What are the basic tools and supplies I need to make wine at home?

In this world where inflation is the order of the day, and salaries are stagnant making the ends meet, even with only the basic amenities, has become a great challenge. The problem gets compounded when you find yourself crave for a few small pleasure that have now moved out of your reach – such as a good glass of wine occasionally. 

People tend to get frustrated when they are unable to have a little enjoyment every once in a while. And when they do, their productivity goes down; their interaction quality gets down, and so on which catapults the person into depression. To cut a long story short, it is better to find ways of indulging in yourself every now and then, to prevent the possibility of depression. Many times, just a good glass of wine with a good hot meal can do wonders.

Wine is expensive, true. However, there are many ways in which anyone can make quite good wine right at home with ingredients that are already there on the kitchen shelf. That means, you can make good wine at no additional expense to you, no fancy tools, etc.

The basic tools you will need to make wine at home are simple too. You will need a container where you could measure a gallon of liquid. Then, you will need a normal cup to measure sugar. You will need a container with cover where you will have to agitate the mixture to mix it well. It has to be covered or you will not be able to shake it vigorously and hence the quality of your home-made wine will suffer.

You will need a water heater, where you will warm a bit of water to dissolve the yeast (or hydrate it).  This could be done in a cup also.

Next you will a few balloons – actually you will need only one, but sometimes the balloon bursts and you will need to replace it fast, so it is always good to have 2-3 extra ones on hand. Since the balloon will need to be fixed very tightly to the mount of the container, it is good if you also have some twine or a good rubber band to fix it. It so happens that the fermentation will push the balloon off the container sometimes.

Once the wine is done (you will know that process is over when the balloon that was tied at the mouth of the container deflates) you will need to take out the wine through a strainer into another container. The strainer should be extra-extra fine since anything else will allow the residue pass through giving you a murky wine. The wine should be totally crystal clear and for that purpose the best tool would be a clean piece of cheese cloth.

Once the wine has been strained thoroughly and has absolutely no dregs in it, your wine is ready for consumption. Before doing so, you would need to store in appropriate containers. Hence, you will need some nice bottles (there are a lot of fancy bottles available at very competitive prices) to pour it in. These bottles should be sealed ideally with a cork. So, for each bottle you should have an appropriately sized cork to the bottle can be sealed for storage.

Storage, brings us to the next step of tool requirement. You can store wine in the fridge – this would be for immediate use – and on a specifically designed for this purpose, wine rack. A wine rack makes it possible to keep the wine bottle in a reclined position, which is the best way to store it. The longer it stays this way, the better the wine becomes. So, the quality of the wine stack should be such that it can be used for a long time.

All in all – these are the tools you will need to make your own wine at home.