Just got done with some wine making, 10 gallons of red and 5 gallons of white, whew.. lots of work since we pick the grapes, hand sort them and all that good stuff.. Just wondering if anyone else makes homemade wine, if so what is your recipe's??? how long do you let it go? how much yeast do you use and of course do you ad more sugar, some tell me they use no sugar for grape wine. Anyway cant wait till its done, MMMMM,MMMMM, GOOD....
I used to make wine many years ago. I used blackberries or wild grapes. made the wine in a small crock. just mashed the fruit and added one pkg of yeast and about 1/2 bag of sugar. covered the crock and let it set for several weeks. when done, just put it in fruit jars and stored in the pantry for later use. mmm good. maybe someday i'll get to make another batch. i did not use any of the modern day fancy equipment for making it, just simple way like my grandpappy showed me. the wine can even be distilled to make a type of brandy. and it's very good.
Made Wine out of wild grapes(possom grapes) and the prickley pear fruit(cactus Fruit) in a 10 gal. crock,got the local bartender to save bottles for me and when the wine was ready a pinch of sugar and the plastic corks were wired down,a pit was dug and prepared with straw in the bottom 6",one layer of bottles and a layer of straw.About 4 layers and 4 to 6" of dirt and that is where it stayed about 6 months until needed.Just scrape back a little dirt and reach into the straw pull out a bottle ,shure would surprise whoever saw you pull a bottle out of the ground and it would pop a cork and verry good and potent,if you cant find wild grapes use rasins and prickly pear fruit.Sugar and a little yeast is needed and with rasins you must add water to make up for the lack of juice or some bottles of juicey juice,make shure your pit is dug in a well shaded area.
Wine makers for years... the Wife and I make wine from wild (thorny) blackberries. Have also made peach, various grape (mostly concord), plum, apple, pear, elderberry, and persimmon wine. Our blackberry came in 2nd place among 135 other wines in a tasting contest a few years ago. Generally make 6 gallon batches, rack each several times, be sure you use a stabilizer and clarifier before bottling, and be patient. We generally don't bottle until the wine's been sitting for nearly a year. Currently have 18 gallons cooking from this year's blackberries. Friends & family we give it to have NO idea how many bloody scratches we get, ticks and chiggers we fight, and the work that's involved in making a good wine. But when someone smiles after taking a sip, that's all the appreciation that's necessary to make it all worthwhile.
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i picked 5 gal of grapes off the neighbors vine here in iowa and thought what the heck i'll tryto make some wine i used 10lbs of sugar hand washed & sorted all the grapes could'nt figure out what to put it in so i used the fish aquarium with 3 packets of yeast waited 3 months and bottled it //cant drink more than 3 glasses.makes it hard to walk
i picked 5 gal of grapes off the neighbors vine here in iowa and thought what the heck i'll tryto make some wine i used 10lbs of sugar hand washed & sorted all the grapes could'nt figure out what to put it in so i used the fish aquarium with 3 packets of yeast waited 3 months and bottled it //cant drink more than 3 glasses.makes it hard to walk
WOW, 3 packs of yeast hey, I used 2 packs of wine makers yeast per 5 gallons and 10 cups of sugar per 5 gallons. Are you sure you didn't make wineski.....or poor mans whiskey..
Can stainless steel containers be used for wine?Was wondering, have a water distiller for distilling water and thought of with the use of a reostat to controll temperature might make some rasin wine and distill the alcohol off of it,the distiller apears to be 2 gallon in size and of all stainless steel.
I would say you could use stainless steel as long as it is sterilized, most all the major wine manufacturers use stainless, I have never used it before, I still use 5 gallon plastic water bottles and glass also. Raisin sounds delicious, my neighbor makes dandelion wine out of the flowers and that is very good...
So what's the legal side of making your own wine? As long as you don't sell or distribute it, no tax stamp? Or is there a tax stamp no matter what and you HAVE to report making any alcohol?
In the U.S. we are allowed to make up to 200 gallons of beer or wine or both combined to equal 200 gallons.. no reporting necessary.. can't sell it but you can give it to friends, just watch out, you will suddenly have a LOT of friends when word gets out....
We have made wine for years. I make some individually and some in a small group. We won a gold for a Cabernet this year. That wine also took "best of show". You can make wine out of all kinds of stuff. A little cleanliness and some chemistry is all you need to make good wine. After reading some of the posts here, I may try a batch of cactus pear wine.
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I would say you could use stainless steel as long as it is sterilized, most all the major wine manufacturers use stainless, I have never used it before, I still use 5 gallon plastic water bottles and glass also. Raisin sounds delicious, my neighbor makes dandelion wine out of the flowers and that is very good...
When I lived in Wisconsin the neighbor used to make Rubarb wine,never tasted any but as a kid Dad grew it and Mom made rubarb pie,never cared for it but wine might change my mind.
