Does anyone make their own homemade wines?

Question

I have started making some wines, just for fun. I feel sort of like a mad scientist with a chemistry set gone bad. Does anyone have tips, recipes, success / failure stories? Thanks in advance for your answers.

Answer 1

Yes, I have. I tried various things. Some things I did not care for much was potatoes, dandelions, strawberry, watermelon, and tomato. I did not try these items repeatedly to try for a better wine. lol
I also tried real home grown grapes, store bought grape juice (white), apple cider, cherry, mint (home grown), cranberry, and some mixtures of white grape juice and apple cider.
Sometimes I would add bananas (I usually liked this addition) and I have added raisins.
My favorites were the cherry and especially the mint and/or apple cider. I did not care for the real grape but my son did. I preferred the white wines better than the red wines. Just my preferences.
Good luck with your hobby. I enjoyed it.

Answer 2

I have made wines for about 7 years. Homemade sweet wines at first but now the better grade of wines. If you want very good wines with minimum trial and error ( if any) I suggest going to eckraus.com You can be drinking some very good wines within 2-3 months time. Cost varies with the type of wine but they are truly good. It usually ends up costing me about $2.85 per bottle and in blind taste tests, I have been told my wine passes for $20.00 a bottle variety. These supplies are that good. Your start up cost is higher unless you already have sufficient sized fermenters and some other supplies. Good luck

Answer 3

My family has been making wine for generations; I still have vineyards back in Italy and I been making wine since I was a little kid. My suggestion to you is that you keep your wine in a cool wine cellar, keep your containers clean, if you use chemicals such as cascade to clean your gallons, bottles atc. Make sure that you rinse them and then smell them to ensure that no chemical residue is left behind. After fermentation you must keep your containers full, not ¾ but full or the wine could turn to vinegar during the summer months. I make about 50 to 70 gallons per year and I usually don’t lose more then ½ gallon to vinegar. Not that it matters I make my own vinegar too.

Good luck

Answer 4

to make great wine, two things make sure you do

1. sterilize everything from start to finish

2. make sure temperature is where you need to be when processing, around 75 degrees

last year made plum wine, turned out awful
this year made Merlot on the sweet side, the best batch ever, around 15% alcohol, clear, smooth and I do have a lot left in my wine cooler

Answer 5

I've started to make my own wine as part of my postgrad at uni, what equipment are you using? Where are you getting your material from? It's important to remember you can't make good wine from poor grapes.
Be careful making wine from other fruit/items than grapes, the reason grapes are SO good for wine is they are low in phenolics. Phenolics are carcinogenic (cancer causing) so really, be careful.

Answer 6

Yes,it will work.However to make a high alcohol wine you will need a high tolerance yeast that will make wine up to about 18% alcohol.You can buy yeast at any Beer/Wine supply store.Also,the higher the alcohol the longer it takes to make.

Answer 7

check out 'how to make wine from common household items' good easy to read tips and recipes.

Answer 8

i recently came across the winepod. it is a kewl gadget that makes some pretty good wines. check it out: http://www.winepod.net/

Answer 9

No but I make homeade vinegar from turned wines.