How to Brew Cheap Wine

Ingredients:

1. 2 cans of juice concentrate (room temp). You can use any type of concentrate like Welch’s concord grape, strawberry, kiwi-whatever, etc., as long as it doesn’t contain any preservatives, artificial flavors or coloring.
2. 2 cups of sugar.
3. 1 packet of active dry wine yeast (more will not increase alcohol content but will impart a bad “yeasty” flavor).
4. Water, dump between half and a third of the water out of the jug. At the end, top up the bottle using tap water (boil it if it contains a lot of chlorine).

Equipment:

1. 1 gallon jug  of water.
2. 1 Funnel.
3. Plastic hose for siphoning.
4. Air lock.
5. Large sauce pan. For boiling water (gallon).
6. Bleach.

Steps:

1. Never underestimate the importance of sanitizing! Sanitize everything you’re going to use to hold the fermenting wine, to keep bacteria from growing. The easy way to sanitize everything at once is to use your dishwasher at the high heat setting, with appropriate detergent. Some dishwashers are designed especially to sanitize your dishes (183 degrees F water temperature), this will at least reasonably clean the equipment, and it makes the task really easy. After the machine finishes the dry cycle you will be ready to start making the wine. If you do not have an automatic dishwasher, wash with detergent, then bleach the funnel and anything else you may use. You do not need to clean the jug, as it has only had pure water in it. Air dry.
2. Bring the water to a boil and turn down the heat setting to a slow boil. Allow to boil for a few minutes in order to kill any bacteria in the water. Remove from heat and let cool.
3. Add the room temperature juice concentrate to the clean, dry jug. Use the funnel if needed.
4. While the hot water cools, dissolve 2 cups of sugar into the water. Stir while pouring.
5. Activate the yeast following the directions on the packet. Another method of activating the yeast is to place 1 teaspoon of sugar into a separate bowl. Add 1/4 cup of hot water (100-110 degrees Fahrenheit). Add the yeast and stir briefly. Let sit for 10 minutes. The yeast should become very frothy. However, simply sprinkling the yeast on top of the juice and sugar mixture will give you a higher live cell count than re-hydrating in most cases, and will be far less trouble.
6. Pour the dissolved sugar-water into the jug filled with the juice concentrate. If it is too warm, cool it by placing the jug into a sink filled with cool water; add ice cubes to rapidly cool the mixture and limit the time the open container is exposed to bacterial contamination.
7. Touch to make sure the mix is cool, then add the yeast. Cap the jug and shake thoroughly to completely mix all the ingredients .
8. Remove the cap of the bottle.  Drill hole in cap large enough for the air lock to fit securely in.
9. Fit air lock into cap and replace on jug.
10. Keep the jug at room temperature and do not expose it to direct sunlight. After a few days, if it does not start to bubble, throw it away and try again being more careful to use sanitary equipment. Otherwise, wait 10-14 days, when the mixture will stop bubbling. Then transfer into another bottle or smaller bottles using the plastic hose to siphon the liquid off, leaving the sediment on the bottom of the first bottle, and then enjoy!

Tips:

• If you do not have a large enough pot, it is perfectly acceptable to use two pots instead.
• Not all of the water fits back into the gallon jug. Before boiling, dump out enough water to fit in jug.
• When done fermenting, strain as you pour into a wine bottle or glass, leaving the clumpy yeast in the jug. Make sure to wash and sterilize again.
• When adding the yeast, the juice should not be too hot or it will kill the yeast and ruin your wine. The jug should feel just warm to the touch.
• The quality of the wine produced depends on the quality of the ingredients. Try experimenting with higher quality juices and different types of yeast (See Warnings).
• When purchasing your juice, pay attention to the ingredients list on the label for “Preservatives” because these are intended to inhibit fermentation and spoilage.
• As an alternate buy a gallon jug of apple juice (no preservatives), pour yourself a glass (for head space) pour in 1 cup of regular cane sugar, and 1 pack of wine or ale yeast, replace the cap just loose enough to allow the CO2 to escape. In 3-5 days you have hard cider. Let it settle, pour off into an empty leaving the trub. Foolproof.
• Tips for adding the sugar – put the kettle on! 2 cups full from the 2ltr water bottle. Dissolve the sugar into the two cups of hot water. Then when its cool enough add it to your mixture.

Warnings:

• Yeast consumes and consumes until there is no food left (in this case sugar), then it becomes dormant (or until the alcohol content is so high that the yeast cannot survive). By adding more sugar, you increase the brewing time and also raise the alcohol content. Theoretically, if you add a lot of sugar you could ensure it would be very sweet when finished, but it would also be very potent, and take a long time to finish; however, likely, the yeast would die from the high alcohol content before it can produce more alcohol.
• Use dry wine yeast. When wine yeast is unavailable never use “rapid-raise” types.
• Don’t assume the alcohol content is as low as your average glass of wine. Plan not to drive for a while after consuming!
• Do NOT use “Brewer’s yeast” as sold in health food stores – this is dead yeast, and won’t do anything!