Have you been looking for an easy wine making guide? It does not have to be as complicated as they all say. You can make magnetic wines with 2 ingredients in a mater of minutes...
When I worked in Napa Valley in a winery, I saw just how intricate winemaking can be. However, there is a basic formula that makes wine making easy, simple, AND affordable.
For those who are interested in dipping your toes into wine making (made easy), this straight forward template will be your new obsession!
You will learn the basic formula that makes wine, easy wine making for beginners, the 2
ingredients to make effortless wine, and gain exclusive access to an easy wine making kit so you can confidently start winemaking, plus more resources to get you into winemaking!
This post is all about easy wine making.
Uncomplicated Guide to Easy Wine Making
If you are new here, maybe the winemaking process is a bit of a complicated concept. Let's put winemaking into a simple formula that is easy to digest!
Wine, in it's most basic form, is composed of:
- Fruit
- Water (sometimes)
- Yeast
Literally, that's it. The yeast eat the sugars in the fruit and turns into alcohol.
So, for an easy wine making recipe we can simply do organic store bought fruit juice, yeast, and water (if we want). It's that simple.
Though, wine makers might add water, added sugars, oak chips, etc. Top tier wine makers in Napa will follow the guidelines of fruit and yeast, with minimal additives!
When winemaking at home, on the other hand, will use various additives to stabilize the juice, add additional flavors, kill off unwanted bacterias, etc.
It can get complicated when winemakers are processing fruit, stabilizing the juice, adding preservatives or clarifiers, etc. In places like Napa valley, the wine making process can look different for different winemaker, but also follows the same formula.
To clarify, easy wine making is using your favorite fruit juice, like grape juice, putting some yeast into it and allowing it to ferment!
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What do you need for wine making for beginners?
Again, the wine making process can feel daunting and overwhelming with all the intricate measurement tools and the science behind it all.
With easy wine making, we have everything you need chiseled down to a handful of items and equipment. All the equipment is user friendly and self explanatory. No fancy scientific measurement tools or complicated items.
You need:
- A bottle of organic grape juice (or your favorite juice)
- Wine yeast
- One-gallon fermenter & airlock
- Recycled bottles of wine, with the corks
When choosing your fruit juice I recommend organic with minimal added sugars. We want a juice that is as close to natural fruit juice as possible with minimal additives!
For wine yeast, you can choose commercial style dried yeast packets (shown below) OR you can use a wild yeast starter.
Using wild yeast is a practice using the yeast that already lives on fruits or flowers around you and cultivating your own population. Then, this naturally made yeast population is used to ferment wine, beers, sodas, and more!
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No Nonsense Easy Wine Making Kit for Beginners
Wine making does not have to be challenging. Using already made fruit juice we by-pass SO much work and get to the fun part: fermenting.
Once you have your juice picked out, now you need the simple equipment to start the easy wine making process.
The no-nonsense easy wine making kit includes dried wine yeast and a one gallon fermenter so you can begin fermenting instantly and effortlessly.
First up is the one gallon fermenter and airlock, plus sanitizer. A must-needed piece of the puzzle for making wine easy.
Star Sans is SO important.
It prevents any sneaky microbes from growing in your fruit juice and spoiling the whole batch. And let's be real, we are all here for a mind-blowing homemade wine, not toxic juice full of savage bacteria!
Included is a funnel. If you have one already, you can delete it from your Amazon cart. Though it helps so much when transferring your wine into the bottles.
As mentioned above, you can ferment your fruit juice with a wild yeast starter you make yourself, or you can quickly purchase commercial yeast.
Champagne yeast for home brewers is hands down the best yeast, especially when we want to make wine the easiest way possible!
In total, all these items are accessible and affordable. Plus, once you purchase the equipment, you don't have to purchase it again!
Now, once we have our important equipment, sanitizer, yeasts, etc it is time to put it all together into a beautiful fermentation!
Let's dive into the simple six step by step guide to take your fruit juice to wine.
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Easy Wine Making Step by Step Guide
This step by step guide acts as your path towards turning your fruit juice into wine. We will clean, pour, ferment, and enjoy!
Sanitize Equipment
Following the instructions on your Star Sans bottle, sanitize your one gallon fermenter, the airlock, and your bottles.
Gently pour the fruit juice into fermenter
Take your chosen fruit juice and gently pour into your sanitized fermenter. Pretty simple!
Place about 1/3 of the yeast packet inside
The exact amount of yeast does not necessarily matter here. The more you place in the fermenter the quicker it will ferment, and that is not always a good thing.
The quicker the yeast go through fermentation the less time for flavors to develop.
If using a wild yeast starter, add 1/2 cup of active starter into the gallon fermenter.
Allow to ferment for 6-10 days at 75 degrees F
Primary fermentation lasts about 6-10 days when it is at 75 degrees. The hotter it is the faster it will ferment. So, place it in a safe place a forget about it.
If using wild yeast, fermentation tends to take longer to get started so primary fermentation will be more around 12-14 days. But, you can monitor the fermentation and once it starts bubbling, then it is 6-10 days.
When your wine is fermenting, sanitize your bottles once more to prepare for bottling.
Secondary Fermentation: Optional
Secondary fermentation is an intermediate fermentation practice. It allows the wine to finish off the fermentation and develop more flavor.
This step is optional, if you are interested I would recommend to learn more about secondary fermentation!
Bottle time!
Once fermentation is complete, which is when the airlock bubbles once every 3-4 minutes, it is time to bottle.
Here you can gently pour your ferment through a funnel into your sanitized bottles, or use a siphon hose to bottle.
Allow to be in the bottle for 1 week in a chilled place before enjoying.
As you see, easy wine making takes few ingredients and a few steps. This method of winemaking is sure to get you off to a great start.
The intricacies of winemaking can create beautiful and stunning wines, homemade and commercial. Once we harness the power of the ingredients we have on hand, we can create some amazing things, even simply from fruit juice!
Below are some more resources to dive into for beginner winemakers who are curious about the process, the equipment, how to do it, and more!
Groundwork Essentials, Tips, and More!
- 15 Powerful Winemaking at Home Tips & Tricks to Make Unbeatable Wines
- Transformative Yarrow & Plum Wine Recipe Any Wine Lover Will Enjoy
- Undeniably the Best Water for Brewing Guaranteed | Easy Ways to Great Water
- How to Use a Hydrometer in 5 Easy Steps
- Ultimate Guide to Bottling Homebrew for Beer, Cider, & More
- Behind the Scenes Look into Beer Making for Beginners You Need to Know About
- Make a Perfect Beer on Your First Try | Beginner Beer Recipe
Conclusion
As you can see, wine making can be made simple, but we can also go down the rabbit hole and make a beautiful intricate craft out of it.
In its most basic form, wine is made of two things: fruit and yeast. The yeast eat the sugars in the fruit and turn it into alcohol. It's as simple as that.
In addition to making wine easy with fruit juice, you can also play around with making hard apple cider. It is the same process, but simply using apple cider instead of fruit juice, add yeast and you will have a hard apple cider!
Therefore, the minimal equipment for easy wine making can span into making cider. You can even explore soda making, beers, etc with these pieces of equipment.
The world of fermented drinks is endless when we understand the basic concept of sugar+yeast=alcohol.