Making wine at The Brewers Apprentice is a great learning experience and a lot of fun. There are several steps involved in making great wine and you'll need to visit our store twice before you can take your bottled wine home. There's no need to fret however, as we'll guide you along every step of the way. Below we've provided a guide that will go into all of the basic details you should be aware of if you're thinking about coming to make wine on our premises. Before you come to make wine, you'll need to call us at the store and schedule an appointment. You will need to give us a minimum of one weeks notice so that we can make sure that your wine ingredients will be here on the day of your appointment. When you make your appointment we will need to know how many batches of wine you'll want to make and what style(s) of wine you'll want. We will also need a credit card to secure your appointment. For more information on booking an appointment and to find out why you need to provide us with a credit card, visit our store rules page. During your first appointment, you will be at our store for approximately one and a half hours. Each batch of wine that you make is 6 gallons which equals two cases plus a couple extra bottles (specifically we guarantee that you will get a minimum of 26 750ml wine bottles or 52 375ml bottles). You can make as many batches of wine that you want during your appointment and you can bring a maximum of four people per batch. When you come to make wine you probably don't want to be wearing your best clothes... as there's always the possiblity that you may splash grape juice, which has been known to stain. If you have any questions about any of the information above, it's best to ask while you are making your appointment, not on the day that you are making your wine. With the formalities out of the way, now comes the fun! Step 1: Selecting Your Wine Style With dozens of wines in stock, plus a special order catalog of over a hundred wines, you'll be sure to find one that suits you perfectly. When you schedule your wine making appointment don't forget that you need to give us a minimum of one weeks notice. At the time you make your appointment we will ask you for the type(s) of wine you want to make and we will make sure to have it in stock for you on the day of your appointment. You can browse our wine selections on our wine styles page.     Step 2: Preparing Your Ingredients When you arrive at the store we'll get all of the formalities out of the way first and then bring you to our wine room. In the wine room your assistant will get all of your wine ingredients and equipment in order and get you ready for the wine making process. Don't forget... wine making can sometimes be a bit messy, so you don't want to wear your Sunday's best. Once everything is set, it's time to make wine! Step 3: MAKE WINE! When it's time to make the wine, we'll show you when and how to add your ingredients... from the actual grape juice to the various chemicals added. We'll explain what each ingredient does and why timing is so important when adding them. Voila! You're making wine! When you're done with the wine making process, we'll take you back to our fermenting room and show you the final steps that will occur over the next 7 weeks. Have no fear though! We'll take care of these final steps for you.     Step 4: Select Your Labels The last detail that helps give your finished wine character is the label that you will put on every bottle. You can either pick from our book of dozens of house designs or we can give you instructions on creating your own design. Either way we will print your labels with high quality wax ink which makes for a bright, water proof finish. For more information you can visit our custom label page, or our label instruction page if you're thinking about making your own labels. Step 5: Fermentation & Filtering Over the course of four to five weeks your wine will ferment in our climatically controlled fermenting room. After your wine is done fermenting, we will move it through a series of steps. Each step helps to either clarify or preserve your wine so that it will look like commercial wine and so that it will be able to be aged appropriately. The total processing time is seven weeks.     Step 6: Bottling Finally! In as soon as seven weeks you can return to The Brewers Apprentice and bottle your wine. We will show you how to use our sanitizing machine, bottle filler, and corker, and then teach you how shrink wrap the tops of the bottles and how to put labels on. One batch of wine takes an average of an hour to bottle. That's it! View our wine making demo video on Wine & Dine Web! Congratulations! You've finished making your very own wine! Don't forget you can also make your own beer and mead on our premises as well! If you have any questions that you don't see answered here, feel free to contact us! Abandoned Wines PLEASE NOTE: any wines that are left on our premises for over three months (90 days) will be bottled at the discretion of The Brewer's Apprentice and a $25 bottling fee applied per batch. Wines left over six months (180 days) will be disposed of or become property of The Brewer's Apprentice. Don't forget about your wine... bottle sooner rather than later! The Brewer's Apprentice, Inc. ~ 865 Route 33 West, Suite 4, Freehold, NJ 07728 ~ 732-863-9411 Store Hours: Monday, Wednesday - Friday: 1pm - 8pm ~ Saturday & Sunday: 10am - 4pm Copyright © 2012 The Brewer's Apprentice. All rights reserved. Website Created By: Inner Eye Design.