There are many misconceptions and misguided assumptions about making wine at home. Most all of them are perpetuated by individuals who never even tasted or made homemade wine. Others are simply born out of the mystique surrounding the commercial wine industry.

How can something so sophisticated be made at home?

Here are the ones that we run into the most. The ones that flat-out drive us silly every time we hear them.

Homemade Wines Don’t Taste That Good.
Without question, you can easily make wines that are just as good, if not better, than the wines you find on the store shelf. And not with practice, but with your very first batch. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done side-by-side, blind tastings with a challenging friend or an acquaintance between a glass of wine made from one of our wine ingredient ki ts and a glass of store bought wine, only to have the homemade wine win – hands-down. I’m not going to name any names, but I’m not talking about doing a blind tasting against the $8 stuff. I’m talking about higher dollar stuff that you’d buy to take to a dinner party, etc. Wouldn’t it be nicer to take your own personalized wine gift, that you made, to the party instead.
Homemade Wine Takes A Lot Of Time To Make.
Learning how to make your own wine is much easier than most individuals can even begin to imagine. It’s deceptively easy. There are a lot of wine making products on the market today that make it as simple as following a few directions. And, it doesn’t take that long. You can be bottling your first batch of wine in as little as 28 days. And as far as the time it takes out of your day, I’d say it doesn’t get any worse than the time it takes to bottle the wine – an hour to get it start, another half-hour to siphon it to a second container, etc.
Making Homemade Wine Requires A Lot Of Expensive Equipment.
This may have been partially true 20 or 30 years ago. Back then, depending on what type of wine you were making, you might need a grape crusher to crush the fruit and a grape pre s s to press the fruit. Today it’s different. You don’t need to crush and press the fruit if you don’t want to. You can buy it already done for you. Now there are hundreds of wine making juice s packaged up and ready for use from all over the world. You can get Cabernet grape from France, Shiraz grape from Australia, Merlot grape from California… The choices are endless.
Homemade Wine Spoils Easy.
Absolutely not. Homemade wine keeps just as good as commercially made wine. There is no difference in the keeping abilities between the two. There is no reason for one to keep better than the other. They are both made the same way from the same basic wine making materials. One’s just on a smaller scale than the other.I currently have several bottles of homemade wine that have been in my cellar aging since 1998 and 2002 and I would not hesitate to drink them myself or serve them to my friends and family.
Making Homemade Wine Is Illegal.
Wrong! Ever since October 14, 1978 it has been perfectly legal for Americans to make their own wine and beer. This is when President Jimmy Carter signed into law legislation introduced by Senator Alan Cranston of California. You can make up to 100 gallons per year. If you live in a household with another adult, you can make up to 200 gallons per year. It can be for your own personal consumption or to hand out has wine making gifts to friend and relatives. Just make sure you don’t sell it. That would be illegal!

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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

Courtesy Adventures in Homebrewing

Beginner’s Winemaking

What Is In A Bottle Of Wine?

Things to know about making wine

How To Brew Wine At Home

HOW TO MAKE WINE AT HOME From ADVENTURES IN HOMEBREWING

The Benefits Of Wine Kits vs Fresh Grapes From ADVENTURES IN HOMEBREWING

5 Myths About Homemade Wine

Try something new

How to make wine at home. A Great lesson. CLICK HERE

Small Batch wine Kits to try. Learning is Fun. CLICK HERE

ONE GALLON WINE KITS

The Total Wine System

Home Winemaking: The Simple Way to Make Delicious Wine

Ever wonder how to brew wine at home? What do I need? How much will it cost? Is it legal? Well keep reading, I am about to tell you all you need to know to get started on making your wine from home.

First you need a wine making kit. These kits, to a lot of peoples surprise, are not that expensive. A 5 or 6 gallon kit will cost between $100 and $200. A one gallon kit will run about $30. Your equipment will cost $70 to $170. The equipment kit is a one time purchase. That comes out to about 2.50$ a bottle. This will very on the type of wine, your first batch will be slightly higher. After that the cost will drop. I strongly suggest that the first batch be a one gallon variety.

You don’t need a winepress. Wineries use these winepresses to extract every last drop of juice from the fruit. Not for quality reasons. At $1 to $2 a bottle for home wine makers, the last drop of juice is not important.

Making wine at home is legal. A household of 2 adults can make up to 200 gallons of wine a year. And a household of 1 adult can make 100 gallons a year. You will need to check with your local authorities if you intend to sell or distibrut your wine.

The most important thing you need to have is good recipes and clear instruction on how to use them. This is where alot of wine makers fail. The recipes might be good but the instruction part is to vague. There are some additives that need to be added wheter listed or not. And some wine need to be shaken every 48 hours and some don’t.

You will also need to determine how sweet you like your wine. This is done with a hydrometer. Wich comes with the wine making kit. A reading of 1020 on the hydrometer means it is a sweet wine, 1010 is medieum and 990 is very dry.

Wine making at home is not hard as long as you have the right equipment, a basic kit works fine, and some good recipes and instruction. The kits come with all you will need.

Read the how to brew and watch the videos to learn more.