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http://homemadewine.com/recipes.php

After you have had an opportunity to experiment with making your own wine you may naturally decide that it is time to begin creating your own wine recipes. This is quite common. There are a number of advantages to creating your own recipes. For example, you can avoid the hassle of having to look around for a recipe every time you want to make a batch of wine with the fruit that you have available. In addition, you gain the ability to experiment and possible produce a really original, great batch of wine.

Like any recipe; however, wine recipes must have a specific format and certain ingredients in order to be successful. Let us examine it from the point of view of baking a cake. There are certainly hundreds, if not thousands, of different cake recipes. Line them all up and they are decidedly different. In order for a cake to be a cake; however, the recipe must have several basic ingredients. For example, you are usually going to need some type of flour, sweetener and something to help the cake rise. This is a basic formula that forms the basis of cake recipes. While you may not think of it, it is really a matter of science.

A wine recipe is no different. There are certain ingredients that must be included in any wine recipe in order for the end result to work. These ingredients are: produce, sugars, water, nutrients, acid and yeast.

First, you will need to start with something to make the wine. Most wines are made from grapes but you can use practically any fruit or vegetable matter; even herbs if you wish. You can also use concentrated juices as well. In addition, you will need sugars in order to start and support fermentation. If you do not add sugar to your wine recipe, fermentation will not take place and without that, your wine will not have any alcohol. In most cases, the fruit that you select for your wine will produce the necessary amount of sugar but that is not the case with all produce. For example, if you are making dandelion wine then you will need to provide sugar because the produce will not be able to produce any of its own. You may also find that you need to occasionally add some sugar to support the sugar that is provided.

Water is essential in order to dilute flavors that may be too strong. Common examples of wines which may need to be diluted with water include blackberries, elderberries and gooseberries.

Nutrients are also essential. Keep in mind when creating your wine recipe that the yeast which you will add to your wine is a living organism. As a result, it needs nutrients to thrive and support a healthy fermentation process. Usually, you will need to add some nutrients to your wine. Common examples of nutrients include Yeast Energizer and Yeast Nutrient.

Do not overlook the importance of acid in your wine. While you certainly do not want to have too much acid in your wine, it does play an important role in the fermentation process. If the acid level in your wine is too low then the fermentation will not be as successful as it should be. Acid also assists in the stability of your wine. Also, without sufficient acid, your wine may very well develop bacteria and molds that could ruin your wine. Tannic acid and Acid Blend can be used to help add necessary acid to any wine recipe.

Of course, no wine recipe can be complete without yeast. Yeast is what basically does all of the work of converting the produce you have chosen into wine. Without yeast, there can be no wine. You will need to make sure that you have yeast that is specifically designed for winemaking. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you can use the yeast you have in the kitchen for bread making. Even yeast designed for brewing beer will not work for making wine.

As you go along with the winemaking process there may come a time when you have a batch of fruit that you think would make a great batch of wine. If you do not have a recipe available you may be tempted to begin throwing some things together and creating your own wine recipe. If you have been making some wine for some time, this is not normally a problem as long as you may sure you include important additions such as sugar and yeast. There are a few important guidelines to keep in mind; however, in order to make sure that everything turns out well.

First, you will need to take into consideration how much produce must be used. If you have only made grape wine in the past you may be tempted to believe that you will be able to use the same amount of any other kind of produce that you use when making grape wine. This is not the case. The main reason why you may not be able to use the same amount of certain types of produce as grapes is the fact that some types of produce are stronger than others.

The goal is to make sure that you achieve balance in your wine. If you are using a produce that is very strong and/or contains a high amount of acid then you will need to make sure that you balance that with some water for dilution purposes. Generally, the stronger the fruit; the less of it you will need. If you used the same amount of elderberries to make a batch of wine as you use to make grape wine, you will likely end up with a batch of wine that is practically undrinkable.

In order to make up an average five gallon batch of wine; however, you will need to add enough water to constitute five full gallons. If you are using wine grapes, you typically do not need to add any water at all to make up your full five gallons. On the other hand, if you are using something like ginger root, which is a much stronger flavor, then you will need to use a good bit of water because you will typically be using less of the actual produce.

You will also need to decide how much, if any, sugar you need to add to your developing recipe. With a lot of produce, you may not actually need to add any sugar because the produce may have enough of its own to support the fermentation process. If you are not sure whether the produce you are using needs to have any sugar added, use a hydrometer to test the juice. This is a very simple and easy to use device that contains a scale referred to as the Potential Alcohol. This scale measures the potential amount of alcohol that can be produced from the juice in terms of percentages from zero to twenty. This will give you a good idea of how much alcohol can be produced from the sugar level that is already present in the must.

For example, if you get a reading of 4 on the hydrometer then you know you have enough sugar to produce 4% alcohol content in your wine. This is not enough alcohol for most people; so you would need to add some sugar. If you wanted to increase that level to around 12% then you will need to begin adding sugar gradually and testing at intervals until you test it and the hydrometer attains a reading of 12. In most cases, one pound of sugar will raise the alcohol level by approximately 1%. Do keep in mind that it is usually not a good idea to try to produce a wine that with an alcohol content of more than 13%; however, because higher alcohol contents could interfere with the stability and balance of the wine.