why these ingredients matter:
Campden Tablets
Think of Campden tablets as your wine’s immune system. Campden tablets are used in the making of wine and other alcohols to inhibit the growth of wild yeast and to destroy unwanted bacteria in the wine. In short, these tablets prevent your wine from spoiling. While you do want certain yeast to grow inside your wine, allowing wild yeast free reign is a sure way to ruin your wine.
Acid Blend
Acid blend is actually a generic term; it can refer to anything from a blend of citric acids to a blend of tartaric or malic acids. Every brand will have its own acid blends that can be used to acidify your wine. This is necessary to create a balanced wine.
Yeast Nutrients
Yeast nutrients can help to ensure that your yeast thrives and produces the alcoholic content that you’re looking for. Yeast nutrients can be used to prevent a stuck fermentation, which is what happens when your yeast lacks the nutrients it needs and the wine can no longer ferment. Remember, your yeast is a living thing, and you won’t get the results you’re after if you don’t feed it.
Pectic Enzymes
Pectic enzymes, or pectinase, are a series of enzymes such as polygalacturonase, pectolyase and pectozyme. These enzymes can help to break down pectin. What this essentially means is that it helps to break down the plant matter and get a richer bounty of flavors from the grape, and it can help to break down the cloudy appearance that you see in some wines.
These four ingredients weren’t always used, but more recently, you simply don’t want to make wine without these products on hand to help you get the results that you’re after.
Check out our store for any winemaking ingredients you’ll need for your own homemade wine.
Valentine’s Day Pairing: Does Wine or Beer Pair Best with Chocolate?
Wine and chocolate: what’s more romantic than that? As Valentine’s Day approaches, it’s time to consider which wines – and beers – go well with chocolate. However, just like not all white wines taste the same, not all chocolate is created equal. The differences between milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate just skim the surface of that subject. Specific types of chocolate taste better with different wines and beers. Here are a few good pairings to help you plan your Valentine’s Day menu:
Wine & Chocolate
According to “Food and Wine” magazine, the best wines to pair with chocolate are full-bodied red wines, like Zinfandels, or rich, blended wines from California. They also offer a few more specific suggestions, such as pairing chocolate-covered popcorn with a sparkling red wine like Banfi’s Rosa Regale and pairing a chocolate brownie with a Ruby Port, and matching filled chocolates with an exotic Madeira. Some advise pairing Sherry with white chocolate; a glass of Pinot Noir with a chocolate that’s half-cocoa, half-milk; and putting Champagne together with the mild milk chocolate.
Beer & Chocolate
Pairing beer with chocolate is a little more complicated than pairing with wine, but it’s by no means impossible. According to The Kitchn.com, stout and dark chocolate are an ideal pairing. “Maryland Life” magazine (now defunct) suggests serving Belgian-style pale ale with orange-filled truffles. They also suggest an amber lager with a salted, dark chocolate caramel. In Maryland and elsewhere around the United States, beer and chocolate tastings are becoming increasingly popular. Get as crazy as you want with it and try an oatmeal stout with a high-end peanut butter cup.
Of course, you don’t necessarily have to ingest your beer and chocolate separately. There are several chocolate beers on the market, including Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock, Rogue Chocolate Stout and Belgium’s Ommegang Brewery’s Chocolate Indulgence. It’s a dessert in a glass!
Chocolate, an adult beverage and love are a natural Valentine’s Day combination. Plan ahead this year and dazzle your sweetheart on February 14th with one of these tasty pairings.
Pairing Wine with Valentine’s Day Dinner
Wine makes a nice addition to most gatherings, whether it’s for the holidays or just for fun. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner adding a bottle of wine to your romantic dinner can be the perfect finishing touch. However, finding the right wine pairings for your dinner can prove to be stressful and challenging. If you’re struggling to find just the right wine, here are a few pointers on what to serve with traditional holiday foods:
1. Turkey. Turkey, by itself, isn’t difficult to pair wines with, but when you add the conglomeration of flavors that traditionally make up a Thanksgiving-type dinner, the result can clash with many lighter white wines. For a wine that will meld nicely with stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans and scalloped potatoes–as well as turkey–opt for a dry rose, like the ones crafted in Provence, or a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with its tropical-fruit bouquet. For example a Beaujolais Nouveau; the new vintage of light, fruit-forward Burgundy wine, compliments a heavier turkey-based dinner perfectly.
2. Ham. The saltiness of ham plus the traditional sweet glaze makes for a wine-pairing puzzle. Many wine enthusiasts suggest serving Beaujolais with your ham dinner or a California Fume Blanc or California Syrah. The secret is to choose a wine with a high acidic content, which will create a fruity taste in your mouth when combined with the salty ham.
3. Roasted Pork. The right wine to serve with roast pork depends on how it’s prepared. As pork is generally light and mild, you want to avoid overpowering the meat with full-bodied red wines. Instead, opt for California Chardonnay, advises Food and Wine magazine, if you are serving an herbed pork loin, or choose an Alsatian Gewurztraminer if your pork is spicy.
4. Beef Tenderloin. Beef is a little easier to pair with wine, but many of the traditional choices, such as aged Bordeaux or a heavy Argentine Malbec, may be too profound or complex for a novice wine drinker. If your Valentine’s Day date isn’t a big wine drinker you want to make sure your date enjoys the wine; opt instead for a Cabernet from the Columbia Valley of Washington State, advises the Wine Spectator magazine. They also say to make sure that you use the same wine for your sauce as you use on the table (Always a good rule).
Don’t be afraid if the responsibility of bringing the Valentine’s Day dinner falls on you this year. Avoid the extremes and the esoteric wines in favor of fruity, off-dry, drinkable wines and your choices are sure to be a success. Really add a personal touch to the dinner by brewing your own wine with a wine making kit from Adventures in Homebrewing. If your date is the wine connoisseur then adding a wine making book would be the perfect addition as a gift for Valentine’s Day.
Wine Glass Selection 101
Wine glasses don’t have to be expensive, but choosing the right shape for the right wine is essential. In fact, the glass you choose for serving your wine can enhance your enjoyment of it tremendously. If you only have one set of all-purpose wine glasses, you’re likely missing many of the nuances of the wines you drink.
For optimum wine enjoyment, opt for clear wine glasses. While tinted glasses make for a stylish table setting, they rob you of the ability to view the true color of the liquid.
As far as style and shape, wine glasses fall into three main categories:
Red Wines. The best glasses for red wines, like Cabernets, Merlots, and Malbecs, are those glasses with a wide rim and a generous bowl. The large, open area at the rim of the glass allows the wine to breathe and open up to its full flavor. It also allows wine drinkers to savor the full bouquet of the wine, an essential part of wine tasting.
White Wines. In contrast, white wines, such as Chardonnays, Rieslings, and Sauvignon Blancs, are best when served in a glass that has a slightly closed rim. Since most white wines are best when slightly chilled, the limited area at the top of the glass keeps the wine from being warmed by the air. This wine glass is considered the “typical” wine glass that you usually see in stores and at homes.
Sparkling Wines. Sparkling wines, including Champagne and California Sparklers, need to be served in a flute. This long-stemmed glass with a long, narrow bowl allows the bubbles in the wine to last longer. Like a white wine glass, the ideal Champagne flute has a narrow rim to help prevent the wine from being warmed by the room’s air.
Saucer-shaped Champagne glasses should be avoided. Though they were once in vogue, they actually cause the bubbles to dissipate and the wine to go flat sooner.
Other Tips
In addition to choosing the right glass, it’s important not to fill the glass right up to the brim. Allowing room at the top of the glass gives the wine room to breathe and room for the drinker to savor the wine’s bouquet. It’s also important to hold white and sparkling wine glasses by the stem, so as not to warm the wine.
Choosing the right glass for the right wine doesn’t have to be complicated. However, having three types of wine glasses on hand is sure to enhance your guests’ enjoyment of the wines you serve.
Wine Tasting Tips for the Novice
A Wine tasting is a perfect excuse for friends to get together and share their favorite vintages. However, if you’ve never attended a wine tasting, let alone hosted one, it can seem rather daunting… but it doesn’t have to be.
What Is a Wine Tasting?
A wine tasting brings individuals together to sample one or several wines and share their impressions. As wine tastes slightly different to different people, sharing thoughts can lead to a greater appreciation of the wine. There are usually cards that allow individuals to put down their thoughts on the wines flavor, body, legs, clarity, and smell. Wine tastings don’t have to be pretentious affairs. In fact, they are usually more fun if they aren’t.
What to Include in a Wine Tasting
If you’re hosting a wine tasting this season, make a list that includes:
- One to three wines. Although it may be tempting to serve a large variety of wines, it’s better to limit your tasting to just a few. Similar to testing perfume samples, your nose can get overwhelmed by too many different scents. Consider planning your tasting around a theme, such as Pinot Noirs from the Pacific Northwest or dry Rieslings. A fun to twist to add is to make the tasting a blind test – your guests won’t know which wine they are trying, so they won’t have preconceived notions.
- Water. Offer carafes or bottles of water at your wine tasting so that participants can cleanse their palate (rid their mouth of the taste of one wine) before tasting another wine.
- Crackers. Dry, unflavored crackers serve a similar function as the water. They cleanse the palate between wine tastings.
- Spittoons. Although it may sound uncouth to those unfamiliar with wine tasting, many experienced tasters spit out the wine rather than swallow it. After all, the purpose of a wine tasting is to experience the bouquet and flavor profile of the wine, not to get drunk. Metal wine buckets work well as spittoons.
- Food (optional). Though not essential to a wine tasting, food adds an additional sensory dimension to your event. Pick foods that complement your wines, such as shellfish with Champagne, chocolate with (red) Zinfandels, or most ethnic foods with Riesling.
Don’t be afraid of throwing a wine tasting event. Pick a few interesting wines, gather your friends and enjoy the camaraderie of a shared experience.
Incorporating Fruit into Your Homemade Wine
Have you had success with making homemade grape wine and want to branch out into something a little different? Do you have fruit trees on your property and want to be able to use that extra fruit in your wine-making? Adding fruit to your homemade wine is a little different than making wine entirely from grapes, but it’s not difficult to do.
Beyond Grapes
Homemade grape wine isn’t the only tasty wine that a amateur winemaker can create. Peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, strawberries, currants, blackberries and nectarines are just some of the fruits that can be fermented in wine-making to create wine at home. The best fruits to use are fully ripe and fresh off of the vine. Thus, it’s best to avoid grocery store fruit and deal with your local orchard or farmers market instead. If you have your own fruit trees or plants that’s even better.
Preparing the Fruit
- To prepare your fruit, clean the fruit gently in a 1:40 bleach solution to get kid of any bacteria, dirt or residue from pesticides.
- Rinse thoroughly twice with fresh water and pat dry.
- Cut the large fruit in half and gently remove the stones, if applicable.
- De-stem, if necessary, and cut out any browns spots.
- At this point you can either freeze the fruit or proceed by adding it to your wine. Freezing the fruit helps you buy time if your fruit is ripe, but the rest of your wine isn’t quite ready. Some also feel that frozen fruit makes for tastier wine because it breaks down the fiber in the fruit.
Adding Fruit to Wine
Most fruits lack the body and substance to create a tasty wine by themselves so they are generally added to grapes or grape concentrate. To extract the juice, tie the fruit in a cheesecloth bag and mash gently with your hands over a bowl until no solids remain except for the skins. The amount of fruit to be used will vary with the fruit you chose. There are just as many recipes for making fruit wines as there are successful winemakers. All include yeast, sugar and water.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different fruits as you gain experience as a winemaker. Wine-making shouldn’t be limited to just grapes.