The equation to a successful home made wine is fifty percent strictly following the instructions and fifty percent involving a good wine making recipe. If you do not have one, and even if you follow the instructions down to the letter, chances are you end up with home made vinegar rather than wine. Among the most basic recipes around involve only five ingredients which are grapes, granulated sugar, Campden tablets, pectic enzyme and wine yeast.  

Grapes  

Have at least eight to ten gallons of grapes. Buy those really sweet varieties and seedless types for an easier process. Crush the grapes in batches to produce a consistent grape must. Place the must in really clean buckets or similar containers leaving at least a fourth of the container empty.  

Squeeze some of the must with cheesecloth to produce a cup of juice. With a hydrometer, the juice should have a specific gravity reading of less than 1.090. Properly covered, set aside the juice.  

Campden tablets  

With a cup of warm water, completely dissolve five Campden tablets. Stir the solution into the must with a wooden spoon. The tablets will be used to kill any present bacteria and prevent the must from getting contaminated in the future. Leave the bucket covered with cloth and wait for at least twelve hours before mixing in the next ingredient.  

Pectic enzyme  

Add four teaspoons of pectic enzyme to the must. Cover again and set aside for another twelve hours.

Wine yeast  

While waiting for the twelve hour period from adding the pectic enzyme, mix at least five milligrams of wine yeast to the juice earlier set aside. After the second twelve hours, mix in the yeast juice with the must. Stir the whole mixture two to three times a day keeping it covered in between. As with any wine making recipe, the fermentation process is the most crucial.  

Granulated sugar  

When the fermentation process is done, add sugar to taste and to reach a specific gravity reading of 1.090 after removing the non-wine particles and substances present.  

This wine making recipe allows you to switch the grapes to any fruit you wish to make your wine with and experiment with the amount of sugar to come up with the sweetness your wine would have.  

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