Basic Instructions for Home Winemaking
The Preparation

Make sure you THOROUGHLY sanitize and then rinse all parts of the kit. Cleanliness is one of the most important aspects of making a wine. Any leftover gunk can turn into mold, destroying all of your subsequent hard work. Gather up your raw materials, be they grapes, concentrate, plums, etc.

You can use commercial winemaking cleansers sold at most winemaking shops, or bleach, iodophor, or B-brite. The aim is to clean out your carboys and other equipment as thoroughly as possible.

Prepare the winemaking area. Try to keep your kit in a room around 70F. This is a natural process that is going on! It needs a good temperature to work with. If the temperature is too hot or cold, your wine is not going to come out properly.

If you're starting with the raw fruit, press it, strain out the skins for peaches and other fruits, although you should leave red grape skins on if you're making a red wine. If you remove the skins on red grapes, you'll end up with White Zinfandel!

You can see step by step cleaning on Day 1 of my Chianti On-Line Project.

Winemaking Instructions
Winemaking Main Page