This recipe for making wine produces simple homemade wine. You can pick any flavor you want, but red is my favorite. You’ll need a sterilized milk jug, a big latex balloon, and a rubber band to do this project. Although a little stronger than typical table wine, this wine is great for both drinking and cooking.
| Prep Time: | 5 mins |
| Additional Time: | 42 days |
| Total Time: | 42 days 5 mins |
| Servings: | 32 |
| Yield: | 1 gallon |
Ingredients
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 (12 fluid ounce) can frozen juice concentrate – any flavor except citrus, thawed
- 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
- 3 ½ quarts cold water, or as needed
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
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- Combine sugar, juice concentrate, and yeast in a 1-gallon jug. Fill the jug the rest of the way with cold water. Stir or shake well until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is well combined.
- Rinse out a large balloon; fit it over the opening of the jug. Secure the balloon with a rubber band.
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- Place jug in a cool dark place. Within a day, you will notice the balloon starting to expand. As sugar turns to alcohol, gasses will release and fill up the balloon.
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- When the balloon has deflated, wine is ready to drink. It takes about 6 weeks total.
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- Use a frozen juice concentrate without added sweeteners for best results.
Reviews
I followed the recipe exactly and the balloons never deflated. I let them sit for at least three months. The wine tastes like yeast. Any idea what went wrong or how to fix it?
Simple, and effective. I would however note that using frozen concentrates over fresh fruit isn’t ideal. For one thing you runnthe chance that a freezer burned concentrate will transfer that burnt flavor to your wine… similar to using the fruit more than once. It can taste very rotten. Secondly, concentrates notoriously use fillers…it’s not all fruit or juice; which again will ultimately result in an inferior product. Nonetheless it will create passable wine if each step is properly observed. Finally, here’s a hint to cut your wine making time in half: Use a kicker when starting your wine. I personally use A shot of bourbon/whiskey per 2 gallons. By adding 80 proof or better you greatly speed up the process where sugar/yeast catalyze and form sugar alcohol. I.E. a nice, normal wine cook will take about 5 to 7 days to really activate(when bubbles start appearing rapidly you know…) However, add a shot and in 12 hours it’s carbonating like champagne. This means you can actually complete your fermentation in 3-4 days as opposed to a week or more. Add in clear time and if you can do without bottle aging it’s ready in 2-3 weeks
Followed this recipe, and now I’m sitting on a gallon of 20% jet fuel and it’s only been two weeks! Literally 40 proof on the hydrometer! It’s tasty too. I’m going to be honest, it’s not nearly as complex as even homemade wines can be, but if you’re looking for a jug of something you can say you made, to pass around at a get together that’s going to have everyone feeling good and having fun–HERE YOU GO!
After making this I fell in love and I’m actually making another batch coming soon. Gave a bottle to a couple of coworkers and they loved it too. YOU NEED TO FILTER IT TWICE. I filtered this once and I still had some goop’s in it but after the second filter I could not spot any goop’s or flakes. Typically a wine is between 8%-15% and I managed to get this after the 2nd fermentation to about 22-25% very strong alcohol flavor but I love the bite so no problem with me.
Tasty and cultured
I’m making it now in ten hours it started fermenting got two pin holes in top of balloon so it doesn’t pop
Mine took 9 weeks with the balloon slightly deflating , so I decided to try it. I used a sterilized funnel and bottle I used a coffee filter in the funnel. It was a long process but the wine was fantastic.
OMG!!!!! I made this wine and used Apple for the recipe. I let it set for 8 weeks, it turned out GREAT!!!!! I was unsure at first of the outcome so I had my husband be the first taste tester, and he sad it was really good. I did make a few changes though as far as the balloon, I poked small holes in it and changed it after the first week to a new balloon with small holes. Really good recipe!!!
I used apple concentrate. I boiled my water to dissolve my sugar and i used a airlock instead of the balloon.It turned out pretty good and has a good kick to it. looking forward to trying different flavors in the future.
No changes and yes i will make it like this for now on
Excellent recipe for starters! Here’s a few tips: 1: Poke holes in your balloon to allow carbon dioxide to escape. (If you plan on using this recipe a lot I’d suggest buying an airlock, they are about a dollar each.) 2: Use a juice you like. If you don’t like the taste of the juice, you won’t like the wine it makes. 3: If you have a gallon jug of the juice just pour some out and do all the adding sugar, mixing and fermentation in that jug. It comes to you sterile already. 4: Whatever you are mixing, make sure you shake it well and get lots of air mixed with it. The yeast needs lot of air in the beginning to get their colony to grow. Later on you want to limit the air so you don’t end up with vinegar. 5: Have fun and share with friends. You’ll look cool making your own booze.
This is a great first timers wine. Just make sure to poke a few holes in the balloon to let the gases out. Nice and strong, I used white grape concentrate the first time. Easy to make and has a good kick! Thanks for posting this recipe. I think I made it in 2018. I’m still making wine and having fun doing it.
This was a great trial and error experience that turned into some great memories with the husband and friends. IF YOU MAKE THIS poke a few holes as another commenter suggested. Make sure you strain the wine, because the sediment in it is gross and you dont want to drink that. The balloon will collect gunk in it, and if it falls into the wine, it will sour it, but dont throw it out! Thats red or white wine vinegar and can be used for cooking! (Just doooont drink it haha!) I doubled the sugar in mine, but its all about preference. My husband pointed out that you could also improvise with another *ahem* latex item since they have about the same purpose for this recipe, just get the plain, no additives in the package kind lol. Also, they have fermentation locks on amazon for under 10 that can be used over and over as well. I used all types of juices for this recipe, and kept them in their original bottles, and 7/8 turned out fine, with some being better than others. The watermelon soured, so im not sure if it was from the gunk falling back in, or just the fact it was watermelon, but i wouldnt try that. I used a mango peach juice that turned into a FABULOUS mango peach hard cider within 4 weeks. The grape and white grape turned out great, and the strawberry was to die for. Keep it in the top of a closet or cabinet or somewhere you wont disturb it. Good luck and enjoy your wine! ??????
Instead of fruit juice I added fresh PawPaws and so far it is doing well. Two weeks to go to final product. I did rack the wine with 1 cup of water and 2 tablespoons of sugar for the final 2 weeks. Noticing activity again more than there was. Racking allows you to get some of the dead yeast out which can change the flavor of the wine.
I love this mine did purple grape it was so good …
I’m currently making wine with these directions although I am using an airlock.
A few things I did before making this wine. instead of using a balloon, I used a little fermenting venting mechanism that Ibpurchased off Amazon (shown in picture below). So instead of waiting for a balloon to deflate I just watched for when the bubbles stopp Ed rising from the bottom of the jug to know when the wine was finished. Also, when it was finished fermenting, I used a tube to siphon the liquid off so I wouldn’t get the sediment at the bottom of the jug into the finished wine product. I read that simply pouring the entire contents of the fermentation into a different jug causes the wine to be bitter. I used frozen grape juice. The finished product tastes like wine, only a bit harsher.
I made this in college yrs ago. My recipe called for heating some water or “grape juice concentrate” my choice, to dissolve sugar. I also read need to let mixture cool to 90 degrees before adding yeast. I did put ballon on and waited like 2 mos . Balloon never went back down to original size but did decrease at least half to quarter inflated size. It was a little bitter but strong (alcohol content) as a mutha. Half gallon tore several college boys up. One note, I attributed the bitterness to to only using two cups of sugar. Go with this recipe or four cups
A little much on the sugar, considering the yeast will leave whatever sugar is left and die once alcohol content reaches 12%. Also, I do it the simple way, without any balloons or condoms, etc. I just put a paper towel over a gallon jug and then put the lid over that and twist it, leaving a bit of breathing room. Been doing it that way for awhile and haven’t run into a vinegar problem 🙂 Don’t shake while fermenting, and always toss the bottom inch or so.
all though i have not made this yet iv heard this recipe is great with a few tweeks iv made many notes from other people that have left a review but i still have few questions please if somebody can respond please do if i use a glass tube instead of a balloon how will i know if the wine is done? and after 2 weeks of starting i heard to syphon the yeast out and add 2 table spoons of sugar to some yeast in sum water to add to the yeast count and then add back to the juice and sugar mixture to stop the funky taste will i use the same yeast or new yeast?only reason im confused is because it says to rehydrate it
I made it and it is still aging.