[amphead]

My younger sister asked me to help her make some fruit wine, knowing that I had some success years ago. So here is what we did:

1. Purchased a 7 gallon glass carboy, rubber cork, airlock and some Pasteur red wine yeast.
2. Picked 30 lbs of plums from a tree in her yard.
3. Bought 9 lbs of black grapes for $0.97 a pound.
4. Rinsed the carboy with scalding hot water thoroughly.
5. Filled a 5 gallon stainless pot with tap water and brought to a boil.
6. Put water scrubbed plums into the pot and left for about 8 minutes.
7. Allowed fruit to cool to warm and pitted/opened it up.
8. Put plums into the carboy through the neck.
9. Added 1 gallon of warm spring water with 2 lbs of dissolved brown sugar.
10. Added 1 gallon of room temp. spring water.
11. Added the yeast to some very warm water and poured into the carboy.
12. Water washed the grapes and crushed lightly.
13. Added grapes and their juice to the carboy.
14. Waited till the next afternoon, where the yeast had really taken over making alcohol.
15. Added 2 more lbs of brown sugar to some spring water.
16. Poured sugar water into the carboy.
17. Added 1 more gallon of room temp. spring water.
18. Waited 1 hour and came back to look at the carboy, which was bubbling like crazy and smelling of fruit and alcohol.

The carboy is sitting in a plastic bag inside a cool bedroom closet. This is a spare bedroom, and that is a good thing because the alcohol smell and carbon dioxide vapor has taken over. In 4 more days, I will siphon the liquid out of the carboy and remove the fruit. The fruit will be strained through cheese cloth to remove the juice, which will be added to the cleaned carboy. Then the removed liquid will be siphoned into the carboy. Then the rubber cork/airlock will be fitted. 2 weeks later it will be racked/siphoned off. Repeated again after 2 more weeks, and sweetened to taste with more sugar if necessary. After a total of 8 weeks it will be bottled, and some will be consumed while still young.

 

[amphead]

After 3 days the yeast stopped bubbling. I added 1 cup of sugar and some more yeast, with a few more crushed grapes. It has started bubbling again. I don't want to make vinegar. Tomorrow I siphon off the juice from the fruit and add it back to the carboy and fit the airlock. It appears that there are many "beer" drinkers in the lounge, well myself included.

 

[Karo]

Yeah if you could send me a 6 of Hemp Ale, that beer is incredible, for a bottle.

I pulled my gf over to see what you're up to, she drinks wine. I do too, but in the right place, right time. In other words .... when I go out of town. Nothing beats a good wine.

Really impressive list. You should do a label with your avatar. I know a couple of audio guys who roast their own coffee, but this is a first. Nice one.

 

[amphead]

Thanks man, so today I transferred the juice out of the carboy and removed the fruit. The fruit was squeezed with cheese cloth to remove more of the flavor and added to the juice which was siphoned back into a hot water cleaned carboy. I added a pinch of yeast to 1/4 cup warm water. Added 1 cup of sugar to 1/2 cup warm water and added that to the carboy. Added the yeast/water to the carboy. Fitted the stopper/airlock. A very slow bubbling now and the wine is very cloudy, which is normal. When I first took the juice out, I tasted it for sugar content. It was right in the middle, neither dry nor sweet and had a nice bouquet, considering how young it is. Tasted a little like Zinfandel, which is not what I'm shooting for. It will need more fruit juice to ferment for stronger flavor. That will come in a couple of days. No vinegar odor, which is good.

 

[jordanross]

Wow! This is so cool. I have a friend that makes his own beer. But you seem like a real pro, making wine. And you seem to know what youre doing (bouquet...). Keep the updates coming, I am truly interested to see how this progresses.

You should send some of the finished product my way

 

[yuckymucky]

I wish that I had some fruit trees in the back yard cause this seems like a really good idea. My next door neighbor has a bunch of grape vines and makes wine every few years and I have always wanted to try it to do it just never got around to it.

I agree though that you need to make a label out of your avatar.

 

[amphead]

Ok, yeah my avatar on the label. I added 1 quart of store bought red grape juice, and one can of purple Welch's grape juice concentrate to help top off the carboy and add more body. Then I added 1/4 cup warm water/yeast. Then I added 1 pound of white sugar, in 2 cups of warm water. This got fermentation to start to vigorously foam. Then refitted the airlock. Wow does it smell good! Now it is a full 7 gallons.

 

[amphead]

Started another batch of wine in a 6 gallon carboy, about the same way as the first batch. This is a prickly pear wine. It is already smelling very good. I used 29 pounds of prickly pears, and 4 pounds of black grapes. In spanish this is called Tunas Rojas de Vino, I believe. Maybe someone from a spanish speaking country has heard of it.

 

[amphead]

Topped off the first batch of wine with more grape concentrate, 1 cup of sugar/water. It is still bubbling and smelling of a good wine. The second prickly pear wine will be siphoned off of the fruit tomorrow. The second batch puts off a rich sweet perfume in the air, that is intoxicating.

 

[amphead]

Didn't siphon off/rack the prickly pear wine, but topped it off with 1/2 cup of sugar in warm water. It is bubbling vigorously and still smelling very good. Tomorrow it will be siphoned/racked from the fruit. Then topped off with sugar and spring water.

 

[amphead]

Siphoned/racked the prickly pear wine, and put it back in a hot water cleaned carboy. Topped off with 2 lbs sugar/ 1 gallon warm water. It bubbled vigorously. I fitted a cleaned airlock.

 

[amphead]

Wow the prickly pear wine smells very good. I will top it off with more sugar/water tonight. It is not allowed to see sunlight, which would create off-flavors or even vinegar. The first batch of wine is smelling like a dry white wine, which wasn't what I was trying to create, but my sister says she would like a dry white wine. So I guess that is what it will be. It gets racked/siphoned off of the sediment/lees on friday. If a wine is allowed to have the dead yeast at the bottom for too long it will have yeast in the flavor. Edit: it was topped off with 1 cup sugar/ water and foamed vigorously. Still making alcohol, which means it could hit 15% alcohol, a good target to hit.

 

[amphead]

I will be racking/siphoning the dry white wine, which belongs to my sister tonight. It should start to clear after the next racking. The fruit particles are held in suspension in the liquid by the CO2 gas bubbles made by the yeast. The prickly pear wine bubbling has slowed down, due to the alcohol content increasing and killing some yeast and also due to the cooler temps. It isn't neccessary to keep wine cool during the fermenting process, but it shouldn't get over 85 degrees. When it has been bottled/stored it must be kept cool or the flavor degrades. If it is made into champagne/sparkling wine it must be kept cool or the bottle may explode, injuring any bystanders with glass. I refrigerate any wine made into champagne. Technically not champagne because only wine made in the Champagne region of France, may be called champagne. But it's champagne in many other ways.

 

[amphead]

The wine that was supposed to be dry/white wasn't after all. It has a lightly sweet, flavor, and is lightly pinkish/purple. This will make a pink champagne. I racked/siphoned the wine back into a hot water scrubbed carboy. The sediment was 1/2-3/4 inches thick at the bottom, and that was cleaned out. I topped off the wine with 1 quart spring water and 1 pound of light brown sugar. This time the wine fizzed momentarily and then went to a very slight bubbling. I can understand why the yeast aren't vigorous, because when I siphoned the wine, I got a mouthful and decided to swallow it. Bang.....instant temporary buzz. Must be from 16 to 18% alcohol. Getting the alcohol over 18% is very difficult, because the yeast normally dies off. When that happens it is called a still wine and can be bottled once it has been in the carboy long enough to go from cloudy to clear. 2 to 3 more weeks.

 

[amphead]

Today I added 6 teaspoons of pectic enzyme to try to clear the cloudiness in my prickly pear wine. It digests the pectin from the fruit that is suspended in the CO2 made by the yeast. It foamed vigorously and then went back to a very slow bubbling. Hope it clears soon.