When it comes to making alcoholic beverages at home, winemaking and home brewing is considered sort of a 'niche' market. You either know how to do it or you don't!

This is very hard to believe as people have been making their own wine for thousands of years. Just recently it was confirmed that this process of fermenting grapes was invented in Cyprus rather than western Europe.

As we still discover the facts about the history, what about the present? Why is making wine at home and home brewing such a 'taboo' subject if you may? Is it because of the 'legal' aspects involved with alcohol in general?

Or it just sounds messy and confusing, something we should all leave to the professionals alone?

I've been involved with making delicious wine at home for about three years now and I've found it to be one of the most 'quiet' form of entertainment (Yes its actually that fun!).

It's one of those things that people do, but don't talk about it, at least not to strangers of the genre. Lets now get into a little bit of detail on the difference between winemaking and home brewing.

As it sounds, winemaking is about making wine only. The most basic ones are red wine and white wine. Their are many type of kits you can buy and even get special sub-level kits that go right down to the exact type of wine (chardonnay for example).

Home Brewing refers to 'brewing' beer and is slightly more complicated as it involves more ingredients. Most common are hops and barley and the fermentation time varies when compared to conventional 'make wine techniques'. I guess that only depends on the type of kit you are using.

Besides the fun factor, other reasons to home brew or home wine making would be price (Make bottles of wine for less than $0.25 cents), more control of taste, and of course the freshness.

To get started, I recommend to take a walk to your local library and read books on making wine and home brewing.

You can also join online forums or how about a stroll to your local home brewing store. Their just be local wine clubs that you can visit for free wine tasting! That's a good way to get started if you ask me!

Everyone has their own unique reason as wine making and home brewing is just like any other hobby. You can share it with your friends, and you do it because you simply enjoy it!