What's In A Home Brew Wine Kit?
Home Brew Wine Kits contain the basic ingredients required to make wine.
These are:
- Grape Juice
- Yeast
- Nutrient
- Stabiliser
- Finings (usually there are 2 finings Chitosan and 1 other.)
Ingredients
There will also be a leaflet with instructions. Some kits also use "flavourings". These are normally highly concentrated varietal grape juice for some varietal wines or fruit juice for country style wines.
By buying homebrew wine kits, you are able to make good wine quickly, easily, and cheaper than the commercial brands, there is peace of mind in knowing that only pure extracts are used in the production of homebrew kits and you avoid paying any alcohol duties.
Wine KIts
Homebrew wine kits primarily consist of concentrated grape or fruit juice.
This provides the foundations for the taste and type of wine.
The concentrate is used to make a "must" by adding water and occasionally brewing sugar (dextrose) depending on the kit.
Some wine kits also provide an extra sachet of fruit concentrate or flavour essence to add additional flavours to a wine.
For example the Cellar 7 Peach and Mango or the Solomon Grundy Medium Sweet White.
Each homebrew wine kit comes with a unique wine yeast.
Yeast is the most significant ingredient which defines the flavour, again better quality kits have better quality yeasts.
All homebrew wine kits come with a stabiliser ( Potassium Sorbate), two packs of finings and their own unique set of instructions.
The stabiliser is to kill off the yeast before bottling.
The finings will assist the settling of any suspended solids or yeast particles, ensuring an excellent clear wine.
The wine kit instructions will explain how to use their particular stabiliser and finings, as some agents vary in how they are used.
All are sprinkled directly into the must; however, some are stirred, others need to be left to permeate naturally — some need 1 hour to work, some 12 and so on.