Using a Wine Making Kit
Now that you’ve got your wine making kit and your equipment, let’s see exactly what is involved in the process of making wine from a kit.
Preparation
The first, and most essential, thing that you need to do is thoroughly sanitize your fermenting bucket, lid, tubing, hydrometer, stopper (bung), and airlock. If you don’t sanitize and disinfect all of these things carefully, then bacteria can get into your batch of wine and turn it into vinegar. You definitely don’t want this to happen. As with homebrewing beer, accidental contamination is probably the number one cause of bad batches of wine.
Another preparatory step you need to take is to make sure that your fermenting bucket’s volume capacity matches that of your carboy. Fill your carboy with water until the water level almost reaches the bottom of the neck. Then pour the water into your bucket. Mark that level in permanent marker (on the outside) so that you know how much liquid you can put into your bucket.
Must, Yeast, and Primary Fermentation
Once everything is clean and ready to go, then you can start by pouring one gallon of water into the fermenting bucket. Add the Bentonite and grape concentrate and stir very well. Once this is thoroughly combined, you can add the rest of the water, up to the carboy-limit mark we made earlier.
At some point between now and the point when you snap the lid on the bucket, you’ll need to take a reading using your hydrometer to measure the specific gravity of the solution. You can do that now, or the instructions included in your wine making kit may say wait until all of the ingredients have been added. Either way is fine.
Once you’ve got the fermentation bucket filled up all the way with the water, you can add in the rest of the flavoring ingredients to the solution. Don’t put the yeast in yet, but any ingredients like raisins, elderberries or oak chips can be put in now and give it a stir to combine everything.
Now you’re ready to put the yeast into the mixture. Before you do, check to make sure that the temperature of the solution is between 70 and 80 Fahrenheit. This is necessary to provide the optimum conditions for the yeast to work. If the solution is too hot or too cold, the yeast won’t be able to work properly and you’ll end up with a bad batch of wine.
Open up the yeast packet and pour it in on top of the solution evenly. Don’t spill any and try not to get any on the sides of the bucket. When you’ve got all the yeast in the bucket, you’re ready to close it. Do not stir at this point. The yeast needs to sit on top of the solution.
Grab your lid and put it on tightly to make sure and get a good seal. If any air is allowed into the bucket from this point, there is a good chance of contamination occurring. Once you’ve got the lid on, put the stopper and the air lock on as well.
Congratulations, you’re now making wine! We’re going to leave it in the bucket for about a week and then we’ll move on to the secondary fermentation stage.