Blackberry Almond Pulque - My first stab at it

OK, a few days ago I stumbled on a question in another wine making forum which related to Pulque. Not knowing what Pulque was and being mildly interested, I did a search. It turns out Pulque is the pre-curser to Tequila and is often referred to as Agave Mead (Agave being the suculent used for making tequila).

Not being one to walk away from something interesting I did abit more reading and came up with this little combo recipe. Actually, I was going to make Blackberry Almond Mead, but as I was getting it ready, my shipment of Blue Agave Nectar came in.

So here it is

Blackberry Almond Pulque

2 cups ground almonds
1 tsp Jamaican all-spice

Put in double boiler with 4 cups of water
Boiled for 1 hour
I filtered out the almond muck and



Added

4 Cups previously frozen pressed blackberry juice
6 Cups blue Agave Nectar
1 Cup honey
and remainder of water to make up 2 Imperial Gallons (8 Litres)

Specific gravity was at 1.085

The almond wine recipe said to let the must sit for a day prior to adding the yeast, so that is what I am doing.

See you tomorrow (OK, I must be loosing it now)

1 package of 1118 yeast
1/2 teaspoon nutrient (That is all what was left)

Step by step

Probably one of the better step by step instructional articles I have found. Aside from the use of Campden, I figure this is definately worth a read.

Cheers,

Heinz


by Alison Crowe

Nothing feels as satisfying and authentic as making your first batch of wine from fresh grapes. And there's no better time to try it than in early autumn, when grapes all over the country are ripening in vineyards and backyard gardens.

There are many kinds of grapes to choose from, depending on where you live. Vitis vinifera is the classic choice for flavor, varietal character and historic authenticity. This famous European wine-grape family includes such renowned varieties as Chardonnay, Merlot, Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon. In the United States, to make a sweeping generalization, v. vinifera grapes thrive in California and the Pacific Northwest. They also grow well in microclimates scattered from New York to the Great Lakes, the Mid-Atlantic states and beyond.

Those who live in colder, wetter climates may not be able to find v. vinifera grapes grown locally. Don't be discouraged. Fine hybrids and Vitis labrusca grapes, which are less susceptible to cold and disease, may be growing near your home. Other options include ordering grapes through your favorite local winemaking shop or from a produce wholesaler.


Whatever kind of grapes you use, the general techniques, equipment and ingredients are the same. Here's an overview of some key steps along the way.

Basic Winemaking Equipment
Here's everything you need to make your first one-gallon batch of wine from fresh grapes. You should be able to find this equipment at any homebrewing or home winemaking supply shop.

- Large nylon straining bag
- Food-grade pail with lid (2 to 4 gallons)
- Cheesecloth
- Hydrometer
- Thermometer
- Acid titration kit
- Clear, flexible half-inch diameter plastic tubing
- Two one-gallon glass jugs
- Fermentation lock and bung
- Five 750-ml wine bottles
- Corks
- Hand corker

Inspecting the Fruit
Winemaking starts with inspecting the grapes. Make sure they are ripe by squishing up a good double handful, straining the juice and measuring the sugar level with a hydrometer, a handy device you can buy at a winemaking supply shop. The sugar density should be around 22° Brix - this equals 1.0982 specific gravity or 11 percent potential alcohol - and the fruit should taste sweet, ripe and slightly tart.

The grapes also must be clean, sound and relatively free of insects and other vineyard debris. Discard any grapes that look rotten or otherwise suspicious. Also, it's very important that all the stems are removed, since they will make your wine bitter.

Keeping it Clean

Winemaking demands a sanitary environment. Wash all of your equipment thoroughly with hot water, boiling what you can. It's also wise to arm yourself with a strong sulfite solution to rinse any equipment that comes in contact with your wine. To make it, add 3 tablespoons of sulfite powder (potassium metabisulfite) to a gallon of water and mix well.

Adjusting the Juice

Adjusting the juice or "must" of your wine is critical. Luckily, it's also easy. Acid content is measured with a simple titration kit; you can buy one at a supply shop. The ideal acid level is 6 to 7 grams per liter for dry reds and 6.5 to 7.5 grams per liter for dry whites.

Here's an example: If your must measures 5.5 grams per liter, then you need to add 1 gram per liter of tartaric acid to bring it up to 6.5 g/L. Since 0.2642 gallons equals 1 liter, 1 g/L is equivalent to adding 3.8 grams of tartaric acid to your one-gallon batch. Add this powder in one-eighth teaspoon intervals, checking acidity carefully after each addition, until the desired level is reached. You can buy tartaric acid at your supply shop.

You also need to monitor the sugar level with your hydrometer. The must should be about 22° Brix for both reds and whites. To bring the sugar concentration up, make a sugar syrup by dissolving one cup sugar into one-third cup of water. Bring it to a boil in a saucepan and immediately remove from heat. Cool before adding in small amounts, one tablespoon at a time, until the desired degrees Brix and specific gravity is reached. To lower the sugar level, simply dilute your must or juice with water.

The temperature of your must can also be adjusted to provide the perfect environment for yeast cells. Warming up the juice gently (don't cook or boil it!) is an easy way to bring it to pitching temperature without damaging the quality of the wine. Fermentation can sometimes reach into the 80° to 90° F range, though the 70° F range is standard for reds (whites often are fermented at cooler temperatures).



If your grapes have been refrigerated or are too cold, use this unorthodox but quick trick: Heat up a small portion of the juice in the microwave, mix it back into the fermentation pail and re-test the temperature. An electric blanket wrapped around the fermentation pail also works, but takes longer. For cooling, add a re-usable ice pack and stir for a few minutes. Pitch the yeast when the temperature reaches 70° to 75° F for reds and 55° to 65° for whites.

Racking the Wine

"Racking" means transferring the fermenting wine away from sediment. You insert a clear, half-inch diameter plastic hose into the fermenter and siphon the clear wine into another sanitized jug. Then top it off and fit it with a sanitized bung and fermentation lock. This can be a delicate operation and it's important to go slowly. You don't want to stir up the sediment, but you don't want to lose your siphon suction.



Bottling the Batch

Bottling may sound complicated, but it's really not. To bottle your wine, you simply siphon your finished product into the bottles (leaving about 2 inches of headspace below the rim), insert a cork into the hand corker, position the bottle under the corker and pull the lever. It's always wise to buy some extra corks and practice with an empty bottle before you do it for real.








Wine bottles can be purchased at home winemaking stores, or you can simply wash and recycle your own bottles. These supply stores also rent hand-corkers and sell corks. You should only buy corks that are tightly sealed in plastic bags because exposure to dust and microbes can spoil your wine. Corks can be sterilized just before bottling, with hot water and a teaspoon of sulfite crystals.

A one-gallon batch will yield about five standard-size (750 ml) bottles of wine. If the fifth bottle isn't quite full, then either drink that bottle or use smaller bottles to keep the wine. The key is to have full, sealed containers that are capable of aging.

Now you're ready to make your first batch of fresh-grape wine. Below you'll find step-by-step recipes for a dry red and a dry white table wine. The recipes have similar steps and techniques, with one important difference. Red wines always are fermented with the skins and pulp in the plastic pail; the solids are pressed after fermentation is complete. White wines are always pressed before fermentation, so only the grape juice winds up in the fermenting pail.





Dry Red Table Wine
Ingredients

18 lbs. ripe red grapes
1 campden tablet (or 0.33g of potassium metabisulfite powder)
Tartaric acid, if necessary
Table sugar, if necessary
1 packet wine yeast (like Prise de Mousse or Montrachet)
- Harvest grapes once they have reached 22 to 24 percent sugar (22° to 24° Brix).
- Sanitize all equipment. Place the grape clusters into the nylon straining bag and deposit the bag into the bottom of the food-grade pail. Using very clean hands or a sanitized tool like a potato masher, firmly crush the grapes inside the bag. Crush the campden tablet (or measure out 1 teaspoon of sulfite crystals) and sprinkle over the must in the nylon bag. Cover pail with cheesecloth and let sit for one hour.
- Measure the temperature of the must. It should be between 70° and 75° F. Take a sample of the juice in the pail and measure the acid with your titration kit. If it's not between 6 to 7 grams per liter then adjust with tartaric acid.
- Check the degrees Brix or specific gravity of the must. If it isn't around 22° Brix (1.0982 SG), add a little bit of sugar dissolved in water.
- Dissolve the yeast in 1 pint warm (80° to 90° F) water and let stand until bubbly (it should take no more than 10 minutes). When it's bubbling, pour yeast solution directly on must inside the nylon bag. Agitate bag up and down a few times to mix yeast. Cover pail with cheesecloth, set in a warm (65° to 75° F) area and check that fermentation has begun in at least 24 hours. Monitor fermentation progression and temperature regularly. Keep the skins under the juice at all times and mix twice daily.


- Once the must has reached "dryness" (at least 0.5° Brix or 0.998 SG), lift the nylon straining bag out of the pail and squeeze any remaining liquid into the pail.
- Cover the pail loosely and let the wine settle for 24 hours. Rack off the sediment into a sanitized one-gallon jug, topping up with a little boiled, cooled water to entirely fill the container. Fit with a sanitized bung and fermentation lock. Keep the container topped with grape juice or any dry red wine of a similar style. After 10 days, rack the wine into another sanitized one-gallon jug. Top up with dry red wine of a similar style.
- After six months, siphon the clarified, settled wine off the sediment and into clean, sanitized bottles. Cork with the hand-corker.
- Store bottles in cool, dark place and wait at least six months before drinking.


Red wine is fermented with the pulp and skins. This "cap" will rise to the top, so you need to "punch it down" frequently with a sanitized utensil.






Dry White Table Wine
Ingredients

18 lbs. ripe white grapes
1 campden tablet (or 0.33g of potassium metabisulfite powder)
Tartaric acid, if necessary
Table sugar, if necessary
1 packet wine yeast (like Champagne or Montrachet)

- Harvest grapes once they have reached 19 to 22 percent sugar (19° to 22° Brix). Pick over grapes, removing any moldy clusters, insects, leaves or stems.
- Place the grape clusters into the nylon straining bag and put into the bottom of the food-grade plastic pail. Using very clean hands or a sanitized tool like a potato masher, firmly crush up the grapes inside the nylon bag.
- Crush the campden tablet (or measure out one teaspoon of sulfite crystals) and sprinkle over the crushed fruit in the bag. Cover pail and bag with cheesecloth and let sit for one hour.
- Lift the nylon straining bag out of the pail. Wring the bag to extract as much juice as possible. You should have about one gallon of juice in the pail.
- Measure the temperature of the juice. It should be between 55° to 65° F. Adjust temperature as necessary. Take a sample of the juice in the pail and use your titration kit to measure the acid level. If it is not between 6.5 and 7.5 grams per liter, then adjust with tartaric acid as described above.
- Check the degrees Brix or specific gravity of the juice. If it isn't around 22° Brix (1.0982 SG) adjust accordingly.
- Dissolve the packet of yeast in 1 pint warm (80° to 90° F) water and let stand until bubbly (no more than 10 minutes). When it's bubbling, pour yeast solution directly into the juice. Cover pail with cheesecloth, set in a cool (55° to 65° F) area and check that fermentation has begun in at least 24 hours. Monitor fermentation progression and temperature at least once daily.
- Once the must has reached dryness (at least 0.5 degrees Brix or 0.998 SG), rack the wine off the sediment into a sanitized one-gallon jug, topping up with dry white wine of a similar style. Fit with a sanitized bung and fermentation lock. Keep the container topped with white wine. Be sure the fermentation lock always has sulfite solution in it. After 10 days, rack the wine into another sanitized one-gallon jug. Top up with wine again.
- After three months, siphon the clarified wine off the sediment and into clean, sanitized bottles and cork them.
- Store bottles in cool, dark place and wait at least three months before drinking.
Alison Crowe is an enologist at the Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, California and a graduate of the enology and viticulture department at University of California at Davis.

Wine Making - The Flavors Of Wine

Just another mooched article from the net.

Although the four main flavors sweet, salty, sour, and bitter are all your tongue is really capable of tasting, the long lasting impression that wine leaves in your mouth is far more complex. When you drink or taste wine, your taste buds and your sense of smell are involved, adding to the way you interpret wine overall. The flavors, aromas, and sensations that wine is comprised of provide the interaction that you taste when you sample wine.

Sweetness is something that wines are well known for. With most types of wine, grapes are responsible for the sweet taste. Grapes contain a lot of sugar, which breaks the yeast down into alcohol. The grapes and yeast that were used to produce the wine will leave behind various sugars, which your tongue will be able to quickly detect. Once your tongue detects these various sugars, the stimulation of sweetness from the wine will be ever so present in your mouth.

Alcohol is also present in wine, although your tongue doesn’t really know how to decipher the taste of alcohol. Even though the tongue doesn’t really taste alcohol, the alcohol is present in the mouth. The alcohol found in wine will dilate blood vessels and therefore intensify all of the other flavors found in the wine. After you have samples a few types of wine, the alcohol level can easily have an effect on your taste buds, making it hard to distinguish other drinks that you may have.

Another flavor is acidity, which will effect the sugars. With the proper balance of acidity, the overall flavor of wine can be very overwhelming. Once you taste wine that contains it, the flavor of the acidity will be well known to your tongue. Although acidity is great with wine, too much of it will leave a very sharp taste. With the right levels, acidity will bring the flavors of the grape and fruits alive in your mouth providing you with the perfect taste.

Yet another effect of flavor are tannins, which are the proteins found in the skins of grapes and other fruits. If a wine has the right amount of tannins, it will give your tongue a great feel, and bring in the sensations of the other flavors. Once a wine starts to age, the tannins will begin to breakdown in the bottle, giving you a softer feel to the taste. Tannins are essential for the taste of wine providing the wine has been properly aged.

The last flavor associated with wine is oak. Although oak isn’t put into the wine during the manufacturing process, it is actually transferred during the aging process, as most wines will spend quite a bit of time in oak barrels. Depending on how long the wine is left in the oak barrel or cask, the ability to extract the flavor will vary. Most often times, wine will be aged just enough to where the oak taste is visibly there and adds the perfect sentiment to the taste.





Although there are other flavors involved with the taste of wine, they aren’t as present as those listed above. The above flavors are the most present in wine, and also the flavors that you need to get more familiar with. Before you try to taste wine or distinguish flavors, you should always learn as much you can about the components responsible for the flavors. This way you will know more about what you are tasting and you’ll truly be able to

Agave Mead

I stumbled on this one and instantly thought it would be something Nico would be interested in. I think I will give it a try if I can find the nectar.

Pulque is fermented agave that is traditionally made in mexico, It is also the first step in making tequila. the finished product is sweet with a very unique flavor, the color is very light with, smells like honey



Ingredients:
11 lb Agave Nector ( Dark unfiltered)
5 gal Water
1 Pkg Sweet Mead yeast

FG: 11%
Primary Ferment: 4 days
Secondary Ferment: 5 months
Procedure:
bring 2 gal water to full boil add Agave nector bring liquid back to boil for 10 min.add 3 gallonsof water, cool to 80 F add yeast. put in primary fermenter for 5 days or until first part of fermentation is complete, place in secondary for up to 5 months.

Raise a glass of barley wine

Toast 2008 at midnight with a delightful honeyed sipper that's meant for sharing

Dec 26, 2007 04:30 AM
Josh Rubin
Beer reporter

On New Year's Eve, a lot of folks head out to an overcrowded bar or restaurant where the highlight of the evening is a free glass of cheap sparkling wine at midnight.

As appealing as that sounds, it's not for everyone. If a quiet idea at home with a loved one is closer to your idea of a good way to ring in the New Year, you still might like something to sip. Picking up a bottle of Mill Street Barley Wine would be a good idea.

For one thing, it's clearly meant for sharing and sipping slowly, as it comes in a 500-millilitre ceramic bottle, and checks in at a hefty 10 per cent alcohol.

The rich, sweet, golden-coloured brew is made in the tradition of strong English ales first brewed by butlers for wealthy clients who wanted to impress friends. When you flip the top on the bottle, you'll be hit with a whiff of honey and caramelized fruit. The taste follows through on the promise of the beer's aroma. After notes of honey, caramel and even pineapple, there's a decent amount of hoppy bitterness on the finish.

While it's not as complex as the world classic Thomas Hardy's Ale, which is also part of the LCBO's Winter Ales program, Mill Street Barley Wine is still an excellent sipper. It also happens to be one of only two regularly made barley wines from Ontario, and the only one available bottled.

Last year, it wasn't available, as the brewery was transforming its original space in the Distillery District into a brewpub, says brewmaster Joel Manning.

"There was plaster dust everywhere. It really wouldn't have been a good idea to do any brewing," Manning says with a chuckle. At the same time, Mill Street was brewing its other beers at a new, bigger location in Scarborough.

While a good barley wine can be one of the beer world's great delights, Manning says other brewers can be forgiven for not making their own. It's a timely, costly beer to make. Unlike most ales, which are aged for just a few weeks, Mill Street's barley wine is brewed in January, then aged in tanks until November, when it's bottled. Having beer taking up valuable tank space for so long isn't cheap.

"We brew this beer because we love it. We don't make a whole lot of money on it," says Manning.

A beer made with love, to drink with your loved one. Not a bad way to ring in the New Year.

Tej - Ethiopian Honey wine

I was at an Ethiopian restaurant last night (Insert joke here) and had this wonderful drink called "Tej". The description said honey wine, however on speaking with the owner, I found this was far more than a basic Mead. First of all, it also has hops. Upon further reading, I discovered their definition of Hops is quite different. Here is what I found. Comments would be appreciated.


I think the first problem with all attempts to translate Tej recipes is that
"hops" is a translation by analogy. Gesho is a species of buckthorn. DON'T
substitute the ornamental buckthorn or the native Californian species as
they are hazardously potent laxatives.

"Woody hops" versus "leafy hops" refers to both the bark and leaves being
used. The leaves are used alone to make beer (Suwa or Tella) but Tej (or
Mies) uses some combination of bark and leaves.

Obtaining Gesho requires a trip to Washington DC or Toronto. LA probably is
good, too, but I don't know. In Toronto, the address is in Kensington
Market:
Ethiopian Spices
60 Kensington Ave (at Baldwin)
Toronto ON M5T 2K1
416-598-3014
The owner also has another store in the market selling non-food items. I
think it was on Augusta. Another store has some African items, but no
Gesho.



If in Washington, look for stores with names starting with "Merkato". A bit
of searching on the web for "Ethiopian or Eritrean food" should turn up a
list. I tried arranging a mail-order once, but the US-Canadian border
created extra hassle in that it would have taken a lot of exchanged faxes to
sort out the price and delivery. I finally managed to pass through Toronto
on holiday and stocked up.

One member of this group turned up a web link to a store in Denver, but they
didn't reply to emails and I knew that the stores in Washington do a lot of
mail-order.

Gesho is expensive, even in its own habitat.

The flavour of the leaf is quite unlike hops. I used some in place of hops
in a bitter recipe just to characterize the flavour. If I had to
substitute, I would try a small amount of aged hops (like for a lambic) for
the antibacterial action and a handful of yellow birch twigs for a vague
wintergreen-citrus flavour.

For comparison, here's my recipe, obtained in a mixture of sign language,
Tigrinya and Italian (none of which I speak):

(for 16-18 L)
Start:
4 cups powdered Gesho leaves (replace part with bark if
available)
1 1/2 cups malt (whole grains)
1 cup sugar
pkg dry bakers' yeast
5-6 L water
Leave 2 days for fermentation to start

Add:
4 lbs pale honey, including whole combs if possible
2 kg dried dates, chopped
2 kg raisins
Water to make 18 L
Ferment 13 days.

Strain out solids. Add some sugar or honey to taste if too sour. Bulk
condition in a pressure-resistant container (like an olive barrel) 15 days.
Decant and serve while yeast still slowly active.

This recipe gives a result very much like champagne & OJ. It's very easy
drinking and very alcoholic. The sourness is from the lactobacillus
introduced on the malt selected by the antibacterial action of the Gesho.
The flora make quite an impressive sight under the microscope but don't let
that frighten you!

So good luck obtaining Gesho in either form, and I think either recipe would
work. Do you know anyone from that part of the world? You would find them
quite willing to taste test for you.

THE WINE DOCTOR: Are sulfites bad for my health?

Just another mooched article on sulphites I found.

By Matt Nugent
Thursday December 13 2007


Q I hear people talking about sulfites in wine. Are they bad for my health?


A Sulfites have been used since ancient times for many purposes, including the cleansing of wine receptacles by both Romans and Egyptians.

As food additives, they have been used since the 17th century. They are currently used for their preservative characteristics.

It is their antioxidant and anti-microbial properties that have gained them an important role in wine making.

The sulfites either inhibit or kill bacteria or wild yeast, thus encouraging rapid and clean fermentation of wine grapes.

The US Food and Drug Administration estimates that one in 100 people are sulfite sensitive to some degree – but among asthmatics, up to five per cent are at risk of having an adverse reaction to the substance.

The symptoms of a sulfite sensitivity reaction vary from mild to, in extreme cases, life-threatening. The most common symptoms are mild and involve a skin rash accompanied by redness, hives, itching, flushing, tingling and swelling.

Respiratory symptoms include difficulty breathing and wheezing, while gastrointestinal reactions involve nausea and stomach cramps.

LAVENDER WINE

Mooched froom Jack Keller, anyone familiar with online wine recipe's will surely know of his work. If I end up doing this one, I would probably use honey instead f sugar and blackberry juice instead of Welches.


There are many varieties of lavender, plants of the genus Lavandula -- especially Lavandula officinalis. They all contain clusters of small, fragrant, purplish flowers. The small flowers must be picked off the stems to make the wine. Flowers can be picked and frozen in ZipLoc bags for later use. This wine is not only delicious, but its bouquet will be appreciated as soon as you open a bottle.

1 to 1-1/2 pints lavender flowers
2 lb granulated sugar
10.5 oz can of Welch's 100% white grape juice frozen concentrate
1/2 tsp citric acid
1/8 tsp tannin powder
7-1/2 pts water
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Champagne yeast

Boil 1/2 gal water and add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Stir in frozen grape concentrate and return to boil. Immediately pour boiling water over all dry ingredients except yeast in primary. When water cools to lukewarm, add remaining water and sprinkle yeast on top. Cover with cloth and ferment 7 days. Strain out flowers and transfer liquid to secondary. Fit airlock. Ferment 60 days and rack, top up, refit airlock, and allow to sit another 60 days. Rack into bottles and allow to age one year.

Goji Mead # 2 - Let's try this again

Well, the last experiment was rather interesting. I particularly liked the subtle rasberry like taste partway through the fermentation. The one major thing I learned from the last batch of Goji Mead was to check the specific gravity of the juice prior to adding Honey. The result in the previous batch of Goji Mead was a very high starting Specific gravity and a high alcohol content end product. Consequently, my wife was not too fond of the burn.

Today I am doing things quite abit differently. First of all, I checked the specific gravity of the Goji Berry juice and found it to be around 1.050. Once I added the blackberry juice and water it dropped substantially but it was still at 1.021. Here is the recipe:

2 - Litres re-consitited Goji berries Blended in a blender
6 - Cups steamed unsweetened blackberry juice
3 - Litres water
3 - Cups Clover Honey
1 - Pack of 1118 yeast

Innoculated at 8PM on Friday Decemeber 7th
Specific gravity = 1.071

I will ferment this batch of Goji Berry Mead to dry. Once complete, it will be mixed with the previous batch of Goji Berry Mead which will hopefully result in a more palitable Mead. By fermenting it to dry with a lower specific gravity, I will also gain a better understanding on the effect of complete fermentation. I will still pasteurize the Mead upon completion.

I did an experiment and found 1 cup of honey to equal an increase of about 0.015 on the specific gravity scale.

Banana Wine

Another tropical type wine. This one definately has some promise.

Ingredients

4 1/2 lbs. bananas
1/2 lbs. chopped golden raisins
3 lbs. granulated sugar
1 lemon (juice only)
1 orange (juice only)
1 gallon water
wine yeast and nutrient


Peel and chop bananas and their peels, placing both in grain-bag and tie closed. Place grain-bag in large pan or boiler with water and bring to boil, then gently simmer for 30 minutes. Pour the hot liquor over sugar and lemon/orange juice in primary fermentation vessel and stir to dissolve sugar. When cool enough to handle, squeeze grain-bag to extract as much liquid as possible and add to vessel. When liquor cools to 70 degrees F., add yeast and nutrient. Cover and set aside in warm place one week, stirring daily. Move to a cooler place (60-65 degrees F.) and allow to sit undisturbed for two months. Siphon liquor off sediment into secondary fermentation vessel, add chopped raisins, and fit airlock. Rack after four months and again in another four months. Bottle after six months. Improves with age.

Banana Wine (Heavy Bodied)

3-1/2 lbs. bananas
1 lbs. chopped golden raisins
2 lbs. granulated sugar
1-1/4 tsp. acid blend
1 tsp. pectic enzyme
1/4 tsp. grape tannin
1 gallon water
wine yeast and nutrient


Slice bananas into thin slices, leaving skins on fruit. Put into grain-bag, tie top, and place in 6 pints water. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove grain-bag to bowl to catch drippings while pouring liquor over sugar in primary fermentation vessel and stirring well to dissolve sugar. Add acid blend, pectic enzyme and tannin, stirring again. When grain-bag cools, squeeze to extract as much liquid as possible and add liquid and drippings to liquor, discarding pulp. When liquor cools to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, add yeast and nutrient. Cover and set in warm place for seven days, stirring daily. Pour into secondary fermentation vessel, fit airlock, and move to cooler place, leaving undisturbed for two months. Siphon off sediment, add chopped raisins, and add water to bring to one gallon. Ferment another four months. Rack and allow to clear. Rack again and bottle. May taste after six months, but matures at two years.

Banana Wine (Medium Bodied)

12-16 oz. dried bananas
1/2 lbs. chopped raisins
2 tsp. citric acid
2-1/4 lbs. light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
1 gallon water
Sherry yeast and nutrient


Simmer dried bananas in pressure cooker with 1/2 the water for 10 minutes. Pour over sugar, chopped raisins and citric acid in primary fermentation vessel and stir to dissolve sugar. When cool (70 degrees F.) add pectic enzyme, remaining water, and cover well. Set aside for 24 hours and add yeast and nutrient. Stir daily for one week, keeping well covered. Strain into secondary fermentation vessel, top to one gallon with water, fit airlock, and move to cooler (60 degrees F.) place. Rack after 30 days and again after another 60 days. When clear, rack and bottle. May taste after six months, but requires one year to mature.

Banana Wine (Medium Bodied 2)

3 1/2 lbs. bananas
1/4 lbs. chopped golden raisins
2 lbs. granulated sugar
1 lemon
1 orange
1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
1 gallon water
wine yeast and nutrient


Peel and chop bananas and their peels, placing both in grain-bag with zest from lemon and orange. Tie closed and place in large pan or boiler with 5-1/2 pints water and bring to boil, then gently simmer for 30 minutes. Pour hot liquor over sugar and lemon/orange juice in primary fermentation vessel and stir to dissolve sugar. When cool enough to handle, squeeze grain-bag to extract as much liquid as possible and add to vessel. When liquor cools to 70 degrees F., add pectic enzyme, yeast and nutrient. Cover well and leave in warm place for one week, stirring daily. Move to a cooler place (60-65 degrees F.) and allow to sit undisturbed for two months. Siphon liquor off sediment into secondary fermentation vessel, add chopped raisins, top up to one gallon with water, and fit airlock. Rack after four months and again in another four months. Bottle and sample after six months. Improves with age.

Kiwi Wine

I haven't tried this one, but I'm thinking I would probably turn it into a mead.


Ingredients

2 kg Kiwi Fruit
1.5 kg Sugar
1 tsp Citric Acid
1 gallon Water
0.5 tsp Tannin
Yeast
Yeast Nutrient


Peel and chop fruit and place in bucket with sugar. Add boiling water and mash fruit. Leave overnight. Add tannin, pectic enzyme, yeast and nutrient. Leave about a week, covered and stirring daily. Strain into demijohn up to shoulder level, and fit air lock. After fermentation is less vigorous, top up with water to neck. Rack off lees at monthly intervals.

Create Your Own Wine Recipe

Just a little article I found.


Making your own wine making recipe can be a matter of establishing and combining a lot of your personal tastes into one concise segment of ingredients and seeing if they work with a wine. Many people fall under the stigma of creating a wine recipe that ends up taking the art of wine making recipe creation too seriously. Do not be afraid to experiment with what you have at your disposal and create your own wine recipe from scratch, using some of the ideologies of other wine corporations and meshing them with your own sentiments.

Part of making your own wine is making something your own. Nothing symbolizes that independent construction like doing something your own way and shunning all critical acclaim, so do not shy away from adding some other ingredients to wine that belie a certain traditional outlook and turn the industry on its side. You want to maintain a focus with your wine, but you should never let the outcome dictate the process as sometimes they are two different things in the end and can wash over the whole process with a gloss of doubt and fear.

Try Things Out

Do not be afraid, as mentioned, to produce some of your own sensibilities and place them in your wine making recipe. You are to take ownership of the process as that is why you are considering it in the first place. Do not shy away from including some unorthodox mentalities in your wine making process and in the recipe itself, as these sentiments may be what separate your wine from other wines on the market. You never know what you could end up with as you experiment with wine and discover tastes and aromas out of items you never thought would function well together.

So with your wine making recipe, you should be integrating a whole series of items that could flow with the grape base. Try chocolate hints and other flavour hints to focus on delivering a dessert wine. Try adding certain herbs to make your wine making recipe completely functional with certain foods. You can be as narrow or as diverse with your wine process as you want as it is your process in the end and you are the one unleashing your wild notions of wine to the world. You take responsibility for all of the insanity that could result of your wine making recipe.

Goji Berry Mead - Now for something completely different

OK, so I think I may now have officially lost it. Well at least I'm not making wine out of onions or something crazy like that.

Goji berries, also known as wolf berries have quite the long history and as with just about anything medicinal from the orient there are claims it will make your penis bigger (Maybe not quite but something to do with sperm production). Hey Boner wine, why not :P

I started out with about 4 or 500 grams of dried berries. I added just enough water to re-hydrate them then I crushed them up in the blender. The result was about 2 litres of juice, pulp and seeds. (I think I'm going to save the seeds to see if I can grow the fruit here.

I added 1 litre of blackberry juice, 2 litres of honey and 3 1/2 litres of water. The end result was a specific gravity of 1.130. Pretty bloody high as the Goji berries are naturally full of sugar. unless you want fire water or deathly sweet Mead, you may want to try a little less honey.

As if using Goji berries to make Mead wasn't strange enough, I decided to try something different as far as yeast went. You see, I saved up some active yeast from the bottom of one of my blackberry batches and kept it in the fridge. Ya nuts I know.




So here is the recipe


Start time: 4:30 PM November 14th 2007
Specific Gravity: 1.130

2 - litres honey
2 - litres re-constituted Goji berry pulp (AKA Wolf berries)
1 - litre steamed blackberry juice (Unsweetened)
3 1/2 - litres spring water
3/4 - cup Recycled yeast pulp




POST PRODUCTION NOTE:

Although this mead has a very interesting taste, both my wife and I found it to be far to strong. To remedy this situation, I started out another batch with similar juice and water proportions but with quite abit less honey and a lower potential alcohol level. Here is the link GOJI BERRY MEAD #2

Cranberry Mead... well sort of

OK, so I picked up just over 11 pounds of fresh "organic" cranberries. According to the Polish farm guy some old guy in the area "with nothing better to do" grows a small crop of them organically.... Personally I think it was just a sales pitch but who am I to argue.

So I got home and dumped them into my handy steam juice extractor and began the process of pulling out the juice. I guess it shouldn't really be that much of a surprise, but that 11 some odd pounds of Cranberries resulted in only about 2 litres of juice (Including pulp). Typically the steam juicer is great at leaving the pulp behind, but after about 2 hours of waiting for only a small amount of juice I got impatient and started to crush the berries. Must be the results driven Kraut in me.

You might be wondering why the long background story, well that is to explain why this is sort of a cranberry Mead. You see, with only 2 litres of juice and 2 litres of honey already in the pot I needed to make up the space with something other than 4 litres of water.... Ah blackberry juice. So here is the recipe



2 Litres Honey
2 Litres Cranberry juice & pulp
1/2 Litre Apple Juice (Pure reconstituted no sugar added stuff)
1 Litre steam extracted Blackberry juice
2 1/4 Litres Spring Water
1 Cup Mushed up cranberries
2 Packs of 1118 Yeast
2 Teaspoons Nutrient

Measurements:
Specific Gravity: 1.112
Pot Alcohol : 15% Approx
Innoculated at 8PM on November 5th @ 80 F


This should be interesting as the juice is nice and sweet with a bit more tart than the Blackberry on its own.

As a side note, although the 11 lbs of Cranberries only yeilded about 2 litres of juice and pulp all was not a waste. I divided up the remaining pulp and berries and froze them for future cranberry chutney. At some point I need to get the recipe from my brother and post it on here.

A beginner's guide to making your own wine

Just another perspective from http://www.mercurynews.com



By Kristen Munson
Special to the Los Gatos Weekender
Article Launched: 10/12/2007 12:09:14 AM PDT

Any vintner will tell you great grapes make great wine, but you don't have to own a vineyard to make high-end varietals. You don't even need fresh grapes, just some basic equipment, a little yeast and some space in your garage.
"Making wine is something anyone can do," says Rick Golobic, a home winemaker and owner of Fermentation Solutions in Campbell. "We have people who make wine from just about anything. If it has sugar in it, it can be fermented."

From tomatoes and watermelon to prickly pear cactus and strawberries, Golobic has seen it all. And he's noticed that more and more people are getting into the practice.

Many of the European families who settled in the area passed on their winemaking skills to their descendants. But in recent years, as Silicon Valley has developed, tech-savvy wine enthusiasts are joining the ranks of home winemakers.

Golobic encourages beginners to use an at-home wine kit to help them understand the process. A basic wine kit is available at Fermentation Solutions for $115 and includes all the necessary equipment, minus the grapes. However, one can purchase juice concentrates or choose from a list of growers who will sell grapes to the home winemaker.

Individuals can legally make up to 100 gallons a year; a household, 200 gallons. In other words, a lot of wine.

Golobic, a former engineer, has made wine for the past 30 years in the Santa Cruz Mountains where he lives. Over the years he has witnessed an upswing in home winemakers in the area, with more and more people planting vineyards for landscaping purposes and using the fruit for wine.
"We're also seeing lots of younger people who are getting into wine," Golobic says, adding that many form co-ops with friends to share the cost and experience. "It tends to be a family endeavor in many cases."

Contrary to the politics of the tech world, there are no trade secrets in winemaking and conversation is more than welcome.

"There's a tremendous sense of community," Golobic says. "You can go to the most exclusive winery and talk to the winemaker, and they will talk wine with you. This is something that brings people together."

But home winemaking is also a challenging and economical way to produce fine wine.

"It's something you can continually improve. It's creative," Golobic says. "Winemaking is about choices."

With myriad decisions, including the type of yeast, barrel and length of fermentation, winemakers can easily tailor a wine to suit their personal tastes.

"By having control of the process, you get exactly what you like," Golobic says.

And quality isn't sacrificed just because you're making it at home. Everything available to the commercial vintner is available to the home winemaker.

"You just do it on a different scale," Golobic says. "You're not worried about margins. You can make a boutique, handcrafted product."


STEPS TO MAKING WINE AT HOME

• Pick up your grapes from your selected grower.

• Put them through a crusher, where the stems will be separated and skins broken.

• Pour 1 gram of yeast per gallon into the "must," a term used to describe the crushed grapes.

• Let the mixture ferment for about seven to 10 days. During the fermentation process, carbon dioxide is formed and pushes the skins to the top, creating a hard cap that must be punched down twice a day.

• Press the remaining juice out of the skins and separate the clear liquid from the sediment on the bottom of the container, a process known as racking. At that point you have the beginning of wine.

• Pour the wine into barrels to age. You can use either oak or stainless steel or glass, depending on your preference and budget. Add oak chips if you do not choose wooden barrels.

• Let red wine age for one to two years. During this stage you must top off barrels, as wine does evaporate through the wood. Topping off is not necessary with glass and stainless steel barrels.

• Bottle your wine and either let it age even more, or open and enjoy.

The Red Wine Headache

It says from around the world, so here is something I found in the Jakarta Post www.jakartapost.com


For some poor souls, a glass of red wine in front of them is the equivalent of misery where even the smallest consumption can bring on a pounding skull. This condition, referred to as "Red Wine Heachache" (RWH) is a well-documented phenomenon but widely misunderstood by millions of sufferers.

Most attribute RWH to one of three causes, either an allergy to sulfites, a reaction to histamines or a problem with tannin. Due to a lack of funding, research has been somewhat limited. However, over the past 30 years, there has been sufficient evidence to show that neither of these can be blamed for the dreaded RWH.

The Sulfite Saga

For decades it was believed that the sulfites in red wine were the cause of so much discomfort for drinkers. Sulfites contain antioxidant and anti-microbial properties preventing the propagation of bacteria and spoilage (browning) during the fermentation process. Effectively, sulfites act as a preservative and can be found in a range of foods, such as dried fruits and cheeses.

In the 1980s, The Food and Drug Administration established that approximately 1 percent of the population is allergic to sulfites therefore requiring wine labels to state, "contains sulfites". Many consumers misinterpret this to mean that the sulfite allergies cause the headaches.

This couldn't be further from the truth. Sulfite sufferers (1 in 100,000 people) will go into anaphylactic shock within moments of exposure, choking to death. This is not to say that red wine containing sulfites does not give rise to problems such as asthma attacks, it is merely suggesting that it is not the sulfites, which cause the headache.

Furthermore, it is incorrectly assumed that red wines contain more sulfites than white wines when the reverse is actually true. Sweet white wine in particular, is loaded with sulfites due to its higher sugar content.

Histamine Hysteria

The Histamine debate is even trickier as there is great lack of evidence to prove that histamines found in red wines are the culprits. White wine is made using only the grape's juice or must, while red wine making involves the entire crushed fruit including the skins, which contain the biologically active compound histamine.

As a result, red wine contains 20-200 times more histamine than white wine. Some people are sensitive to histamines because they are deficient in diamine oxidase, an enzyme that breaks town histamine in the small intestine. As alcohol also slows down this enzyme, experts believe that the source of the RWH is a combination of the alcohol content in wine as well as a person's enzyme deficiency.

A study conducted on people with intolerance to wine, reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (Feb 2001) found no difference in reactions to low and high histamine wines. While histamines are found in grape skins, researchers believe that they are not found in high enough volumes to be considered problematic.

Tannin Trauma

Tannins are found around the seeds and under the skin of the grape and are therefore present in red wine and to a much smaller extent, white wine, although virtually imperceptible. A lot of research has been conducted on tannin revealing that tannins cause the release of serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter.

High levels of serotonin can cause headaches, which are different to migraines, however migraine sufferers are not necessarily prone to the RWH. Tannin is found in a host of food products such as tea, soy and chocolate and people who are normally affected by RWH can consume these ingredients without any problem.

For sufferers of Red Wine Headache it is a completely frustrating experience however many report that not all red wine gives them a pounding head. In fact, many doctors suggest experimenting with different brands, origins and varieties and to keep a list of safe wines to drink as the majority of people afflicted report that the headache sets in within 15 minutes of consumption.

Others attest to taking asprin or ibuprofen before indulging in red wine although there is little clinical evidence to support this theory.

There are a couple of products on the market that advertise a cure for the RWH. One product called Chaser Plus claims that the pills help relieve wine headaches and contain a special ingredient for wine sensitivity?? Sounds like a crock to me, be wary!

Perhaps there is not one particular cause, perhaps it is a combination of intolerances and each individual is different. If you are affected by Red Wine Headache then my heart goes out to you but as consolation, the next best thing to red wine is of course, Champagne! In my experience, bubbles can fix just about anything.

Is a blush wine the same as a rose?

With the dramatic increase in Finger Lakes rose and blush wines now available, the difference between the two is worth exploring.

Many information sources including Internet sites like Lexicus, The Cook's Thesaurus and The Free Dictionary by Farlex use the terms interchangeably.

Therein lies the trouble. According to The Cook's Thesaurus, "Blush is displacing rosé as the name given to pink wines, though some people use the name rosé to describe darker pink wines. Whatever name you give them, they're usually made from red grapes that are only allowed to ferment a few days -- too short a time for the grape skins to impart a deeper color to the wine."

Lexicus blurs the lines between the wine terms rose and blush even more. It says that a rose wine is a "pinkish table wine from red grapes whose skins were removed after fermentation began." The definition lists as synonyms: Blush Wine, Pink Wine, Rose.

The Free Dictionary by Farlex duplicates the definitions by Lexicus. It would appear we could close the book on the subject, but in reality we have only just scratched the surface.

Pressing on, I unearthed other Internet sites that provide a fuller understanding of differences between rose and blush wines. The online site www. terroir-france.com/wine/rosewine begins with "First of all Rosé wine is not a blending of red and white wine (abstraction made of the exceptional case of Champagne Rosé)." It then goes on to describe three different ways in which rose wine is produced using red grapes.

The first talks about gray or pale rosé wine. "The grapes are pressed as soon as they arrive in the cellar. It allows a quicker diffusion of the color in the must (freshly pressed juice containing the grape pulp, skins, stems, and seeds)." After only a few hours of skin contact, which provides the color, the wine is then fermented and finished like a white wine, usually in stainless steel tanks.

The next method of making rose wine starts like the first but, after pressing, the fermentation process is allowed to begin with the skins still in contact for up to a few days. The fermenting juice is then separated from the skins, which limits how much the skins add color and flavor to the wine.

A third way of making rose wine begins the same as the second method using red grapes, with an eventual twist along the way. After the fermenting juice has reached a pink color, some of it is drawn off and finished like a white wine in stainless tanks. There are two distinctly different reasons to use this procedure. The first has been used by winemakers for years to increase the depth of color and flavor in their red wines. By drawing off, or bleeding, some of the partially fermented juice, the remaining volume absorbs more color and flavor from the skins. California's Sutter Home White Zinfandel came into being more than 30 years ago using this technique, which the French call Saignée. A second reason is that some winemakers simply want to make a lighter-bodied wine that retains lively fruit flavors. The fermentation process is slowed by finishing the wine in cooled stainless steel tanks, which allows more of the fresh fruit flavors to be retained.

In contrast to these methods of making rose wines, blush wines are often made by blending mostly white wine with a small amount of red wine to achieve a pleasing pink, festive color.

This is what is done at Bully Hill Vineyards, which produces six blush wines. They range from the semi-dry LeGoat Blush made with seyval blanc, vidal blanc and Cayuga grapes to the smooth-tasting, sweet Pink Catawba made with almost all Catawba grapes. Colobel is the grape of choice used at Bully Hill to color its blush wines. A small amount of it imparts the delightful color for their blush wines.

Tim Miller makes a blush wine at Chateau Lafayette Reneau using almost all pinot noir grapes straight from the pressing to make his 2006 Pinot Noir Blanc wine. The colorless juice is fermented in jacket-cooled stainless steel tanks that capture wonderful fruit flavors that would be lost at higher temperatures. Tim adds a small amount of baco noir to provide the beautiful color for his wine.

Morten Hallgren, owner and winemaker at Ravines Wine Cellars, has produced a wonderful 2006 Pinot Rose. He followed the method of using skin contact with the juice to create the color for his wine. The juice was separated from the skins after less than two days and finished in stainless steel tanks.

At Heron Hill Winery, winemaker Thomas Laszlo has produced a blush and a rose wine. The nonvintage Game Bird Blush is blend of two reds, pinot noir and cabernet franc, and a white, Cayuga. Both of the red wines were produced using the bleed method. He also created the 2006 Cabernet Franc Reserve using the bleed process.

These are only a few of the blush and rose wines now popping up in the Finger Lakes. They are lighter in body and taste than full reds and range from bone dry to very sweet. You should be able to find something you will really enjoy.

Jeff Richards' wine column is published the last Saturday of the month. It also appears online at www.stargazette.com. Click on "Columnists" in box at left, then click on "All Columnists," then scroll down to the bottom of the page and the link to "The Wine Guy." For comments or questions, call (607) 271-8279 or (800) 836-8970, ext. 279, or e-mail: jrichards@stargazette.com

Spiced Apple wine

Here is an interesting one I found

5 gallons flash-pasteurized preservative-free apple cider.
7-8ish pounds of granulated sugar (enough to make SG 1.085) dissolved in about 3/4 gallon water
2 cinnamon sticks broken into pieces
0.75 oz cloves
2 tsp pectic enzyme
1.5 tsp acid blend
Red Star Cotes Des Blanc yeast

The rest is self explanatory

Does a plastic cork make for a lousy wine? - by Andrea Dickson

Here is a cute article on Cork vs Plastic. Good for a chuckle or two, I like this woman.

I remember the first time my mother opened a bottle of wine that featured a plastic cork. She gasped audibly; the family gathered in the kitchen, where we took turns poking at this odd, pliable plastic cylinder on the kitchen counter. We all knew, instinctively, that this was an INFERIOR bottle of wine, because it was corked with plastic and not... you know, cork. How unromantic! How untraditional! How... eh, pour me another glass, will you?

Since that fateful day, I've opened my fair share (OK, more than my fair share) of wine bottles that are corked with plastic. Or, more recently, with screw tops! Alright, I admit it - I've had wine from a box. The shame!

The truth is, despite the fact that I have a very strong sense of smell, I haven't noticed a difference between naturally and synthetically corked wine (there are some wine experts, or sommeliers, who claim that they can taste the difference between a wine that is sealed with a syntehtic cork and one sealed with a natural cork). My inability to differentiate might be because I'm sort of a lush, or maybe because there really ISN'T a big difference, performance-wise, between traditional corks and plastic ones. Or maybe it's because the synthetic corks are inert.

Why the switch to plastic corks/screwtops?

Nobody has a single, definite answer as to why certain wineries have moved away from natural corks - that is, corks made from the bark of the cork oak tree, which grows mostly in Portugal and Spain in lovely, arid forests. Some people have claimed that there is a shortage of cork available for wine production, as new wine regions are popping up all over the world (twenty years ago, if you had mentioned that you had a great Australian/South African/Peruvian red with dinner, you would have been involuntarily committed). Cork is also increasingly being used in other applications as well, such as flooring.

So, the demand for cork has increased. Even desirable wines are turning to "unnatural" corking methods. According to CorkFacts.com, there is enough cork growing in Portugal to last the wine-making world another 100 years. This fact is often quoted, probably in an attempt to sound reassuring, but to me, 100 years sounds like a very short amount of time.

The most oft-recited reason for switching to synthetic corkage is that natural cork allows roughly 10% of corked bottles to go bad (also known as "cork taint", or simply "corked"). A fungus that is found in cork bark may be the culprit for the loss of many hundreds of thousands of bottles annually. Synthetic corkage doesn't carry the same risk of fungal infection. Still undecided is if plastic corks allow for adequate aging of red wines.

So, plastic cork means it's a cheap wine, then?

Not necessarily. I've opened a few expensive bottles of wine that have featured plastic corks. When I started doing my cork research, I was hoping that synthetic corks were the key to finding the most frugal, sensible wine available. It turns out that you can't judge a wine by its corkage.

There are a plenty of people who likely feel that synthetic corks take the artistry out of wine-making, or that synthetic corks are indicative of a cheap, mass-produced wine, but as it turns out, you can't really tell which wines are going to feature synthetic corks until you actually open them.

My absolute favorite wine in the whole world uses natural cork. Hell, Charles Shaw uses natural cork. So, there's a mental barrier for me to jump over when I open a bottle of wine with a synthetic cork. The difference is likely purely mental. As Treehugger points out:

"Natural corks have proven themselves over the years but it’s the cultural resonance that extends even to the novice drinkers. This is something that the traditional cork industry has capitalized on and has taken huge strides to fight back. U.S. cork importers have created a rigorous testing system to weed out tainted cork while the Portuguese cork industry has launched an extensive $8 million campaign to commend the natural cork."

Besides, you can't tell what kind of cork is in the bottle when you buy it, since the cork is usually covered by foil or wax. And anyway, I tend to buy bottles based on the label design. Don't laugh - you do it, too.

I'm curious as to how Wise Bread readers feel about this: we're a frugal group, to be sure, but I get the idea that many of our readers value quality and craftsmanship over pure, industrial reliability.

Environmentally, what's the deal?

There are environmentalists who argue that allowing screwtop and synthetic corks to take over the world of wine-making will be detrimental to the cork forests in Portugal, which are home to may rare animals. It's odd to think of cork forests, which are more like orchards than forests, as wild habitats, but in truth, they're probably a combination of the two: a place for wild animals and a working forest. Some activitst posit that the loss of the natural cork industry would mean the loss of many thousands of European jobs, as well.

Besides being decidedly unsexy, plastic corks are... well, they're plastic. Plastic is so great in so many ways, and so terrible in many other ways. Tree Hugger and Wise Geek both proffer that one can recycle plastic corks, although I've never seen any evidence of this in my area. Natural cork is easily composted (or saved for the sake of memory), but plastic corks... I can't figure out what to do with them.

I'm prone to advocating for the natural cork approach, even though the thought of wasted wine due to fungus makes me die a little inside. Cork trees do grow in Portugal and Spain, which are dry Mediterranean climates. Who's to say we can't expand cork production to other ares of the world with similar climates? Parts of the east San Francisco Bay Area and North Africa come to mind almost immediately.

How do readers feel about this issue, if you've given it any thought? Do you care, one way or another, about how your wine is corked? Are you a cork snob? A two-buck-chuck swiller? A boxed-wine kind of wino? Do you feel strongly enough about the issue to boycott a wine based on its corkage. or is it a null issue for you?

Interesting cork facts:




- Corks are made from bark that has been stripped from the tree trunk. The tree is not damaged, and can regrow all of its bark every 9 years or so. However, the average cork tree only lives 150 years.
- Wine was originally made in casks that were "sealed" with a layer of olive oil to keep the wine from coming into contact with the air.
- Natural cork recycling is common in Australia and Europe.
- Wine corks are coated with a thin layer of resin or wax to prevent rotting while a wine ages.
- Many European beer bottles are sealed with cork. So are some home-brewed soft drinks.
- You can buy cork from India, apparently.
- Natural cork has a Poisson's ratio of nearly zero. And yes, I knew what Poisson's ratio was before I wrote this. Also, I like Firefly. Why yes, I am single. Why?


Source: http://www.wisebread.com

Blackberry Mead - Another stab at it

OK, so after figuring out the pasteurization method of stopping fermentation I figured I would move onto a fully organized and controlled batch of mead. Being new at this whole wine making gig, I kind of mixed things up abit in the cellar (AKA basement bathroom). What was pure mead is now a mixture of Mead and wine made with brown sugar. batches that were let fully ferment are now mixed with the sweeter brown sugar versions of before. All this mixing has resulted in some stellar tasting wines but nothing consistent with a definite known recipe.

All that being said, here is what I did. This will be updated as the batch progresses.

Ingredients:

2 litres of Clover Honey
2 3/4 Litres of Frozen Pressed Blackberry juice
1 3/4 Litres Steam extracted Blackberry juice
1 1/2 Litres of Bottled Spring Water

2 Packs of 1118 Yeast
2 Tsp of Nutrient

I thawed the frozen juice out in a large pot with 1 litre of the bottled water. I kept the extra water aside to cool the must for innoculation.
It turns out I needed a little more juice to make-up the full 2 gallons required so I added in the steam extracted juice. Personally I prefer the Steam extracted juice for winemaking because it requires less straining and results in a clearer end product. In addition, the heat kills any undesirable bacteria. With the increase in fruit content, I am aiming at a fruitier tasting lower alcohol wine. My wife has been complaining about the 17 and 22% versions so this should be more to what she is used to.

measurements:

Specific Gravity is 1.105 which was temperature corrected for 90 F. This would result in wine of about 14% if allowed to ferment to dry.

Innoculation temperature: 90F

Innoculated at 12 Noon PST on October 17, 2007

Wine storage

There are many places in your home that you can have for wine storage. When you are serious about collecting different brands and flavors of wine, you are going to need to have place to keep it safe and protected. You do not want to keep your wine in a place where it will get ruined or broken.

When you keep your delicious wine in a good wine storage area, you will be able to have your wine for a long time and use it when you are in the mood for it. You will also be able to find the perfect bottle when you are looking for it. It is up to you and the amount of space and wine bottles that you collect for the kind of wine storage that you have.

You can have wine racks for your wine storage. These wine racks can be hung in your kitchen or dining room. You can also have bigger wine racks that sit on the floor and also hold many more bottles of wine. These are great for people with limited space and who also like to collect wine bottles.


If you are lucky enough to have a large area for your wine storage, then you may want to have a great wine cellar downstairs. This is some thing that you will defiantly appreciate for all of your wine. The wine will be stored in a safe place and be kept cool. This is the best place to have your wine so that you can have it for many years. Click here For more information on making your own wine cellar

If you do need a wine cellar, then you can build a wine rack in your basement for all of your wine storage. If you were someone who loves his or her wine then this would make it much easier for you to get to the wine that you want when you want it. You will be able to enjoy having a great collection of wine and be able to enjoy it any time that you want.

The Steps in Winemaking Process

This goes through the basics


The Steps in Winemaking Process
By Milos Pesic

Wines, one of the most popular beverages in the world, is made through a special process called winemaking or vinification. Winemaking includes the choice of the grapes to bottling of the finished product.

Winemaking starts during the time of harvest. Grapes are selected and placed in containers. After harvesting, the grapes are crushed to squeeze out the juice. The juice is then given time to ferment. If red wine is desired, the skins are left to soak in the juice for a while so that the wine would take the skin’s color. If white wine is desired, the juice is extracted with minimal contact from the grape skin.

The primary fermentation stage in winemaking usually takes around one to two weeks. During this time, yeast will transform majority of the sugars in the grape juice to ethanol, which is alcohol.

The resulting liquid is then transferred to several vessels for secondary fermentation in the winemaking process. During this time, the remaining sugar is slowly converted to alcohol. As a result, the wine gets clearer in color.

Some amount of the wine is then placed in oak barrels to age before bottling. Aging adds aromas to the wine. Most, however, are placed inside bottles and shipped right away.

The length of time from harvest to opening a bottle can vary greatly. This might range from a few months for Beaujolias nouveau wines to twenty years for top wines. It is important to note though that only a small percentage of wines will be tastier after five years, compared to after one year.

This is the basic process of winemaking. However, the quality of grapes and the target wine style can force winemakers to combine or omit a step or two. Also, some wines of similar quality are made using other approaches to their production. Sometimes, the quality of wine depends on the starting raw products , or the quality of grapes, rather than the techniques applied the winemaking process.

There are variations of the normal winemaking process. For example, for Champagnes, there is an added fermentation phase that goes on inside the bottle. This traps the carbon dioxide and creates the fizz.

On the other hand, sweet wines are created by allowing some residual sugar to remain before or after fermentation. A variation is to add another alcoholic beverage to kill the yeast before fermentation is completed.

Whatever the case, the winemaking process have wastewater, pomace and lees as by products which can either be treated for some beneficial use or simply disposed.

Milos Pesic is and internationally recognized expert on wine, wine making and wine tasting. He runs a highly popular and comprehensive Red Wine and White Wine web site. For more articles and resources on wine making and tasting, wine recipes, wine reviews, vintage wine and much more visit his site at:

=>http://wine.need-to-know.net/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Milos_Pesic

Wine lingo

More stuff mooched from the other side of the world. I like it because of the word "gobbledygook"

Winemaker lingo made simpleBy LESLEY REIDY - Stuff.co.nz | Thursday, 11 October 2007


Like any industry, those within it employ a number of buzz words and abbreviations that for the rest of us are little more than gobbledygook.

Below are some commonly used terms explained in plain language.

Terroir - Basically meaning 'a sense of place' this French term originally referred to a group of vineyards from the same region, with the same soil type, appellation, weather patterns, grapes and wine making know how. Depending on where you go though, (or who you ask) the definition can be a bit different - but the all encompassing idea is that a number of factors contribute to giving a wine certain unique characteristics.

Cold soak (pre-fermentation maceration) - undertaken in order to increase the aromatic intensity of the wine while improving colour and colour stability.

Lees stirring - Lees are the deposits of residual yeast and other particles that end up in the bottom of tank or barrel after a wine has bee through the fining process. Wines are often left 'on lees' or undergo lees stiring in order for the wine to develop a lees character typified as yeasty and biscuity.

Fining - This gives wine greater clarity and removes any particles that may still remain. While filtering will remove most particles, to avoid wine developing bottle sediment natural substances are used to attract these proteins.

In New Zealand the most commonly used fining agents are milk powder, fish byproduct isinglass and egg whites. Yeast proteins and other particles bind to these agents which then fall to the bottom of the tank.

The amount of fining agent used to wine is miniscule and is barely tracable, but as no one wants to be culpable to allergy sufferers a statement is often made on the bottle alerting consumers to the fact a certain product has been used - e.g. "This wine may contain traces of egg, dairy, fish products".

Racking - the process of pumping wine from one tank to another in order to leave sediment behind.

Whole bunch pressed - This means the grapes are pressed stems and all rather than being de-stemmed first. This helps to reduce the amount of pulp that makes it into the juice and causes less breaking of the skin of the grape which contains phenolic material which can cause wine to taste more harsh and astringent.

Whole bunch pressed grapes have also been hand picked rather than harvested by machines which shake the grapes from the vine.


Lesley Reidy is an owner of online wine retailer www.winefairy.co.nz

Fruit Wines Secrets

I found this post on making fruit wine on Winemaking.net. As everyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows, I prefer not to use sulphites. I guess My method of juice extraction would be similar in results to method 1 except with pasturizing it after fermentation clarification is a non-issue.

Cheers,

Heinz



Fruit Wines Secrets

There is no need for me to mention the enormous popularity this branch of home wine-making enjoys, or that countless thousands of people all over the world embark with tremendous enthusiasm each summer upon turning wild fruits and surplus garden fruits into fruit wines fit to grace the tables of a banqueting hall. Just let me say that, no matter how advanced methods become and how easily obtainable special ingredients for wine making are, there will always be in the hearts of everyone a place for the true country fruit wines, for they have that indefinable 'something' which sets them apart from all others, a uniqueness that cannot be found in any other wine either commercial or home produced.

The fruit wines making methods I use myself are described here, and although they are the simplest and the surest ever evolved, it is necessary to point out the complications that arise if these methods are not used.

Years ago and, I am very sorry to say, even today many thousands of unfortunate home makers of fruit wines are following methods which advocate: 'crush the fruits, add the water and leave to ferment'. Other methods advise boiling the fruits. In both cases disappointment is almost a certainty, and the reason for this is easy enough to understand.

The grey-white bloom that forms on grapes and other fruits is yeast put there by nature and it may be said that the first wine known to early man was the result of this yeast fermenting fruits crushed for a purpose other than wine-making. In the ordinary way, this yeast might well make good wine if allowed to ferment alone. Unfortunately, with this yeast comes what we term 'undesirable' yeast (wild yeast), and several kinds of bacteria each of which can ruin our wines. They bring about what we call 'undesirable' ferments that usually take place at the same time as the ferment we want to take place so that instead of a wine of quality the result is one tasting of flat beer or cloudy evil-smelling liquid fit only for disposal. Another bacterium, known as the vinegar bacterium, will turn fruit wines into vinegar.

Since there is nothing we can do when any of these calamities has occurred, they must be prevented from happening.

Clearly, we must destroy all these enemies before beginning. The simplest method is of course at first thought, anyway is to boil the fruits. But here arises another problem. All fruits contain pectin, a glutinous substance which causes jams to 'set'. Boiling fruit releases pectin. This pectin holds itself and minute solids in suspension, giving the fruit wines a cloudiness that is impossible to clarify or even filter out. We may put the crushed fruit through a jelly-bag to remove every particle of pectin-bearing fruit and then boil the juice only, but this is a messy, tedious job that takes hours and eliminates all the pleasure from wine-making.

Obviously, what we need is a method which will destroy the wild yeast and bacteria on the fruits (as boiling does) without actually boiling, and, indeed, without heating our fruits at all because it needs very little heat to bring out the pectin.

Our method, known as the 'sulphiting' method, does just this and produces full-bodied, crystal-clear fruit wines easily and quickly without fuss or bother. All that is necessary to achieve this are tablets costing a halpenny each. Campden fruit-preserving tablets are available at most chemists in bottles of twenty costing tenpence. In the ordinary way and provided the fruit is not too heavily affected with wild yeast and bacteria one tablet will destroy the undesirable element contained in one gallon of crushed fruit pulp, but we cannot be sure of this. Now, two tablets will surely do this, but being a comparatively heavy dose this might also destroy the yeast we shall be adding so that the ferment we desire does not take place. My method takes care of both these risks, not only destroying the wild yeast and bacteria on the fruits, but also allowing the yeast we add to ferment alone and unhindered to produce fruit wines of clarity and quality the like of which cannot be produced by any other method. By adding one Campden tablet to a good deal less than one gallon of fruit pulp ('must') this will represent a rough equivalent to two tablets per gallon. But before we add our yeasts we shall have increased the amount of liquid or pulp to nearly twice the amount, consequently reducing the amount of sterilizing solution to half or the equivalent of one Campden tablet per gallon. In this way we achieve our overall aim.

Each Campden fruit-preserving tablet contains four grains of sodium metabisulphite; therefore, any makers of fruit wines finding Campden tablets in short supply may ask their chemist for four grains of sodium metabisulphite (or potassium metabisulphite there being two forms), and use this. But because a chemist would find a single order for four grains rather trivial, it would be best to ask for say, six or ten packets each containing four grains. If you are making two-gallon lots of wine the amount to use would be eight grains. Do not be tempted to buy by the ounce and measure out a grain as this is impossible unless you have the appropriate scales.

Just in case you happen to be one of those makers of fruit wines who, even in these enlightened days, abhors the use of chemicals, let me assure you that sulphur dioxide (the solution which results when Campden tablets are dissolved) is quite harmless to humans when used in the proportions recommended. Indeed, as many as eight tablets (thirty-two grains) may be used with safety, but such heavy dosing would prevent a 'must' fermenting.

The sulphiting method is used by the trade, so we shall be following a method well tired and proved.

Heaven knows how many hundreds of gallons of fruit wines I have made by this method and all with the same unfailing success.

Method 1 makes wines of the heavier type; their flavours are more pronounced and their colour more full than those produced by method 2. Those wishing for lighter fruit wines more suitable for serving with meals should use method 2. The main difference in the two methods is that we ferment the fruit pulp itself in method 1, and the juice only in method 2. It will be appreciated that when fermenting the pulp we must as a matter of course get far more from our fruits. But we do not want too much in a light wine otherwise the subtle difference between a heavier wine and the popular lighter wines is lost.

The short pulp ferment of method 1 ensures that we get all the flavour and desirable chemical matter from our fruits in the right proportion.

The best method to use for each type of fruit is given with each recipe. It should be taken into account that varied amounts of fruit and sugar with the use of the proper method produce distinctly different types of fruit wines.

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Method 1
Crush the fruit by hand in a polythene pail and pour on one quart of boiled water that has cooled. Mix well. Crush one Campden tablet and dissolve the powder in about half an egg cupful of warm water and mix this with the fruit pulp. Leave the mixture for one or two hours. A little bleaching will take place but this is nothing to worry about.

After this, take one-third of the sugar to be used (or approximately one-third) and boil this for one minute in three pints of water. Allow this syrup to cool and then stir into the pulp. Then add the yeast (or nucleus) and ferment for seven days.

After seven days, strain the pulp through fine muslin or other similar material and wring out as dry as you can. Put the strained wine into a gallon jar and throw the pulp away. Then boil another one-third of the sugar in one pint of water for one minute and when this has cooled add it to the rest.

Plug the neck of the jar with cotton wool or fit a fermentation lock and continue to ferment in a warm place for a further ten days.

At this stage, if you have not a spare jar, pour the wine into the polythene pail leaving as much of the deposit in the jar as you can. Clean out the jar, sterilize it and return the wine to this.

The remaining one-third of the sugar may now be boiled for one minute in the remaining pint of water. When this has cooled, add it to the rest. Refit the lock or plug the neck of the jar with fresh cotton wool. After this, the wine should be left in a warm place until all fermentation has ceased.

Note. If there is not quite enough space for all of this last lot of syrup, put the remainder in a sterilized screw-top bottle and store for a few days in a cool place. This may be added when fermentation has reduced the level of the liquid in the jar. If you have to do this, don't forget to refit the lock.

Method 2
Crush the fruit in a polythene pail and add one quart of boiled water that has cooled. Mix well.

Crush one Campden tablet and dissolve the powder in about half an eggcupful of warm water and mix this with the fruit pulp. Leave the mixture in a cool place for twenty-four hours, stirring twice during that time. Strain through fine muslin or other similar material and squeeze gently but not too hard. Discard the fruit pulp.

Then boil one-third of the sugar in half a gallon of water for one minute and allow to cool. Mix this with the juice and return the lot to the polythene pail. Then add the yeast (or nucleus), and ferment for ten days.

After this, pour the top wine into a gallon jar leaving as much of the deposit behind as you can. Boil another one-third of the sugar in half a pint of water for one minute and when this is cool add it to the rest. Plug the neck of the jar with cotton wool or fit a fermentation lock and ferment in a warm place for fourteen days.

After this, boil the remaining sugar in the remaining half-pint of water for one minute and when this is cool add it to the rest. Refit the lock or plug the neck of the jar with fresh cotton wool and leave in a warm place until all fermentation has ceased.

The recipes are designed to make one gallon of wine, if two gallons are being made at once twice the amount of each ingredient must be used (including Campden tablets) and the sugar and water added in double quantities. This principle applies where three or four gallons are being made and it is easy enough to work out. Just to be sure that mistakes do not occur when adding the syrup sugar and water stick a label on the jar and note on this the amounts added.

Readers will be quick to appreciate that certain fruits are more suitable than others for making certain types of wine. Clearly, it would be as hopeless to try to make port from rhubarb as it would be to try to grow potatoes on a pear tree, and I think it is in this respect that many people go astray; they make wines from the cheapest and most readily available fruits (naturally enough) but they do not give the slightest thought to what the result will be or whether they will like it or not. Before you begin decide on the type of wine you are most likely to prefer and then use the fruit and the method which will make this type of wine.

Elderberries make an excellent port-style wine and many variations, each with the basic port style underlying them, so that from this lowly wild fruit we may obtain not only a full-bodied port-style wine, but also a Burgundy style, a claret and others according to the whim of the operator. Blackberries make similar wines, as do certain varieties of plums, damsons and blackcurrants. The juice from lighter-colored fruit such as raspberries, loganberries, red and white currants and others make excellent table wines. But there is no need to cover this aspect fully here because every recipe is preceded by the name of the type or style of wine that can be expected from each recipe. I say 'expected', because to guarantee that the wine will be identical to the one expected would be unwise, but only because the amounts of sugar and acid present in the fruits vary from season to season indeed, they vary with the type of tree, soil, situation and with the sort of summer we have had while the fruits have been growing. A hot dry summer produces fruits containing more sugar and less acid than a wet sunless summer, when the effect is the reverse.

In each recipe appears the name of the best yeast to use and this is best added as a nucleus as already described. If you must use bakers' yeast or a dried yeast, merely sprinkle it over the surface of the 'must' at the time given in the method you are using.

A final word. Make sure all fruits are ripe. This is far more important than most people imagine. Half-ripe fruits or those with green patches on them should be discarded as it needs only one or two of these in enough for a gallon of wine to give an acid bite to that wine. Fully ripe fruit is essential if we hope to make the best wine.

When you have decided that your garden fruits are ripe enough or those you have your eye on in the hedgerows, leave them for another three or four days before gathering.


BLACKBERRY WINE
Port Style
4 lb. Blackberries, 4 lb. Sugar (or 5 lb. Invert), 7 pts water, port yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. Ferment pulp.

BLACKBERRY AND ELDERBERRY WINE
Port Style

2 ½ lb. Elderberries, 2 ½ lb. Blackberries, 7 pts water, 3 ½ lb. Sugar (or 4 lb. Invert), port yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. Ferment the pulp after crushing and mixing together.

BLACKBERRY WINE
Burgundy Style

4-5 lb. Blackberries, 3 3/8 lb. Sugar (or 4 lb. Invert), burgundy yeast, nutrient, 7 pts water.

Use method 1. Ferment the pulp.

BLACKBERRY WINE
Beaujolais Style
Wine made from this recipe won for me 1st prize among 600 entries on the occasion of the 2nd National Conference and Show of Amateur Wine-Makers at Bournemouth last year.

4½ lb. blackberries, 2½ lb. sugar (or 3 lb. 2 oz. Invert), burgundy yeast, nutrient, 7 pts water.
Method 1 was used. The wine was, of course, dry.

BLACKBERRY WINE


Light Table Wine
3 lb. blackberries, 3 lb. sugar (3¾ lb. invert), 7 pts water, burgundy

yeast, nutrient.

Use method 2. Ferment the diluted juice.

BLACKCURRANT WINE
Port Style

4 lb. black currants, 1 lb. raisins, 3 lb. sugar (or 3 ¾ lb. invert), port yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. Ferment the pulp with the raisins.

BLACKCURRANT WINE
Port Style

4 lb. blackcurrants, 7 pts water, 3½ lb. sugar (or 4 lb. invert), port yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. Ferment the pulp.

BLACKCURRANT CLARET
3 lb. Blackcurrants, 2 ½ lb. Sugar (or 3 lb. Invert), 7 pts water, all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 2. Ferment the diluted juice.

BLACKCURRANT WINE
A Light, Sweet Wine

3 ¾ lb. Blackcurrants, 3 ½ lb. Sugar (or 4 lb. Invert), 7 pts water, all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 2. Ferment the diluted juice.

CHERRY WINE


A Delightful Sweet Wine
8 lb. Black cherries, 7 pts water, 3 ½ lb. Sugar (or 4 lb. Invert), all-purpose wine yeast or Bordeaux yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. Weigh with the stones and ferment the pulp.

CHERRY WINE
A Light Dry Wine
8 lb. black cherries, 7 pts water, 2 ½ lb. sugar (or 3 ¼ lb. invert), sherry yeast is best, otherwise all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.

RED CURRANT WINE
Light Table Wine

3 lb. redcurrants 7 pts water, 3 lb. sugar (or 3 ¾ lb. invert), all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.

REDCURRANT WINE
A Light Medium-Sweet Wine
4 lb. redcurrants, 7 pts water, 3½ lb. sugar (or 4 lb. invert), all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.

DAMSON WINE
Port Style

8 lb. damsons, 7 pts water, 4 lb. sugar (or 5 lb. invert), port yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. Weigh with the stones and ferment the pulp.

DAMSON WINE
Suitable for making into Damson Gin—see ‘Recent Experiments’, page 85.

5 lb. damsons, 7 pts water, 3 lb. sugar (or 3¾ lb. invert), all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. Weight with the stones. Ferment the pulp.

DAMSON AND ELDERBERRY WINE
Port Style

3 lb. damsons, 1½ lb. elderberries, 3½ lb. sugar (or 4 lb. invert), port yeast, nutrient, 7 pts water.

Use method 1. Ferment the pulp.

DAMSON AND DRIED PRUNE WINE
Burgundy Style

Prunes should be soaked overnight, the water discarded and the prunes added in the crushed state to the crushed damson.

4 lb. damsons, 2 lb. dried prunes, 7 pts water, 3 lb. sugar (or 3¾ lb. invert), burgundy yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. Ferment the crushed pulp.

RASPBERRY WINE
Light, Dry

4 lb. raspberries, 2½ lb. sugar (or 3 lb. 2 oz. Invert), 7 pts water, sherry yeast or all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.

RASPBERRY WINE
Sweet Dessert

4 lb. raspberries, 1 lb. raisins, 7 pts water, 3 ½ lb. sugar (or 4 lb. invert), all-purpose wine yeast and nutrient.

Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice but with the chopped raisins for the first seven days.


ELDERBERRY WINE
Port Style

4 lb. elderberries, 7 pts water, 4 lb. sugar (or 5 lb. invert) port yeast, nutrient.

Use method, 1. Ferment the crushed pulp.

ELDERBERRY WINE
Medium Dry

3½ lb. elderberries, 3 lb. sugar (or 3¾ lb. invert), 7 pts water, sherry yeast or all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.

ELDERBERRY CLARET
Dry, of course

3 lb. elderberries, 2½ lb. sugar (or 3 lb. invert), 7 pts water, sherry yeast or all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.

PLUM WINE
Burgundy Style

8 lb. plums, any fully ripe red variety is suitable, 7 pts water 3 lb. sugar (or 3¾ lb. invert), burgundy yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. Weigh with the stones and ferment the crushed pulp.

PLUM WINE
Port Style

Dark red, fully ripe fruits must be used. 10 lb. plums, 7 pts water, 3½ lb. sugar (or 4 lb. invert), port yeast, nutrient.

Weigh with the stones.

Use method 1. Ferment the crushed pulp.

RHUBARB WINE
This wine is best made on the dry side and used as an appetizer. If you try to make it sweet, it would have to be rather too sweet. Four pounds of sugar will make it a medium sweet wine, but even this will not reduce the acidity which gives this wine its character and which, unfortunately, is causing it to lose its popularity. It is possible to remove the acid by using precipitated chalk, but this is hardly for beginners and a practice which, in any case, alters the whole flavor of the resulting wine.

5 lb. rhubarb, 3 lb. sugar (or 3¾ lb. invert), 7 pts water, sherry yeast or all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Crush the rhubarb with a rolling pin, starting in the middle of each stick. Soak for five days in three pints of water (boiled), and in which one Campden tablet has been dissolved.

Then strain, wring out dry and warm just enough to dissolve half the sugar.

Having done this, ferment for ten days and then proceed as you would with any other recipe here, adding the rest of the sugar and water in stages.

LOGANBERRY WINE
3 to 4 lb. loganberries, 3 lb. sugar (or 3 ¾ lb. invert), burgundy yeast, nutrient, 7 pts water.

Use method 1. Ferment the crushed pulp.

GOOSEBERRY WINE
Table Wine
6 lb. gooseberries, 3½ Ib. sugar (or 4¼ lb. invert), 7 pts water, tokay yeast or all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. But ferment pulp for three days.

GOOSEBERRY WINE
Sherry Style
The best gooseberries for this wine are those that have been left on the bushes to turn red or yellow, according to variety. They should be firm but soft and at the same time not damaged. Any damaged ones and any with a suggestion of mould or mildew on them must be discarded.

For a dry sherry style use 2½ lb. sugar, for a medium dry use 3 lb., and for a medium sweet use 3½ lb., or the corresponding amounts of invert sugar.

5lb. gooseberries, 7 pts water, sugar (as above), sherry yeast or all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. But ferment the pulp for five days only.

WHORTLEBERRY WINE
Burgundy Style
Whortleberries are a small wild fruit which many people come to the country to pick; they make excellent jams and jellies and very good wines, otherwise known as 'herts'.

6pts whortleberries, 1 pts water, 3 lb. sugar (or 3¾ lb. invert), burgundy yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. Ferment the pulp.

WHORTLEBERRY WINE
Port Style
8 pts whortleberries, 7 pts water, 4 lb. sugar (or 5 lb. invert), port yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. Ferment the pulp.

WHORTLEBERRY WINE
Table Wine

5 pts whortleberries, 7 pts water, 2 ½ lb. sugar (or 3 lb. 2 oz. Invert), all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.


SLOE WINE
Sloes make a delightful wine which is very popular with those living in the country, and is particularly suitable for turning into sloe gin. Not more than 4 lb. should be used owing to their astringency.

4 lb. sloes, 3 lb. sugar (or 3¾ lb. invert), 7 pts water, all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.

Use method 1. But ferment pulp for three days only.