How to proceed. Crush the grapes directly into your fermenter (a clean open barrel, plastic tub or large crock, never metal). Small hand crushers are available, but the grapes may be crushed as effectively by foot wearing a clean rubber boot. Then remove a portion of the stems, which may otherwise give too much astringency to the wine.

Low-acid California grapes are quite vulnerable to bacterial spoilage during fermentation. To prevent spoilage and assure clean fermentation, dissolve a bit of potassium metabisulfite (known as "meta" and available at all winemakers' shops) and mix it into the crushed mass. Use 1/4 ounce (1/3 of a teaspoonful) per 100 pounds of grapes.

A hand-crank grape crusher.

Also use a yeast "starter". This comes as a 5 gram envelope of dehydrated wine yeast, also obtainable at winemakers' shops. To prepare the starter, empty the granules of yeast into a shallow cup and add a few ounces of warm water. When all the water is taken up, bring it to the consistency of cream by adding a bit more water. Let stand for an hour, then mix it into the crushed grapes.

After the meta and yeast are added, cover the fermenter with cloth or plastic sheeting to keep out dust and fruit flies, and wait for fermentation.

If non-California grapes are used, test and make the proper correction for sugar content. Then correct the total acidity by adding sugar solution as described earlier. In using non-California grapes, it is desirable, but not necessary at this point, to add a dose of meta. A yeast starter is advisable.

As fermentation begins, the solid matter of the grapes will rise to form a "cap". Push this down and mix with the juice twice a day during fermentation, always replacing the cover.

When fermentation begins to subside and the juice has lost most of its sweetness, it is time to separate the turbid, yeasty and rough-tasting new wine from the solid matter. For this purpose a press is necessary, preferably a small basket press though substitutes can be devised.

Be ready with clean storage containers for the new wine, several plastic buckets, and a plastic funnel. The best storage containers for home winemaking are 5-gallon glass bottles or small fiberglass tanks.

Beware of small casks and barrels for several reasons. They are usually leaky. They are sources of infection and off-odors that spoil more homemade wine than any other one thing. And there is frequently not enough new wine to fill and keep them full. Wine containers must be kept full; otherwise the wine quickly spoils. Using glass containers, you can see what you are doing.

Fermentation bubbler fitted to jar. Left, water is poured in to level shown. Right, position of water immediately before a gas bubble passes through.

With the equipment assembled, simply bail the mixture of juice and solid matter into the press basket. The press basket serves as a drain, most of the new wine gushing into the waiting buckets and being poured from them into the containers. When the mass has yielded all its "free run", press the remainder for what it still contains.

Fill the containers full, right into the neck. Since fermentation will continue for awhile longer, use a stopper with a fermentation "bubbler" which lets the gas out but does not let air in. When the bubbler stops bubbling and there are no further signs of fermentation, replace it with a rubber stopper or a cork wrapped in waxed paper.

Store the wine for several weeks at a temperature of around 60 F. Suspended matter in the wine will begin to settle, and at this temperature certain desirable reactions continue to take place in the wine itself. At the end of this period, siphon the wine from its sediment, with a plastic or rubber tube, into clean containers. At the same time dissolve and add a bit of the meta already referred to at the rate of 1/4 level teaspoon per 5 gallons of wine. This will protect against off odors and spoilage but does not otherwise affect the wine.

Clarifying

Next, transfer the containers to a place where the wine will be thoroughly chilled, even down to freezing. This precipitates more suspended matter and unwanted ingredients, and encourages clarification.

Assuming that the wine was made in early fall, hold it in cool storage until after the first of the year. By then it should have "fallen bright" and be stable. To test its clarity, hold a lighted match behind the bottle.

The wine is then siphoned once again from its sediment, and another dose of meta added at the same rate of 1/4 teaspoon per 5 gallons.

If the wine is brilliantly clear, one container of it may then be siphoned into wine bottles, corked or capped, and is ready for immediate use. Despite the common impression, most wine does not gain greatly by aging once it is stable. It continues to evolve, but not necessarily for the better.

The rest of the wine is held until after the return of warm weather to make sure there will be no resumption of fermentation, which would blow corks if the wine was bottled. By mid-May that hazard will have passed, and the wine is ready for its final siphoning, its final dose of the same quantity of meta, and bottling.

Fining. If in January the wine is not brilliantly clear, it should be "fined". This consists of dissolving in a small amount of hot water and mixing in, at the time of siphoning, ordinary household gelatin at the rate of 1/4 ounce (2 teaspoonsful) per 5 gallons. This will turn the wine milky when mixed in and will slowly settle, dragging all impurities and suspended matter with it. In two weeks to a month the process of "fining" will be complete. The wine is then ready to be siphoned from the fining sediment and treated as above.