The Home Wine Brew - Wine Making Tips for Starting Your First Batch I use the word "brew" because right off the bat I want to make clear that making a truly enjoyable, flavorful and lovely looking wine is, in fact, possible at home, without any particular specialized equipment (or special vocabulary, for that matter.
) The word "brew" is defined as, fermentation techniques used in creating alcoholic beverages, wine and mead.
So, if fermentation is what we're after, what is fermentation? How do we control it? Fermentation is a natural chemical reaction where either naturally occurring yeasts found on fruits, or specific yeasts added by a wine maker, feeds on the sugars in the raw fruit and juice.
Bi-products of the yeast's little sugar feeding frenzy, are alcohol and carbon dioxide.
The carbon dioxide in this reaction is what causes the bubbling that wine makers are very familiar with, and cautious of.
Cautious? Wine that is bottled and sealed before this brewing or fermentation is finished can blow the corks off the bottles and make quite a colorful mess.
The steps when making a home wine brew with grapes or with other types of fruit are very similar.

• With the skins left on, press the fruit into a pulp or mash.
  (The skins provide added flavor)
• Add fresh, hot water and sugar to the fruit.
  (The amount of water and sugar varies depending not only on specific homemade wine making recipes, but also on the type of fruit or juice being used)
• This fruit mixture is called the "Must"
• Add yeast to Must.
  Although regular baker's yeast can be used in the home wine brew process, a special wine making yeast is preferable
• Stir Must, and seal in a fermentation container (a 5 gallon bucket is common) with a pressure release cap, also known as an airlock stopper.
  This stopper prevents air from invading the Must, but it allows the bubbling carbon dioxide to escape.
  This prevents pressure build up.
  
• In regular intervals during fermentation, the Must is stirred to blend the solids throughout the mixture to ensure a full bodied flavor.
  
• Ultimately, the Must is poured into a second container through a filter to finally remove the fruit solids and skins.
  A porous material like cheesecloth can be used to filter the wine.
  

A First Home Wine Brew is Easy.
But...
Although these are the basic ingredients and steps to make wine, good home wine making books, which are available online, provide the added steps necessary to achieve an actual good wine that is pleasing to the taste buds as well the eyes.
These added tips, unfortunately all too often unknown by home wine makers, include clarifying techniques (making the wine clear, not foggy) as well as strategic additions of natural sulphites to remove wild yeasts that are present on all fruits.
In my next article I will be talking in more detail about an easy homemade wine recipe to make your wine crystal clear (clarifying) as well as some special tips for fermentation and giving your homemade wine a flavor boost.
This will allow you to transform "good" homemade wine recipes into "Great" homemade wine recipes.