Home Wine Making Instructions

• Introduction |
• Step #1 |
• Step #2 |
• Step #3 |
• Step #4 |
• Step #5 |
• Review

Step #2 - Getting Started & Pouring the Wine Juice

Getting Started

Our pure fresh grape juices come packed in 11L (2.87 US gal) food grade sterile plastic containers. Each and every canister is labelled. The label contains the winery and country of origin, the varietal information and an independent chemical analysis. The analysis is complete with pH, Total Acid and Brix parameters. 

The grapes harvested for our juices are picked at the peak of their ripeness which is determined by that year's harvest conditions. This means our pure fresh juices are balanced by mother nature. There is absolutely NO NEED to add water or acid blend, like you do with concentrates.

Pouring the Juice

After all your equipment has been sterilized and rinsed with water, open the canister and pour the juice into your carboy (figure a).

The "seed like" sediments (bitartrates) (figure b), need not be added to the vessel and can be excluded by using a strainer when pouring the juice into your carboy. Leave 7-8 inches of space at the top of the carboy or demijohn, and place the balance of juice into either gallons jugs or leave in one of the plastic canisters.

When full of juice, the gallon jugs must also have 3-4 inches of space below the neck.
Take a specific gravity reading using the hydrometer (figure c). It should usually be anywhere from 1070 - 1092. Taking the specific gravity gives us information about the sugar content of the juice. It is read by pouring juice into the hydrometer's plastic cylinder and allowing the hydrometer to float freely. In figure (c) you can see the level of the liquid meets the scale at approximately 1086. The 1080 is visible and the 1090 line is submerged in the juice.