How to make wine

Hello everyone,

I am a newb and Im having a hard time finding the info I need.

I have read some articles and watched youtube videos of people making wine at home with just graoe juice and yeast.

I just started tonight with a few batches.

Im unsure on a few details.

Currentlt I have a gallon of juice fermenting in a jug with 3 cups of sugar, ec-1118 yeast.

I used welchs pure grape juice.
I hydrated about 1/3 of a teaspoon of yeast with 50ml of water at 105*F.

Then added another 1/3 teaspoon of yeast nonhydrated.

I also have 3 plastic 1.64L bottles with juice fermenting with the same amount of yeast but with only 1 and 1/2 cups sugar in each.

2 bottle is apple berry pomegrante
1 bottle is grape berry pomegrante


I have balloons as a seal with holes in it.

So far am I doing anything wrong?

Questions:

1. How much sugar do I need?
How much to make jewish wine?
I really dont like wine unless its sweet like port or jewish wine.
2. Can I add more sugar and when?
3. Does adding more sugar at different times affect sweetness, ABV, fermentation?
4. How long does it need to ferment?
I read it takes 14 days and then you drink it.
5. Do I need to do anything during fermentation? Anything to watch for?
6. When its done do I need to filter the wine or skim any foam off?
7. How do you make different types of wine? Is it only based on the yeast?
What kind of wine am I making right now?
8. What else do I need to know?
9. How do I measure the ABV?

Im sure all of you will find this pist annoying but please help me.

I appreciate it greatly. Thank you

Let me approach answering your many questions by discussing the principles of what you are trying to do, focusing on your questions about sugar.


First of all, you really need to obtain a hydrometer, which measures the density of the juice; this is called the specific gravity (SG). Hydrometers cost about $7. This will allow you to determine how much sugar is in your juice.

In general, the sugars (from your fruit and the sugar you add) will raise the SG. The SG of water is 1.000, and as you add sugar, will go up to something in the range of, say, 1.080 to 1.100 for winemaking. The higher the starting SG (within this range), the higher your ABV will be.

Then you add yeast. They will eat the sugar, and excrete alcohol. The SG will go down, both because of the removal of the sugar, and because the SG of alcohol is less than 1.000.

Eventually, the SG of your wine will fall to somewhere between 0.990 and 0.996. The wine is finished fermenting at this point. You will transfer it to another container, leaving the solids at the bottom of the vessel behind. The wine will NOT be sweet at this point. If you wish to make it sweet, you will add potassium sorbate (which inhibits the yeast from further fermentation) and then add sugar to your liking.

So no matter how much sugar I put in, it wont be sweet unless I stop fermentation after 14 days? Or before 14 days? What can I use besides potassium sorbate?

So the hydrometer is used to find out if the yeast is still alive and fermenting?

TorontoPaul said:

So no matter how much sugar I put in, it wont be sweet unless I stop fermentation after 14 days? Or before 14 days? What can I use besides potassium sorbate?

So the hydrometer is used to find out if the yeast is still alive and fermenting?

Click to expand...

Yes - during fermentation, any sugar you add will be digested by the yeast and turned into alcohol. So you will make it stronger, not sweeter.

Use the hydrometer to find out if the juice has fermented completely, the SG or specific gravity will get lower and lower while you're fermenting. 14 days is not a magic number, it may be a week, or it may be more, and only the hydrometer can tell you when you are done.

Add potassium metabusulfite and potassium sorbate when your juice is done fermenting. You can get these at a homebrew store or online.

After that addition, you can add more sugar to "back-sweeten."

The other thing you'll need to do is "rack" the wines. This means pouring them from one container to another, leaving behind the gunk, and this should happen after fermentation is done. So you'll need a container for transfering.