From the Garden or Orchard to the Table: Getting Started With Home Winemaking
(FN1638)This publication provides information to help you get started with making wine at home from locally grown fruit. It includes directions to make wine from apples, black currants, cherries, strawberries and rhubarb.
Contact your county NDSU Extension office to request a printed copy.
NDSU staff can order copies online (login required).
Basic Equipment You’ll Need
You can find most, if not all, of this equipment at home winemaking supply stores or on home winemaking websites:
- Fruit press: used for extracting juice
- Nylon straining bag: used for straining juice from fruit prior to fermentation. Some recipes call for leaving the fruit in the bag during the fermenting process.
- Glass or plastic jug with screw cap: used to hold sanitizing solution
- Graduated measuring pitcher/cup: used for precise measurements
- Large food-grade plastic pail (6 to 8 gallons): used as a primary fermenter
- Long-handled plastic spoon: used for stirring
- Clear, flexible siphon hose with plastic tip: used for liquid transfers
- Glass or plastic carboy (1 to 6.5 gallons): used as secondary fermenter
- Hydrometer: measures the density of the wine/must
- Thermometer: monitors the temperature of the must
- Fermentation locks: allows carbon dioxide to escape from fermenters and prevents oxygen and microbial contamination
- Bottle brush: used to clean bottles
- Glass wine bottles: buy new bottles or reuse commercial wine bottles if they are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized
- Corks: prevent air and contaminants from entering bottles. Always use new corks. Never reuse old corks because they contain microbes and frequently will leak.
- Corker: for inserting corks; hand and floor models are available, but floor corkers are preferred
- Shrink capsules: can be purchased to finish your bottles
- Personalized labels (optional): can contain the type of wine, date and any other information you would like to add
- Wine rack: used to hold wine bottles at a slant to avoid drying out the cork
Winemaking Process
Juice Extraction
You have various means to extract juice from fruit. Crushing or chopping the fruit and then straining and pressing it through a mesh bag or cheesecloth is a common means for extracting juice. You also can use juicer machines and steam juicers.
When crushing or chopping the fruit, take care not to break the pits from stone fruits such as cherries or plums. These pits contain a cyanide-forming compound that will add a bitter taste to the wine.
Note: Freezing and then thawing softens many kinds of fruit and helps with juice extraction. Avoid heating fruit because the heat may cause too much pectin to be released. Heating can cause a pectic haze in the wine; however, steam juicers can be an alternative means for extracting juice.
Many recipes call for 3 to 5 pounds of fruit per gallon of wine, with added water making up the rest of the volume. Grapes are an exception because the juice usually is used full strength with no water added.
Prepare the must in your cleaned and sanitized primary fermenter. Many kinds of vessels can be used for primary fermenters, but they must be made of food-grade materials.
During juice preparation, add the recipe ingredients such as tannin, acid blend and yeast nutrients. Do not add the yeast at this time. If the juice has been prepared from fresh fruit, plan to add potassium metabisulfite at the rate of 50 parts per million of SO2 (or one Campden tablet per gallon) to neutralize any wild yeast or bacteria.
Take an initial specific gravity reading with your hydrometer and record it on your winemaking record sheet. If the specific gravity reading is lower than what the recipe calls for, add and thoroughly mix additional sugar and then recheck the specific gravity. Add small amounts of sugar at a time to keep the SG from going higher than the recommended level. Eleven grams of sugar per liter of must will raise the SG by 0.004 (or by 1 unit on the Brix scale). Wait about 24 hours before adding winemaking yeast to the prepared juice.
Fermentation is the Next Step
Follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for rehydrating the wine yeast and then add it to the must. You may choose to use a sealed fermenter with an airlock or you can place a clean cloth over the fermenter for the first few days of the fermentation. Keeping out any fruit flies is very important because they can transmit vinegar-producing bacteria to your wine.
Temperature is important; try to keep the must maintained at an even temperature between 65 and 80 F. Fermentation at a higher temperature will be quicker and is used for red wines. Cooler temperature fermentation is slower but allows the retention of more of the delicate, fruity aromas in white wines and fruit wines.
Once a vigorous fermentation has begun at a warmer temperature, the must can be moved to a cooler area if desired. As the juice starts to ferment, you will notice bubbles forming at the surface; this is normal and indicates that the yeast cells are consuming the sugar.
Monitor the specific gravity and when it reaches a level of about 1.020 to 1.030, move the wine into a secondary fermenter, commonly called a carboy. Using a racking cane and siphoning tube, rack (siphon) the wine from the primary fermenter into the carboy; try to keep from transferring much of the sediment at the bottom of the fermenter.
At this stage of fermentation, do not fill above the shoulders of the carboy to allow for expansion during the remaining fermentation. Use an airlock partially filled with water to allow the carbon dioxide to escape and to keep air out.
Regularly check the specific gravity. When you no longer see any apparent fermentation activity (bubbles) and the SG appears to be around 0.95 to 0.98, the wine is fully fermented. After fermentation is complete, filling the carboy to within a few inches of the airlock is important; this prevents too much exposure to oxygen.
For the next several weeks or months, additional racking from one container to another will be needed to remove the wine from the lees (sediment). Each of these rackings will require that the carboy be filled to about an inch or two below the rubber stopper of the airlock.
Clarification can be hastened by using one of several different additives. Do not use more than one clarifying agent at a time, and allow ample time for the clarifier to work; this may take several days to several weeks. Plan to add additional Campden tablets or SO2 (follow the recipe instructions) at every other racking to protect your wine from too much oxygen exposure and spoilage organisms.
Bottling and Storage
Bottling and storage is the final step and should be done only when the wine has been racked off any remaining sediment and has achieved good clarity. Patience is important during this step; bottling before the wine is fully stabilized may cause sediment to form in the bottles as they age.
Always use new corks. Be sure the corks are the correct size for the bottle opening. No. 9 corks will fit most U.S-manufactured bottles, but you may need No. 8 corks for smaller-necked bottles from other countries.
After bottling, stand the bottles in an upright position for a few days to allow the cork to thoroughly expand, and then store the bottles on their sides until ready to use.
