Make White Wine

Making wine can be both fun and rewarding. In most areas, it is legal to make as long as you don't sell it. This is an extremely cheap method of wine making and can taste very good if done correctly.

Steps

 * 1)  Sanitize all of your equipment.  Sanitizing every piece of equipment that will come in contact with your wine is crucial to reduce any off-flavors and harmful bacteria.  There are many different sanitation methods, so you will just need to find which one makes the most sense for your case.
 * 2)  Pour the white grape juice into the 5 litre bottle. Put the lid on and shake the bottle.
 * 3)  Add the cup of sugar. Put the lid on and shake the bottle.
 * 4)  Add the yeast and a small amount of sugar to a small amount of lukewarm water.
 * 5) When it starts foaming, add it straight to the bottle.
 * 6) Put on the lid and shake. (It is important to move straight on to the next step after completing this.)
 * 7)  Remove the lid from the bottle.
 * 8)  Put a few holes in the balloon with the pin.
 * 9) Stretch the balloon over the top of the bottle.
 * 10) Leave the fermentation bottle somewhere warm but out of direct sunlight.
 * 11) After 12 hours it will start fizzing. If it doesn’t start fizzing, start again. This is the yeast at work. The gasses will be released through the holes in the balloon. When the balloon is no longer inflated (usually after about 2-3 weeks), move on to the next step.
 * 12)  Once the primary fermentation has stopped (after 2-3 weeks) the alcohol  content should be sufficient and can be bottled. You should now have 5-6 bottles of wine with an alcohol content of 11-12%! You can vary and experiment with the recipe!

Tips

 * This wine ferments best at a constant temperature of 17°C (62°F) for 3 weeks.
 * If you want to improve the taste, leave it for a month before drinking it.
 * If you really want it to taste good, transfer it from the container into another container, making sure to leave all of the gunk in the bottom of the previous container, and leave it for a month.
 * For better taste, use wine yeast. Wine/brewers yeast will give a FAR better flavor.
 * Cleanliness is very important, everything that touches the juice/wine should be sanitized. Boiling water, or Campden Tablets (Sodium metabisulphite) or even, a bleach solution.  The juice is a fine environment for microbes/yeasts.  You want to make certain that your wine yeast is the one that's growing in there.
 * If you find you like making wine, consider purchasing fermentation locks, also known as air locks. They allow the CO2 out, but don't allow air in.  They're easier, more reliable, and a bit more expensive, than balloons.
 * To get the wine out without disturbing the dregs too much, siphon it out. You can also Decant a Bottle of Wine off Sediment.
 * If you use red grape juice and ferment it like this (at this temperature, same amount of time, etc.) it will become rosé. To make red wine you would use red grape juice and ferment it, with the same technique, at 30°C-35°C for ten days.

Warnings

 * Do not sell this! It's against the law in most places.

Things You'll Need

 * 5 litres of white grape juice
 * A cup of sugar
 * Baker’s Yeast (7 gram Sachet)
 * A 5 litre Bottle
 * A Balloon
 * A Pin

Related Tips and Steps

 * How to Brew Cheap Wine
 * How to Make Dandelion Wine
 * How to Make Wine out of Grape Juice
 * How to Brew Simple Wild Berry Wine
 * How to Ferment Cider Using Wild Yeasts