1, buy grapes
As the saying goes, good grapes do not make good wine, to choose the skin red and sour for the best. If you can buy the winemaking brand-name grapes, of course, ideal, but the real winemaking grapes are not on sale. Purchase of grapes to choose those ripe, full, no disease, the darker the color of the skin the better.
2, wash the grapes
Since the skin of the grapes is likely to be residual pesticides, cleaning the grapes of the link is quite important, generally speaking, it is best not to wash the grapes bought, because homemade wine fermentation is relying on the surface of the grapes attached to the microorganisms of the wild yeast fermentation, if you want to wash, it is best to the whole bunch of rinse, do not scrub with the hands, not with the brush, and do not disinfect the grapes, to be ensure that the wild yeast is viable.
Industry grapes are not washed, many large wineries have their own plantations, the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers is strictly prohibited, the grapes on the market if there are pesticides on the epidermal surface will have spots.
3, drying grapes
After the grapes are washed and cleaned, they should be placed in baskets to fully dry out the water, or the whole bunch hung up to dry.
4, choose the container
The wine jar can be a ceramic jar, glass bottle, or plastic bottle. Plastic bottles are not and alcohol chemical reaction, will not jeopardize what human health. You can also choose large-capacity medical wide-mouth bottles, to be able to load 15-20 pounds of grapes is appropriate, because it is a glass bottle, you can see the fermentation status inside.
5, bottling
First fermentation: the method of crushing is very simple, is to crush the grapes, as long as the skin can be separated from the flesh, even the skin, seeds together, loaded to the container of the two-thirds of the way on it (the remaining space is left for fermentation of the skin of the grapes to rise in the space)
6, fermentation
Fermentation is the juice of the skin of the grapes of the sugar through the action of the yeast Produce alcohol and carbon dioxide, red wine before the fermentation process is the skin juice mixed together, yeast in the grape crushing has been access to the juice, because the white frost on the skin of the grapes there is yeast, so homemade wine in the fermentation can not add another yeast.
The temperature of fermentation is best at 15 to 25 degrees Celsius, and should not exceed 35 degrees Celsius, but fermentation in small containers, where heat dissipation is easier, can usually reach no more than 32 degrees Celsius.
When the skin juice into the container, usually after a day to start fermentation. Liquid surface is calm at the beginning, then there has been a weak carbon dioxide bubbles, said the yeast has begun to reproduce, after 2 to 3 days there is a large amount of carbon dioxide release, the dregs of the skin floated into a layer of cap, mouth taste juice, sweetness decreases, the wine taste increases gradually.
Fermentation every day should be floating grape skins with sterilized chopsticks pressed into the juice twice, which on the one hand prevents the grape skins moldy, sour, and at the same time can be on the skin of the pigment into the juice. Yeast is partially anaerobic and produces alcohol when there is not enough oxygen, so it is important to keep it sealed to make the fermentation more vigorous.
After the climax, the momentum of fermentation began to weaken, at this time you can add sugar, add sugar is to use the original grape wine to dissolve, and do not use water to melt the sugar and then add it, and so the sugar is completely dissolved, and then continue to ferment in the container, and finally carbon dioxide is released to weak and close to the calm, the smell of alcohol is very strong, the sugar is reduced to less than 1%, and the juice began to be clear, that is, the end of the fermentation, the press, the separation of the skin juice The juice will be separated from the skins and the juice will be pressed.
7, sugar
Fermentation is the microbial consumption of grape juice sugar secretion of alcohol, winemaking grapes generally contain 13-15 grams of sugar per 100 grams, according to experience, each gram of sugar after fermentation can produce 0.6 degrees or so of alcohol, so relying on the grapes alone can only be brewed by their own sugar 8-9 degrees of wine, to make 12-15 degrees of wine, obviously need to add sugar.
8, slag liquid separation
After reaching the point of stop fermentation, the grape skin floats above, the color changes from dark to light, grape seeds and most of the residue of the grape meat sinks to the bottom of the bottle, at this time it should be separated from the residue and wine. The specific method is to first use the siphon to suck out the middle of the wine, and then the residue into the gauze, by hand from light to heavy squeeze, and then like wringing clothes like twisting, so that the residue in the basic flow of wine net.
Finally, mix all the liquid together and put it into wide-mouth bottles to continue fermentation. At this point the wine is very cloudy, you can not mind, at this point the wine is called yuan wine.
9, secondary fermentation
Secondary fermentation will have a small amount of fine foam, 2 to 3 weeks after the basic completion of the wine at this time is particularly clear (not as good as buying, just did not add clarifying agent), the second fermentation is not by yeast fermentation, but malolactic fermentation, so it will not produce a lot of carbon dioxide, the pressure in the bottle will not continue to increase, there is no danger of bottle bursting.
So the container is filled as much as possible, tighten the cap. It is not recommended to add egg whites to clarify the wine (it will not taste fresh enough if kept for a long time). 20 days later, when the bottle is opened, the wine will be clarified and there will be a layer of sediment at the bottom, which is the "dead body" of the yeast after it has fulfilled its historic mission and impurities, and which is used by the industry to make a yeast paste.The top layer of pure liquor is then purified and bottled by siphoning or filtration. It is best stored in small bottles, ideally 1.5-liter old wine bottles, or the 2.25-liter plastic bottles used for Coke, filled to the brim and capped tightly, and placed in a cooler place in your home (13 degrees Celsius is said to be the ideal temperature for storage).
Extended information:
Harms of homemade wine:
Homemade wine? Methanol poisoning can cause blindness and death.
The media reported that Mr. Zhang in Ningbo drank 1 kilogram of homemade wine, dizziness, blurred vision in both eyes, the doctor examined, Mr. Zhang suffered from toxic acute optic neuritis, eyesight fell, as low as 0.1.
Wang Xinghong, an associate researcher at the School of Life Sciences of Yunnan University, has pointed out that the main metabolite of the yeast in the wine during the fermentation process is ethanol, but also produces methanol. Foreign countries allow home-brewed wine, but do not allow the distillation of wine to purify brandy, is because if you do not know how to fractionate, it is easy to cause the concentration of harmful substances.
Methanol has a strong toxicity, used in industry, some of the "fake liquor" caused by the victim blindness, death, more from the wine mixed with methanol components.
Experts say that table grapes on the market are often unsuitable for winemaking because they contain relatively little tannin, which is an important substance in wine. To make your own wine, use relatively reliable glass and ceramic vessels for, and don't overheat the fermentation process.
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