Ever wonder how to brew wine at home? What do I need? How much will it cost? Is it legal? Well keep reading, I am about to tell you all you need to know to get started on making your wine from home.
First you need a wine making kit. These kits, to alot of peoples surprise, are not that expensive. A 5 or 6 gallon kit will cost between $50 and $100. Your ingredients will cost $30 to $70. That comes out to about $2.50 a bottle.
You don't need a winepress. Wineries use these winepresses to extract every last drop of juice from the fruit. Not for quality reasons. At $1 to $2 a bottle for home wine makers, the last drop of juice is not important.
Making wine at home is legal. A household of 2 adults can make up to 200 gallons of wine a year. And a household of 1 adult can make 100 gallons a year. You will need to check with your local authorities if you intend to sell or distibrut your wine.
The most important thing you need to have is good recipes and clear instruction on how to use them. This is where alot of wine makers fail. The recipes might be good but the instruction part is to vague. There are some additives that need to be added wheter listed or not. And some wine need to be shaken every 48 hours and some don't.
You will also need to determine how sweet you like your wine. This is done with a hydrometer. Wich comes with the wine making kit. A reading of 1020 on the hydrometer means it is a sweet wine, 1010 is medieum and 990 is very dry.
Wine making at home is not hard as long as you have the right equipement, a basic kit works fine, and some good recipes and instruction.
First it needs to be established that, yes, there are calories in wine. Indeed, almost nything you eat or drink contains calories unless it is made of almost entirely of water or chemicals. However, calories should be considered fuel for the body and a body will not function well without an adequate supply of fuel. That said, the calories in wine need to be counted if you are watching your weight.
Wine As A Fuel Source
Typically, there are around 80–100 calories in an average-sized glass of wine. An average-sized glass is considered to be 125–150 mls (around 4 fl oz), so in a 750ml bottle there are roughly five to six glasses of wine at most. There are red wine glasses available today that can hold almost a full bottle of wine so it is important to consider the size of the glass when counting the calories in wine. A 750ml bottle of wine will generally contain between 300 and 500 calories.
Not all wines contain the same number of calories. Some of the drier white wines, for example, Sauvignon Blanc, white Zinfandel, and Chablis are at the lower end of the calorie scale – around 80 calories per glass. Red wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Pinot Noir and Merlot tend to be in the mid range – around 95 calories per glass. Champagne contains around 100–105 calories per glass.
The really high calorie wines are the fortified wines like Port, Madeira, Muscatel and Tokay. These wines typically contain between 165 and 185 calories per glass. However, it should be noted that these wines are usually served in smaller glasses.
Having established the existence of calories in wine it is important to count them in your daily dietary intake if you enjoy a glass of wine or two with a meal. However, it is also worthwhile to keep the number of calories in perspective. Compared to a cheeseburger the calories in wine appear almost negligible. A cheeseburger can have up to1000 calories and can include as much fat as a body might require in a month! At least wine is fat free. The calories come from the sugar and the carbohydrates. So wine in moderation can usually be included in a calorie-controlled diet.
The Benefits of Wine
Regardless of the calories contained in wine, there are many documented benefits to drinking it in moderation. Wine can enhance the food we eat and act as an aid to digestion. Red wine in particular has potential benefits in that it is believed to help protect against certain forms of cancer and heart disease. Studies have shown a reduction of 30%–50% in heart disease of people who regularly drink a glass of red wine each night and a 20% reduction in death from certain cancers.
The health benefits of drinking wine are often attributed to the so-called "French Paradox", whereby the French – even with a diet high in fat – don't suffer from heart attacks at the same rate as North Americans. This has been attributed to their moderate, though steady, wine consumption.
So perhaps it's time to stop focusing on the calories in wine and instead focus on the health benefits ... in moderation, of course.
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