Making Homemade Wine

Making Homemade Wine
Making homemade wine can be a lot of work, but very rewarding. There are several different ways to complete the process. There are also multitudes of different recipes for doing so. The main idea of the whole process is that yeast ferments the sugars and produces alcohol. These yeasts naturally occur in the fruits otherwise are added from commercially available cultures. This fermentation is a slow process in wine making, however it’s worth the wait. The main ingredients are fruit, water, sugar, and yeast. “Wine virtually makes itself, and after experimenting with proportions of the very few ingredients involved, you'll have fine results in a very short period of time” (Robishaw 1). These calculated proportions yield a delicious adult beverage that gets better with time.
The fruit is the main part of the wine. Without the fruit there would be no wine. The fruit can vary from grapes to apples, peaches and many other possibilities. Each different fruit has a different proportion that yields the same end result. The fruit is washed, then smashed or juiced. After collection of this processed fruit, it is combined with sugar. Some is heated after the sugar is added, some is left to ferment naturally. This sugary fruit is now ready for the addition of yeast.
Yeast is the worker bee of the process. Yeast naturally occurs in fruit but cultured yeast is added to speed things up. A cultured wine yeast is preferred but any yeast can be added. The yeast breaks down the sugars in the fruit and releases carbon dioxide. Alcohol is produced as a byproduct or waste from the yeast organism. This is where the secret lies. The carbon dioxide must be gently released without letting air in, letting air in allows vinegar yeast which occurs naturally in the air to infiltrate the fermentation vessel causing the change from wine to vinegar.
Sugar is the most interesting ingredient of the whole process. It gives a sweet flavor to the final product at the...