: Making Jug Wine

This is the easiest home brewing recipe you are ever going to find, taking only a few minutes to do and using stuff you can pick up at the local grocery store. It makes a simple fermented fruit based beverage. A wine connoisseur would scoff at this for sure. But they are operating on a totally different level. This is about doing it yourself, for whatever reason. Just because you like to make things with your own two hands, or because you don't want to support big corporations, or you want to live more simply and naturally. And yeah, this will get you drunk.

I have made this several times at home. People like it. I have heard some concern about the risk of getting sick from drinking this--because hey, you are fermenting fruit juices. So I just want to say that this is really a non-issue. If you use CLEAN equipment when you are making this with CLEAN hands, there is not going to be a problem. After making it, take a test sip. If anything has gone wrong, you will know by the taste right away. If it tastes rancid, throw it away. If it taste like wine, keep it. But I'll just let you know that I have never had a bad batch using this method.

What you need:

• A gallon sized glass or ceramic jug
• 2 12 oz. containers of frozen juice concentrate*
• 2 cups of granulated sugar
• 1 packet of yeast (these usually come in packages of 3 packets that are 1/4 oz. each, sold with the flour and baking needs in grocery stores)
• a balloon or unlubricated condom**
• a length of clean (never used for anything else) aquarium tubing, at least 3 feet long. You can purchase this at pet supply stores, or on the pet aisle of grocery and department stores for about a buck.
• extra bottles or jugs (Plastic is fine for this. Whatever you use, make sure it is totally clean!)
• a small amount of bleach
• water

* Juice Concentrate: The basic choices for this would be regular purple grape juice for a red wine, and white grape juice for a white wine. You can use other flavors of juice, if you like. Organic is great.
** Balloon or unlubricated condom: This is used for making an airtight seal on the jug. I highly recommend an unlubricated condom. From my experiences, balloons do not stretch well over the large mouth of some jugs, and therefore tend to break. However, if a balloon is what you will be using, try to find one with a larger opening. As far as the condoms go, unlubricated just seems to be the way to go. You don't need spermicides in your wine.

Prepping: Allow the fruit juice to thaw completely. Clean the jug with a small amount of bleach, then soapy water, and then rinse well. You need to use bleach to kill any bacteria that may be living in the jug, or you risk having a botched batch of wine. Do not skip this step. Wash your hands well.

Step 1: Pour the fruit juice into the jug. A funnel may come in handy for this. Then pour in the 2 cups of sugar, the yeast, and fill the jug up about halfway full of warm water. Cap the jug and shake vigorously until it looks like most of the sugar is dissolved. Fill the jug completely with water.

Step 2: Stretch the balloon or condom over the mouth of the jug, trying to let in the least amount of air as possible. Squeeze the balloon or condom to get out excess air. You may want to wrap a rubber band around the base of the balloon/condom and the mouth of the jug if it is not a really tight fit. Now take the jug and sit it somewhere out of your way (especially if you don't want people to see a jug with a condom attached to it in your house). Wherever you sit it, it should be in a warm, room temperature place. Nowhere that is too cold or too hot.

Step 3: This step is pretty inactive on your part. The balloon/condom will begin to fill up with air as the juice ferments. You are going to be letting it sit from 7-10 days. What you want to watch for is when the balloon/condom looks like it is no longer expanding. Don't let this part worry you if you aren't sure. If it looks the same today as it did yesterday, then the wine has completed it's fermenting process. If the balloon/condom begins to deflate and it has been at least 7 days, you know it is done for sure. You will notice that there is a white residue at the bottom of the jug. This is normal.

Step 4: Remove the balloon/condom. It is time to transfer the wine into other containers. This is how I do it: I sit the jug on the kitchen counter, and then I sit the containers I am going to transfer the wine into on the floor below. Put one end the aquarium tubing into the jug of wine, close to the bottom, but NOT touching the residue on the bottom. You want to avoid getting any of that in your containers (it won't be terrible if you get a little in there, it will just form a residue in the bottom of the other containers). Gently suck on the other end of the aquarium tubing until a flow begins, then place the end of the tubing in the container on the floor. If it fills up one container, just grab the end of the hose and put it in another container. Do this until you have syphoned all of the wine out of the jug. Don't walk away from this part of the process, or you will likely find a puddle of wine on your floor when you return. Trust me on this one.

Step 5: Tightly cap or cork the containers. I like to keep mine in the fridge, but any cool, dry, dark place would be fine. That's it. Throw yourself a party.