It’s easy and cheap to make home made wine from just sugar, yeast and fruit juice. If you need to be frugal these days, you’ll find this home made wine to be refreshing and tasty. Of course this fruit wine will not taste anything like store bought grape wines, it’s more in the tradition of country wines that were made at home in older times. The wine will also not be as strong as store bought grape wine which is good because fruit wine tastes better anywhere from 4 to 7 percent alcohol.
To make home made wine choose a juice that you like, apple, grape, pear, cranberry work best. Citrus may not taste as good, but lemon wine is not bad. These juices need to be free of preservatives and chemicals or the yeast will dies right away. Juice can be bought in bottles or cartons, or you can use frozen juice packs. Usually there are no preservatives in frozen juice so you can get it at any supermarket.
In order to make wine you will need a glass jug. Many supermarkets sell gallon jugs of apple juice, drink the juice for awhile and use the jug later. The juice from the jug will almost certainly contain preservatives so you won’t make wine with that juice. After you drink up the juice, sterilize the jug and cap by first cleaning with soap and water and then fill with water and add a tsp of bleach. Cover with the cap and shake it up, then pour out and rinse well.
Gallon jugs can also be found at brewing supply stores or sometimes at house ware stores. If you do go to a brew store, pick up some wine yeast and an airlock. If you’re lazy, just get the apple juice jug, it’s usually very cheap so even if you won’t finish the juice, it’s still a frugal choice.
If you’re really lazy, you can make home made wine from a glass bottle of juice about a liter size(chemical free). This will make less wine but it’s incredibly easy to make wine this way. Simply open the bottle, pour out about an ounce, add a cup of sugar, (an extra 1/2 a cup for cranberry juice)cover and shake up to mix. Add about 1/4 tsp of yeast, wine yeast or any bread yeast-but not quick rise. Cover and shake again. Remove the cap, find a balloon-regular latex part balloon, and slide the balloon opening over the mouth of the bottle. Just until it’s on tightly and sealed well. Very soon the yeast will start working and the balloon will swell. As soon as it is slightly swelled, prick the top with 2 holes with a needle. That’s it, now leave the your home made wine alone to ferment for a couple weeks or until the balloon is mostly deflated. When it’s done, cap and put in the fridge or leave it out if you want to age it a little.
For making a gallon of wine, add a gallon of juice to the jug, up to about 2 ounces from the top. If using frozen juice, reconstitute with the correct amount of water. Add 3 cups of sugar and 1/2 tsp of yeast. Shake it up and either use the an airlock or balloon method to cover or put the cap on loose and cover the top loosely with plastic wrap. Leave for 2 weeks or so, as soon as the balloon is deflated or you don’t see any yeast activity, you can put in the fridge.
These easy, frugal, fresh, home made wines can be drunk right away or after a few days in the fridge. Most fruit wines taste best cold, especially these young ones. If you like a stronger wine with more kick, add more sugar, but it will take a bit longer to ferment.
Honey can also be used to make home made fruit juice wine, just replace the sugar with honey. This will be more expensive, but it tastes great. It will also be mead-which is basically honey wine. Fruit wine made with honey is called melomel. However if made with apple juice it’s called cyser. If it’s from grape juice the name is pyment.
For a refreshing spritzer just add some seltzer to your wine and you’ll be surprised how good it tastes.
