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gnarles

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So I'm curious to see if anyone has ever made any wines from fruits/berries they have grown themselves. The idea hit me today while pruning back our ever growing raspberry patch...."I COULD MAKE ALCOHOL FROM THESE!!!"

What are your past experiences?
What plants did you use?
Any words of wisdom?

I think I may try a Raspberry/Blackberry/Elderberry-Wine/Cider this fall...
 
My grandfather made many from dolgo crab apples and currant berries. Both were quite good.
 
I've made lots of wine from foraged fruit. 15 pounds for 5 gallons is the magic number generally or up to 25 lbs for a port style. Some of my best so far are paw paw and mulberry. Im going to try japanese knotweed and elderflower this year.In addition to adjusting specific gravity you will vastly improve your wine by adjusting acid too. Acid testing kit is like $20 or so.....
 
Yes, making wine from homegrown/foraged fruits is not a new concept.

Raspberry wine/mead is my favorite, 8#/gal is all you need for a 100% raspberry wine. Raspberry-elderberry blend is good, I ferment separately and then blend. Chokecherry, persimmon, dandelion, rhubarb, strawberry, blackberries, mint, rosehips, hibiscus, pear, peach, mango, pumpkin, coffee, peppers, even jam and jelly...the list goes on and on.

WinemakerMagazine has a good article on country wine.... http://www.winemakermag.com/stories...ountry-winemaking/225-country-wine-cornucopia
 
Plus one on the mango. Probably my favorite white. Add 5oz oak chips for a while it's like a nice chard.
 
Its called a Wineyard, similar to a vineyard, but can include besides different vines, berry bushes, fruit trees grown for making wine besides just grapes. We have one specifically for winemaking, threw in some bees and now it a Meadyard! WVMJ
 
I grow crabapples, grapes, blackberries, rhubarb, elderberries, and so on.

I pick chokecherries, strawberries, blueberries, apples, etc- whatever I can find.

Those are some of my favorite wines.
 
Its called a Wineyard, similar to a vineyard, but can include besides different vines, berry bushes, fruit trees grown for making wine besides just grapes. We have one specifically for winemaking, threw in some bees and now it a Meadyard! WVMJ

Nice! All inclusive.
 
I made blueberry last year from my parent's bushes. I didn't get very fancy: fruit, sugar, water, yeast. No yeast nutrient, energizer, ect that other folks use. It turned out great. Unfortunately everyone wanted it as Christmas presents so I gave all but 4 or 5 bottles away. I plan on making at least twice as much this year, and I may do some with vanilla bean or extract.
 
We grow apples, apricots and peaches and often have an abundance left to make a variety of wines. Fruit wines can be wonderful, and inexpensive to make when you grow your own fruit. You can't buy wines like these in any store. :)

Apricots and peaches are best fermented on the whole fruit, apples are better pulped and pressed, then the cider is fermented. Often I'll ferment other fruits with apple cider. Here's a couple I made last fall, a Berry Berry Peach using cranberry, blackberry, raspberry, apricot, peach and other fruit from the fridge. The batch on the right is a spiced peach.


Stirring-berry-berry-peach.jpg



Here's another fruity mix of apricots, peaches and a few other goodies including allspice, cloves and cinnamon stick.


ApricotPeachPotpourri.jpg



Or, how about peaches and apple cider combined with jalapenos from the garden to make a Jalapeno Apple Peach with just the right amount of heat?


JalapenoApplePeach-1.jpg
 
Love this post - My backyard apple tree is the reason I got into homebrew.
I bought the house in the fall and the apples were rotting on the ground. I've since gone three summers without wasting a single one, and I'm currently bottle ageing my second batch of cider (I didn't ferment it the first year). One year I would like to try a batch without any additives and let the 'yeast fairies' do their thing.

I also have a nanking cherry bush and I've been saving the ones I don't eat in my freezer. Has anyone made any nanking wine? I'm debating mixing it with my apple cider this year . I also have bountiful rhubarb patch that I really should ferment! ( and dandelions!)
 
Hummer - You're very adventurous with your apple peach jalepeno. I'm going to keep that one in the back of my mind!
 
I make a blackberry and black raspberry ports from berries picked in my yard and wild berries I find wherever I can. It is the most cost effective way to make something like that since a lot of fruit is needed and it can be expensive to buy 70-80lbs for a batch.

I also keep an eye on the store for good sales on fruit and take the bananas that are about to be thrown out.

wines from fruit you grow yourself seem better to me, maybe because you hand select the fruit at the peak of freshness
 
gnarles said:
So I'm curious to see if anyone has ever made any wines from fruits/berries they have grown themselves. The idea hit me today while pruning back our ever growing raspberry patch...."I COULD MAKE ALCOHOL FROM THESE!!!"

What are your past experiences?
What plants did you use?
Any words of wisdom?

I think I may try a Raspberry/Blackberry/Elderberry-Wine/Cider this fall...

Hi I am traveling in Southern California and planning to start up my winemaking when I get home to South Carolina. I could not resist a sale on red and green seedless grapes so I processed them and froze them to transport south. I have never done this before. Any suggestions will be appreciated
 
Hi I am traveling in Southern California and planning to start up my winemaking when I get home to South Carolina. I could not resist a sale on red and green seedless grapes so I processed them and froze them to transport south. I have never done this before. Any suggestions will be appreciated

When I started I used "the joy of home wine making" by Terry Garey. He makes wine out of just about anything. Follow his guidelines for specific gravity and Total acidity, throw in some pectic enzyme and a bit of tannin and yeast nutrient and you can't go wrong...

oh and some sulfite too
 
Hi I am traveling in Southern California and planning to start up my winemaking when I get home to South Carolina. I could not resist a sale on red and green seedless grapes so I processed them and froze them to transport south. I have never done this before. Any suggestions will be appreciated

Never done frozen Grapes myself! I imagine its the same as fresh grapes, but you may not need much pectic enzyme, as the freezing has helped to destroy the cell walls of the fruit.

Try picking up 'Vines to Wines' from Jeff Cox. Or 'Techniques in Home Winemaking' by Daniel Pambianchi. Very comprehensive.
 
It doesnt. It just makes it easier to get juice out by rupturing some of the cell walls.
if you don't have any pectic enzyme freezing the fruit will be your better option.
it will also make it easier for your pectic enzyme to do the job
 
So I want to start up this thread again and see what other people have managed to make this year with their personal harvests.

The only thing I managed to make this year was a 2 gallons batch of raspberry/blackberry wine. Right now it is aging is secondary for a bit until i decide if i want to bottle it carbed or still. I also have some frozen rhubarb I might experiment with if i have the time.

What have other people been making?!
 
I have started (first wines) with Pumpkin (1 Gal), Sloe (2 Gal). I am really struggling with both because the poor yeasties seem stressed - smelly smelly. I have fermented them both (to this point) on the 'fruit' and racked the Pumpkin off tonight into a carboy. I have added extra nutrient to help the yeast as I racked and both have been fermenting away happily just giving off a lot of smelly gas. Tomorrow I will rack the Sloe and again add more nutrient to help my poor stressed yeasties. I have also tried aerating and adding more nutrient but nothing much seems to help. Any thoughts?
 
So I want to start up this thread again and see what other people have managed to make this year with their personal harvests.

The only thing I managed to make this year was a 2 gallons batch of raspberry/blackberry wine. Right now it is aging is secondary for a bit until i decide if i want to bottle it carbed or still. I also have some frozen rhubarb I might experiment with if i have the time.

What have other people been making?!

For me, it's been "same old, same old"!

Right now in my living room, I have:
24 gallons crabapple wine
4 gallons hard cider
9 gallons plum wine
6 gallons rhubarb wine
3 gallons dandelion wine
3 gallons oaked blackberry wine
7 gallons grape wine (concord and beta x grapes)
1 gallon blueberry

and 10 gallons of beer in primary.

I still haven't started on the apples (although they have been crushed, they are frozen) or the chokecherries (in the freezer). I'm going to be doing that sometime this week.
 
For me this year has been about experimenting with cider. I have four different batches either bottled, fermenting, or in the planning stages. I am hoping to push my knowledge a bit further this year with different techniques and additives.

As for wine I was very disappointed not to get my hands on some South African juice. I wanted to make a new varietal called Chenin Blanc , but could not get any juice until the next harvest coming this spring. Oh well! A project for a few months down the road.
 
Our elderberries we eaten by fruit flies, then we noticed our seedling apple trees were loaded and like William are experimenting with cider this year, its a yeast variety trail year, and playing with honey from our bees to. WVMJ
 
This is my first year making wine, but somehow I ended up with the following:

5g chokecherry
3g zucchini
2g highbush cranberry
6g blackberry
8g hard cider from our trees
2g barberry
2g crabapple
1g pumpkin
1.5g white grape from naturalized vines

I think I lost control.
 
For me, it's been "same old, same old"!

Right now in my living room, I have:
24 gallons crabapple wine
4 gallons hard cider
9 gallons plum wine
6 gallons rhubarb wine
3 gallons dandelion wine
3 gallons oaked blackberry wine
7 gallons grape wine (concord and beta x grapes)
1 gallon blueberry

and 10 gallons of beer in primary.

I still haven't started on the apples (although they have been crushed, they are frozen) or the chokecherries (in the freezer). I'm going to be doing that sometime this week.
Wow!
 
Here's my tally:

5 g Frontenac Red Grape
2 g Raspberry Mead (the honey comes from a friend's Dad)
4 g Cider
1.5 g of back-lane grape sweet red wine (My attempt at a Manischewitz clone, I found some grapes growing wild down by a creek at the end of the lane)

10 lbs of raspberries and 10lbs of saskatoons waiting in the freezer. Saskatoon-wheat beer is in the works...

The first AG batch I did wasa hefeweizen, made with wheat and barley I grew in my urban backyard, malted, and used backyard hops. It was the desire to make a backyard beer that got me deeper into the hobby!
 
My yard is my own little vineyard. I have 2 plum trees, 5 muscadine vines, 5 Mexican black grape vines
 
I've found it's cheaper to grow your own for wine. I have 2 polmagrante trees, 2 plum trees, 2 peach trees, 1 fig tree, 5 muscadine vines, 5 Mexican black grape vines ( planted this year), 2 raised strawberry beds. I love growing and making wine/ mead out of things I've grown. It gives me more of a satisfying feeling when it's all in a bottle knowing that I know where it came from and what was put on the plants. I'm planning on getting some bee hives going I the future for my own honey.
 
This is my first year making wine, but somehow I ended up with the following:

5g chokecherry
3g zucchini
2g highbush cranberry
6g blackberry
8g hard cider from our trees
2g barberry
2g crabapple
1g pumpkin
1.5g white grape from naturalized vines

I think I lost control.

How did the barberry turn out for you? Found a massive barberry bush growing wild today and thought of picking a bucket full for wine. Not finding a lot of info on using them for much more than jelly.
 
I grow crabapples, grapes, blackberries, rhubarb, elderberries, and so on.

I pick chokecherries, strawberries, blueberries, apples, etc- whatever I can find.

Those are some of my favorite wines.

Isn't that a song???
 
How did the barberry turn out for you? Found a massive barberry bush growing wild today and thought of picking a bucket full for wine. Not finding a lot of info on using them for much more than jelly.


Hard to say... It's sitting semi-forgotten and unloved in the basement waiting to be bottled after two years. I really should get around to doing something with it. Got a big crop again from a bush I'm trying to eradicate - probably will add them to a sour beer this time though.
 
Man...I feel like a slacker now! All I have done is plum and prickly pear wine and they are young, jury is still out on those.
 
I'm making 2 gallons of muscadine wine from two homegrown vines in my backyard. I planted a 3rd vine in late September and will add a 4th vine in November in order to increase my production in the coming years. I also made several pints of muscadine jelly which is out of this world.
 
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