Properly Storing Your Creations is the Final Step in the Wine Making Process

If you’re enough of a wine lover that you’ve begun to look into making your own wines from home, chances are you already know a thing or two about storage. Home wine making comes with some additional wrinkles though, namely the manner in which you’ll store and preserve your wine. You have two real choices, which we’ll explain below, as well as one choice which should generally be avoided at all costs.

The Mother of All Wine Storage Devices

When people think of a keg or barrel, beer is the first thing that typically pops into mind. While this picture is an accurate one for the most part, kegs have also become extremely popular in wine making circles of late. They afford wine makers a simple and highly effective means to store large quantities of wine, and do so quite well.

Of course if you’re going to go this route in your wine making, there are a few things you should be aware of. Naturally, you should be sure that the wine you’ll be making is one you’ll enjoy, so experimenting with smaller batches of home brewed wine beforehand would be ideal. Secondly, you’ll want to be sure to properly sterilize and clean the barrel before use, as you’d hate to have a large keg of wine go bad on you. Any wine making supply store which sells barrels should also have all the necessary cleaning supplies, and instructions to help you on your way.

Bottling Your Wine the Right Way

If the cask is just a touch overboard in your case, your next best bet is to bottle them using glass bottles. This is also gives you the opportunity to label them and give them a professional look if you desire. Many wine makers love creating their own labels and branding their creations, and this is the perfect way to do so. Of course these glass bottles are not easy to come by, so you’ll probably need to purchase them through a wine making supplier. You’ll also need to purchase some snug fitting corks to go with your bottles to ensure your wine is kept airtight until the grand opening and tasting.

Bottling Your Wine the Wrong Way

One method of bottling wine that should be avoided is doing so with plastic bottles. These are a popular alternative to glass bottles, as plastic bottles such as 2L soda bottles are easy to come by. While using plastic bottles is more acceptable for homemade beer making, it should be avoided in the case of homemade wine making.

Plastic bottles have a much greater chance of tainting the wine, and could even explode while fermenting. Depending on the bottle, it could even be eaten away by the acidic content in your wine over the course of aging it, though this is the least likely scenario.

Storing your wine would seem to be the simplest task involved in the home wine making process, but as you can see, there are plenty of little subtleties that can catch the unaware by surprise. Individual wines may come with their own set of ideal storage methods as well, so study your craft well and reap the tasty rewards of your home wine making kits.