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Wine making is such a simple simple and fun process that anyone can do it!  You don't have to live in one of the great wine regions of France or California, you can buy their grapes as juice or concentrate, then ferment & bottle it yourself.  You save money compared to store-bought wine, and you get to have fun & impress your friends while you're at it!

It's also inexpensive to get started.  We offer starter equipment kits using the best quality equipment available  Our starter equipment kits have all of the equipment for fermenting, clarifying, bottling, and corking your wine.  Once you have the equipment, just decide what kind of wine you want to make. 

Below are the answers to some questions that new wine makers often ask.  If you have questions that are not answered here, feel free to contact us.

How good is the wine?
That depends on the quality of the ingredients that you use.  The quality of wine is a direct result of the quality of the grapes used.   As long as you are using good grapes... or juice from good grapes... you can make good wine.

It can be hard to make a comparison between store-bought wine and home-made wine, because they both vary so much.  We sell a number of different winemaking kits.  These kits are made from high quality winemaking grapes grown in the world's great wine regions: California, France, Italy, Australia, etc.

A question we often get is, “Why should I use winemaking kits? Why not go out and buy my own grapes?”

Why should I make wine from a kit?
When you think of winemaking, you think of grapes. It’s natural. But there’s more to wine than just grapes. Most home wine makers want to make good wine, they don’t want to concern themselves with de-stemming and crushing grapes, testing acid levels & pH, measuring sugar levels, punching down the pulp every 12 hours, maintaining a grape press, or any of the other more mundane, time consuming chores that require lots of expensive equipment. That’s where winemaking kits come into the picture. The kit maker has already crushed & pressed the grapes, then tested & balanced the juice for sugar content, acidity, and so forth. All you need to do is ferment and bottle your wine. That’s the beauty of winemaking kits!

Like everyone else, Brew King has competitors, and the competition makes their own claims of quality. We at Annapolis Home Brew have years of experience dealing with different suppliers, and we think that Brew King has more to offer. We stand behind their products. Try them once, and you will too. With Brew King winemaking kits, making good wine at home is almost foolproof, and you save a lot of money compared to buying wine at the store.

Are all wines made from grapes?
No, but the vast majority of them are.  If you go into a liquor store and look at all of the wines they sell, they will all be made from grapes.  The only exceptions will be clearly labeled, i.e. "Raspberry Wine" or whatever non-grape fruit was used.

Wine names, such as "Merlot", "Chardonnay", "Cabernet", "Pinot Noir", "Zinfandel", etc.,  are given to wine according to the type of grapes used.  Other wine names, such as "Burgundy" or "Bordeaux" are given to wines made in certain regions, often with a blend of different grapes.

Where do I get my grapes?
Most home wine makers actually use grape juice instead of whole grapes.  This is for two reasons: First, it saves you the task of pressing the grapes yourself, and Second, pressed juice is easier to ship and store than are whole grapes.

Fresh grapes are available only one time each year, during the fall.  If you live near a source of fresh wine grapes, you may want to give them a try.  However, if you want to make wine year-round with less trouble, use winemaking kits. 

A winemaking kit is a package of grape juice or concentrate, with a few packets of yeast, clarifiers, etc. included.  All standard wine kits make 6 gallons of wine, which is enough to fill 30 bottles (standard 750ml bottles).  Wine kits are available in many different styles, they're made from various grapes grown around the world.

The biggest advantage of wine kits is consistent quality.   The wine kit makers buy hundreds of tons of grapes every year... they have the knowledge and market buying power to purchase higher quality grapes than a single home wine maker can usually obtain.

How long does my wine need to age before drinking?
This depends on the type of wine you're making.   You can drink your wine as soon as you bottle it, but giving it time to age will improve the quality.  You'll have 30 bottles of each batch, we encourage wine makers to open a bottle from time to time, and see how the wine is progressing.

White grape wines are usually at their peak sooner than red grape wines.  Generally, the darker the wine, the more it will benefit from aging.   Non-grape country wines usually need at least 6 months because they are quite rough when young.

Can I use grapes from the supermarket?
Not if you want wine that tastes like what you buy.   Supermarkets sell "table grapes" such as Concord or Thompson's Seedless.   These grapes are good for eating, but they are not well-suited for making wine.  

Also, the economics of buying grapes as an individual don't work out well.  For instance, a wine kit which makes 6 gallons of wine costs anywhere from $40.00 to $100.00.  You might think that you could save money buying grapes instead, but it takes 8-12 pounds of grapes per gallon to make wine!

What about this recipe I found for making wine?
Most "wine recipes" date from the era of prohibition, when people were making alcohol-by-any-means-necessary, not trying to produce a quality beverage.  If you haven't tried any wine made with the recipe, you're taking a chance.

If your recipe is for a grape wine, and it calls for any water or sugar to be added, then it's not going to make "real" wine like you'd buy at the store.  The "real" wines from California, France, Italy, etc. are made from nothing but the juice of wine grapes.

Water and sugar are only added when making "country wines."  These are usually made from non-grape fruits, such as raspberries or cherries, or from non-winemaking grapes such as concord.  Other country wines are made from sugar-water flavored with herbs, such as dandelion wine.  Country wines can be interesting, and some people do enjoy them, but they've never had a major position in the commercial wine marketplace.  Most people prefer wines made with wine grapes.  If you make country wines you should expect results very different from store bought wine.

How do I make a good country wine?
Country wines are usually made from non-grape fruits.   Annapolis Home Brew has a selection of fruits which include recipes for making country wine.  Usually, you'll be adding the fruit to water & sugar, then adding small amounts of additives such as wine acid blend, tannin, and pectic enzyme.

In general we have found that the secrets to good country wines are:   First, allow plenty of time for bottle aging because country wines taste very rough at first, but after 6 to 12 months they become quite good.  Second, non-grape fruits are notoriously low in the acids which give wine a good flavor, so make sure your recipe calls for additional wine acid to correct this problem.  Good country wine recipes usually do... if not, look for a different recipe!  Some old prohibition-era recipes call for lemon juice to add acids (the low-tech method).  This works better than nothing, but it's not as consistent as a powdered wine acid blend.