How easy is it to make wine?

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Casey76

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How easy is it to make wine?
« on: June 20, 2012, 14:59 »
I have a feeling, that unless the weather really picks up my grapes won't be suitable for eating, so I had thought about trying to make some wine.

Although I don't know what variety the grapes are, I was told by the previous owner of the house, that they were "dual purpose" grapes.

Unfortunately I can't just pop down to Boots or Wilkos for a wine starter set ( :( ) so a list of requirements, or a recommendation of essentials and/or book would be great :)

Oh, and is it possible to make wine from cherries?

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Lardman

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Re: How easy is it to make wine?
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2012, 15:18 »
Im going to go ahead and guess that its as difficult as you want to make it  ::)

Here's a decent how to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zglgFHAPg7E

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arugula

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Re: How easy is it to make wine?
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2012, 15:19 »
Oh, and is it possible to make wine from cherries?

Yes.

Im going to go ahead and guess that its as difficult as you want to make it  ::)

That's true! :D
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GrannieAnnie

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Re: How easy is it to make wine?
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2012, 16:27 »
You can make wine from almost anything, although I've never tried a few of them, like pea pod wine, and I even have a recipe for onion wine!

When they make wine from grapes though, they only use the grapes don't they?  They don't add water like we would when we make wine from other fruit and veg. 

Basically you want a bucket or other vessel with a lid for your fruits first few days, mash the fruit, then add sugar, yeast, yeast nutrient, sometimes other things like tannin.  This is then decanted into a demijohn or 3 with an airlock to stop those nasty little bugs getting into it.

Leave it for a couple of months to ferment and clear, bottle and wait up to a year if you can and drink.  Simples!   :)


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Kleftiwallah

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Re: How easy is it to make wine?
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2012, 17:06 »

Never mind what Elkie Brooks sings about,  Lilac wine is poisonous!  Rhodedendron is also a nasty.   I've got quite a few bottles of purple podded pea pod wine on the go (maturing).

I've been making wine for quite a few years and I've found fruit wines are easy.  Flower wines are a bother but veggie wines are difficult.

The most important thing to remember and I cannot emphasise it enough is

CLEANLINESS,  CLEANLINESS,  CLEANLINESS,  CLEANLINESS,  

"These fruit are past their best, I'll make wine from them" - WRONG ! ! !  You only get out what you put in.  All produce used in making wine should be top grade.

Follow the instructions and enjoy yourself. :)

Cheers,     Tony.
I may be growing OLD, but I refuse to grow UP !

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mumofstig

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Re: How easy is it to make wine?
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2012, 17:30 »
On the other hand, some of the best wine is made from grapes with noble rot (botrytis)
notably Sauternes, Spätlese and Auslese  ::)

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hamstergbert

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Re: How easy is it to make wine?
« Reply #6 on: June 20, 2012, 17:33 »
On the other hand, some of the best wine is made from grapes with noble rot (botrytis)
notably Sauternes, Spätlese and Auslese  ::)

....with sugar content such that they must clearly be the invention of the dental profession...
The Dales - probably fingerprint marks where God's hand touched the world

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Kleftiwallah

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Re: How easy is it to make wine?
« Reply #7 on: June 20, 2012, 17:35 »

I've never made wine from grapes, and never bought anything I have made wine from either.  All hedgerow sourced.   8)     Cheers,    Tony.

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ilan

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Re: How easy is it to make wine?
« Reply #8 on: June 20, 2012, 21:16 »
You can even make quite a good wine from the leaves and prunnings from the vines  :D
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Casey76

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Re: How easy is it to make wine?
« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2012, 07:46 »
Well... I just ordered a kit from Amazon (thank goodness for EU delivery!)  I'm really quite excited.

I just hope that I get enough fruit/grapes to experiment with!

Can you make wine from courgettes... lol?

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GrannieAnnie

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Re: How easy is it to make wine?
« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2012, 09:37 »
You can, don't know what it tastes like, but one of the best wines I ever tasted was parsnip that an old neighbour of mine made, and the best and strongest I ever made was rice wine, which can be a bit lethal!   :wacko:

When feeling lazy, I make wine from cartons of fruit juice.  I've got apple and orange juice bubbling away at the moment!  works out at about 40p a bottle!

I often make carrot wine too.  cheap, as I buy the big bag of carrots they sell for horses as they are not neat enough for the supermarkets, then the chickens get the carrots afterwards as a little 'treat'! lol

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Growster...

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Re: How easy is it to make wine?
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2012, 11:29 »
Seeing your address Casey, you shouldn't have a problem with much more than picking them when they're as ripe as you can see, mashing them about a bit in a clean plastic container - preferably 5 gals, and they almost certainly will start to ferment with their own yeast which is on the skin!

As others say here, keep the kit all sterilised, but don't let the sterile liquid near the yeast, otherwise it will kill it off. Always flush with cold water when you've cleaned a vessel!

You really need to ferment it on the pulp for a while, but can decant it all into one of those big glass carboys, or a big clean plastic container, and preferably, keep an air lock on it, to exclude airborne nasties!

Sorry to sound too simplistic, but there's a lot of fancy chat associated with what is a very basic process, and we tend not to make too much fuss, and get on with it!

We did exactly all that with some Gamay grapes we used to grow, and got five gals of reasonably presentable wine, but it didn't last too long...




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