What good country wine to make?

[199q]

I recently came into a few 1 gal carboys. I usually use the 5 gal, but now I can do a few smaller batches to see what I like.

I am making right now the Joe's Anichent mead, and a strawberry wine.

I also made 5 gal of hard lemonade, so no lemon recipes please :cross:

I was wondering if anyone had a good fruit or berry that they recommend making into a wine. I am in northern california so I have a decent availability of fresh fruits.

what do you guys like and what seems to be a big crowd pleaser?

 

[Nurmey]

I would recomend anything under Yooper's recipes. She had quite a few in the database. Also, Jack Keller's website has more recipes than anyone could make in a lifetime.

The Winemaking Home Page

 

[199q]

Oh I know about jack keller, I will check out yooper's though. I was wondering if there were any favorites. its a little overwhelming looking at Jack keller's site and trying to decide what to make.

 

[ChshreCat]

Sometimes you're better off seeing what the best fruit you can get is and finding a recipe to match, rather than finding a recipe and then searching for fruit.

 

[Freezeblade]

of all my "country wines" or non-grape wines I've made, the best one has been a Pineapple Wine, sweet, tart, and pairs awesomely with meditranian food or currys.

for a 1-gallon recipe:
12-16 oz water (spring water works great, as long as it's pre-boiled)
1.5 cups Sugar (I used Evaporated Cane Sugar)
Fill with 100% Pineapple Juice (Trader Joes brand, stay away from cans if possible)
Lalvin 71B-1122 (metabolizes some of the malic acid, this yeast is important)
Pectic enzyme/nutrient as directed on package.

Ferment for 3 weeks then rack onto 1/4 of a fresh pineapple, cubed. Leave on fruit for 10 days, then rack again. Ready at 6 months, but just gets better with age.

 

[199q]

of all my "country wines" or non-grape wines I've made, the best one has been a Pineapple Wine, sweet, tart, and pairs awesomely with meditranian food or currys.

for a 1-gallon recipe:
12-16 oz water (spring water works great, as long as it's pre-boiled)
1.5 cups Sugar (I used Evaporated Cane Sugar)
Fill with 100% Pineapple Juice (Trader Joes brand, stay away from cans if possible)
Lalvin 71B-1122 (metabolizes some of the malic acid, this yeast is important)
Pectic enzyme/nutrient as directed on package.

Ferment for 3 weeks then rack onto 1/4 of a fresh pineapple, cubed. Leave on fruit for 10 days, then rack again. Ready at 6 months, but just gets better with age.

wow that sounds good! I am going to try this one!

 

[petes]

For me tamarillo is a stand out for wines. Couple of choices around, my results aren't in the bottle (soon) but sure ticking the boxes.
(Then if you want to go the honey way, looking outstanding there too )

 

[199q]

For me tamarillo is a stand out for wines. Couple of choices around, my results aren't in the bottle (soon) but sure ticking the boxes.
(Then if you want to go the honey way, looking outstanding there too )

Do you have a recipe for this? is this a fruit I can get here in the US?

Thanks

EDIT: Just took a little look at this, it looks good, now where could I find something like this?

 

[199q]

last night I started both a Frozen strawberry wine recipe, and also the pineapple posted above. The pineapple is going crazy! but smells great. also the strawberry smells good, but its merrily fermenting now.

I have about 27 gallons of beer/wine going right now.

 

[petes]

Wiki says tamarillos are cultivated in the States, so I'd imagine you'd be able to find them without too much of a stretch.
Google up tamarillo wine and look for an entry from Perth Amateur Winemakers Club of Western Australia; I have one of these down.
Other came from Pain's 'Making Wine at Home'.
Either, to me, are stand outs in the 33 wines I've put down over the last 10 months. Both unbottled as yet but have fermented out and cleared with far less work them many of my others.
Have high hopes for a tamarillo melomel I concocted. It looks extremely promising but at around 20%ABV suspect it'll take a while before I can fully appreciate it!

 

[gicts]

I love making strawberry jam wine. It's in the tiny purple book with all of the spelling errors. Perhaps the best recipe in there. I think it's somewhere between 2-3 lbs of jelly per gallon. I wait til the store is having a sale, then load up. Wine ends up smelling and tasting just like Schmucker's jelly

 

[Pogo]

Hey, Freezeblade -

In your Pineapple Wine recipe above...I'm curious as to why the use of 12-16 ounces of water.

When working with a one gallon primary, this means that that much juice will be displaced by the water.

Would not an ALL juice recipe yield a superior result?

Pogo

 

[Freezeblade]

Hey, Freezeblade -

In your Pineapple Wine recipe above...I'm curious as to why the use of 12-16 ounces of water.

When working with a one gallon primary, this means that that much juice will be displaced by the water.

Would not an ALL juice recipe yield a superior result?

Pogo

My first batch was without water, and the acid from the pineapple was just too much to handle, and I ended up watering down the wine with some water in the glass at serving in order to make it be pleasant. The 71B-1122 helped quite a bit with the amount of acid, but just the yeast wasn't enough. You can do it without the water, but be prepared for a VERY acidic wine, not to my liking or to most everyone who has sampled it.

 

[casebrew]

I'm on my 4th batch of fruit wines, the only kind I've done. I use free fruit, or brew when something is on sale for 50¢/lb.

LowQuat (free)was an awesome white wine.

Plum was/is excellent, still got 4 bottles. Sugar added per recipe. You do feel the alcohol in your nose hairs after a sip.

Pear is coming along. I let the case of fruit ripen a week or so before squashing it, in the mean time building a scratter mill to shred hard fruit. My guess is it got plenty ripe, because the SG is down to 985, what with adding the sugar per the recipe. Lots of trub/lees/goop in pears.

Prickly Pear is in secondary as of this morning. I picked and froze them as they ripened, on our back yard cactus. Up to a month in the freezer. With the cells being broken by the freezing, they turned to juice in the freezer bags. I went a little cautious on the added sugar, after the plum and pear got a bit potent. 7% by brix, this morning, I added 5# plus a gallon, up to the recipe totals now. SG 1.020 now, bubbling away.

I've done them all on must, filtering after primary by running through the fruit press with a paint strainer bag. And today for the prickly pear, I put the paint bag inside of a lingerie wash bag from the 99¢ store. Last time, I blew a hole in the paint strainer bag full of pear squeezin's.

My goal hasn't been to make the best variatal there is, I'm just trying to enjoy making an alternative to Two Buck Chuck or box wine. Not been waiting for clarity, If I can see any light through the carboy, it's time to serve it. No de-gassing, no topping-up (the C02 ought to keep air out). The twist-spigotted bags inside box wine are easy to refill, the valve pops right out. Push-button ones don't come out no matter what. Disassemble the box, turn the box inside out, and you have an air-tight serving system of wine in "a plain brown wrapper", always better than Two-Buck-Chuck. Damn fine, actually, this from some higher level winos than me.

Oh, my Food For Less store has a "Two Dolla Bolla Wine". Tisdale brand. $1.98, glass bottle and cork included. I haven't opened any yet, don't need the bottles yet.

 

[casebrew]

Oh, and a question re: wine vs beer

Beer wort has all of the sugars dissolved. whereas wine must hast lots of goop still stuck to the peels at initial fermentation. My wines have tended to just enough too much alcohol, when sugar is added to make 25 brix to start. That is similar to grape juice. Any way to get a true sugar content of must, what with all those fermentibles NOT is suspension?

 

[boo boo]

I recently came into a few 1 gal carboys. I usually use the 5 gal, but now I can do a few smaller batches to see what I like.

I am making right now the Joe's Anichent mead, and a strawberry wine.

I also made 5 gal of hard lemonade, so no lemon recipes please :cross:

I was wondering if anyone had a good fruit or berry that they recommend making into a wine. I am in northern california so I have a decent availability of fresh fruits.

what do you guys like and what seems to be a big crowd pleaser?

I do a killer blueberry wine and have a recipie for 1 gallon I think somewhere.
If you have access to fresh berries this is a must, pardon the pun.
But I use frozen berries as the juice extraction is higher this way.

 

[199q]

I do a killer blueberry wine and have a recipie for 1 gallon I think somewhere.
If you have access to fresh berries this is a must, pardon the pun.
But I use frozen berries as the juice extraction is higher this way.

yeah that's why I did a strawberry. Plus the extreme expert jack keller recommends that too.

I am going to try a blackberry and a blueberry too. I put the little bit of water in the pinapple. it has been one heck of a ferment! make sure to leave room in the carboy for this guy! it has been settling out really well too. I will need a big top up after I rack it off the pineapple fruit. BTW should those be fresh pineapple? or what is the best to use there. when I rack it it will be the middle of January. not exactly prime pineapple season.

 

[199q]

Oh, and a question re: wine vs beer

Beer wort has all of the sugars dissolved. whereas wine must hast lots of goop still stuck to the peels at initial fermentation. My wines have tended to just enough too much alcohol, when sugar is added to make 25 brix to start. That is similar to grape juice. Any way to get a true sugar content of must, what with all those fermentibles NOT is suspension?

unless the sugars are dissolved into solution, there is no way to tell. well there is, but after your wine is done and some fancy equipment.


Freezeblade: Where do you get your pineapple? I would go to get fresh stuff.... but it looks like I will be going the store bought/imported/not as fresh route. how much does this effect it?

also if this turns out good I will make 5 gal of it and make a meritage with my strawberry wine. a strawberry pineapple. how does that sound???

 

[Freezeblade]

Freezeblade: Where do you get your pineapple? I would go to get fresh stuff.... but it looks like I will be going the store bought/imported/not as fresh route. how much does this effect it?

I get my pineapple from the local grocery, really cheap but that's probably due to where I live. if you're going for the non-whole pineapple for the secondary go for the type in big thick bags (I know they sell it like that at smart and final and possibly cosco) over the stuff in cans, the cans leave a bit of a metal taste to me. as for the juice, I got Trader Joe's Juice (although I'm sure a similar product is available at whole foods or your local hippymart), it only seems to be in the stores when it's seasonal however. my suggestion though is to stay away from cans, YMMV.

 

[199q]

I get my pineapple from the local grocery, really cheap but that's probably due to where I live. if you're going for the non-whole pineapple for the secondary go for the type in big thick bags (I know they sell it like that at smart and final and possibly cosco) over the stuff in cans, the cans leave a bit of a metal taste to me. as for the juice, I got Trader Joe's Juice (although I'm sure a similar product is available at whole foods or your local hippymart), it only seems to be in the stores when it's seasonal however. my suggestion though is to stay away from cans, YMMV.

I have a ralphs here in town that has it fresh. but I cant imagine its too good.... isnt the growing season abit......... over? oh well ill try that one out though its more than enough and ill have some leftover too.

have you made more than a 1 gal batch? we have a cash n carry that sells this by the gallon and by the 5 gal as well too. Ill scale up the recipe. what do you think of strawberry pineapple wine?

 

[Freezeblade]

I have a ralphs here in town that has it fresh. but I cant imagine its too good.... isnt the growing season abit......... over? oh well ill try that one out though its more than enough and ill have some leftover too.

have you made more than a 1 gal batch? we have a cash n carry that sells this by the gallon and by the 5 gal as well too. Ill scale up the recipe. what do you think of strawberry pineapple wine?

I've done a few 1 gallons and a 3-gallon, I like having many little and inexpensive batches untill I find what I -really- like, then I do bigger batches of it. As for the strawberry-pineapple, I really don't mix my fruits in wine/mead, I feel it takes away from the overall purity of the recipe, feeling, or concept of the batch. IMHO

 

[199q]

I've done a few 1 gallons and a 3-gallon, I like having many little and inexpensive batches untill I find what I -really- like, then I do bigger batches of it. As for the strawberry-pineapple, I really don't mix my fruits in wine/mead, I feel it takes away from the overall purity of the recipe, feeling, or concept of the batch. IMHO

yeah thats why I do a ton of 1 gal batches, if they are good they make it to the 5 gal.

I love to experiement so I probably will try a meritage of the strawberry and the pineapple. ill make 2 bottles of it and let it age forever. that might be good though.