How to Store Large Quantities of Homemade Wine
Fermentation is complete and it's time to bottle and store all that homemade wine. Wine-making itself is tricky, but aftercare and storage is just as essential. Small quantities of homemade wine are consumed quickly, but large quantities need to be stored somewhere suitable. Ideally, there would be a dark, damp, cool cellar, lined with storage racks, but most households don't have this luxury. When choosing a place, whether an attic, garage, basement, closet, garden shed or a cupboard under the stairs, consider how light, movement and temperature will affect the wine. Follow a few basic steps to ensure that oxygen, a winemaker's nemesis, does not enter bottles, so wine can develop until opened. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Find a cool place, away from central heating units. Keep a thermometer in the storage area and monitor temperatures. Heat encourages wine to oxidize; an ideal temperature for storing wine is 50 to 60 degrees. Choose somewhere with a constant temperature, as large fluctuations cause wine to deteriorate. Bear in mind that the kitchen is usually a bad place to store wine as cookers produce dramatic changes in heat.
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Keep homemade wine out of direct sunlight, and store large quantities of homemade wine in a dark, windowless space. Ultraviolet light damages wine; this is why wine is commonly bottled in colored glass. By reducing light sources, the chance of wine producing oxygen is reduced.
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Place a bowl of water on the ground in the storage area. Damp, humid air helps stop corks from drying out and letting oxygen into the bottles.
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Keep bottles of homemade wine in an upright position for a few days when they are first produced. This allows corks to dry into the neck of the bottle and make a good airtight seal. Then invest in or make some wine racks, and store the bottles horizontally so the wine touches the cork. This keeps corks moist, which prevents air entering the wine.
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Let homemade wine rest, regularly moving wine will interrupt the maturing process. Store it in a place distanced from vibrations of domestic appliances, and store with the labels facing upwards so bottles can easily be located.
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- Photo Credit bottle wine and glasses with a wine image by mashe from Fotolia.com
