Pour someone a glass of fine looking wine, then right before they are about to take a sip, tell them you made it—invariably there will a hesitation (the length of which depends on the default courtesy of the guest)—followed by questions.  People are leery of homemade alcohol, usually for good reason—it’s frequently awful.  But making alcohol at home has come a long way since the moonshine days; it’s now easy to make elegant wines in your own basement for a fraction of their retail cost.  Home winemaking is a fun way to fill up a wine cellar, to make gifts for friends and family, and to put a personal stamp on entertaining.

“Most of my customers make their own wine as a hobby.  It is fun, easy, and the end product is very good.  It is fun for them to share with friends and family, and it also is much cheaper then buying wine.  You can make a very good wine for about $3 a bottle”, comments Kevin DeLange, owner of The Brew Hut in Aurora, Colorado whose store and website is an excellent resource for the home enologist.  Richard T. Berkey, co-owner of Stomp Them Grapes in Denver, a store which specializes in supplies and equipment for home winemaking, expands upon its appeal,
“Fermentation is fascinating, akin to preparing fine cuisine or baking.  You create  complex and flavorful concoctions from naturally-occurring, raw materials”.

There are two main ways of making wine at home, one considerably easier than the other, making wine from a kit, and making wine from fresh or frozen grapes.

Wine Kits

“The most popular kits are the most common types of wines.  Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet, and Shiraz.  The Port and Ice Wines are also popular”, says Kevin. Wine kits consist of either pure grape juice, grape juice concentrate, or a combination of the two, as well as all the other additives needed such as: yeast, oak chips (simulates the flavor of aging in oak barrels), and clarifying materials—and the all important—instructions.  Beginning equipment needed to make kit wines can be purchased together for about $50-70.  The kits themselves range from $50 to $120.  Kits allow wine makers access to uncommon grape varietals.   Wine kits usually make about 6 gallons of wine, which fills 30 standard wine bottles. You can buy bottles new from suppliers, but a good source for free ones is a local bar.  Used bottles can be cleaned, sanitized, and reused.

Wine kits can be really good as long as you follow the instructions carefully

Most wines should be fermented between 68-75 degrees F (this depends on the yeast so check instructions), making most basements ideal locations for a home winery.  Kit wines need to age from 5-8 weeks, but many benefit from additional aging. Once finished, the wine is transferred into bottles and corked with either real or synthetic corks.  You can also make your own wine labels using Microsoft Publisher, a paint program, or a label making program.  While there are laws limiting what you can put on wine labels for commercially sold wine, they don’t apply to wine made at home—but keep this in mind if you are going to give a bottle to Grandma as a holiday gift.

Wine from Grapes

The other–significantly more involved option—for home winemaking involves using fresh or frozen grapes.  Many brew stores will order different grapes from growers across the U.S., but they get their deliveries from August to October. “Fresh grapes are only available within a limited margin of time each year, in the fall during harvest”, says Richard, “fresh grapes are a delicate lot, and must be dealt with expediently and intently when taken off the vine”.  Making wine from fresh grapes—or their must, the liquid resulting from pressing and crushing fresh grapes—takes more effort than kits. Richard explains, “The wine kit product, unlike frozen grape musts, is drastically simpler, since all the basic analysis and chemistry has been done for you prior to opening the package”.  There is a long list of equipment involved in this process, and as they are pretty expensive, most people use them at the store where they buy their grapes, or rent them.

Nothing beats making wine from grape!

The first step in the process of making wine from grapes is crushing, desteming, and testing and adjustment of sugar, acid, and pH levels.   Next is the initial fermentation, which takes about 2 to 3 days, then pressing to remove skins and seeds (for red wine, white wine is pressed to remove the skins before fermentation), then another round of fermentation, called malolactic fermentation.  The wine is moved into a clean carboy—this step is called racking.  Next, oak (oak chips which simulate the flavor of aging in oak barrels) is added.  The wine is racked again and then clarification materials are added.  Depending on how much sediment is present, the wine may need to be racked every 2 to 4 months.  The wine is then aged 6-9 months (total) and then bottled.

Which way you go to your own impressive homemade wine is really up to you. “Kit winemaking is decidedly the more affordable and less daunting way to get involved, since a basic equipment kit can be purchased for around $70.  Ingredient kits go for as little as $50, and contain everything needed to produce a quality wine”, says Richard.  However, making wine from grape, although more involved, also have its benefits Richard explains. “Others enjoy the camaraderie and widely-felt spirit of celebration innate within a community-based crushing, and return again and again in pursuit of it”.

Regardless of the method, making your own wine is a fun and unique way to add to the celebration and bonding of drinking with friends and family. Its “a personally engaging activity that requires forethought, learning, discipline, patience, and attention to detail”, says Richard, that produces “the pride of sharing, over the home hearth with good friends, a wonderfully complex product that one has created oneself.  It is the giving of a gift that comes from within”.

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1. Kit Wine vs. Grape Wine
2. What do you really need to start making wine?
3. Ice wine: The frozen secret

There are two choices for how to make wine , kit wines or wine from grapes.  Each method has distinct advantages and disadvantages.  These are the main differences between the two methods to help you decide which is better for you.

Price difference between wine kits and grapes

The price for grapes usually is between $30 and $40 per 30 pound crate of grapes.  Grapes from Napa Valley, raised on bottled spring water and blessed by the patron saint of wine may cost even more.  It depends on the year, but usually three crates will equal 6 gallons of wine.  You can also buy a 6 gallon bucket of grape juice already pressed for about $50.  I’ve had great results from the white grape juice buckets; however red wines typically are not sold in the bucket.  You can buy merlot grape juice, but it will not contain the skins.  In the past few years, grapes have cost me $120 per 6 gallons.  You might be able to get the cost down even more by buying in bulk.

Wine kits usually range from $50 to $150.  The price range is determined by the quality and amount of juice in the kit.  For example, you can purchase a 7.7 liter (2 gallons) wine kit for about $50.  An expensive wine kit will have 15-16 liters of juice (4 gallons) and possibly grape skins.  Besides the volume of juice included, the higher end kits use grapes from specific vineyards and contain higher levels of total dissolved solids.  The dissolved solids give the kit wine flavor and aroma.  The price and volume of juice are directly related to the quality of wine produced.

I usually buy the premium wine kits, so all in all I have not noticed a huge price difference between the two.
Advantage: None

Labor and Equipment

Other than hard cider , there is nothing easier to make than a wine kit.  If you follow the directions religiously, you will get a good wine.  You do not need any additional equipment other than your normal homebrewing equipment.

Making wine from grapes includes more know-how and significantly more work.  If you buy your grapes from a wine making store, you likely will be able to use their equipment for free.  My first year I purchased grapes, but I used their crusher/de-stemmer and their wine press.  The problem with using a store wine press is you need to crush your grapes on premises, take it home and ferment the wine, and then bring the wine back to the store to press the wine.  I eventually purchased a wine press , because it is difficult bringing grapes back and forth to a store 20 minutes away.

Given wine kits are so easy to make, the score goes to wine kits.
Advantage: Wine Kits

Wine Aroma

Wine from grapes produces great wines, but it requires lots of equipment you will need to rent or buy

When I first started drinking wine, I never understood what people were talking about when they referred to the “aroma” of the wine.  I could not smell anything.  When I attended my first wine festival, I went to a wine pairing dinner and realized it wasn’t me it was the wine.  A good wine will have a very pleasant smell.  The aroma of a nice wine cannot be beat.  It can smell of grapes, flowers, cherries, and perfume. I finally understood what everyone was talking about.

I never notice this smell with wine kits, and I only make the high end kits.  Kit wines just do not have the same aroma.  Sometimes you can pick a few notes or raisins or fruit, but the scent is much more subtle.  The aroma is a huge part of the wine experience, but kit wines fall into a lesser quality category of wine.

With my grape wines, the smell is amazing.
Advantage: Grape Wine

Wine Flavor

I’ll probably get lots of hate mail or hate comments for even mentioning “kit taste”.  Look on any winemaking or homebrewing forum and the “wine kit taste” topic will eventually come up.

Many swear there is an off-flavor from kit wines; others say it is the taster’s imagination.  The taste is described as sweet, caramel kool-aid or “jolly rancher” flavor.  For a dry red wine, this flavor can be distracting.  Even worse, only some people can detect the off-flavor.  It is maddening for some winemakers to hear there is an off-flavor in their wine which they cannot detect.  Personally I am in the “I can taste it” camp.

The “kit taste” in kit wines comes from the pasteurization process.  Some of the sugars in the wine bond to form more complex sugars which are not fermentable.

Still there are few people who can detect the flavor.  I’m the only one in my family who can taste it.  The “kit taste” only affects red wines.  I’ve never tasted it in white wines.  I still have to give the advantage to grape wines.

Advantage: Grape Wine

Intangibles

After reading the last two points, you probably think I hate kit wines.  It’s not true, I like kit wines.

I can make a kit wine any time of the year.  Most varieties are available in kits year round.  Grape wine can only be made at the end of the summer when the grapes are harvested.  You have much more flexibility with a wine kit.

With kit wines you can make wines which normally might not be possible for you.  For example, I live no where near South Africa, but with a wine kit I can make a good Pinotage wine.  When you make wines from grapes, you are limited to the grapes in your area.  In Colorado, we can get some grapes from California.  These grapes are shipped in refrigerated trucks and stored in refrigerated warehouses.  It can sometimes take several days before you can crush the grapes.  The types of wine you can find in a kit are usually better than what you can get locally.

Finally wine kits consistently win awards in head-to-head competitions with grape wines.  Grape wines win as well.  Nothing can speak stronger than a first place ribbon in a blind taste test.  The key point to take away from this is a kit wine can be compared side-by-side with a grape wine.  In some cases, a kit wine can be a better wine.

Advantage: Wine Kits

Conclusion

So it really depends on what you want from your wine.  Personally I like the aroma and flavor of grape wines more than kit wines.  If you have limited equipment, a kit wine is a much better choice.  I often make kit wines through the year while I wait for my grape wines to age.  Most kit wines benefit from aging, but the aging process for grape wines is much longer.  And remember, the best wine (kit or grape) is the wine which makes you want another glass.

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1. Ice wine: The frozen secret
2. The Basement Winery
3. What do you really need to start making wine?

The Disaster

I was distracted with several people talking to me and my daughter running around while I was making my wine kit.  I grabbed what I thought was yeast and I tossed it into the wine.  I noticed the yeast looked a bit like potassium sorbate and thought it was unusual.

Wine kits are very easy to make as long as you're paying attention!

A day later the wine kit showed no signs of fermentation.  I forgot to clean up earlier in my haste, and noticed an emptied wrapper was lying on the basement floor.  The wrapper said “Potassium Sorbate”.  I could almost feel the camera quickly pan out as I was hit with the sudden epiphany.  I added the wrong packet.

For the readers who do not make their own wine, potassium sorbate is added to the end of the wine fermentation to ensure that the fermentation is complete.  It is a preservative that stops yeast from reproducing, and prevents any renewed fermentations from other yeasts or bacteria.  Potassium sorbate is added to many products, like grape juice to prevent spoiling.  If you add the potassium sorbate at the beginning, you are preventing any fermentation from starting.  No fermentation means no wine.

I quickly signed on to a wine forum.  I sheepishy asked the question to which I already knew the answer.  Was my wine kit doomed?

Can someone call a wine medic?

Some of the answers were hopeful.  They suggested that I try anyway, and see what happens.  Most said what I knew deep inside.  I have a bucket of $150 grape juice that will never be wine.

I talked to the owners at my favorite homebrew store in Denver.  They were not hopeful, but suggested I try making a starter and add that to the wine kit.  If I did nothing, the kit was lost so I might as well try.  I created a starter using 100% Welches grape juice, and tossed it in two days later.

To my shock, and to the disbelief of many on the wine forum, the kit started fermenting.  The fermentation was the most vigorous fermentation I’ve ever seen for a wine kit.  It actually blew out the airlock twice.  The starter had worked, and in the process destroyed my understanding of how potassium sorbate worked.  I had to know why.

How it worked

I searched the internet for articles regarding potassium sorbate.  Richard Roseweir in B.C. Canada directed me to an article at the British Columbia Amateur Winemakers Association (BCAWA) written by Bill Collings.  The article showed that the effectiveness of potassium sorbate is related to the amount of alcohol in solution.  The higher the alcohol content, the less potassium sorbate required to prevent fermentation.  The amount of potassium sorbate in wine kits is enough to prevent fermentation in wine, but not in grape juice.

For example if your wine is 10% alcohol, you need 0.20 grams/liter of potassium sorbate.  When the alcohol content reaches 14%, you need only 0.07 grams/liter.  The effectiveness of the potassium sorbate as a preservative is dependent on the amount of alcohol in your wine.  In my case there was no alcohol so the amount of potassium sorbate added was not enough to prevent fermentation.

Here's what it *should* have looked like when adding yeast

The effectiveness of potassium sorbate is dependent on several factors: the wine pH, the concentration of free SO2, the percent of alcohol in solution, the concentration of sorbate, and the viable yeast concentration.  All have to be in the correct amounts to prevent renewed fermentation.

Another reason why my starter worked is potassium sorbate prevents fermentations from starting or renewing.  It does this by interfering with the reproduction cycle of yeast.  It does not kill the yeast.  When I added the starter, the yeast was already fermenting.

Conclusion

The lesson I learned was the potassium sorbate does not kill yeast as most brewers and winemakers believe.  Potassium sorbate only prevents fermentations from starting again, and its effectiveness is dependent on other factors.

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1. Saving a wine kit from accidental sorbate
2. The insider on cider – A recipe for hard cider
3. What do you really need to start making wine?

You just sank $100 on a new wine kit.  You rip open the box and get to work on making your wine.  For your final step, you reach for the yeast packet and sprinkle it on the top.  Then you see the #2 on the packet.  It’s not the yeast.  It’s the potassium sorbate.’, ‘You scream.  You cry.  You write frantic posts to every forum you can think of asking what should you do.  You blame the kit maker for not making the pouches a different color.

What is your next step?  If you had grabbed the potassium metabisulfite, you’d be ok.  Wait a day or two, and then add the yeast. Potassium sorbate is a bit different.  It doesn’t kill the yeast.  It just prevents it from renewing a fermentation.  Unfortunately a fermentation is exactly what we want to happen.

The local homebrew and winemaking store suggested to try making a starter.  A starter is a small amount of grape juice, apple juice, or sugar water inoculated with yeast.  Also add some yeast food.  We want this yeast culture to be as happy as possible.  Once the cell count gets high, you add it to your fermenter.  Normally it is used to give a fermentation a good start.  In this case we are adding an existing fermentation to our wine kit.

The key is that potassium sorbate stops renewed fermentation, not existing fermentation.  We are adding a yeast culture that is currently fermenting.

© 2007 – 2010, fermentarium. All rights reserved.

Please see the fair use guidelines for republication. If you would like to submit articles to fermentarium.com, please review our Guest Post Guidelines.

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Related Posts

1. Everything you know about potassium sorbate is wrong!
2. What do you really need to start making wine?
3. The insider on cider – A recipe for hard cider