If you’re into homemade wine, you know the importance of getting some good homemade wine recipes. Just throwing some fruit juice and a fermenting agent in a jar and letting it sit for awhile will get you nothing but nasty fruit juice. You can of course try your own mixtures if you’re adventurous, and of course doing so is part of the fun of making your own wine, but especially if you are a beginner you’ll want to follow the easy wine recipes to the tee. Once you’re a bit more experienced, you can start experimenting with different fruit mixes and sugar levels, and who knows – you may even come up with some of your own homemade wine recipes over time! But to get you started, here are some basic recipes you can try.
Mulled wines are a great alternative to hot cocoas, ciders, and other such drinks. They are very easy to make, and once you get the hang of it, you can come up with your own mulled wine recipes. Usually you just take one regular bottle of any red wine and put it into a large stewing pot. Add a quarter cup of brandy, about 10 cloves, 2/3 cup of sugar, some whole cinnamon sticks, and about a teaspoon of ginger or allspice. Let it simmer over very low heat, stirring it occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. You can experiment with this type of easy wine recipe by adding some favorite pureed fruit or fruit juice, or by using honey instead of sugar as a sweetener. By using different types of red wines, you’ll also be able to get either stronger or mellower flavors.
Apple wine is also a favorite for homemade wines, and while these easy wine recipes are a bit longer, they yield a very good product. Your wine mix is merely 2 containers of frozen apple juice (thawed) and 4 cups of sugar, more or less to taste, with about 2-1/2 quarts of water. As with most easy wine recipes, you boil the sugar in about a quart of the water until it is dissolved, and add this to the apple juice. Add about 6 teaspoons of acid blend, a campden tablet, a quarter teaspoon of grape tannin, a half teaspoon of pectic enzyme, and a package of wine yeast. You then prepare it as you would any other wine. Since this is one of the most basic homemade wine recipes there is, you can experiment with it by mixing the apple juice with other fruit juices. Half apple juice and half grape juice is good; cherry or blackberry juice works well too.
You can also adjust this homemade wine recipe by eliminating the apple altogether and using half grape juice and half grapefruit juice.
The important thing to remember when mixing up the fruits that you use in your homemade wine recipes is that you don’t want to use all tart fruits or all sweet fruits. A good way to remember this is to think of the colors of the fruit, and use two from different colors. For instance, grape and apple, banana and cherry, and so on. These types of mixtures usually make the best easy wine recipes for homemade wines.
The Author:
Alyssa Nair has written articles on the finest wines and accessories.