DITY WINE

I am going to post a recipe for making homemade wine. There are various ways and methods for making good do-it-yourself wine. You can make wine out of almost everything. I have made wine out of Instant Potatoes. You need glass containers, jugs and vegetables or fruits that will ferment, sugar and yeast. You need clean, empty bottles for the end result. It takes time to ferment wine, so don't get overly anxious. and try to speed up the process. Nature will take its own time.

A bushel of grapes will yield 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 gallons of wine. I take a short cut and use 2 large cans of grape juice concentrate.

Wash grapes well esp. if they have been sprayed with sulfur-based fungicide or any insecticide.

Stem the grapes and toss out any dry or rotted grapes. Crush the grapes and place in a fer mention chamber or gallon jugs. Again, I cheat and use a food processor..blender or juicer to do the work for me. Some use plastic garbage container for the crushing of the grapes, but I don't like the idea of using a non-food grade vessel. That is why I use a juicer. It separates the seed out of the juice concentrate. A blender works, but you will need to separate the seeds and any skins from the juice.

I am only making a small amt. of wine for myself so I use two large jugs. Make sure they are clean and sterile.

Fill jugs with juice concentrate, water, sugar, and yeast. I use 2 packets of plain old bread yeast. Add 5 to 6 cups of sugar. Use less for a dry wine, more for a sweet wine. My last batch was just a shade too sweet, but good.

If you use jugs you will need to seal the jugs with water traps or place a balloon over the mouth of the jugs. If you use balloons make sure they are one very securely or the escaping gases from the fermentation will "blow the top off" and then it is clean up time. The water traps are much easier to use. Don't fill the jugs up to the tippy top: leave room for expansion. At the end of the fermentation period(n0 more bubbles) You will need to strain your wine and eliminate the "must" and any sediment.

If you use a fermentation chamber just follow the directions. You can find all the wine making supplies you may wish to have online by just going to your search engine and typing in wine or wine making.

So, wine making is pretty basic. If you can boil watter you can make wine. Our forefathers did just fine by "guess and by golly."

1. Juice

2. Sugar

3. Yeast.

4. Water

5. Jugs

6. Water traps or balloons

7. Time(about 3 months)

There are all kinds of ways to make wine and all kinds of advice, opinions, and products to buy. I look for the easiest and lest expensive.

The chickens are out. The Animal Control Truck went down the street so I looked out the back and all the chickens were loose. The door was open and blowing in the wind. Darn..I know I will not get them back in before dark because they love the green grass and all the crawly things, therein.

And it is time to stop. Right here. END