Wine, Cider, & Mead Making
Wine, Cider, & Mead Making Articles
45Learn how to make wine, cider and mead at home. With a recipe kit and some basic equipment, you'll be filling up your cellar in no time.
October 16, 2025
One-Gallon Fruit Wine Recipes | Master Vintner® Home Winemaking Guide
Making wine from fruit is one of the easiest and most rewarding home winemaking projects. Whether you’re using freshly picked fruit, frozen fruit, or juice, small-batch winemaking lets you experiment with flavor, sweetness, and style — all while learning the fundamentals of fermentation. .. Read More
September 10, 2025
How to Make Hard Cider at Home
Sparkling, still, sweet, dry, strong, or mild - make it how you like. All you need are crisp, delicious liquid apples and 30 minutes. .. Read More
May 19, 2025
How to Make Brandy (Types, Tips, and Step-by-Step Guide)
Curious about brandy? Discover how it's made, the different types like Cognac and apple brandy, and get a step-by-step overview of the distilling process. .. Read More
May 19, 2025
How to Make Brandy Using a Wine Kit
Explore how to create brandy using a wine kit, from fermentation to distillation and aging. Ideal for small-batch producers looking to expand their craft. .. Read More
February 05, 2025
Filtering Your Homemade Wine
One way to elevate your wines to a higher level of perfection is by employing filtration. Using wine filters can bring a host of improvements—from enhancing appearance to stabilizing the final product. .. Read More
March 07, 2024
Wine Style Focus: Riesling
A grape that can display incredible balance and complexity while still being immensely enjoyable and versatile, the venerable Riesling is a wine-lover's dream. .. Read More
October 26, 2023
How to Bottle Your Homemade Wine
You’re ready to finally bottle your wine?! You’ve waited a long time, so you’ll be happy to know this is one of the easiest steps. .. Read More
July 21, 2023
How to Make Wine From a Recipe Kit
If you’re looking to make wine, it’s actually quite easy to get started with wine recipe kits. Using wine kits is the best place to start your wine making journey because kits simplify the wine making process from grape to glass. .. Read More
September 23, 2021
Comparing Yeast Strains for Hard Cider
Each year, during fall harvest and apple season, we get asked a lot of questions about making hard cider at home. To help answer those questions, Northern Brewer team members Chip and Dan set up a taste panel for a batch of hard cider that was split six ways and fermented with six different yeasts. .. Read More
September 01, 2021
Cider and How Various Yeast Strains Affect Them
Yeast strains have a huge impact on cider profiles, not only in terms of fermentation performances and analytics, but also from a sensory perception. Cidermakers can experiment with them to achieve their final product target. Fermentis focused its research on the selection of valuable strains ded... .. Read More
August 09, 2021
How to Make Mead Like a Viking
Drank by Vikings and their Norse Gods, sometimes even referred to as Nectar of the Gods, mead has been around for centuries and is possibly the world’s oldest alcoholic drink. .. Read More
July 01, 2021
How to Make Mead at Home
If you make your own wine, the transition to making Mead is easy, and the equipment needed is the same. .. Read More
June 18, 2021
RJS Craft Winemaking Brand Refresh
Northern Brewer is excited to announce the launch of RJS Winemaking’s bold new packaging redesign to Cru International, Cru Select, and En Primeur Winery Series. .. Read More
October 23, 2019
Making Different Meads: Braggot, Pyment, Melomel, Bochet, Metheglin, oh my!
Making Different Meads: Braggot, Pyment, Melomel, Bochet, Metheglin, oh my! Mead is one of the oldest and farthest reaching fermented beverages in the world. Where there's honey, there's mead. .. Read More
September 03, 2019
6 Secrets for Making Better Mead
Hitting your desired sweetness takes both skill and practice, but there are several things you should understand to help you get there. Check them out here. .. Read More
August 15, 2019
Do You Need to Make a Wine Yeast Starter?
Sprinkling dry yeast on the wine seems too easy. Is it too good to be true? .. Read More
August 06, 2019
Wine Style Focus: Cabernet Sauvignon
The King of Reds, with a loyal following and adoring mass of devotees, continues its decades-long reign over fine wine. .. Read More
July 25, 2019
How to Bottle Mead
Beer bottles, wine bottles, Champagne bottles, Belgian bottles....what's the best option? .. Read More
July 08, 2019
How to Use Nutrients in Mead Making
By treating your yeast well and keeping them healthy you can avoid off-flavors in mead. .. Read More
June 27, 2019
Top 5 Ways to Improve your Wine Kit
While wine kits come with the ingredients to make a stellar bottle of wine, following a few of these tips can bring your creation to the next level. .. Read More
May 01, 2019
Mead Making Video
Mead is a wine made from honey and is possibly mankind's original fermented beverage. This video features award winning meadmaker Curt Stock. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wine Making Videos
A selection of wine making videos for both experienced wine makers and beer brewers looking to try something new. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Hard Cider Making Made Easy
Your hard cider will be fantastic on a hot summer day or a cool fall evening. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Making Hard Cider with Pasteurized Juice or Real Apples
It's quite easy to make hard ciders just like the ones being produced at the many craft cideries that are popping up across the country. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wine Tasting Tutorial
Component tasting solutions are made in one-litre volumes, using any commercial bottled water that is free of flavour or minerals. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
High Alcohol Fermentations: 18% Dry Mead
18% is generally regarded as the upper limit for mead fermentations, as even the strongest wine yeasts struggle after this much alcohol is present. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wine Style Focus: Merlot
A deep, sensuous shade in the glass; a grape that offers up a fruity bouquet; the most accessible of the red wines. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wine Style Focus: Zinfandel
Big, bold tannin bombs, sweet and fruity blush wines, Italian Primitivo, American old vines: Zinfandel is a grape that has many labels, and bears them all well. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wine Style Focus: South American Reds
Something of an incubator for offbeat or forgotten varietals, the vintners of Argentina and Chile have a way of making a grape their own. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wine Style Focus: Aromatic German Whites
With more umlauts than an 80s hair metal tribute band, we break down the aromatic whites of Germany and Austria. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wine Style Focus: Sangiovese
Sangiovese also finds expression in the so-called "Super Tuscans" -- wines crafted, often on small estates, outside the regulations of the DOGC and labeled humbly as Vino di Tavola ("table wine"). .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wine Style Focus: Pinot Noir
“Sex in a glass,” “hedonistic,” “made by the devil,” “the most romantic of wines,” “the most capricous, ungracious, unforgiving, fascinating grape of them all.” .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wine Style Focus: Barolo
Barolo is a DOCG-classified red that is famously assertive, complex, and fantastic with food. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wine Style Focus: Shiraz/Syrah
Syrah is poised to become the next big thing in red wine; an ancient pedigree combined with rising popularity and plantings in new areas. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Two Melomels from Curt Stock
Meadmaker of the Year (2005) and Northern Brewer mead kit creator Curt Stock shares two of his favorite melomel recipes with Brewing TV. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wine Style Focus: Sauvignon Blanc
One of the easiest and best wines to pair with food. Its uncomplicated and refreshingly acidic character allow it to match well with a wide variety of dishes. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wine Style Focus: Chardonnay
The range of flavors coaxed from this humble grape is truly astounding: from bright and crisp to dense, oak-aged and buttery; tropical fruit to flint and steel. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Tasting Showdown: Hard Cider vs. An Apple
Who would win in a taste test? To find out I sat down with a classic food pairing - an apple and a glass of cider - and evaluated each. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Spring Wine
Instead of exerting control over all factors, as one constantly tries to in beer, you've got to let the wine control you. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Wyeast Yeast Experiment
A while back I posted about a yeast experiment that used 6 different ale yeast strains to make mead. Preliminary tasting results from five Northern Brewer employees are in, I've summarized them below. Some things I've taken away from this experiment: phenolic yeast strains really don't do well a... .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Experimenting with Wine Yeast
I am especially excited about the French Saison strain, which is very attenuative and produces distinct spicy/lemony flavors. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
How to Switch From Homebrewing to Wine Making
Got a few batches of homebrew under your belt but feel like trying your hand at wine? An easy thing with these few additions. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Make Wine for Better Beer
It will be a proud moment in my winemaking when I can taste which grape varieties are used, what oak, and the origin. .. Read More
October 23, 2018
Lower Alcohol Meads
Meads tend to take a long time to age and are too high gravity to quaff as a refreshment. Solution: Mini-Hefe-Hydro-Melo-Mel. .. Read More
September 18, 2018
Wine Making Glossary
A glossary in alphabetical list with all the winemaking terms you'd ever need to know...and then some! .. Read More