Kitchen Capers

[Old CooT]

I've made wine for about 20 years and this is the basic method I have used all these years. It will wotk with just about anything, I have made wine with various grapes, apples, plums, cherries,peaches,blackberries. Wild and store bought, and I have even made Pineapple wine using canned juice. this method works.

Fermentation will take 4 - 6 weeks and clarifying it can take a few more weeks. Ageing it is a matter of taste, most of the people around here like the fruity tasting sweet wines best and very little lasted to the end of the ageing process.



A simple way to make wine.

What you need:

about 1 1/2 gallons of fresh fruit (any seeds should be removed)
10 - 12 pounds of sugar, 10 for dry wine, 12 for sweet wine.
1 ea. packet of Dry Wine Yeast (do not use cooking yeast/it has different
properties)

2 ea. - 5 gallon water bottles (Glass Preferably but plastic
will work too), or, they make 5 ? gallon plastic buckets
with gasket sealed lids also.
1 ea. Rubber plug or cap (these are specific to the container or
bucket you are using.
1 ea. - air lock
A Piece of womens nylon stocking
1 ea. large ( about 3 gallon ) pot
1 ea. Large funnel with a filter screen
4 feet of 3/8" clear tubing for siphoning
Something to wrap any clear bottle that you use to make wine in. like a
dark colored blanket

What to do:

In a large pot, put in about 1 gallon of hot water ( well or bottled is best, city water has chemicals and the taste will carry over into the wine).

Add the sugar and stir until completely dissolved and the solution is clear in the pot, Let it cool to room Temperature.

In a blender, add some
fruit until about 3/4 full, fill to 1/2 with water and blend. Repeat until done with fruit emptying the blender into the 5 gallon water bottle. When you are finished with the fruit add water until there is about 4 gallons of the mixture total in the bottle (or Bucket). As the mixture ferments, it will rise due to the bubbling.

In a 8 oz. glass, put about 4 oz. of lukewarm water, add the yeast and wait about 10 minutes or until the yeast melts and sinks then stir well. Add the yeast solution to the water bottle. Stir in thoroughly.

Add the air lock ( this prevents bacteria from entering the wine ). Fill to about 1/3rd full of water and cover with the nylon stocking, wrap it with a rubber band to retain it on the air lock. This keeps the bugs out of the wine.

Wrap the bottle with towels or a blanket at this time leaving the air lock exposed, this prevents the light from turning the wine a brown color, Put the wine in a cool, dark place to ferment, like a closet.

In this method, fermentation has to go through the complete process. At first, the air lock will be very active and slows down as time passes. After about 4 -6 weeks, the air lock will make about a bubble a second or slower.

Siphon off the wine into a second water bottle (or bucket) separating the fruit from the wine and reset the air lock. Discard the fruit on bottom. Add more water to the 4 1/2 gallon mark.

Do this in 2 week intervals being careful not to disturb the sediments on the bottom of the bottle. After siphoning, refill the bottle to the 4 1/2 gallon mark.

When the wine is clear, bottle it and age it for about 6 months. I'll bet you can't wait that long .

It's safe to sample it as you go, the yeast is harmless, but the more you age it, the clearer it will get.

As you get better at it, you can buy a Hygrometer and gauge the alcohol content too.

Take in mind, this is the simplest method for wine
making, the pureists will have you adding chemicals and so on. This method will work with almost anything, peaches, apples, grapes, you pick.

Try here for supplies:

http://www.eckraus.com/

[karlskrona]

old coot
thanx for such a wonderful recipe
_________________
jo aka jeung guem

[Old CooT]

You're welcome..

If you need help with it,.. just ask

[Gina]

old coot

could you help us to convert gallons into litres..as many of us here in Asia uses our liquid measurements that are in litres.

thanks
_________________
Gina

The Lord is my Shepherd. I have EVERYTHING I need. Psalms 23:1

[Old CooT]

[Gina]

old coot

by the way, after reading your recipe and methods..I find that its roughly the same with what I do with my Glutinous Rice Wine.

I just did a conversion of 1.5 gallons is about 5.6 litres of fruit. Its illegal here in Singapore to make wine at that quantity, even though its for home consumption. In any case, many of us are not into wine drinking. I made my wine only for cooking purposes and for my cooking class.

I would like to try your fruit wine recipe..but will have to cut down to under 1 kg of fruits. Just to try it out..and to see if I could reuse all of other wine making stuff for this.

thanks for sharing. Oh, by the way, I change your title to "Making Wine using Fruits". hope you don't mind..its more informative that way.
_________________
Gina

The Lord is my Shepherd. I have EVERYTHING I need. Psalms 23:1

[Old CooT]