Wine Suggestions?

Hey yall, my bride has hinted to me a couple of times how I should put on a batch of wine on for her. The funny thing is .... she really doesn't like wine (I know... I know...lol)

Well, she likes sweet wines without a harsh alcohol taste. I am afraid I may be hunting something that doesn't exists here. I was just wondering if yall had some suggestions to what I could possibly try.

My better half has been very supportive of my beer brewing so I figured the least I can do is try and grant her this wish.

Thanks for any info on this.....

Sounds like you should do some kind of a dessert wine. I'm hoping to do a blackberry wine one of these days soon.

That was what I was kind of thinking, but I know "Nothing" about wine. My grandfather use to make a lot of it back in the day. I believe they where considered Country Wines being how they where muscadine, pear, strawberry, etc.... but they where way strong from what I remember. I do know that the first time I ever seen waves in a floor was after drinking a bunch of it. Talk about trashed....lol

Those are considered country wines right?

Does she like wine coolers? If so, your best bet is to buy an inexpensive and easy to make Island Mist kit. They come in all kinds of sweet fruit juice + wine flavors.

Hey Leprechaun...used to live in Charles Co. MD. NOw in N.C. and just bottled 15 gal of Blackberry wine...Farmer get 7 gal Church gets 6 gal and I get the rest...Real easy to make...


Rick Turner

Depends on what you want to do. If you want to go the kit route, you could go with the lighter abv and sweeter wines, these are generally ready to drink pretty quick too.

If you want to do a more "country wine", or fruit wine, then this is what I would do. I would start with a low gravity base of whatever fruit she likes, based on juices, fruits, and sugars. Shoot for around 7-9% abv, let it ferment to dryness. Then if you want a still wine, stabilize it and backsweeten to whatever sweetness. If you want a sparkling wine, backsweeten to the same desired sweetness and then prime with 1oz of sugar per gallon just like beer and bottle in champagne or beer bottles.

Or you could overshoot the alcohol tolerance of the yeast you choose, then you don't have to stabilize, but you will have a much stronger brew. (Currently working on maxing out at 14% one for my SWMBO and an 18% mead for myself)

summersolstice said:

Does she like wine coolers? If so, your best bet is to buy an inexpensive and easy to make Island Mist kit. They come in all kinds of sweet fruit juice + wine flavors.

Click to expand...

This may be exactly what she may be looking for. Can you find these "Cool-Aid" kits anywhere? (the term I use to comment most my wife's drinks. Of course her reply is "It's better than that kidney diseased horse piss your drinking"....lol)

Hey Tusch, I do want to get into the country wine thing some day. Would be kind of like walking in my grandfathers footsteps. Is there some sort of info here on the net that better explains some of the steps of the process?

My brother just had great success with Vinter's Reserve Müller Thurgau kit. It was his best kit yet.

German Muller-Thurgau - Delicious flavors of apricot, green apple and peach aromas of Riesling, and the early ripening qualities of Silvaner. A great sipping wine, it's a perfect choice for potato chips (There's nothing like a crisp glass of Muller-Thurgau and some crunchy chips!) but mostly it's a very satisfying wine to quench a thirst in good company.

Maveric777 said:

This may be exactly what she may be looking for. Can you find these "Cool-Aid" kits anywhere? (the term I use to comment most my wife's drinks. Of course her reply is "It's better than that kidney diseased horse piss your drinking"....lol)

Hey Tusch, I do want to get into the country wine thing some day. Would be kind of like walking in my grandfathers footsteps. Is there some sort of info here on the net that better explains some of the steps of the process?

Click to expand...

An easy place to start is an Island Mist or Orchard Breezing kit. These have good instructions and all the ingredients needs to make a low alcohol sweet fruity wine. Or you could go with a Blush, White Zin or some other type of sweet wine kit.

If you are interested in making country wines then it gets a little more complex and it may more difficult to figure out what she will like as many recipes do not make something you can easily buy. However this can also be more rewarding.

And yes you can make wines to suit nearly any style at home. The only difficult thing to accomplish for the home wine maker is a sweet AND sparkling wine.

Craig

Maveric777 said:

This may be exactly what she may be looking for. Can you find these "Cool-Aid" kits anywhere? (the term I use to comment most my wife's drinks. Of course her reply is "It's better than that kidney diseased horse piss your drinking"....lol)

Hey Tusch, I do want to get into the country wine thing some day. Would be kind of like walking in my grandfathers footsteps. Is there some sort of info here on the net that better explains some of the steps of the process?

Click to expand...

Those kits are available at every LHBS and online. My best friend loves them. Her favorite is "Mango Citrus Symphony". I've had it, and it's ok if you like fruity kinda sweet wine-like drinks. It's about 8% ABV. The kit is about $55 or so, I believe, and makes 6 gallons. There have other kinds, like Blackberry Merlot, Kiwi Pear, etc.

For country wines, I highly recommend this website: winemaking: The Basic Steps
That page is called "basic steps" and then elaborates on each step. He has 100s of recipe on his site, for every kind of country wine imaginable. I've made many of his recipes, and have loved them all.

summersolstice said:

Does she like wine coolers? If so, your best bet is to buy an inexpensive and easy to make Island Mist kit. They come in all kinds of sweet fruit juice + wine flavors.

Click to expand...

+1 on the Island Mist. I got one from NB and my daughter likes it a lot. She likes sweeter wines. My wife likes dry wine so it isn't her thing.

Maveric777 said:

This may be exactly what she may be looking for. Can you find these "Cool-Aid" kits anywhere? (the term I use to comment most my wife's drinks. Of course her reply is "It's better than that kidney diseased horse piss your drinking"....lol

Click to expand...

The Jamil Show is doing an episode on Malt Liquor shortly... that might be beneficial, too.

Search for 'The Winemakers Toy Store'. George is very helpful. His shop is located in Carrollton, TX. I buy all my wine stuff there. He has all the best kits.

Wow! Thanks for all the info yall. I am sitting here discussing with the wife trying to figure which way to go. I'll start doing some looking around tomorrow. I'm beat tonight... After transferring brews, bottling brews, and cleaning every thing ...I have about run out of gas......lol

Can't tell yall thanks enough for all the help.

If I may vote; the Green Apple Reisling kit is pretty darn good (for kool-aid). I've got my second one going now. Cool thing is you can keg it and put it on low pressure for sparkling wine. It's good for an occasional change up - chicks dig it!

-OCD

Bah, just make a batch of Apfelwein, remove all the liquids in the house, shut off the tap water and get in bed naked

Henny said:

Bah, just make a batch of Apfelwein, remove all the liquids in the house, shut off the tap water and get in bed naked

Click to expand...

Ha Ha! I love the way you think!

Henny said:

Bah, just make a batch of Apfelwein, remove all the liquids in the house, shut off the tap water and get in bed naked

Click to expand...

Can't wait to try the stuff, everyone on this board is just so crazy about it. I have 5 gallons of Apfelwein, 6 gallons of the Green Apple Reisling, and 10 gallons of beer fermenting right now. I'm an equal opportunity kinda guy.

FWIW: The Costco apple juice is really good stuff, not from concentrate, USA apples at about $4 gallon. So that's about a third the cost of a Riesling kit, not even counting shipping.

-OCD

Maveric777 said:

This may be exactly what she may be looking for. Can you find these "Cool-Aid" kits anywhere? (the term I use to comment most my wife's drinks. Of course her reply is "It's better than that kidney diseased horse piss your drinking"....lol)

Click to expand...

You could always give actual kool-aid "wine" a go...

I Haven't tried it myself, but the idea is that you ferment sugar and water, then add Kool-Aid (2 sachets per gallon), then let it age for a couple of weeks - people who haven't tried it tell me it shouldn't work (nothing other than sugar for the yeast to "eat"), put people who have tried it say that you get a decent Alco-Pop. I must admit, If I were to try it I'd be tempted to add some nutrient at the start to make sure.

The reason people on here advise against that kool-aid brew is that sugar water fermented is just pure hooch. And not a particularly tasty hooch as I understand it.