Home-made Wine: Hobby Fuel

The COVID-19 pandemic has us all stuck inside. Some people have said this would be a good time to pick up some new skills (even if they did it in an unpleasant manner). To that end, I though I would learn how to make wine in my Instant Pot. I used this recipe to get me started.

First thing you need is yeast. I knew bread yeast was not going to cut it so I got this Red Star wine yeast. I did not realize that all wine yeast is not created equal and this appears to be white wine yeast. That would explain the sour and tart flavors I got at the end. In retrospect, a variety pack like this would have been a smarter purchace.

Before I get too ahead of myself like annoying food blogs do, here is the recipe as I did it with notes on how I would do it differently in the future:


Ingredients:
1 packet wine yeast
96oz Welches 100% concord grape juice
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 kitchen towel
wax paper
6-quart or larger Instant Pot
2 weeks with nothing to do


Step 1: Get your poop in a group. Most important is yeast. Here is how to speak wine yeast. Blanc means white, rouge means red, cuvee I think means champaign, cote des blanc also mean white but no idea how that is different from regular blanc, premier classique seems to be versatile but makes a lot of sulfur. All of that is over my head both in terms of microbiology and the French I took in elementary school. I am by no mean an expert but all roads appear to lead to Rome in this case. Even the lady in the recipe I linked to got the wrong yeast and ended up with something drinkable. As long as you use some sort of wine yeast and not bread yeast, you should be ok.

Step 2: Wash yo self. I took this opportunity to clean the bananas out of my instant pot. The top and inner pot went through the dishwasher then got a good scrubbing and rinse off. Lastly they went through the sterilize cycle on the Instantpot.

The idea behind this is to kill any bacteria or yeast that may contaminate your brew especially lactobacillus. That greedy little yeasty beasty makes sourdough bread and tasty gose beers, but I did not want it in my wine. It is almost impossible to kill once it sets up shop. Bacteria is an unwelcome guest as it would eat my sugar and not make any alcohol. Some might even make exotoxins that would give me food poisoning.

Step 3: Shake it off. Hopefully you are holding 96 ounces of carpet staining goodness. Pour out 2 cups of it into another container and don't let anyone spill it. I would recommend putting it inside the Instantpot. Don't measure. Just pour out a few gluggs. This is just to make room for the sugar you are about to add.

Add 1 1/3 cups of regular old granulated sugar to the grape juice and then go T-swift on it. Shake it until all the sugar is dissolved then walk away for a bit and let that purple foam settle. Once all the sugar is dissolved and the bubbles all settle, move on.

Step 4: Dup in your yeast packet. All the recipes I found had crazy amounts of yeast to add. Just put one packet in. It'll work. The gently mix the juice with the yeast. Shaking too hard will make the yeast mad. And by mad I mean dead.

Step 5: Reunite the juice with its grape juice family in their new metal home. Pour the bottle in the Instantpot. Don't put anything in the mixture to stir it as that will introduce contamination and undo everything in Step 2.

Step 6: Ya gurt. I set the Instantpot for the yogurt setting. And to answer your next question, the numbers are for hours and minutes. Put it on the low setting and close the lid. The counter will start counting up once you hit go. Lastly, check the sealing valve to ensure it is open. The valve resets to closed when you shut the lid. Don't ask me how I know this.

Then walk away for 6 hours.

Step 7: No we are open. Now close the valve. 6 hours later, open the valve. Close the valve. Open the valve. This is your new life now. You are going to do this for 48 hours. Because no sane person can do something every 6 hours, it is OK to to go as long as 8 hours without wrecking things.

Step 8: Don't drink the wine. Turn the Instantpot off and vent it. Wait about 10 min but honestly just let the thing cool off. Some recipes say to transfer it, but I just put a clean towel covered in wax paper and a large book on top. This bad boy needs to sit for 7-14 days to finish fermenting. Just make sure no one messes with it. The less you futz with it, the better it will go.

Step 9: It's been one week. When you feel good about pulling the plug, transfer the wine to a secondary container. I used an auto-syphon. This is going to make about 2.5 liters of wine so be ready with about 4 bottles.

At the bottom of the pot is going to be some brown sludge. This is dead yeast and it tastes like a pirate's sweatrag. Resist the urge to get every last drop and leave that brown stuff alone. Also, the best wine is on the top and the worst will be on the bottom. Remember that when bottling so you can give the bad wine to people you hate.


This was a fun project and I am going to do it again. The wine that comes out is drinkable but only barely. Even cheep wine is better than this. It is a nice skill to have but if I am making wine out of a need, then things have gone very very wrong.