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Lum's Down and Dirty Winemaking Thread
#1
I’ve been approached on occasion here and on other forums to give a quick tutorial on how I make wine.

Winemaking is something that my family has always done and I picked up the basics young in life. I have had the benefit of going through my father’s recipe books and the wealth of knowledge he learned from his father as well as his experiments over the years. I’ve been doing it for over 30 years so maybe something I have learned over that time may help others.

The process itself is simple… sugar and yeast are put in an environment where the yeast eats the sugar and converts it into alcohol until there is no sugar left and it becomes dormant or the yeast dies when the alcohol in its environment becomes too high for it to live.

Making a wine that actually tastes good is another matter all together.

What I’m going to focus on in this thread is the simplest and easiest wine to make… a berry or fruit wine.

You CAN do this in gallon containers and just use a balloon as an airlock, but what I would recommend as basic equipment to start up is the following:

1./ a five gallon container. The easiest way to get one is simply buy 5 gallons of water at your local store. You are after the container… I would suggest buying a container that has a handle.

2./ an airlock. I like the twin bubble airlocks. You can buy them on Amazon with a bung for a few dollars. You will also need some alcohol variant (I use cheap vodka) to fill your airlock with. You can use water, but that makes the wine susceptible to bacterial invasion in the beginning. PRO TIP… the “bung” is what you are going to be putting into the mouth of the 5 gallon jug. These come in different sizes! So figure out what size bung will fit your new container.

3./ a large funnel, preferably one that has a removable strainer.

That’s really about it besides a few kitchen utensils. If you are going to be bottling your wine you will need corks, bottles and a corker… I used a cheap double lever corker for decades with no problems. You can get one on Amazon for 20 bucks. You can either use recycled bottles or purchase them… you are looking for a 750ml wine bottle, preferably clear. Corks also come in different sizes!!!

On to the basics.

The 5 important parts of winemaking are water, yeast, temperature, ingredients and time.

1./ WATER. Water quality is important in a wine. Yes, you can make a wine with fluoridated city tap water. I would not recommend it. If all else, water that has gone through a reverse osmosis process will work just fine, although I am personally not a fan of it because it de-mineralizes the water and makes the water too acidic.

2./ YEAST. There are many different varieties of yeast. The battle over which yeast is better for which wine has raged for centuries and is a topic all of itself. Keep in mind, different yeasts give you different flavors, different back tastes, different finished alcohol percentages.

I use 3 different types of yeast…

a./ Red Star or Fleishman’s baking yeast. I will explain why in a moment.

b./ Red Star Montrachet wine yeast. I have experimented with yeasts for decades and always come back to this one for berry or fruit wines.

c./ Red Star DADY distiller’s yeast.

For a basic berry or fruit wine using a wine yeast will not impart any odd flavors to your wine and will get you to a 13-15% ABV. If you want to get adventurous and make some really good wine that also ends up at over 20% ABV, I will explain double fermentation later in the thread.

3./TEMPERATURE. When fermenting your wine, temperature is important. Under 60 degrees Fahrenheit, your yeast get sluggish and may go dormant. Over 75 degrees Fahrenheit, your yeast may overproduce, add odd flavors to the mix and kill itself off prematurely. A stable temperature though the entire process allows you to be able to repeat a recipe that you like. Which is why historically wines were made in caves… they have a stable temperature.

Temperature is also important with a berry or fruit wine when we prepare the ingredients for the maceration process by boiling them. Maceration is essentially the process of breaking down the cell structures of your ingredients and allowing the skins, flesh and seeds of the fruit or berry to leach into the “must”, or body of your wine.

4./ INGREDIENTS. Only pick or get the best quality ingredients that you can. Go organic! You do not want to make a batch of wine that you have taken the time to concentrate a lot of pesticides in. No rotting fruit or unripe berries. Keep consistent ingredients and again you can repeat a recipe you like.

ALWAYS use a cane sugar. Beet sugar has a bit of it's chemical composition that yeast can't digest so it is left in your wine. Your intestines don't know what to do with it either so it results in gas and/or diarrhea. Like drinking a cheap beer.

5./ TIME. Making wine is not a race. Some wines take months or years to clarify and mature. With most fruit or berry wines, however, the quality and taste of the wine does not really improve with age so that is a benefit for those starting out. What you pour out of the jug when the fermentation is done is pretty much what it’s going to taste like 10 years from now out of a bottle.


OK! Now with the basics out of the way, let’s get on with the important part!

Here is my secret recipe to every berry and fruit wine that I have ever started with that will get you on your path to making a good wine.

1 gallon jam or jelly recipe, any fruit or berry. Use just the berry/fruit, sugar and water part of the recipe. Boil until skins on berries have burst.

3 gallons water. Add both to your 5 gallon container. Let cool to room temperature.

Add wine yeast, put in airlock, walk away. Wait until the airlock is no longer bubbling.

Strain out berries/fruit.

You are done… drink.


Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Now of course there are layers and layers of other things that you can do to this basic recipe. There are also some basic problems you will run into as you perfect your recipes.

1./ Too Dry. Your wine is done and it is so dry that it puckers your facehole. The easy fix is to add a pound of sugar, let sit a week to make sure that the yeast is indeed dead, re-taste. Too dry still? Repeat step one. Remember how much sugar you had to add for the next recipe.

2./ Too sweet. You’ve inadvertently made a syrup. The easy fix for the batch, double ferment it… add DADY yeast and re-taste after the yeast has died off again. Remember to use less sugar next time.

3./ Tasteless. You made a wonderful pear wine that tastes like rubbing alcohol. The usual problem here is that the alcohol content is too high and you have over-ridden the taste of the fruit. This is a problem with pear, strawberry, watermelon and huckleberry wines, to mention a few. The short-term fix is to strain the batch, add another gallon of the same fruit and let sit a month. The long-term fix is to use a yeast that dies off at a lower alcohol percentage. Use baker’s yeast next time.

At the end of the day, you can take a basic recipe, tweak it as you go and come up with a wine that people will love.

Now to the fun part… double fermentation.

I use this with wines that have a heavy taste anyways… like elderberry, blackberry, chokecherry, blueberry.

Make your first wine with a baker’s yeast… let the yeast die off.

Strain the wine into another 5 gallon container, add 4 pounds of sugar and a DADY yeast.

Pro Tip… if you are making a berry wine at this point add a handful of smoked wood chips. This is a topic all of its own as well, since I smoke my own wood chips so use ones like pear smoked maple chips, etc. My go-to for most wines though is French oak lightly smoked chips, available on Amazon at a few dollars a pound.

Let it die off again.

You now have a wine that will be between 20-22% ABV.

Which tastes absolutely wonderful.

This is the end of my basic thread but will answer any questions I can.

And keep in mind, fruit/berry wines are just the easiest to make. That in no way means that there are not others.

I've made potato wine, tomato wine, maple leaf wine, cucumber wine.

A pumpkin wine made the year before is perfect for the next Thanksgiving season.

The list goes on.

minusculebeercheers
[Image: attachment.php?aid=8135]

#2
(06-22-2020, 09:06 PM)Lumenari Wrote: I’ve been approached on occasion here and on other forums to give a quick tutorial on how I make wine.

Winemaking is something that my family has always done and I picked up the basics young in life. I have had the benefit of going through my father’s recipe books and the wealth of knowledge he learned from his father as well as his experiments over the years. I’ve been doing it for over 30 years so maybe something I have learned over that time may help others.

The process itself is simple… sugar and yeast are put in an environment where the yeast eats the sugar and converts it into alcohol until there is no sugar left and it becomes dormant or the yeast dies when the alcohol in its environment becomes too high for it to live.

Making a wine that actually tastes good is another matter all together.

What I’m going to focus on in this thread is the simplest and easiest wine to make… a berry or fruit wine.

You CAN do this in gallon containers and just use a balloon as an airlock, but what I would recommend as basic equipment to start up is the following:

1./ a five gallon container. The easiest way to get one is simply buy 5 gallons of water at your local store. You are after the container… I would suggest buying a container that has a handle.

2./ an airlock. I like the twin bubble airlocks. You can buy them on Amazon with a bung for a few dollars. You will also need some alcohol variant (I use cheap vodka) to fill your airlock with. You can use water, but that makes the wine susceptible to bacterial invasion in the beginning. PRO TIP… the “bung” is what you are going to be putting into the mouth of the 5 gallon jug. These come in different sizes! So figure out what size bung will fit your new container.

3./ a large funnel, preferably one that has a removable strainer.

That’s really about it besides a few kitchen utensils. If you are going to be bottling your wine you will need corks, bottles and a corker… I used a cheap double lever corker for decades with no problems. You can get one on Amazon for 20 bucks. You can either use recycled bottles or purchase them… you are looking for a 750ml wine bottle, preferably clear. Corks also come in different sizes!!!

On to the basics.

The 5 important parts of winemaking are water, yeast, temperature, ingredients and time.

1./ WATER. Water quality is important in a wine. Yes, you can make a wine with fluoridated city tap water. I would not recommend it. If all else, water that has gone through a reverse osmosis process will work just fine, although I am personally not a fan of it because it de-mineralizes the water and makes the water too acidic.

2./ YEAST. There are many different varieties of yeast. The battle over which yeast is better for which wine has raged for centuries and is a topic all of itself. Keep in mind, different yeasts give you different flavors, different back tastes, different finished alcohol percentages.

I use 3 different types of yeast…

a./ Red Star or Fleishman’s baking yeast. I will explain why in a moment.

b./ Red Star Montrachet wine yeast. I have experimented with yeasts for decades and always come back to this one for berry or fruit wines.

c./ Red Star DADY distiller’s yeast.

For a basic berry or fruit wine using a wine yeast will not impart any odd flavors to your wine and will get you to a 13-15% ABV. If you want to get adventurous and make some really good wine that also ends up at over 20% ABV, I will explain double fermentation later in the thread.

3./TEMPERATURE. When fermenting your wine, temperature is important. Under 60 degrees Fahrenheit, your yeast get sluggish and may go dormant. Over 75 degrees Fahrenheit, your yeast may overproduce, add odd flavors to the mix and kill itself off prematurely. A stable temperature though the entire process allows you to be able to repeat a recipe that you like. Which is why historically wines were made in caves… they have a stable temperature.

Temperature is also important with a berry or fruit wine when we prepare the ingredients for the maceration process by boiling them. Maceration is essentially the process of breaking down the cell structures of your ingredients and allowing the skins, flesh and seeds of the fruit or berry to leach into the “must”, or body of your wine.

4./ INGREDIENTS. Only pick or get the best quality ingredients that you can. Go organic! You do not want to make a batch of wine that you have taken the time to concentrate a lot of pesticides in. No rotting fruit or unripe berries. Keep consistent ingredients and again you can repeat a recipe you like.

ALWAYS use a cane sugar. Beet sugar has a bit of it's chemical composition that yeast can't digest so it is left in your wine. Your intestines don't know what to do with it either so it results in gas and/or diarrhea. Like drinking a cheap beer.

5./ TIME. Making wine is not a race. Some wines take months or years to clarify and mature. With most fruit or berry wines, however, the quality and taste of the wine does not really improve with age so that is a benefit for those starting out. What you pour out of the jug when the fermentation is done is pretty much what it’s going to taste like 10 years from now out of a bottle.


OK! Now with the basics out of the way, let’s get on with the important part!

Here is my secret recipe to every berry and fruit wine that I have ever started with that will get you on your path to making a good wine.

1 gallon jam or jelly recipe, any fruit or berry. Use just the berry/fruit, sugar and water part of the recipe. Boil until skins on berries have burst.

3 gallons water. Add both to your 5 gallon container. Let cool to room temperature.

Add wine yeast, put in airlock, walk away. Wait until the airlock is no longer bubbling.

Strain out berries/fruit.

You are done… drink.


Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Now of course there are layers and layers of other things that you can do to this basic recipe. There are also some basic problems you will run into as you perfect your recipes.

1./ Too Dry. Your wine is done and it is so dry that it puckers your facehole. The easy fix is to add a pound of sugar, let sit a week to make sure that the yeast is indeed dead, re-taste. Too dry still? Repeat step one. Remember how much sugar you had to add for the next recipe.

2./ Too sweet. You’ve inadvertently made a syrup. The easy fix for the batch, double ferment it… add DADY yeast and re-taste after the yeast has died off again. Remember to use less sugar next time.

3./ Tasteless. You made a wonderful pear wine that tastes like rubbing alcohol. The usual problem here is that the alcohol content is too high and you have over-ridden the taste of the fruit. This is a problem with pear, strawberry, watermelon and huckleberry wines, to mention a few. The short-term fix is to strain the batch, add another gallon of the same fruit and let sit a month. The long-term fix is to use a yeast that dies off at a lower alcohol percentage. Use baker’s yeast next time.

At the end of the day, you can take a basic recipe, tweak it as you go and come up with a wine that people will love.

Now to the fun part… double fermentation.

I use this with wines that have a heavy taste anyways… like elderberry, blackberry, chokecherry, blueberry.

Make your first wine with a baker’s yeast… let the yeast die off.

Strain the wine into another 5 gallon container, add 4 pounds of sugar and a DADY yeast.

Pro Tip… if you are making a berry wine at this point add a handful of smoked wood chips. This is a topic all of its own as well, since I smoke my own wood chips so use ones like pear smoked maple chips, etc. My go-to for most wines though is French oak lightly smoked chips, available on Amazon at a few dollars a pound.

Let it die off again.

You now have a wine that will be between 20-22% ABV.

Which tastes absolutely wonderful.

This is the end of my basic thread but will answer any questions I can.

And keep in mind, fruit/berry wines are just the easiest to make. That in no way means that there are not others.

I've made potato wine, tomato wine, maple leaf wine, cucumber wine.

A pumpkin wine made the year before is perfect for the next Thanksgiving season.

The list goes on.

minusculebeercheers

Thank you. I will give you a shout out after I get the materials and before I start.

For every one person that read this post. About 7.99 billion have not. 

Yet I still post.  tinyinlove
  • minusculebeercheers 


#3
I like to make my own homebrew.  It's always kits what I've used in the past. Made a mexican cerveza which was nice but didn't have much patience and drank it to early lol. Also made stout which was nice. Added a little vanilla essence to the bottles while I was carving them. Also left them for around 5 months. I've made a wine kit which was nice too. Only ever made cider from scratch with own apples etc. Might give this method a try. I always use water in the airlock but will try vodka next time. Thanks for posting this minusculebeercheers
#4
Sorry that it is a lot to unpack as far as information, but I crunched it down as best I could.

Any questions on anything I am right here daily from now on.

minusculebeercheers
[Image: attachment.php?aid=8135]

#5
(06-22-2020, 09:17 PM)TheDoctor46 Wrote: I like to make my own homebrew.  It's always kits what I've used in the past. Made a mexican cerveza which was nice but didn't have much patience and drank it to early lol. Also made stout which was nice. Added a little vanilla essence to the bottles while I was carving them. Also left them for around 5 months. I've made a wine kit which was nice too. Only ever made cider from scratch with own apples etc. Might give this method a try. I always use water in the airlock but will try vodka next time. Thanks for posting this minusculebeercheers

I let my wine sit without straining sometimes for a month or two to get more flavor from the must.

Once there is no positive pressure in the airlock there is a chance of bacterial bleed-through with water.

Found that out the hard way!


So better safe then sorry.

minusculebeercheers
[Image: attachment.php?aid=8135]

#6
Thanks for posting this again. I remember your thread in ATS. I’m looking for a new hobby, and I’m a wino, so why not? I may try to do a blackberry wine for the colder winter months.
[Image: attachment.php?aid=8180]
#7
(06-29-2020, 04:38 AM)ChiefD Wrote: Thanks for posting this again. I remember your thread in ATS. I’m looking for a new hobby, and I’m a wino, so why not? I may try to do a blackberry wine for the colder winter months.

You would be amazed at what you can make wine with.

I do maple leaf wine, potato wine, dandelion wine, cat-tail wine.

If you are going to do a straight blackberry wine, do the double fermentation I mentioned and throw in a vanilla bean or two for the second fermentation.

tinycool
[Image: attachment.php?aid=8135]

#8
(06-29-2020, 05:15 AM)Lumenari Wrote:
(06-29-2020, 04:38 AM)ChiefD Wrote: Thanks for posting this again. I remember your thread in ATS. I’m looking for a new hobby, and I’m a wino, so why not? I may try to do a blackberry wine for the colder winter months.

You would be amazed at what you can make wine with.

I do maple leaf wine, potato wine, dandelion wine, cat-tail wine.

If you are going to do a straight blackberry wine, do the double fermentation I mentioned and throw in a vanilla bean or two for the second fermentation.

tinycool

That sounds really good! I have had dandelion wine too, and I really liked it. 
[Image: attachment.php?aid=8180]
#9
(06-29-2020, 05:26 AM)ChiefD Wrote: That sounds really good! I have had dandelion wine too, and I really liked it. 

We actually do it every year as a tonic. You just make it the year before and break it out the next spring.

It gets your immune system ready for those pollens that come every year so you don't have a histamine reaction to them.

But blah BLAH about #Science!!!

tinylaughing
[Image: attachment.php?aid=8135]

#10
(06-22-2020, 09:06 PM)Lumenari Wrote: I’ve been approached on occasion here and on other forums to give a quick tutorial on how I make wine.

Winemaking is something that my family has always done and I picked up the basics young in life. I have had the benefit of going through my father’s recipe books and the wealth of knowledge he learned from his father as well as his experiments over the years. I’ve been doing it for over 30 years so maybe something I have learned over that time may help others.

The process itself is simple… sugar and yeast are put in an environment where the yeast eats the sugar and converts it into alcohol until there is no sugar left and it becomes dormant or the yeast dies when the alcohol in its environment becomes too high for it to live.

Making a wine that actually tastes good is another matter all together.

What I’m going to focus on in this thread is the simplest and easiest wine to make… a berry or fruit wine.

You CAN do this in gallon containers and just use a balloon as an airlock, but what I would recommend as basic equipment to start up is the following:

1./ a five gallon container. The easiest way to get one is simply buy 5 gallons of water at your local store. You are after the container… I would suggest buying a container that has a handle.

2./ an airlock. I like the twin bubble airlocks. You can buy them on Amazon with a bung for a few dollars. You will also need some alcohol variant (I use cheap vodka) to fill your airlock with. You can use water, but that makes the wine susceptible to bacterial invasion in the beginning. PRO TIP… the “bung” is what you are going to be putting into the mouth of the 5 gallon jug. These come in different sizes! So figure out what size bung will fit your new container.

3./ a large funnel, preferably one that has a removable strainer.

That’s really about it besides a few kitchen utensils. If you are going to be bottling your wine you will need corks, bottles and a corker… I used a cheap double lever corker for decades with no problems. You can get one on Amazon for 20 bucks. You can either use recycled bottles or purchase them… you are looking for a 750ml wine bottle, preferably clear. Corks also come in different sizes!!!

On to the basics.

The 5 important parts of winemaking are water, yeast, temperature, ingredients and time.

1./ WATER. Water quality is important in a wine. Yes, you can make a wine with fluoridated city tap water. I would not recommend it. If all else, water that has gone through a reverse osmosis process will work just fine, although I am personally not a fan of it because it de-mineralizes the water and makes the water too acidic.

2./ YEAST. There are many different varieties of yeast. The battle over which yeast is better for which wine has raged for centuries and is a topic all of itself. Keep in mind, different yeasts give you different flavors, different back tastes, different finished alcohol percentages.

I use 3 different types of yeast…

a./ Red Star or Fleishman’s baking yeast. I will explain why in a moment.

b./ Red Star Montrachet wine yeast. I have experimented with yeasts for decades and always come back to this one for berry or fruit wines.

c./ Red Star DADY distiller’s yeast.

For a basic berry or fruit wine using a wine yeast will not impart any odd flavors to your wine and will get you to a 13-15% ABV. If you want to get adventurous and make some really good wine that also ends up at over 20% ABV, I will explain double fermentation later in the thread.

3./TEMPERATURE. When fermenting your wine, temperature is important. Under 60 degrees Fahrenheit, your yeast get sluggish and may go dormant. Over 75 degrees Fahrenheit, your yeast may overproduce, add odd flavors to the mix and kill itself off prematurely. A stable temperature though the entire process allows you to be able to repeat a recipe that you like. Which is why historically wines were made in caves… they have a stable temperature.

Temperature is also important with a berry or fruit wine when we prepare the ingredients for the maceration process by boiling them. Maceration is essentially the process of breaking down the cell structures of your ingredients and allowing the skins, flesh and seeds of the fruit or berry to leach into the “must”, or body of your wine.

4./ INGREDIENTS. Only pick or get the best quality ingredients that you can. Go organic! You do not want to make a batch of wine that you have taken the time to concentrate a lot of pesticides in. No rotting fruit or unripe berries. Keep consistent ingredients and again you can repeat a recipe you like.

ALWAYS use a cane sugar. Beet sugar has a bit of it's chemical composition that yeast can't digest so it is left in your wine. Your intestines don't know what to do with it either so it results in gas and/or diarrhea. Like drinking a cheap beer.

5./ TIME. Making wine is not a race. Some wines take months or years to clarify and mature. With most fruit or berry wines, however, the quality and taste of the wine does not really improve with age so that is a benefit for those starting out. What you pour out of the jug when the fermentation is done is pretty much what it’s going to taste like 10 years from now out of a bottle.


OK! Now with the basics out of the way, let’s get on with the important part!

Here is my secret recipe to every berry and fruit wine that I have ever started with that will get you on your path to making a good wine.

1 gallon jam or jelly recipe, any fruit or berry. Use just the berry/fruit, sugar and water part of the recipe. Boil until skins on berries have burst.

3 gallons water. Add both to your 5 gallon container. Let cool to room temperature.

Add wine yeast, put in airlock, walk away. Wait until the airlock is no longer bubbling.

Strain out berries/fruit.

You are done… drink.


Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Now of course there are layers and layers of other things that you can do to this basic recipe. There are also some basic problems you will run into as you perfect your recipes.

1./ Too Dry. Your wine is done and it is so dry that it puckers your facehole. The easy fix is to add a pound of sugar, let sit a week to make sure that the yeast is indeed dead, re-taste. Too dry still? Repeat step one. Remember how much sugar you had to add for the next recipe.

2./ Too sweet. You’ve inadvertently made a syrup. The easy fix for the batch, double ferment it… add DADY yeast and re-taste after the yeast has died off again. Remember to use less sugar next time.

3./ Tasteless. You made a wonderful pear wine that tastes like rubbing alcohol. The usual problem here is that the alcohol content is too high and you have over-ridden the taste of the fruit. This is a problem with pear, strawberry, watermelon and huckleberry wines, to mention a few. The short-term fix is to strain the batch, add another gallon of the same fruit and let sit a month. The long-term fix is to use a yeast that dies off at a lower alcohol percentage. Use baker’s yeast next time.

At the end of the day, you can take a basic recipe, tweak it as you go and come up with a wine that people will love.

Now to the fun part… double fermentation.

I use this with wines that have a heavy taste anyways… like elderberry, blackberry, chokecherry, blueberry.

Make your first wine with a baker’s yeast… let the yeast die off.

Strain the wine into another 5 gallon container, add 4 pounds of sugar and a DADY yeast.

Pro Tip… if you are making a berry wine at this point add a handful of smoked wood chips. This is a topic all of its own as well, since I smoke my own wood chips so use ones like pear smoked maple chips, etc. My go-to for most wines though is French oak lightly smoked chips, available on Amazon at a few dollars a pound.

Let it die off again.

You now have a wine that will be between 20-22% ABV.

Which tastes absolutely wonderful.

This is the end of my basic thread but will answer any questions I can.

And keep in mind, fruit/berry wines are just the easiest to make. That in no way means that there are not others.

I've made potato wine, tomato wine, maple leaf wine, cucumber wine.

A pumpkin wine made the year before is perfect for the next Thanksgiving season.

The list goes on.

minusculebeercheers

TL;DR - when is my beer going to be ready? You're lucky I'm not dying of thirst otherwise I'd have you in the HAGUE on war crimes.

This is an international outrage.

Also, don't forget to PM me your bank account details for my 'donation' to 'other' causes n stuff......

For ongoing motivation to gimme my beer, here is a message from God.......

http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/im...3559ba.jpg
If you embrace constant change, you expand your synaptic pathways thereby restoring control of your Pineal gland. 

How people treat you is their karma, how you react is yours.

Beer.

minusculebeercheers
#11
(06-29-2020, 07:02 AM)Sublimecraft Wrote: TL;DR - when is my beer going to be ready? You're lucky I'm not dying of thirst otherwise I'd have you in the HAGUE on war crimes.

This is an international outrage.

Also, don't forget to PM me your bank account details for my 'donation' to 'other' causes n stuff......

For ongoing motivation to gimme my beer, here is a message from God.......

http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/im...3559ba.jpg

I'm waiting for my hops to bloom...

My beer isn't out of a can.

tinycool
[Image: attachment.php?aid=8135]

#12
@"Lumenari" , criminy, it grows like a weed all over our yard and strangles out the grape vines tinyok 

Cheers
[Image: 14sigsepia.jpg]

Location: The lost world, Elsewhen
#13
(06-22-2020, 09:06 PM)Lumenari Wrote: ...Here is my secret recipe to every berry and fruit wine that I have ever started with that will get you on your path to making a good wine.

1 gallon jam or jelly recipe, any fruit or berry. Use just the berry/fruit, sugar and water part of the recipe. Boil until skins on berries have burst.

3 gallons water. Add both to your 5 gallon container. Let cool to room temperature.

Add wine yeast, put in airlock, walk away. Wait until the airlock is no longer bubbling.

Strain out berries/fruit.

You are done… drink.


Pretty simple, isn’t it? ...



minusculebeercheers

I think I may just have fallen in love.....
tinyinbiglove
[Image: CoolForCatzSig.png]
#14
(06-29-2020, 05:26 PM)F2d5thCav Wrote: @"Lumenari" , criminy, it grows like a weed all over our yard and strangles out the grape vines tinyok 

Cheers

It has been a weird year here weather-wise... We are used to a few feet of snow in the winter but this year I never had to use the snow blower. No real spring to speak of and it hasn't really gotten over 80 degrees but a few days. Currently 55 degrees, raining and we are under a flood watch. My tomatoes, cukes and zucchini are yellowed out from lack of sun. tinyshocked
[Image: attachment.php?aid=8135]

#15
(06-29-2020, 05:41 PM)gordi Wrote: I think I may just have fallen in love.....
tinyinbiglove

I'll make you wine as long as you read me stories... your accent bothers me in a good way...

tinyinlove
[Image: attachment.php?aid=8135]

#16
(06-29-2020, 05:58 PM)Lumenari Wrote:
(06-29-2020, 05:41 PM)gordi Wrote: I think I may just have fallen in love.....
tinyinbiglove

I'll make you wine as long as you read me stories... your accent bothers me in a good way...

tinyinlove

LOL - Deal!
YAY!
minusculebeercheers
[Image: CoolForCatzSig.png]
#17
Thank you for posting this!

We’ve made several different wines and only had one batch that tasted good. I’m about to go dump out the sad plum wine my other half made and try to make some your way!
#18
(06-29-2020, 11:11 PM)VioletDove Wrote: Thank you for posting this!

We’ve made several different wines and only had one batch that tasted good. I’m about to go dump out the sad plum wine my other half made and try to make some your way!

A plum wine is hard to do the conventional way, because it ends up pretty tasteless.

Maceration is the key with plums... let the must sit a month or two before straining and you will be amazed at the difference.

Also, it you double ferment throw a vanilla bean in there.

It gives it an incredible backflavor.

tinycool
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