Homemade Wine Part 1

This year I managed to save some grapes from the local critters. That's a 12 quart stock pot in the picture. The final harvest was 9½ pounds of grapes.

Making wine is not difficult. People have been doing it for thousands of years. There are elaborate recipes and directions available, but I like a simple process. There are elaborate and fancy recipes for different kinds of bread, but my favorite homemade version is peasant bread - water, flour, salt, and yeast.

My first step was to rinse the grapes and remove the stems. Next the grapes were crushed in the pot. A clean steel or plastic container acts as a primary fermentation vessel. Wine yeast is added to the liquid/crushed grapes. Bread yeast could be used, but a better flavor will result from using wine yeast.

The mixture is covered and the yeast is left to work on the juice for about ten days.

Next post on the next steps