How to Make Fruit Wine

You can make wine from whole fruit, fresh or frozen fruit, fruit juice, tea or even flowers! Pick apples from your own tree, buy berries from the farmers market or even buy frozen mango. Here are some tips for selecting the best fruit for your homemade fruit wine:

• Fresh Fruit: When making wine from whole fruit you’ll need 3-5 lbs worth of fruit. We recommend freezing fresh fruit in a freezer-safe bag for at least 12 hours prior to making your wine. Freezing breaks down the cell walls to release fruit juice. Let frozen fruit thaw for 4+ hours until it warms to room temperature (about 70ºF). Once thawed, gently mash fruit inside the bag to break it down for fermentation. Frozen Fruit: Buying already frozen fruit is a great shortcut! Fruit is frozen at the peak of freshness for the best flavors and quality. Be sure to defrost and mash the fruit before making your wine to release as much juice as possible.
• Fruit Purees: YWhile we DO NOT recommend pureeing your own fruit, you can source high quality canned fruit puree. Make sure that it is 100% natural and without preservatives. Pureeing fruit yourself can lead to a harsh bitter flavor because blenders or food processors can cut into the seeds, releasing tannins.
• Fruit Juices: For a fruit wine that’s ready to drink in less time, use juice! Because the juice is already extracted from the fruit, less fermentation time and extraction time is required for the winemaker (you)! Bottled juice is especially great for making grape and apple wines. DO NOT use juice with preservatives, like sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate, these additives will prevent fermentation. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is okay. Note: more complex fruit wines, like berry wines, are best made using whole fruit instead of bottled juice.

Fruits vary in their natural sugar content. To achieve the desired alcohol content, additional sugar is often needed. Our Fruit Wine Kit includes 11 recipes that you can follow to a tee, which also recommend how much sugar to add to the wine to balance the sugar content of the fruit. Common choices include:

Granulated Sugar: The most straightforward option, easily dissolvable and neutral in flavor. Also the most consistent in terms of sugar content by volume.

Honey: Adds a distinct flavor and can create a mead-like wine.  

Brown Sugar: Imparts a richer, molasses-like taste.

Yeast is a living organism (technically a fungus) that converts sugar from sugar into alcohol, releasing CO2 in the process. It’s important to use yeast that’s specifically designed for fermenting wine. Baking yeast is not designed to ferment wine and will not produce a wine worth drinking. Our Fruit Wine Kit includes four packets of wine yeast: 2 packets of K1-V1116 and 2 packets of 71. K1-V1116 is best for white or light colored fruit wines. 71B is best for reds or whites, but should be avoided in apple wines. You can ferment with nearly any wine yeast or ale (beer) yeast, though! 

Not all fruits are as nutrient dense as wine grapes. Yeast nutrient, like the DAP (Diammonium Phosphate) provides an excellent source of nitrogen, which keeps yeast healthy and productive throughout a fruit wine fermentation. Our Fruit Wine Kit includes enough DAP for up to twenty 1 gallon fermentations. If building your own recipe, you may also like to use nutrients like Fermaid-O or Fermaid-K. We recommend using 1 tsp - 1.25 tsp per gallon

Not all fruits are as nutrient dense as wine grapes. Yeast nutrient, like the DAP (DiammoniumAcid Blend helps improve the quality of a fruit wine that is naturally low in acid by enhancing its flavor and extending its shelf life. Nothing is worse than a dull fruit wine! Acid Blend is made up of Malic Acid, Citric Acid, and Tartaric Acid for a balanced profile of bright acidity. Not every wine will require added acid blend, especially if you’re fermenting with citrus or tart berries. But for low-acid fruits, like bananas or sweet grape juices, we recommend 0.25 tsp per gallon. Phosphate) provides an excellent source of nitrogen, which keeps yeast healthy and productive throughout a fruit wine fermentation. Our Fruit Wine Kit includes enough DAP for up to twenty 1 gallon fermentations. If building your own recipe, you may also like to use nutrients like Fermaid-O or Fermaid-K. We recommend using 1 tsp - 1.25 tsp per gallon

Pectic Enzyme breaks down the cell walls of fruit to better extract juices and tannin, which results in more vibrant, colorful wine. Pectins are naturally occurring in fruits, especially apples. This handy enzyme helps reduce the haze caused by pectins for a crystal clear fruit wine in your glass. We recommend using 1 tsp per gallon.

Stabilizers are added once fermentation is completely finished. Their function is to inhibit further yeast growth or fermentation in bottles in order to keep wine stable until you’re ready to drink it! Our Fruit Wine Kit includes two stabilizers that work in tandem: campden tablets and potassium sorbate. These additives not only ensure shelf stable wine, but they also protect against oxidation & spoilage.

Just like acid is an important component of a wine’s palate, so is tannin! Tannin is naturally occurring in grapes’ seeds and skins, but is often added manually to fruit wines made without grapes. Tannins are added to improve the overall structure and refinement of select fruit wines. Our kit includes powdered wine tannin, which adds complexity & ‘grip’ to the mouthfeel. Not all fruits pair well with added tannin, such as bananas or already tannic teas, hibiscus flowers or tart citrus. But for wines made with grapes, berries or apples, we suggest 0.25 to 0.5 tsp per gallon.

It’s extremely important to sanitize all equipment and tools that come in contact with your wine for at least 60 seconds. This ensures that no other organism aside from wine yeast comes in contact with your wine. Our kit includes powdered sanitizing solution.

This is where the magic happens! A roomy 2 gallon bucket has enough space to fit bulky fruit and liquid. Your fruit, yeast, and sugar will ferment into delicious wine inside this vessel.

This handy accessory keeps fruit skins, seeds & sediment contained for better clarity in your finished wine.

After the initial “primary fermentation,” you’ll transfer wine into a smaller 1 gallon jug with less headspace to prevent oxidation. The wine will finish clarifying, aging and maturing in this vessel before bottling.

A small but mighty tool that allows CO₂ to escape while keeping unwanted bacteria and wild yeast out.

Used to transfer wine from one vessel to another without disturbing the sediment. These tools also help reduce risk of oxidation, which can make your wine taste stale.

Once your wine is ready, you’ll need bottles for long-term storage. You can reuse wine bottles with our easy to use wine corks. Or you can purchase a set of new bottles and corks.

Our Fruit Wine Making Kit includes bulk powdered ingredients. For accurately adding nutrients, sugar, wine tannin & more, make sure you have at least a ¼ teaspoon measuring spoon and a ¼ cup measuring cup.

• 4 lb Mixed Berries (fresh or frozen) 
• 1 gal Filtered or Spring Water
• 4.5 cups White Table Sugar
• 0.5 tsp Wine Tannin
• 1 tsp Pectic Enzyme
• 1.25 tsp Yeast Nutrient
• 1 packet of Lalvin 71B Wine Yeast
• 1 Campden Tablet
• 0.5 tsp Potassium Sorbate

1. Sanitize all equipment – Clean and sanitize everything before starting, including the mesh fruit straining bag. This is the key to a successful, contamination-free fermentation.
2. Prepare your fruit – Freeze fresh fruit for 12+ hours & defrost frozen fruit for 4+ hours at room temperature.. Once thawed, massage gently to release juices.
3. Add ingredients – pour the sugar, wine tannin, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient & HALF a gallon of spring water into the 2 gallon primary fermentation bucket.. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Pour the thawed, massaged berries into the sanitized mesh fruit straining bag. Tie off the top in a knot. Pour more water into the bucket to reach just above the 1 gallon fill line. Stir again to combine. 
4. Pitch yeast – Add the entire packet of 71B yeast to the bucket - no need to mix. Secure lid on the bucket. Insert the stopper. Fill the airlock with water & install in the stopper.

1. Let wine ferment at a stable temperature between 65-75ºF for 4 weeks
2. For the first 7 days, remove the lid and use a clean spoon to submerge the mesh bag of fruit. This technique is called “punching down.” It keeps the solids moist to prevent mold, while enhancing the wine’s color and flavor. Always place the lid & airlock back on when you’re done.
3. After 2 weeks of fermentation, it’s time to remove the bag of fruit. Use a large clean spoon or tongs to gently extract as much liquid from the bag as you can. Discard the fruit solids and rinse the reusable bag right away.
4. Continue fermenting for 2 more weeks.

1. Sanitize your secondary fermenter & transfer tools (racking cane, transfer tubing, carboy). Transfer wine off of its sediment and into the secondary 1 gallon fermenter, using the racking cane and transfer tubing. 
2. Once transferred, let wine ferment 2-4 more weeks in the carboy with the airlock installed.

This easy technique helps improve the clarity of your wine after secondary fermentation. All you have to do is make room in your fridge. 

1. After 2-4 weeks of secondary fermentation, replace the airlock water with fresh water. 
2.  Gently place the carboy in the fridge with the airlock on, making sure not to slosh the contents or stir up any sediment. 
3.  Keep your wine in the fridge for 3-5 days. 
4. After cold crashing, very gently remove the carboy from the fridge to avoid mixing any of the sediment back into the wine. 
5. That’s it! You should notice that more sediment has been drawn out of the wine. Note that wine will always look darker & more opaque in the fermenter than it will in bottles or in your glass.

Your wine is almost finished! It's time to add Campden Tablets & Potassium Sorbate, to stabilize the wine and prevent refermentation in bottles. 

1. First, sanitize the bucket and transfer tools.
2. Siphon your wine into the sanitized bucket.
3. Crush the Campden Tablet and add to the wine. Add Potassium Sorbate. 
4. Seal fermenter with lid, stopper & airlock.
5. Let the stabilizers do their work for 24 hours.

Yeast convert most of the fruit sugars into alcohol during fermentation. As a result, a homemade fruit wine will finish relatively dry and won’t taste exactly like the sweet fruit you began with. You can sweeten your wine by adding white table sugar before bottling. This process is called backsweetening.  

1. First, use a clean spoon to taste your wine & determine how much sweeter you’d like it to be.
2. Use as little as ¼ cup of sugar for a barely sweet wine, ⅓ cup for semi-sweet, ½ cup for sweet or ¾ cup for a very sweet wine. Dissolve the sugar in a little hot water & add to your wine. Stir to combine.
3. Take another taste test before bottling.

1. Sanitize your bottles, corks & transfer tools. Use the siphon technique to gently separate wine from any sediment.
2. Seal all bottles & enjoy within 6 - 12 months for the best flavors.

Check the temperature. Too cold? Move it somewhere warmer (65-75°F). Make sure your fruit juice has no preservatives that could inhibit yeast. 

Try backsweetening with sugar after fermentation is complete. Already bottled? You can still ‘backsweeten’ in your glass! Jut mix up a quick simple syrup (1 part water to 1 part sugar) and dose your glass accordingly.

We recommend cold crashing after secondary fermentation is complete. Time is also effective at allowing cloudy sediment fall out of suspension - let it sit longer before moving on! Our Fruit Wine Kit includes pectic enzyme to help reduce natural fruit haze.