Wine Making Kits: Would You Serve This Wine To Company?
Jim Hofman
Back in the 19th century, many European immigrants brought their wine making skills to the United States. Wine making was very common in the 19th and 20th century, and actually thrived during Prohibition. Now, wine making from home is not as common as it once was, but it is still a popular hobby for many.
Wine making for personal consumption is, in a way, similar to gardening. Growing or producing a product for personal consumption lends a sense of pride, although wine making is much more complex than growing carrots. You'll need special wine making equipment, which years ago was cumbersome and bulky. Now, there are self contained wine making kits which fit neatly into any small space, like the corner of a basement.
Making your first batch of wine is possible in your own home with a wine making starter kit. These kits generally cost $125 to $200 and include everything you need as a fledgling winemaker. You'll receive supplies, gadgets, ingredients, and sealable containers to hold the wine while it ferments.
With a wine making starter kit, not much is left to chance. You'll be provided a detailed set of instructions, with no knowledge assumed. That actually worked well for us since we knew absolutely nothing about making wine. The entire process takes anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks, from opening the wine kit box to actually drinking the wine.
The Wine Making Process And The Taste
The process itself is fairly easy, although a bit stop and start. For example, after the first step, basically consisting of mixing ingredients, there's a 24 hour waiting period to allow the ingredients to settle. Then, another cleansing of sediment after 5 or 6 days, followed by the 4 to 6 week fermenting period.
Our first batch was what we'd call a simple red table wine. The taste? Drinkable and palatable, but certainly not worthy of any wine competition medals. Nor did we serve it to our friends. However, like any skill, we improved with practice.
The next batch yielded better results. We produced an apricot wine, using a recipe modeled after a wine we'd enjoyed on one of our U.S. wine trails travels. We were brave enough to share some of this wine with friends and family, and were pleasantly surprised that it received positive reviews (and requests for a 2nd glass).
Since then, we've tended to focus on fruit wines, because fruit wines are fun and very drinkable, not to mention not as intimidating to make in our basement. And while our little wine making hobby hasn't prevented us buying a few bottles from legitimate talented wineries, it's been awfully fun to tell people we're wine makers!
If you have a little patience and enjoy growing things or producing something all your own, consider wine making. We never thought of ourselves as ever being wine makers, but it's been fun and a great topic of conversation. You'll need a willingness to experiment, and a sense of humor for when one of your batches inevitably flops. But, you'll experience a real sense of pride when someone pays compliments to the winemaker!
Jim Hofman is an author and owner of several wine related websites, and a beginning wine maker. For more information, be sure to visit Jim's resource site devoted to wine, wine accessories, and http://www.wine101.info/ Wine Making Kits. Cheers!
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