Making Wine from a Wine Making Kit

A great hobby is making wine from a purchased wine kit. However, it can be a confusing process if you don't know all of the precise instructions to create a great tasting wine. The process of making a wine can actually take up to just less than a month's period of time.

Here is a day by day guide to making wine from a wine kit:

Day 1: Make sure the main fermenter you'll be using is sterilized and rinsed with water before use.

Step 1: Grab the bag of concentrate by the top and remove the cap. You'll then want to insert the siphon in order to start transferring the wine into the cleaned and sanitized primary. You'll want to pour the entire bag of concentrate into the primary. Once you've pour all of the concentrate in, you'll then want to fill the bag with a quart of warm water and add that to the primary (repeat that twice).

Step 2: Add all of the supplied packets that came with the wine kit and stir into the rest of the mixture at this time.

Step 3: You'll now want to fill the primary fermenter to the 6 gallon level with cooled water.

Step 4: At this point, add in the yeast and make sure the temperature of the unfermented wine does not go above 77 degrees (F) before adding the yeast.

Step 5: Cover the seal to the primary fermenter and make sure it's airtight. Store the fermenter in a warmer place that reaches about 70-75 degrees (F).

Days 5 or 6: These are the most important days thus far in the wine making process. If you don't transfer the wine into a secondary fermenter while there is some fermentation let to be finished, then the wine could go bad.

Step 1: Add any packets that came in your wine kit and follow their instructions for the order in which to pour them in. After you pour in the packets, you'll want to siphon the wine into the 6-gallon carboy, and filling it to its fullest.

Step 2: Attach a stopper that came in the kit and lock the fermentation to the 6 gallon carboy.

Step 3: Leave the carboy in a warmer place for the timeframe given by the manufacturer. This time differs depending on the type of wine you are making. The average amount of time for this process is around 12 days. Keeping the temperature at 70-77 degrees (F) will assist in making sure the fermentation is complete by day 12. A lower temperature will clearly make the process longer.

Days 18-21: This timing isn't as critical as the pervious time cycle, but you don't want to delay the process either, so it's best to stick to a strict timeline.

Step 1: Now that all fermentation is complete, you'll want to siphon the wine in order to leave all of the sediment behind and pour it back into the cleaned primary fermenter. Stir this mixture thoroughly for around 5 minutes to get rid of all bubbles. In another 5 minutes, you should repeat the stirring process 4 more times until all of the foam is gone. Add any other packets that the wine kit came with for this time frame and stir one more time for a couple more minutes.

Step 2: Wash the 5 gallon carboy and stir in the wine. This will be the last time the wine is stirred in the primary fermenter. Once stirred, transfer back into the carboy and fill it to the top. Once this step is complete, attach the fermentation lock and stopper.

Step 3: Leave the wine to sit for another 7 to 10 days. If the wine is not clear (with no sediments) at that time, then leave the mixture for additional time until the wine is clear.

Day 26: Let the carboy sit an additional 2 days in a normal temperature space (dining room table) before transferring into a bottle

When I went through this process, it was easy to understand what the instructions meant during each process by looking at the wine. You know what wine should look like and that's what your working towards. The wine I made had a lot of grape, cherry and strawberry flavorings added which made it very sweet. It was a dark red wine, and I was able to get all of the sediments out and make it completely clear. It tasted really good considering I don't have a grape vineyard in my back yard. Therefore, having a great experience myself, you should know that if you follow this instructions precisely, all your hard work will have paid off.