Sunday, October 3, 2010

Homemade wine recipe, artisan wine, organic wine, wine making season, surplus fruit, quintessential artisan product, secret family recipe, high alcohol content

Hand made wine is the quintessential artisan product.  Last fall I shared my secret family recipe for homemade wine.  Here it is.... wine making season again.  Lots of fruit  sitting in freezers  and folks wondering what to do with it (cuz you can only make so much jam before you have to get a commercial license).  So, I am reposting for those who may have missed it.  This recipe is as organic as it gets. No sulphites, no added chemicals, just..... nature at its best.
So, please enjoy this recipe as much as I do.
 


Make your own wine.


To do this you will need:

Equipment:

1 five gallon plastic bucket with lid

1 five gallon glass water jug (called a carboy)

1 plastic airlock

1 cork for carboy with whole bored for airlock to fit

Large stew pot

Potato masher

Sterile siphon hose

Cheese clothe or old Pillow case

Supplies:

2 oz ‘s of pectic enzyme

1 lemon

10 pounds of sugar

1 small packet of wine yeast

10 pounds of fruit (plum is the easiest to start with)

1 packet campden tablets

All items on this list can be purchased either online or at your local brew store

Step 1. Sterilize all equipment

2. Pit ( no need to peal) and cut up fruit and put in plastic bucket.

3. In a large stew pot put 2 ½ gallons of water, juice of half a lemon, 5 pounds of sugar and 2 oz of pectic enzyme. Heat to just under boiling, making sure all the sugar is dissolved.

4. Pour sugar solution over fruit in five gallon bucket.

5. Wait one hour or until solution and fruit have cooled to room temperature and then add the packet of yeast and stir lightly.

6. Put lid on bucket and let sit over night

7. Each day for 7 days , remove lid and mash fruit with a potato masher.

8 .Day Seven , strain juice from fruit through cheese cloth

9. Put juice into Five gallon carboy

10 Put 2 gallons of water in stew pot and heat to just under boiling

11. Put remaining 5 pounds of sugar in hot water and dissolve thoroughly

12. Wait until sugar water cools to room temperature and add to juice in carboy

13. Slide airlock into bored cork and place in opening of carboy

14. Add 1 campden tablet to airlock and 2 tablespoons of water

15. It is wise at this point to seal cork with wax from a candle

16. Put carboy in a warm place and walk away for 1 month

17. At the end of one month you will notice a heavy sediment on the bottom of the carboy….siphon the now ‘working ‘wine back into the sterilized plastic bucket leaving the sediment behind.

18. Pour sediment down drain and clean carboy well

19. Put wine back into carboy and re-seal as before

20. Repeat siphoning process (called racking) every couple of months or so until no sediment forms on bottom

21. When sediment ceases to form, your wine is done and ready to bottle

22. The fermenting process could take from 6 months to a year but it is well worth the wait!

Don’t forget to treat yourself to a glass every time you rack the wine…….. You will be able to taste the changes as nature makes its bounty.



Just a few notes. Wine made with this recipe will be higher in alcohol content than commercially produced. There are no sulphites in this wine. You should get 2 1/2 cases of wine per carboy (give or take). Bottles fished out of recycling, de-labeled and sterilized will keep costs down. Try to use real cork when it is available and never never never use a screw cap for homemade wine. Once you have made a batch of this wine you can add specific herbs to make it medicinal. When winter weather arrives I will post a mulling recipe that will make the holidays oh-so-much easier to tolerate!
 
For those of you who would like to read the original blog... here is the link
http://intheshadowofwalkingliberty.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-come-from-long-line-of.html

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