Homemade wine

meritaten

on consulting my OHs bible for winemaking - for 4 pounds of blackberries you add 1 gallon of water! 3 pounds of sugar and your yeast etc.
I remember him making this wine - it was a beautiful dessert wine! fairly full bodied but rather sweet............jeez that sounds pretentious!!! but it was definately a sweet wine and tasted deliciously of the blackberries! I wouldnt have served it with a main course!
hmmmm his apricot wine (made with dried apricots) was so dry...........but we did find it went very well with the kids easter eggs! and it replaced dry sherry in chinese recipes!

ChennyM

Many thanks for the guidance -

I look forward to unleashing the results on some unsuspecting inlaws!

C.

Farway

I found blackberry wine one of the tastiest of the homemades

paulus_the_woodland_gnome

I just asked my DS where we could get blackberries from around here and he replied "Car Phone Warehouse":D

slm6002

How long does it take to be drinkable? Just thinking pressies for this christmas or next

meritaten

I think he kept it a year before we tried it - patience is needed with homemade wines!

Farway

slm6002 wrote: »

How long does it take to be drinkable? Just thinking pressies for this christmas or next

Next would be better, blackberry wine def improves with age, gets, smoother & more "rounded"

boultdj

slm6002 wrote: »

How long does it take to be drinkable? Just thinking pressies for this christmas or next

If you want a fast drinkable wine for pressies, have a go at banana wine, as long as the recipient like's a sweet white wine.

Jolaaled

I've got Plum Wine on the go.

I put 1 gallon of water and I gallon (volume) of plums from my tree into my fermenting bin. Then I added 1 kg of granulated sugar. I give this all a good stir each day and make sure that the lid is on firmly. I not adding any yeasts as I'm hoping that the wild yeasts on the plums will do the trick..a bit of an experiment really!

The mix has been in the fermenting bin for 1 week and is looking good so far, with a strong ferment going and tasting ok..no vinegar yet!.
(I threw in about .25 of a gallon of elderberries on day 3, as had some left over after making Elderberry cordial).
I'm going to strain and put in a demijohn tomorrow..maybe add a bit more sugar first.
Should be good to drink around Xmas 2012, all being well!

splodger_seedswapper

well i have got quite a few different brews on the go - i must change my signature - as i started on another 7 gallons today - so that will make my yearly total to 52 gallons so far this year (that does actually include a few wines that i started late last year - but were late to get going because of the cold etc - just to let reassure you lot that i am not a total p!sshead :D:D)


tonight i have started off elderberry and purple climbing bean, elderberry and dwarf purple bean, elderberry and apple.

i have 2 x 5 gallon barrels of wild cherry plum wine on the go - also a 5 gallon barrel of small plum (not quite as nice as damson, but still very agreeable) i do have 2 gallons of damson wine going too - but due to lack of dj's - the rest of my damsons are in the freezer - awaiting an opportune moment to get fermenting

in my wine cupboard (yes i have a special cupboard - just for wine :cool:) i have a lovely mix of brews on the go like:

lettuce, broad bean, pea pod, gooseberry, redcurrant, blackcurrant, beetroot, vine leaf, dandelion, bramble tip, rhubarb, strawberry, mixed berry, french bean, rice and raisin etc

for a quick wine - i do rice and raisin - takes about 2 months and is then ready to drink - i use this as a stop-gap - so i can slurp quite merrily on the quick ones whilst i wait for the others to mature

i have now got all the ingredients for my hedgerow wine (elderberry, blackberry, raspberry, apple, damson combo) but haven't got the fermenting vessels spare at the moment - so thank goodness for freezers - for the time being everything will have to be kept on ice, until i can afford another 5 gallon bin

luckily i got all of my dj's from freecycle (over the last two years - one here and a couple there) i have 30 glass jars - but need at least another 10 the rate i am going

here is pic of my wine cupboard from a couple of months ago - most of the dj's in there will be ready about xmas :beer: