Homemade Grape Wine (2 ingredient recipe)

This recipe teaches you how to make homemade grape wine with 2 simple ingredients: grapes + sugar.

The white layer on grape skins contains natural yeasts. Therefore, you don’t need to add extra yeasts to make the grape wine.

You can choose to use a fermentation jar or a regular glass jar.

Is it safe to drink homemade grape wine?

Yes, homemade grape wine is perfectly safe and healthy to drink, if you drink 1 glass per day.

There is a myth that homemade grape wine could be poisonous and the bacteria in wine could make you sick.

However, the fact is that the process of making wine at home is just the same as it is in a factory, you will just make it on a much smaller batch. 

Some wine factories might actually choose to not wash the grapes before turning them into wine, which is absolutely fine, because pathogenic bacteria cannot survive in wine anyway.

And according to Wine Spectator, unwanted bacteria that can survive in wine will only make the wine smell bad, but “won’t make you sick”.

Wine Making in China

The history of Chinese wine can be dated back to 5,000 years ago. Wine culture plays a unique and important roll in traditional Chinese culture.

Chinese people believe that drinking wine, of course in moderation, is good for your overall health, can make you more sociable and friendly. Therefore, in China, wine is a must-have on almost all of the important life events.

For example, in Chinese, “attending a wedding ceremony” is “drinking wedding wine/喝喜酒”, “attending a baby shower” is “drinking this baby’s first month birthday wine/喝满月酒”, “attending a house warming party” is “drinking house moving wine/喝乔迁酒”.

Most of Chinese elders love to make wine at home. My grandma used to make sweet rice wine (click to see her sweet rice wine recipe) every year. My dad makes a huge jar of bayberry wine every summer. He would feed me a wine soaked bayberry when I have diarrhea, because he believes that the alcohol could kill the bad bacteria in my gut.

Grape wine making in high school biology textbook

When I was in China, I learned how to make homemade grape wine and Chinese pickles in my high school biology lab class.

Following my biology teacher’s instructions, I successfully made a small bottle of grape wine in the lab. And that was the most delicious grape wine I have ever had in my life!

I was really interested in this lab class, so I can still remember all the details of making grape wine. Make sure you read all the following wine making tips before you start!

Tips for making homemade grape wine

1. Do Not wash off the white stuff on the grape skins

This white layer on grape skins contains a large amount of natural yeasts, which are necessary for the wine fermentation process. 

Since we are not going to add extra yeasts to the mixture, make sure you do not wash off the natural yeasts from the grape skins.

2. Ideally use a fermentation jar

 The chemical equation for wine fermentation is:

C6H12O6 (glucose) → 2 C2H5OH (ethanol) + 2 CO2 (carbon dioxide)

During the fermentation process, the yeasts will produce a large amount of carbon dioxide. The waterlock of the fermentation jar ensures that carbon dioxide can escape (due to the air pressure difference) , but that no outside air, bacteria, or bugs can get into the jar.

– Can I use a regular glass bottle to make grape wine?

In fact, yes, you can use a regular glass bottle to substitute a fermentation jar.

However, that could be the only reason why making grape wine at home is dangerous.

You won’t get sick by drinking homemade grape wine, but you may be hurt if your wine bottle explodes.

Every year, especially during summertime, there is news about people getting hurt by glass exploding, because they forget to degas their homemade grape wine.

If you are going to use a regular glass bottle, make sure that you loosely cover the lid instead of sealing the lid. It’s okay for some bacteria to get into your grape wine, most of the harming bacteria won’t be able to survive in the wine fermenting environment.

But if you tightly seal the lid, the glass bottle will explode due to the large amount of carbon dioxide produced by the yeasts.

3. No more than 70% full

No matter you are going to use a fermentation jar or a regular glass bottle, make sure that you fill the jar no more than 70% full.

Although, in the absence of oxygen, yeasts will use anaerobic respiration to convert carbohydrates into carbon dioxide and alcohol, in the early stage of fermentation, yeasts require an abundance of oxygen for growth.

If we fill the fermentation jar too full, there won’t be enough oxygen for the yeasts to be propagated.

What’s more, leaving some extra space in the fermentation jar/bottle can prevent the liquid spill when the air pressure inside the jar is too high.

4. Add sugar to grape wine

 As we have mentioned above, the chemical equation for wine fermentation is: C6H12O6 (glucose) → 2 C2H5OH (ethanol) + 2 CO2 (carbon dioxide).

Simply speaking, the yeasts will turn sugar into alcohol. Adding more sugar to the grape mixture will increase the final alcohol content of the grape wine.

In generally, you can add 200g sugar to every 1000g grapes to make grape wine at home. You can adjust the sugar to grape ratio between 10% to 30%, based on how strong you want your grape wine to be.

5. Secondary fermentation

Although you can drink the homemade grape wine after 7 days of primary fermentation, a secondary fermentation is often used to make the wine looks clear and tastes pure.

Specifically, when the wine stops to produce visible bubbles, the primary fermentation is done.

Then you strain the mixture into a clean container for a secondary fermentation. The secondary fermentation could take from 7 days to years.

When the grape wine looks clear, usually after 7 days of secondary fermentation, you can strain it again to get rid of the sediment.

Equipment for Making Grape Wine at Home

• 1 Cooling rack

• 2 Food prep gloves

• 1 Fermentation jar (Or you can use a glass bottle with lid)

• 1 Ladle

Ingredients for Homemade Grape Wine

• 1000 g grapes
• 200 g rock candies (can be substituted with cane sugar)

Step-by-Step Guide on homemade grape wine

1. Pull the grapes off the stems, discard broken or decaying grapes, put good grapes into a large clean bowl.

2. Soak the grapes with cold clean water. Rub them gently [see Note 1 below] to remove bacteria, dust, and pesticides. Empty the water from the bowl. Then repeat the washing process for 1 to 2 times until there is no visible dust in the water.

3. Line a cooling rack with some paper towel, pour the grapes to the cooling rack. Gently dry the grapes with the paper towel. Remove the paper towel, let the grapes air dry on the cooling rack for 2 hours.

4. Transfer the grapes to a large, clean, dry bowl. Measure the grapes’ weight. Measure rock candies/sugar based on the grapes’ weight, set aside. (Generally, add 200g sugar to every 1000g grapes. )

5. Put food prep gloves on, crush the grapes with your hands, until all the grapes are broken.

6. Add rock candies or cane sugar to the crushed grapes, mix well with a clean ladle.

7. Use the ladle to transfer the mixture to a clean and dry glass fermentation jar, add cold clean water to the moat, put the lid on. Fill the jar no more than 70% full [See reasons in Note 2]. You can also use a regular glass bottle as the fermentation container, see content above for specific instructions.

8. Store the fermentation jar under room temperature in a dark place (e.g. in your kitchen cabinet) for 7 days (during summertime about 78 °F) to 10 days (during wintertime about 68 °F). Use a clean ladle to stir and distribute the sugar and grapes evenly every other 24 hours.

9. 7 to 10 days later, strain the mixture into a clean container using a clean cheesecloth. You can drink it now. It will taste like less alcoholic grape wines.

10. For a better taste and looking, pour the juice back to the fermentation jar, keep the jar undisturbed for 7 more days. 7 days later, the homemade grape wine will turn from cloudy to clear. Pour the clear grape wine into a clean bottle, seal the bottle with its lid, discard the sediment in the fermentation jar.

11. If you want a stronger wine taste, you can leave the grape wine under room temperature for 1 more month. The grape wine will continue to ferment under room temperature. Open the lid every other 7 days to degas. If you are happy with the taste of the grape wine, store it in the fridge to stop the fermentation process, finish your homemade grape wine within 1 year.

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