Neutralize the preservative in store bought grape juice by diluting 2 quarts of juice with 1 quart of water. Meta bisulfite is added to keep grapejuice fresh as a safe food preservative when bottling. Put in plastic pail, sprinkle the champagne yeast on top. Close with lid and airlock. One day later, when the bubbler starts bubbling, and the yeast starts working, you know you diluted the preservative enough to neutralize.

17 grams of sugar generates 1% alcohol per quart (liter). A liter (quart) of grape juice contains 14 % sugar, 140 grams, when diluted with water, 110 grams. That is 6% alcohol. We want double that, 12%, so we add 550 grams of sugar, one pound and a cup, when we add the rest of the grape juice.

Once you know that the yeast is working because the airlock bubbles, add the rest of the grape juice and the sugar. After four weeks, still bubbling, but the fermentation is slowing down. Night temperature in our kitchen is 56 F degrees before we start the woodstove in the morning, the wine still bubbles at that temperature.

To sanitize used wine bottles, you can rinse and bake them upside down in your oven at 250F degrees for 30 minutes, cool. To sanitize reuseable porcelain tops, replace old rubber rings with freshly sanitized ones. To reuse plastic champagne bottle caps, place in boiling water, heat turned off, cool. You can also use fresh corks and a corker instrument.

When the bubbling stops, wait another week before opening the lid. The yeast will have dropped to the bottom. When you open the lid, syphon or pour the clear wine off into the bottles. You can now taste or measure the alcohol with a hydrometer. Leave two fingers width of airspace between cap and wine inside bottle to allow for temperature expansion. Leave the dregs on the bottom. Pour dregs over compost heap, it will stimulate bacterial growth.