Today's marketplace for home winemakers provides a wonderful selection of high quality juices from
around the world. The most common "kit" consists of a box containing all the necessary ingredients for
making 23 liters of wine. Within your "wine kit" expect to find instructions and any of the following:
 | | A bladder of grape juice. May be from 6 liters of concentrated juice to 23 liters of whole juice.
|
 | | Bentonite. A clay fining to improve clearing of the wine.
|
 | | Cultured wine yeast.
|
 | | Oak chips, shavings, cubes, or powder.
|
 | | Other flavour enhancers such as dried elderberries, dried elderflowers, or raisins.
|
 | | Fruit puree flavour/sweeteners, "suss-reserve" grape juice packs, other alcohol or flavour boosters.
|
 | | Preservatives. Potassium metabisulphite anti-microbial and antioxidant, ascorbic acid antioxidant, |
| | potassium sorbate mold and yeast inhibitor, or campden tablets which are metabisulphite tabs.
|
 | | Finings. Clearing agents of all manner which may be called isinglas, iso-clear, chitin, gelatine, or |
| | kiesesol.
|
 | | May contain labels, corks, shrink capsules, and vintners log card. |
| | |
Instructions in kits change continually. Some producers are very conscientious and conduct on going
testing on their ingredients and methods. Therefore, we encourage you to read instructions. However,
at Winemakers, we do not read instructions well. We hold to the vinting principles that we
understand, and trust our own intellects over those of unknown persons in far away places. Packaged
instructions will make more (or less) sense to you if you understand basic principles of wine making.
Read on.
TO START:
BENTONITE
If you have bentonite in your kit, it will be the first thing for you to prepare. Pour a liter or two of hot,
hot water into your primary fermenter. Swirl water in bucket and add bentonite so that it spirals into
the hot water. When all bentonite is in, quickly back swirl the water.
*There are numerous methods suggested for mixing bentonite including pushing bentonite
through a tea strainer, crushing in a tea cup with a spoon, & using a blender.
*If not mixed properly, the bentonite will clump and sink to the bottom of your fermentor.
*Using too much bentonite can strip away taste.
*Commercial wineries usually add bentonite only if they are having trouble clearing their
wines, especially when a haze is present. As we are making a wine in only 4 to 8 weeks, our
kits ask us to add bentonite right away on day one.
JUICE AND WATER Read our info page: water used in winemaking.
Add the juice and water, if required, to the primary fermentor. Top up to just short of the 23 liter
mark. (At first racking, you don't want to overflow by having more than 23 liters.) While your must
is warm, wet and sweet it is most vulnerable to infection from wild yeasts, molds and bacteria. It is
important to have a fast starting, robust fermentation. Especially if your fermentating location is
cool, be sure to start the fermentation in your primary nice and warm, around 80 to 90 degrees
farenheit. If the must cools down after a few days, no matter as long as you have gotten a robust
fermentaion started. If your must is over 100 degrees, there is a chance of killing the yeast.
YEAST
Make sure your must is well aerated by energetic stiring. During the first 24 to 48 hours in your
must, the yeast depends on its first choice of metabolic activity, aerobic metabolism. At this time
the yeast is actively reproducing itself to create a healthy colony of millions of yeast cells using up
all dissolved oxygen present in the must. Next it turns to anaerobic metabolism, availing itself of
dissolved sugars and producing that awful by product of alcohol, not to mention carbon dioxide.
Instructions on the package of yeast may ask you to rehydrate these grains of dehydrated yeast.
You may follow directions, or simply sprinkle the yeast onto the surface of the must. This usually
works just fine