Hopefully I'm posting this on the right forum! I have an e-mail request for my grape wine recipe. Like cooking I don't have a recipe but wine is easy easy easy... but some work.

We need:

Juice

Sugar

Yeast

Optional is Acid Blend which is sold in wine making stores.

Equipment needed:

Fermentation Vessel (jug)

Fermentation Lock

Cork

Fermentation vessel... I use a 5 gallon glass water bottle... probably obsolete. Check the wine store. Easy cheap vessel is to buy apple juice in a 1 gallon glass bottle... not much wine but enough to get 4-5 people very drunk depending on the alcohol content.

Fermentation Lock.. or what people call a bubbler.

Large cork of the right size for the Fermentation Vessel... see the wine store.

Juice.. most any works but if store bought can not have preservatives. E-mail mentions homegrown grapes. These make very good wine but are the most work of any wine. The grapes need to be squished into juice. This can be done in a bowl with a masher or in a juicer bag (nylon mesh) that the grapes are put in and hand crushed allowing the juice to drip a container. It takes two guys a Saturday afternoon to hand squeeze 5 gallons.

Juice cheater that I use is to mix my home juice with store bought apple juice. Really watch what you buy... most have preservatives... looke for the cheapy cheap on sale. A mix of grape and apple will taste mostly like grape.

Sugar needs to be corn sugar... probably from a wine store. Not all sugars will completely ferment into alcohol and there are many kinds of sugar... glucose, fructose, lactose, and the one we want dextrose.

Yeast.. there are several kinds. I use a cheap .33 cents a packet generic wine yeast. The wine store will have a few. Probably avoid champagne yeast if this is your first wine... there are extra steps to making bubbly wines.

Acid Blend... is a cheap pure food grade acid that is added to make the juice extra sour. Sour juice makes good wine! The wine will not taste sour as the yeast eats up the acid. There are actually three acids used in wine but the "blend" is a package in which all three are mixed in about the right amounts. One is ascorbic acid which we know as vitamin C.... these are food quality acids.

So to start you need a wine store! Most any modest sized town has one... check the yellow pages. All can be ordered online but sugar is heavy so you will pay shipping... time & gas v. shipping charges. Often it will just be a small corner in the back of a hardware or garden center. I get mine from a fancy garden store... way in the back... it was the founders hobby. Vessel should be $30, sugar $5, yeast $1, acid $3, cork & lock $2. Once you have your vessel juice and sugar become the only real expense. There are a million items for sale in a wine store... yeast food, canned juice, fancy flavors (for making soda pop!), thermometers, and hydrometers. If you can buy a hydrometer... about $8 with the tube to float it in. There is a scale on the side of the hydrometer float (it looks like a fat glass straw) that when floated in the juice will tell you how much alcohol it will make. That allows you to make a perfect 12% alcohol. About 3/4 pound of sugar per gallon of juice will get you close.

Quick and easy is to buy the glass gallon of apple juice, yeast online, and regular sugar. Not the best wine but very cheap and not a bad experiment. Wine is fall off a log easy. Juice gets infected with yeast and starts to turn all on its own. The white powder on the outside of some natural homegrown grapes is yeast! If left exposed to air (oxygen) it will turn quickly from wine to vinegar. Not hard to see how ancient peoples "discovered" the process.

NEXT we have our stuffs and are ready to start by making juice. Crush the grapes removing the seeds... grape seed is bitter... wine will be much much much improved without the seed. My silly neighbor didn't take me serious about the seeds and got some fine wine with a bitter aftertaste. Not enough grape juice then mix in some apple juice. Other on this forum without grapes can use straight apple juice!... a handful of blueberries give apple wine a nice color! (I'd love to give some to a wine snob and see how long it takes to figure out it ain't grape). Okay we gots juice 1 or 5 gallons... some vessels are huge 30-50 gallons for the gonzo people.

Clean out the Fermentation Vessel. I just rinse with warm soapy water then rinse well with fresh cold water. Wine store sells a cheap oxygen bleach powder to get stuff perfectly microscopicly clean. Wash the cork and bubbler.

Put 1/2 the juice in the Fermentation Vessel. On the stove warm a pan of juice and mix in the sugar... you may have to do a couple pans. Pour the sugared juice into the vessel until you have your sugar added.... about 3/4 lb per gallon. Stir some acid blend into the juice.... I use about a tablespoon per gallon. There is a kit to test acid content that I don't use. I like to test my wine and dial in sugar content to 12% which is the standard content... most regular store bought wine will be about 12%.

When all the juice, sugar, acid has been added check to see that the juice is not hot or cold... it should be very mildly warm.... like bread dough! The yeast won't grow if it is over cold or hot enough to kill the yeast. About 90 degrees F is right. When we have it all set add the yeast on top. Put the cork and fermentation lock on your Fermentation Vessel.

I anywhere from an hour to a day the fermentation lock should be bubbling away. The yeast makes carbon dioxide gas just like it does in rising bread (bread and wine yeast are closely related but not exactly). Let it ferment for about 6 months... yes 6 long months and it is ready to drink. Over time the bubbling will slow then stop as the yeast converts the sugar to alcohol.

Wine making books have lots of extra steps people can do like draining the wine from one vessel to another, adding dirt, filtering the dirt out... letting it sit six months does all that for you naturally.

So that is making wine as I do. Just wrote that thinking of each step so hopefully I didn't forget anything... probably not. This makes a DRY wine. There is no sweetness left as the yeast made it into alcohol. Do not add more sugar or it will start to bubble again... silly neighbor didn't think I was right about that... bottles do explode if you try to sweeten it. You can rinse out and reuse pop bottles to store it in! If you want sweet when drinking it mix it with pop or fresh juice in your wine cup as you drink it... I like cheap yellow pop and apple wine... an ultimate sweet wine "cooler".

Any questions feel free to shoot me an e-mail. It might take a day or so to answer but your questions will be welcome. It helps to have a strong helper. I can pick up a whole 5 gallon glass jug and shake it to mix things without dropping it.... I work in a steel factory so more muscles then I want but they are handy.... stirring works. Don't think I've ever taught anyone to make wine that didn't go on to make more now and then. All the way from simple to rocket science... it makes a nice hobby.... it can be clairified, preserved, carbonated, top noted, bottled, corked, and labled.. Best part for me is no sulfides!... those pickle my tummy. Most all store bought has sulfides to preserve it in storeage. My homemade is preserved by the alcohol... if left open it turns to vinegar.

Good Luck!

: )

lyra