Homemade Red Wine (Indian Edition)

Wine making is one of the oldest skills recorded in history.

It is a fun hobby to have, and a very good conversation starter

You can gift them to your friends with your own custom labels

It is going to take around 45 days to make wine, so be prepared (21 days of fermentation, followed by filtering and settling).

Be calm and don't get over-excited. You do not need to keep opening the wine jar; open it only once a day during fermentation, just to mix it.

Get someone to help you.

Cleanliness is number One rule in Wine making

Cleaning

Wine Making

Filtration & Bottling

One of the golden rules is keeping everything clean and sterilized.

Heat some water, clean the Ceramic Jar and dry it well. I would advise you NOT to use an old Pickle Jar from home, because it would still have a pickle smell and odor. Get a new Jar and sterilize it with hot water. (If you follow Western blogs, they use some kind of powder called PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash) or some other powder mix to clean it)

Wash the grapes well and remove all the stems, branches and rotten grapes from the lot. Wash them with warm water; we need to get rid of any dust, mud, wax or chemicals on the grapes. (No matter whether you get the grapes from the roadside or a supermarket, clean them well.)

Clean the whole wheat grains properly. Drain the water a few times and clean them again.

Put all the grapes in the Ceramic Jar and smash them with a wooden ladle, or you can use your hands too. (Make sure you wear gloves if you use your hands.) Note: You don't have to make juice out of them, you just have to crack them.

Add the sugar. You don't need to add the complete 1 Kg, as it is too much; this depends on how sweet your grapes are.

Add some Filtered Water, mix them well.

Yeast for Fermentation: Take Lukewarm Water in a bowl and add 2 tsp of Yeast. Mix well. You can add a little sugar if you want. Wait for 10 mins; you should see bubbles forming in the bowl of Yeast. (Be patient here. Once I used old Yeast and did not get very good results.)

Add Yeast to the mix

Add Whole Wheat (Kanak/Gahu) into the Jar

Mix all the content well, until sugar dissolves.

Close the lid with a plastic cover to make it airtight and keep it in a dark room.

Once a day, for up to 21 days, you have to do this.

Open the Lid and the airtight cover carefully

What you will see is that all the Grapes have come to the top and you cannot see any liquid.

This is a good sign, which means fermentation has started.

With a Wooden ladle stir the mix slowly.

Once done, again close the lid airtight.

Repeat this once a day for about 21 days. (It is not exactly 21 days: when the bubbles stop coming, the main fermentation has stopped. You can continue for a few more days and then stop.)

After this, we start with Filtration and Bottling

After 21 days (or when Fermentation is done), empty the content of the Jar into a container which will hold the wine; I used a small bucket. Make sure you have washed the bucket with hot water to sterilize it.

Now filter the content using the normal-size Filter (similar to the one used when pouring tea, but a lot bigger).

This will remove all the grape peels and Wheat seeds.

Once done, use the Fine Filter to filter the content again. Now all you will have is watery Wine. There will still be some suspended particles, but that's alright: in secondary fermentation the particles will settle at the bottom and you will have fine wine ready.

Once filtration is done, leave the wine for 20 more days; this will help the particles in the wine settle down.

Taste the wine before you close it. If you see the need to add sugar, add it. (I have never added it, but the site I learnt from mentions it.)

Keep Old Wine Bottles ready, washed and Sterilized.

On the 45th day, use a small pipe (the kind used in aquariums) and dip one end in the Wine Jar (make sure you don't put the pipe all the way down, just on the surface) and the other end in an Old Wine Bottle. Suck on the pipe and let the wine flow from the Jar to the Bottle. You will get the clear wine you have been waiting for.

Don't go to Western websites to see how they make wine. Their process is a lot more advanced since they have all the equipment handy, and all that would just confuse you more.

First time keep it simple.

I have tried making wine with different kinds of grapes, seeded and seedless. The best result was with seedless grapes, so I recommend using only those.

I also tried adding some spices to the wine, like Cardamom, Cloves and Cinnamon Sticks, but that too did not come out very well. That does not mean it won't work for you; just a heads-up.