A Helpful Guide On How To Make Your Own Alcoholic Beverage: From homemade wine, beer and liquor. A step-by-step process to enjoy your favorite drinks made by you.
Making your alcoholic beverage is quite easy using basic ingredients. Although it’s a tricky process, there are different techniques for making each one. In this article, we will take you through these processes, and before you know it, you will be able to make and enjoy your homemade wine, beer, and liqueur.
1. Homemade Wine
Many people make their own wine and they don’t even have to own a vineyard to do so. Here’s how to make homemade wine in a few, easy steps.
Ingredients:
- Grapes, a lot of it
- Granulated sugar
- Filtered water
- Wine yeast
You can add Campden tablets to prevent oxidation, yeast nutrients, enzymes, tannins, acids, and other fancy ingredients for more refined wine production.
Part 1
- Select your grape, throw out rotten grapes or funny-looking grapes.
- Wash grapes thoroughly.
- Remove stem from grapes.
- Crush the grapes to get the juice (must) into the primary fermentation container, with hands or feet, or with a fruit press.
- Add wine yeast.
- Put the hydrometer in your must to check the sugar level. Add more sugar if it reads below 1.010. Dissolve sugar in filtered water, then stir thoroughly.
- Cover with a cloth and leave to ferment for ten days.
Part 2
- Strain to remove froth and sediment
- Pour the juice through your funnel into your jugs, and fill to the top to reduce the amount of air that reaches the wine.
- Seal the containers with an airlock.
- Give some more weeks for more fermentation.
- Siphon wine into secondary fermentation containers with your plastic tube.
Part 3
- Pour wine into wine bottles.
- Keep wine standing upright for the first three days.
- Then store the wine on its side after three days at 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
- For red wine, let it age for at least one year and six months for white wine.
2. Homemade Beer
For homemade beer, you need a few ingredients and equipment to brew the perfect beer. Just get a simple beer making kit and you’ll be sipping your drink in no time. If you don’t have the kit, the steps below will guide you through the easy process.
Equipment:
- Big pot
- Muslin cloth
- Big bucket
- Sterilized siphoning tube
- 30 to 40 glass and caps
Ingredients:
- Clean water
- Dried hops 55g
- Sugar 750g
- Malt extract 1kg
- Ale yeast
Boil water, hops, and malt extract:
- Fill the pot with 12 pints of water and bring to a boil.
- Add 55g of hop and boil for another 30 minutes.
- Add 1kg of the malt extract with 750g sugar and boil for five additional minutes.
Add ale yeast and leave to ferment: cover your big bucket with a muslin cloth, then pour pot contents into it. Pour 12 pints of cold water and allow to cool for 30 minutes. Add more ale yeast and leave it in a cool and dry place for ten days.
Siphon beer into bottles: add a tablespoon of sugar into each bottle. Siphon the beer into the bottles and leave it for 14 days.
3. Homemade Liquor
Making liquor at home is quite easy and fast, provided you have all the ingredients and follow the steps as closely as possible.
Ingredients:
- Half cup of sugar
- A quarter cup of water
- Half cup of vodka
- Two teaspoons of vanilla extract
Mix sugar and water in a saucepan. Boil, then reduce heat to allow the mixture to simmer. After five minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
Add vodka and vanilla extract into the mixture. Then, pour the liquor into a glass jug or a decanter. Seal and store for at least two weeks.
Making your own alcoholic beverage is not as hard as people would imagine. With the right ingredients, you can do it yourself in no time.
