For a dozen or so years, I have made palatable wine (usually pinot noir and pinot grigio) from commercial kits that vary in price from $69 - $200 per 6 gallons. To some, I added fresh berries that we grow at home.
I have also made 4 batches of mead with the honey that our honeybees produced. One batch of raspberry mead was glorious, but three others failed to ferment, so I ended up with three gallons of raspberry/honey syrup – more than anyone needs.
Last month, inspired by a friend who makes about 10 types of wine from apricot and wild plum trees, dandelion flowers, and fireweed flowers, among other ingredients, I decided to start with raspberries and red currants that I gathered and canned last summer. Next up will be high bush cranberry wine.
A mere month after starting the fermentation, I was delighted by the early flavor of the currant wine. In fact, I vastly preferred it to the raspberry wine! Who would have thought that! The former already has a vibrant flavor and silky mouth feel. It tastes so rich that I add a dollop or two to flavor occasional glasses of the commercial pinot grigio or pinot noir that I made at the same time.
By contrast, the raspberry wine is currently disappointing, but of course I expect wines to take several months to age. At the moment, it tastes and smells thin, with a watery aftertaste. I also made a second gallon with the “seconds,” which I found as an extra on one recipe. This uses the pulpy seeds left over in the cheesecloth bag after the first batch has soaked for a week or ten days. I think this may be the berry equivalent of grappa. This batch had a slightly leathery taste, which my mentor thinks is due to the tannins in the seeds. Since I am not a fan of woody wines, I don’t care for this flavor in the raspberry wine, either, but another palate may like it. Over the next six months, I will check the wine to ensure that it does not mold or go bad, but otherwise, let it age in a dark spot behind the couch.
I have concluded that my dramatically contrasting reactions to the currant and raspberry wines may result from the fact that I seeded the former in a food mill before canning, but not the latter. Like the currants, I always seed the cranberries that I juice, so I look forward to making some of that. In future batches, I will seed raspberries, too, for wine.
Recipe
You can find many recipes on line for the fruit of your choice. One of the most famous people in this industry, with dozens of fruit wine recipes, is Jack Keller, who died in 2020. You can find his recipes on many websites, such as www.homebrewtalk.com and www.winemakermag.com. I would heartily encourage any fruit wine maker to start with his recipes and then adjust for taste after a first or second batch.
Jack Keller’s raspberry wine recipe:
3 pounds of red raspberries
1 pound 11 ounces of granulated sugar
Water to 1 gallon
4 teaspoons of pectic enzyme⁹0
1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient
Half a teaspoon of yeast energizer
1 gram of Fermaid K (I did not use this)
Lalvin’s RC 212, a red wine yeast (I used Lanvin 47)
Heat one gallon of potable water to temperature that will allow the sugar to dissolve into a thin solution. Stir.
If you add berry juice, just pour it in. If you add fruit with seeds or some other chunky fruit, like cherries, put it in a cheesecloth bag first, for easy removal. (You can use fresh, frozen or canned fruit).
Let the pot cool down to about 105 degrees F. Stir again. If you plan to let the wine ferment in that same pot (which I do), move it to a place where it can remain undisturbed, preferably in a temperature range of 65 – 75 degrees. Sprinkle the yeast energizer and nutrient across the top of the liquid, and then the wine yeast. Do not stir. Loosely lid it, and add an airlock or alternative (see below, under equipment).
If you plan to ferment the liquid in a different pot, crock, or bucket, pour the liquid in, set in in a place where it can remain, undisturbed for several weeks, let the liquid settle, and then sprinkle the yeast energizer and nutrient and wine yeast over the top. If the location’s temperature is below 65, the yeast will take longer to multiply, delaying and sometimes stalling fermentation. A stalled ferment can be fixed, but if not, you have juice or low alcohol wine.
On the second and subsequent days, stir it vigorously with a very long spoon for a few minutes, sometimes twice a day. Be sure to push the cheesecloth bag down below the surface so the fruit will not mold. (If you do not contain the fruit in a cheesecloth bag, it will float on top, creating a crust that (a) can mold and (b) segregates the yeast from the air that it needs to survive.) I find it fascinating to see, when the yeast population grows, the colony actively swimming in the liquid. I would use the word, swarming, except for the negative insect imagery. If the yeast growth has slowed to the point where I see no movement during the first week, I sprinkle a teaspoon of yeast nutrient or yeast energizer on the surface. This will feed and energize the yeast, so they can consume more of the fruit sugar and turn it into alcohol.
About Day 7, use your wine thief (a turkey baster) to squeeze
enough liquid into the hydrometer for the thermometer to float. Read the
measurement. If it is near 1.03, this means that your juice is partially fermented. Squeeze
as much liquid as you can from your cheesecloth bag into the liquid and then remove it. About every other day after this, measure again
until the hydrometer reads 1.00 or 0.99. Numbers above this mean that much
sugar remains unconverted by the yeast into alcohol. The sweeter the taste at this point, the
lower the alcohol. If you choose not to
use a hydrometer, you can simply taste a few spoonfuls of wine every other day
after Day 7 until you like flavor. (You
can also use the hydrometer to calculate the percentage of alcohol, too,
through a formula that you can find on-line). My wines (from kits or from my harvested fruit) generally ferment by Day 10 - 12.
When the wine reaches a palatable profile for you, siphon the liquid into a glass growler, leaving behind the yeasty gunk that coats the bottom of the prior container. Install the air lock, so that any remaining CO2 can escape. You don’t want to cap the wine too soon or residual C02 could cause the growler to explode. If there is a lot of yeast and residue at the bottom of the growler, (a reason to use a glass container), I siphon it again into a clean container. This results in a clearer wine.
I don’t bother to bottle and cork the wine. I simply store it in the growlers and drink it within the year.
Equipment
To try a few small batches without much financial outlay, you can start with the following equipment. Note alternatives for a first batch or two to further reduce your initial expenditure. Like many types of hobby equipment, you can probably find much of this used.
*A cooking pot bigger than one gallon to heat the liquid.
*The same or a second pot or crock or jug with a lid that fits loosely and preferably has a hole in which to put an air lock. For one gallon batches, I use a pressure cooker (not a pressure canner) in which I removed the plastic plug, leaving a hole in which I plunge an air lock.
*An air lock or two. This is a small, inexpensive multi-part plastic gizmo that allows CO2 out but does not let oxygen into the liquid. A second choice is to lay cheese cloth, a thin T shirt or even a paper napkin over the hole. This will keep out bugs, ash, and dust, but will let oxygen in, which can influence the taste over time. But this will work.
*A rubber stopper or two with a hole in the bottom, that holds the plastic air lock in place. Buy the size stopper that fits your growler or carboy (a 5-6 gallon heavy glass jug). The former is smaller than the latter.
*A cheesecloth bag or two (big enough to hold a heavy gallon of sodden berries and juice). (These inexpensive bags are useful for jams, jellies, cheese, teas, pickling, etc. Buy a dozen.
*A plastic siphon (to move the wine from its initial
fermenting stage container to its second, aging container). Yes, you can simply pour it, but a siphon enables you to leave behind the yeast in the first container, so that your final product will not taste yeasty.
*A hydrometer (this looks like a 10 inch thermometer that
fits in a tall, thin glass or plastic container and measures alcohol level of
the liquid you pour into the container).
Alternatively, taste your wine every other day after Day 7 or 10. A sweet flavor and a higher hydrometer
reading means that the fermentation is not finished and therefore, the alcohol
level is low. A reading below 1 (0.99)
means that fermentation is complete. (In my experience, unfermented fruit/sugar/water solution starts around 1.08.)
*A wine thief, which is simply a turkey baster to collect wine to squeeze into the hydrometer
*Wine yeast. The most versatile and reliable that I have used are Lanvin 47 and Lanvin 1118, however, wine connoisseurs suggest particular yeast strains for different fruits and flavor profiles. You can buy wine yeast on-line or at beer supply stores, along with the optional items below. One packet is enough for a batch of 1 – 6 gallons of wine. These will age out at some point depending on storage temperature and humidity, so do not expect to stockpile several years worth.
Optional but useful purchases:
Yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. These are powders that gig the yeast to consume the sugars if they have slowed down. Here in our wood heated cabin in Alaska, I need these aids and/or I move the fermenters (the first container to which you have added the yeast) closer to the wood stove.
Citric Acid: If your
wine is too sweet for your liking, due to the fruit, you can add citric acid to
balance the flavor. If it is overly
sweet because the fermentation stalled, that means that the yeast has not consumed the sugar and
converted it to alcohol, so the wine will be low alcohol. The citric acid will balance the flavor but do
nothing about the alcohol level. For some wine makers, this could be an intentional choice, such as 4 or 5% alcohol wine.
Pectic enzyme: Pectic enzyme helps draw out the liquid of fruit, requiring less mashing work from you. This is not as necessary for juicy fruit like berries, but useful for fruit with more texture, like apricots, cherries, and plums.
Sugar or honey: If your resulting wine is too dry for your palate, you can “back sweeten” it. Heat the honey or sugar so that it dissolves. Pick a test amount of wine, like a quart, and measure how much sweetener you add to your liking. Then extrapolate to the whole batch. Obviously if you pour the sweetener in cold, it will just sink to the bottom and you are likely to add too much.
Clarifiers and stabilizers: The commercial kits come with packets that clarify and stabilize the wine. I have not used any in my initial batches of dark berry wine, but would do so if I made a light colored wine, from grapes, pineapple, or apricots, and if I intended to store the wine for longer than I currently anticipate.
Conclusion: There are many advantages to this hobby.
1) Whether you choose to make wine from a commercial kit or from store bought fruit, the cost per bottle of wine will be MUCH lower than purchasing wine. Basically, 5 bottles = 1 gallon. A commercial kit of concentrated wine grape juice usually makes 6 gallons = 30 bottles. The price for kits range from $65 to $200 depending on the provenance of the grapes. If you pay $10 - 30/bottle, that = $300 - $900 for the same volume of wine. If you grow or forage the fruit, the cost for making the wine is simply the one time purchase of equipment, ongoing yeast packets and some optional items, like yeast energizer. If you wish to make wine from store bought fruit or juice concentrate in the freezer section, you can price that out.
2) The expense for equipment is for hardy elements that can be used over and over for many years. We have had to replace plastic and delicate pieces occasionally, like a broken hydrometer, but otherwise, the purchases are “one and done”… for many years.
3) Much of the equipment, like containers, cheese cloth, and airlocks, and the baster (evocatively called a wine thief) are multi-functional for other kitchen processes.
4) For the gardener or forager, it is a joy to harvest fresh fruit and turn it into something delectable. I routinely harvest 6 gallons each of raspberries, currants, and cranberries per year for a variety of gustatory pleasures. For wine, next year, I will harvest even more.
5) The preparatory time commitment is low.
The negatives:
1) You need to have space to store the equipment and the aging wine. My son did so in a dormitory closet.
2) While store bought wine is consistent in quality along a particular brand, your fruit wine quality may vary, depending on the quality of the fruit and your temperatures, just like any other agricultural product you grow at home.
I recommend this endeavor for anyone who wants to save money and make use of fruit that you can buy, grow, or forage.
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