Vegetarian Foodie

Plum Wine

Hooray for a neighbor with far too many plums falling from her tree....  A sudden box of plums on the doorstep offered the opportunity to brew 2 gallons of plum wine.... (recipe HERE).  Said neighbor can look forward to gift of plum wine in a year's time!

Fig Wine

And now we wait.

Country Wine Recipes... 2011 Wine Roll Call

I plan to spend the entire week end in my flip flops and moving from the garden to the kitchen...from the kitchen to the garden... visiting with favorite people all the while. It is a brew week end here for both beer and wine - Wine Maker Magazine has a fabulous selection of country wine recipes I plan to try: HERE.

This year's country wine line up: Fig Wine, Dried Apricot Wine and Blueberry Wine..... 

Making wine and drinking the wine (a year later!) has got to be one of the most fun things ever!

Photo via Full House of Babylonstoren

More Wine Racking, Secondary Fermentation

Time to rack 3 gallons of wine into secondary.....

So far so good..... 3 months from now we can rack into bottles.

Apple Wine

Hello Apple Wine! Good bye Watermelon wine.... went to rack it this week end and ick! I fear it was morphing into Pruno -well not really but it smelled skank and tasted worse. Down the drain.

Wine making continues......

Peach Wine Racking #1

 

Remember back in July when I made Peach wine? Well, it has been fermenting under the sink for long enough to face its first racking time.

"Racking" wine is the process of separating wine from its sediment and transferring the wine into another container using a siphon. Racking is fun to say the least. Fun and impressive for all ages.....

Here is how it is done:

1. Place the bottle of wine on a table.
2. Place an empty container or bottle below the table, such as on the floor (in this case) or on a lower table.
3. Place the notched end of the siphon tube into the container of wine. Be sure the tube is in the wine but does not touch the layer of sediment. (The sediment should be at the bottom of the container.)
4. Suck on the other end of the tube until wine begins to flow.
5. When the wine begins to flow, insert the tube into the lower container.
6. Fill the bottle (a Carlo Rossi bottle in this case)

Now we will wait another 3 months to rack once again before bottling.

Making wine.... an update

Since the last post about peach wine, I have made a gallon each of Nectarine and Watermelon wine.

Someone had expressed hope that the wine would not turn out to be bridge wine. I asked what bridge wine was, and my friend said, “Wine only worthy of being drunk under a bridge.”

I too hope that this first batch is not bridge wine.

Our wonderful neighbors down the street harvested 13 pounds of their red grapes and we also made a gallon each of red wine.

I am anxiously (ANXIOUSLY) awaiting the close of this month to rack the wine for the first round.... notice how the red wine changes color as the fermentation evolves in the final photo.

Peach Wine

I started my first batch of peach wine this weekend past. I plan to post the step by step process in making this wine as it goes....

I am attempting a small batch-only a gallon. This is sort of my trial run before I attempt to make 5 gallons of red wine this fall. I want to simply acquaint myself with the process.

I crushed the peaches and put them in a cheesecloth that rests in a large stainless steel pot...draining as much liquid as possible.

Then I added enough hot water to make a gallon... as well as:

• 2 lbs. Granulated Sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp acid blend
• 1 tsp pectic enzyme powder
• 1/2 tsp yeast energizer
• 1/4 tsp tannin
  
• 1 Campden Tablet

Cover...not necessary to be airtight at this point.

I purchased all these goods at my local home brew store... there are plenty of places on line if there is no brew shop near to you. The acid blend... I actually used citric acid that I had on hand back from my cheese making moment...

 

As the day unfolded, the brew smelled nice but started looking icky. 24 hours later I added the wine yeast (after activating it in lukewarm water 1/4 cup).

Nothing happened.

But, when I woke up the following morning I had plenty of bubbles and sweet smelling fermenting peaches. Apparently, it can take up to 24 hours for the yeast to start working.

Now I wait for 3-5 days, stirring daily, until I strain the brew into a glass gallon jug and seal with an airlock.

To Be Continued......