More and more people are enjoying the fun of making their own wine at home. I’ll explain when it’s better to make your own wine and what to look for in the winemaking process.
Winemaking grapes are not the same as regular table grapes. If you want to drink pure red wine, you first need professional red wine grapes. Of course, table grapes are not forbidden to make wine, but there are differences in taste. Choose the right variety of red wine grapes according to your personal preference.
The best time to make red wine is from the second half of August to the first half of October, when all the grapes are ripe and available at the lowest prices and, most importantly, when the indoor temperature is only about 20-30 degrees (central). This is a very good time for the grapes to ferment. If the room temperature is too low, the grapes will not ferment enough and the red wine will not taste as good. Therefore, it is very important for those who want to make their own wine to control the temperature.
Here are the temperature controls
The temperature for red wine should be 25-30°C. If the temperature exceeds this, we need to control the temperature. If the temperature exceeds this, we need to cool it down. Too low a temperature will inhibit the normal reproduction of fermentation bacteria and affect fermentation. Above 35 degrees Celsius, the fermentation bacteria will be burned, which will also affect the fermentation (today we are mainly talking about red wine, the next article will discuss domestic white wine)
Fermentation time control
The total fermentation time is 20-30 days. The first step is the conversion of the sugar in the grapes into alcohol. There are visible bubbles. The number of bubbles goes from small to large, then from large to small. The climax takes about seven days. The second step is the fermentation process that converts the malic acid in the red wine into lactic acid. The air bubbles look small, uniform and clean. It also undergoes a process from less to more and from more to less, which takes about 15 days.
Post Fermentation Process
After thorough fermentation, we filter a large amount of residue and pour it into a tank. After the tank is emptied, we precipitate some of the pulp residue that has not been filtered out (called mash). This process takes a little longer.
What is the right amount in the container
Due to the large amount of gas produced at the beginning of the main fermentation, the skins float in layers on top of the red wine, leaving enough space. Usually, we leave a third of the container space to prevent the wine from overflowing.
Why add sugar? How much sugar is appropriate to add to increase the alcohol content. True wine grapes do not need sugar because wine grapes contain a lot of sugar. Regular fresh grapes need some additional sugar because of the sugar content to convert the red wine to alcohol. The amount of added sugar depends on how much wine you want to make in the end. It is usually 17 grams of sugar/liter, which yields 1 degree of alcohol. Home brewed red wines can reach up to 15 degrees. If the grapes do not contain enough sugar and no sugar is added, the red wine will be too low in alcohol and the wine will not keep well after winemaking. If too much sugar is added, resulting in under-transformation and incomplete fermentation, sweet and juicy wines will result. It all depends on personal taste. If you like sweet wines, add more sugar.
