Baby Step 39: Fermenting Juice to Wine in a Bottle

This is a simple and inexpensive method of fermenting delicious wine from bottled fruit juice.

It’s easy and cost-effective to ferment fruit juice directly within its sterile container, eliminating the cost of a primary and secondary winemaking vat. All that is needed is the bottled fruit juice, an inexpensive plastic air-lock bubbler, a bottle-stopper, sugar and yeast.

You will need to purchase a bottle (half-gallon) of 100% fruit juice. Avoid juices sweetened with high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. There is a large selection of juice flavors including mixed fruit juice blends sold in your grocery aisle. Our favorite wine is fermented from a no sugar added blend of five juices – Grape, Apple, Cranberry, Blueberry and Blackberry. Experiment with different fruit juices to determine your favorite vintage.

Helpful Hint: purchase 2 or 3 air-lock bubblers and ferment a variety of different fruit wines at the same time. Fruit juice will ferment into a delicious wine in 5-6 weeks following these basic steps.

Steps to Fermenting Juice to Wine in a Bottle:

You will need:

1 – air-lock bubbler (sold on the internet or any wine making supply shop).

1 – bottle stopper (sold on the internet or any wine making supply shop).

1 – shallow dish

1/2 gallon – bottled 100%, No Sugar Added, fruit juice

1/2 cup cane sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking or wine yeast

2 oz. tap water (for air-lock bubbler)

Step One: Open juice bottle and pour 1/2 cup of fruit juice into a clean and sterile glass.

Step Two: Add sugar and yeast to juice bottle. Tighten bottle cap and shake vigorously until completely dissolved.

Step Three: Remove cap, add the juice that was removed earlier. Fill the bottle to within 2 inches from bottle top. Place cap loosely on bottle and place on shallow dish. Wait two days. Tighten cap and shake. Loosen cap and return to dish. Repeat again in two days.

Step Four: Remove bottle cap. Push air-lock into bottle stopper. Add water to fill air-lock half-way. Press air-lock and stopper into juice bottle.

Step Five: Allow juice bottle with air-lock bubbler to ferment for 4-6 weeks. Refill air-lock if water level decreases due to evaporation. The air-lock allows carbon dioxide (fermentation gases) to be released and prevents foreign objects ( dust, fruit flies) from contaminating the fermentation process. Once the air-lock stops bubbling the wine is ready for racking (bottling and corking).