Watermelon Wine

About 10 lbs of white sugar
Watermelon juice to 4.5 gallons
OG approximately 1.120

Acid blend, yeast nutrients, pectic enzyme, Red Star Champagne Yeast.


To get the juice from the melons I scooped them into a blender and pureed. Then poured through a mesh strainer. After draining a bit I dumped the pulp into a cheese cloth lined colander to let it drip out into a bowl while I worked on my next batch.

I'll take an SG reading and taste it in a week. If I really like it I'll add about a gallon and a half of watermelon juice sweetened to the 1.12 gravity when I rack it.

It's been in the primary for 3 days.
I only open and stir my primary once, on day two. The fact of the matter is that yeast are anaerobic except during the time that they are reproducing.

I also use a sealed top and airlock for the whole fermentation process.
C02 is heavier than air, so covering with a towel does nothing but invite wild yeast and bacteria to the party.
If I was fermenting something that produced a lot of chunky head I'd use a blowoff tube instead of airlock.

That said, my airlock is chugging away like a steam locamotive trying to make up for lost time, and I can hear the must fuzzing away.

Good luck to you! I did a test batch of watermelon wine just once and it turned out pretty foul and stinky. I still have a bottle of it in the fridge to see if it gets any better, but the rest has been dumped. My problem may have been overly ripe fruit.

I did a batch of watermelon mead and it turned out awful. Did pretty much exactly what you did but used honey instead of sugar. Good luck though!

Have you made this before or is it an experiment?

This is a Jack Keller ricipe. I used sulphides to avoid spoilage during fermentation. I also pitched the same night that I prepared the must.

I guess watermelon juice goes bad VERY quickly, which could be the reason for the bad luck y'all have experienced.

I ferment so quick that the watermelon still has an under-ripe taste when it hits the glass. No problems going bad here.

You don't control the speed of fermentation, that's up to the yeast.

ColonelAngus said:

You don't control the speed of fermentation, that's up to the yeast.

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Selection of yeast and temperature both play a vital roll in the process in which the winemaker controls.

PH and Nutrient also play a part but I don't think I would personally run into any problem with those.

The better the environment, the faster it goes.

Not necessarily better.
One gets better flavor at 65° than 75° for most wine yeasts, but the yeast works faster at 75-80°


Yeast also works faster in a lower acid environment, but most wines taste like poop without enough acid.

Furthermore, fermentation doesn't effect the ripeness of the melon. Use ripe tasty melons and your wine will taste more like tasty melons.

If you mean still fermenting swill by under ripe, then just let it age and clarify longer before bottling and drinking. Once the alcohol reaches a preservitave level you don't need to worry about spoilage.

I throw a change up into the whole process. I use distiller yeast and ferment at 85F in an acidic (low ph) juice. By under ripe, I am saying I need to let the watermelon sit out for a week before using it to dampen the green taste. For me, the alcohol reaches a preservative level in a mater of hours.

Well turbo yeast does work very fast at 85F but in my experience not every fruit or veggie out there is made for fermenting,I tried a pineapple wine and it was awful, not every recipe from Jack Keller's website is good to try, I mean just imagine celery wine or even worse onion wine, bleach.

Yeah on his site it says that the Garlic Wine won first place or gold medal,I wonder what crazy wine show would award 1st place to a garlic wine.
Maybe it's just me but I'm the sort of person who thinks that garlic ice cream(or wine) is not a brilliant idea, seriously garlic is for cooking not desserts or wines,and I think the same about the other vegetable wine recipes and the watermelon one.

Brew_Master said:

I tried a pineapple wine and it was awful.

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I made a Berry blend wine that wasn't as fruitful as I like so I dumped a 48oz can of pineapple juice in it after stabilizing and it turned out great.

CampFireWine said:

I made a Berry blend wine that wasn't as fruitful as I like so I dumped a 48oz can of pineapple juice in it after stabilizing and it turned out great.

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Ever try wine grapes or grape juice for a dry wine? Or is it all fruit wines?

Tread82 said:

Ever try wine grapes or grape juice for a dry wine? Or is it all fruit wines?

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Too much tannin and bitter after taste in typical wine grapes and grape juice for me. The closest I have came to that was white-grape but still not close. I never dry out my wines.

Hey to each his own, some people are just old fashion and consider true wine only made from good grapes,after reading this thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/nasty-pineapple-wine-worth-waiting-218596/ I noticed pretty much everybody has a bad experience with pineapple wine.

I like to make country wines. I leave the grape wines to the experts in Italy. (I prefer Italian wines, though the French do a good job)

My favorite homebrew wines so far are Strawberry, Strawberry Rhubarb, Blueberry, Apple and I even enjoy Sumak.

I expect the body to be light on the watermelon. The flavor as well.

I plan to try a sweet cherry, a sour cherry and a strawberry/kiwi.

I'll be freeing up a carboy to rack this into tomorrow. My Black Mead will make it's new home in some gallon glass jugs to bulk age.

I grabbed an autosiphon from the brewshop a while back, it rocks!