Winemaking anyone?

[byke]

Anyone out there into homemade wine? The wife and I have this and this in process. I skipped a bunch of stuff because I wanted it to be simple, so we went through the initial steps and then left it alone for a few weeks, then transferred it and added clearing/stabilizing stuff a few days ago. It smelled/tasted surprisingly good and got me excited to try some other methods.

This season I want to see if I can buy a bunch of local grapes and geek out on a six month minimum age batch, but next I want to try some instant gratification stuff at the hobo/inmate end of the spectrum. Anyone do the Welch's, or fresh fruit, one or two week type of thing?

 

[ctwo]

The neighbors make plum wine and mead (since they have bee hives). I liked the plum wine. Another simple is a rum/fruit infusion.

 

[MikeyRocks]

but next I want to try some instant gratification stuff at the hobo/inmate end of the spectrum. Anyone do the Welch's, or fresh fruit, one or two week type of thing?

Pruno? Why in god's name do you want to try that?? :laughing:laughing

 

[byke]

Wouldn't mind knowing about the plum wine. Is it sweet? Do they mash up the fruit and leave it all in there, or do they just take the juice? And how many lbs of plum per gallon?

Haha, no pruno, but I I'm going to try the Welch's like this, but from the 64oz bottle and not the frozen tube. I just ordered some Lalvin 1116 yeast, yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, potassium metabisulphite & sorbate. I picked up a bottle of Welch's white and red(not concord). Will give it a go this weekend.

I'd like to try blackberry, but I don't wannt buy pounds and pounds of it, so I'll have to wait until the season rolls around. Maybe try something with pineapple in honor of the pineapple thread.

 

[Akira-R]

Plum wine is usually use plums (whole) sitting in vodka and rock sugar in a dark place for 6 months.

My family used to grow wine grapes and make our own wine way back in the day. It was fun to pick/crush/bottle. The red wine was brutal, you don't want to really press a lot of stems if you aren't going to age it for a loooong time. That was probably the biggest thing we found out though the who process. Also, take care on the amount of wood chips (if using glass and not wood barrels)they can be potent.