Wine making

Tobi

Tobi

Über Member
Joined
14 Oct 2015
Local time
4:26 AM
Messages
15
Location
Wales
Yesterday I bottled the first batch of mint wine this year and the second lot is bubbling nicely. The apple will take much longer to ferment out, but we drink some of it at three to four weeks old whilst it's still fizzy and has almost no alcohol content - known in the family as Apple Ale. We can kid ourselves we're drinking champagne for elevenses! Are there any other garden produce wine makers here?
 
I have never made wine but I remember my mom use to make dandelion and chock cherry wine back in the day.
I was really young back then but I remember her making it and Dad use to make his own beer.

My niece makes wine but she gets the kits and makes it from that. I have never heard of mint wine before. It sounds
very good and refreshing!
 
I'd love to make some wine. I never gave it much thought until I joined the forum but it would be greatly welcomed by my husband who seems to think it is water.
So 'no' I am not a wine maker but it's not something I would rule out. I do have the garden even if in ruins so that says I could be on my way...........
 
Not really garden produce [other than the apple wine we have going now] but we keep an eye open for any 'sell offs' of bulk produce at the supermarket as most fruit makes reasonable wine even if it is well beyond it's 'sell by date'.
 
N
Tobi said:
Yesterday I bottled the first batch of mint wine this year and the second lot is bubbling nicely. The apple will take much longer to ferment out, but we drink some of it at three to four weeks old whilst it's still fizzy and has almost no alcohol content - known in the family as Apple Ale. We can kid ourselves we're drinking champagne for elevenses! Are there any other garden produce wine makers here?
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No, but I have thought of it as it looks like it would be cheaper. I know it can be made fairly simply as well. Some day when I feel like messing around I will try making some wine, and see how it turns out. There are so many different unique possibilities for wine.
 
I have thought of making wine but at the moment I do not have the space to make my own. I think when I move into my own space I will start wine making as a hobby.
 
Pat said:
I have thought of making wine but at the moment I do not have the space to make my own. I think when I move into my own space I will start wine making as a hobby.
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If you have room to cook you have room to make wine. A glass 1 gallon [4 1/2 ish litre] demijohn [as they are called takes up less room than a vacuum cleaner [and it's MUCH more fun]
 
I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet regarding wine making. I would love to have my own grapevine and turn the fruit into wine. Realistically- we don't have anywhere to grow a grapevine, they can take a year or two to develope and produce fruit and wouldn't necessarily grow enough to use so that is that idea out of the window :(
 
TBH I suspect that one of the main reasons that grapes are used for commercial wines is that they are easy and always were so ie harvest - crush - ferment and NOT because they produced the best result. OK the finest wines are superb but most fall way way below that level. Just buy some fruit - some sugar [yes the 'real' winemakers use it too in bad years] - and some wine yeast and off you go. A couple of months and that's it.
 
sidevalve said:
If you have room to cook you have room to make wine. A glass 1 gallon [4 1/2 ish litre] demijohn [as they are called takes up less room than a vacuum cleaner [and it's MUCH more fun]
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Apart from when they blow their top, or explode.
 
Gee, a fizzy wine drink is sure a good one. We have no apples here so that drink is alien to me but I'm sure kids would have a good kick out of it. We used to have a drink like that but it's something made from coconut trees. It is called white tuba which is a beverage that is good for everyone. Unfortunately, it is only sold in the rural provinces and it has become very rare now. As for the apple drink, I just remembered that we have a big bottle of apple juice for breakfast.
 
I helped my Dad loads as a kid when he was into wine making. We made loads of elderflower and elderberry wine, but worked our way through quite a range amount of different fruits. Mostly they were sweet, but basically drinkable. Marrow wine was, however, historically bad.
 
Shadow said:
This is no longer true for quality wine in most of europe. Except for fizzy stuff, including champagne and english sparklers. This is highly regulated in the EU.
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It wasn't ALL that long ago antifreeze was discovered in some wines - don't believe all you read. Further 'quality wines' have ALWAYS had the best grapes - this is not true of about 75% of everyday table wines made from much poorer fruit. The sugar may be regulated but that doesn't mean it isn't used. As I said the finest wines are excellent but the rest can easily be matched by the home winemaker with a little care [and at about 1/4 of the cost, even less in the UK where the government would tax the air we breath if they could get away with it]
 
Have not done wine for years but I have done blackberry wine
We have done elderflower champagne! well it sparkles
 
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