52 bottles of wine.

[Gary350]

I have been making wine 40 years I use to pick my own fruit. I made Blackberry wine 6 years ago picked all the blackberries from my blackberry patch in the back yard next to the garden. It made some good wine. I tried to grow Blue Berries, Rhubard, Raspberries but they didn't make it. I have an apple tree but it does not make good wine. I planted a plum tree but no plums yet, plum and pear are both excellent wine. I have always wanted to make Beet wine I bet it is good. I made some Silver Queen Corn wine once it was good it tasted like white wine. I made strawberry wine 5 years ago it turned out like white wine too it was good and gone pretty quick. Now I make wine from kits it is much easier. I am getting older and the kits save me a lot of time plus it is better wine.

I made this wine November 2009 a year ago from Wine Expert Selections Internationale kits. This is good wine I have made it before it is equivelent to $50 a bottle wine. 26 bottles of Chilean Pinot Noir Gold Metal winner kit and 26 bottles of Chilean Merlot Gold Metal winner kit. I got all the empty bottles from the recycle dumpster. Wine was aged in the 6 gallon glass jub for more than a year, I bottled it yesterday. It is tasting pretty good already. The other time I made this it was extra good after it aged 2 years. Once it gets good it didn't last long. Last count I had 185 bottles of wine aging now I have 52 bottles more. The Blackberry kit and Raspberry kit are both excellent they are gone, I need to make more. Blackberry needs to age 3 years. I see looking at the photo I got the date wrong it was made Nov, 25, 09 now I have to change all the labels. Wine is very easy to make from $100 kits it takes about 1 hour then you wait. The wine cost me $3.84 per bottle.

Double click the pics they get larger.

[Francis Barnswallow]

Awesome!! Reminds me of the time my dad tried to make his own wine though. Lets just say he never attempted to make wine again.

[digitS']

Gary, that is lovely!

I've tried off and on to make wine for about that long. But, you know, I never made a grape wine - not once (unless using raisins counts).

I've thought that a grape wine would be far more likely to turn out good but, I suspected that what was available in the stores was better and more diverse than what I could come up with. So, I tried other "stuff."

Dad and I used to make beer. It took quite awhile before we got any good at it. It finally seemed that a "foolproof" method for us was to put about a pound of golden raisins in the 5 gallons. You see where this idea that grape wine might turn out better than my pear, apple, rice, etc. choices have?

Maybe yeast, even beer yeast, just likes grapes and the result is the right kind of taste for yours truly. A pound in a 5 gallon brew kettle isn't going to lend much flavor of grapes but . . . it sure seemed to work.

Now, about that pea pod wine . . .

Anyway, here is to your good health!

Steve

[Gary350]

There is probably a 100 different types of wine yeast. The yeast and the fruit is what determines the flavor. There are probably 500,000. possibilities for flavor with all those yeast and all the different fruits and combinations of fruit. You go into a wine store you can look for several hours the possibilities are endless. I like heavy body Red and White wine with low alcohol nothing with more than 11% alcohol. There are some wines with 6 to 8% alcohol those are nice. I like sweetness 1.000 to 1.010 on the hydrometer. Next time you go to the wine store buy a bottle of Rieslings Ice Wine this is so good you just can't amagine how it is possible that it is so good.

Next time you make wine try Red Star Cote des Blancs Wine Yeast in the GREEN package. This yeast is very slow working you will thing something is wrong and it is not working. It is special yeast for bringing out the very best flavor in fruit wine. You can not go wrong with this yeast.

Edited by Applestar to hide long link

[!potatoes!]

my folks used to make wine in the mid '70's...dandelion, 'jungle juice' (beet/carrot), elderflower, and a few others. they decided that the results were terrible, and for the most part left them to age in the basement since then.

we had a tasting a couple years ago, and now, they're pretty good...just goes to show the wonder of aging.

[DoubleDogFarm]

take one down, pass it around, 51 bottles of wine on the wall.

Looks like you have enough to share!


Eric

[garden5]

How many bottles can you make from a $100 kit? Does the kit include the bottles? I never even thought that you could make wine out of things other than grapes and blackberries. But then again, I wouldn't describe myself as a connoisseur by any means.

[Gary350]

How many bottles can you make from a $100 kit? Does the kit include the bottles? I never even thought that you could make wine out of things other than grapes and blackberries. But then again, I wouldn't describe myself as a connoisseur by any means.

I get all my bottles FREE out of the recycle dumpsters at the recycle center.

You can buy 5 gallon and 6 gallon kits. The last 2 kits I bought were 6 gallons that makes 30 bottles of wine. I usually leave out some of the water so my wine has better flavor so I only get 26 bottles. Here are the kits I bought last time you can get these at your local wine making supply store or order them online. These are both GOLD METAL winner of the year. I like to buy gold metal winners because you know it will be excellent wine equal to $50 a bottle wine when it is finished.


These are kits I have bought too they are both 5 gallon kits. They are intended to be low alcohol but I add enough DARK BROWN sugar to get the alcohol up to about 10%. I don't always follow the instructions I do my own thing. I sometimes add Currents, Cherries, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves, Spices, Juices. Go easy on the spices 1/4 teaspoon per 5 or 6 gallons of wine it is just of a hint of flavor thats all. If you have not made wine before you need to follow the instructions.

If your making your own wine from scratch use RED STAR yeast in the GEEEN package only 40 cents per package. This is the best wine for fruit it brings out the absolute best flavor and aroma. It ferments so slow you will thing it is not working at all.



When the wine is finished check it with the hydrometer to see how sweet it is. Wine will finish pretty dry about 0.992 on the hydrometer. I like to sweeten it to 1.000 but if you like it sweeter go as sweet as you like.

If you make PORT wine or SHERRY wine alcohol is 18% to 21% these wines are typically sweetened to 1.025 the sugar hides the alcohol taste. Use Champague Yeast in the yellow package. Sugar has to be added in 2 batches. Port is a nice wine you make wine with about 11% alcohol then you add enough E & J Brandy to get the alcohol to 15% or higher what every you like.

If you want to taste the full flavor of good wine you need to drink it at about room temperature 65 to 70 deg F, cold wine hides the flavor. You only drink bad wine cold it is easier to swallow.

Ice Wine is probably the best wine I have every made. It is only a 3 gallon kit but that is how they get so much flavor into one bottle of wine it is very concentrated, it is unbelieveable good flavor. Buy a bottle of this at your local wine store see for yourself before you buy the kit, ask for Riesling Ice Wine.

http://www.store.homebrew4less.com/prod ... variation=

[rainbowgardener]

Dandelion wine always sounded wonderful to me... a lovely delicate wine made from weeds people are always trying to get rid of.

So Gary, you have inspired me... Come dandelion season, I will try my hand at it. Found great instructions at wikiHow:

www.wikiHow.com/Make-Dandelion-Wine

No fancy equipment, use balloons with holes in them for airlocks...

I love it. My style of doing things.

And since I don't have much lawn, you can freeze the flowers while you wait to accumulate enough for a decent batch.

You are supposed to wait at least 6 months to drink it. That means that it could be part of the 2011 Christmas baskets...

[Gary350]

Dandelion wine always sounded wonderful to me... a lovely delicate wine made from weeds people are always trying to get rid of.

So Gary, you have inspired me... Come dandelion season, I will try my hand at it. Found great instructions at wikiHow:

www.wikiHow.com/Make-Dandelion-Wine

No fancy equipment, use balloons with holes in them for airlocks...

I love it. My style of doing things.

And since I don't have much lawn, you can freeze the flowers while you wait to accumulate enough for a decent batch.

You are supposed to wait at least 6 months to drink it. That means that it could be part of the 2011 Christmas baskets...

I hate to say anything negative but........I have made dandelion wine and I dumped it all in the compost. Flowers do not have much flavor only aroma. Dandelion wine looks like milky water with a slightly yellow tint. One drink is a mouth full of flower pollin it gave me a head ache and in a few minutes my head was spinning like I just stepped of the marry-go-round. My head felt like it swelled up twice it size. I was so dizzy I couldn't stand up and the head ache lasted for 2 days no amount of Tylenol or Bufferin would stop the head ache. That is one wine I will never make again.

[rainbowgardener]

Anyone else have any personal experience with dandelion wine? I've never heard that before. It sounds like maybe you are allergic?

Re the flavor. If you looked at the recipe:

1 cup (240 mL) orange juice
3 tablespoons (45 g) fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons (45 g) fresh lime juice
8 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon (1.25 g) powdered ginger
3 tablespoons (18 g) coarsely chopped orange zest; avoid any white pith
1 tablespoon (6 g) coarsely chopped lemon zest; avoid any white pith
6 cups (1200 g) sugar

I take it the citrus juices and spices are too add some flavor to something that might otherwise be a little lacking in it. Did you make yours like that. Gary?

[garden5]

Thanks for the links, Gary. Your experiences with the dandelion wine makes me wonder: are there any hazards to making wine? Can you get seriously (permanently ?) ill if you do something wrong?

Rbg, I've heard from folks who've made dandelion wine and they never reported any negative effects.

[rainbowgardener]

Rbg, I've heard from folks who've made dandelion wine and they never reported any negative effects.

me too.

But I don't (yet) have any personal experience. I think I will still try it this spring. If I end up dumping mine out too, oh well, that's the way we learn.

[applestar]

I've never tried making wine but I make Dandelion Flower syrup --

- dandelion flowers, only yellow flowers plucked out (or green bracts and base cut off with a knife)
- sugar (80~90% by weight of flowers) -- I think! I'll change this if it's not
- water to cover the flowers

Prepare the blossoms. Put in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to boil, then simmer gently 10~20 min (recipe varies. one said to turn off heat as soon it it boils then cover). Here again, recipe varies from strain immediately to allow to steep overnight then strain. Add sugar and bring to boil for 10~15 min.

You drink it 1:4 mixed with water. My kids LOVE this.

I've thought about making wine (or cordial or liquor -- simpler I think than wine), but the dandelion syrup disappears as quickly as I make them and I never seem to have enough blossoms left for *my* drink.

[grondeau]

I'm not sure how to make wine, but its just as good to make friends with a wine maker! I'm looking forward to see what comes of the 50 lbs. of honey I gave to my neighbor. He makes a blackberry / mead - he wanted local blackberry honey to go with the local blackberries. I can't wait to see what comes back!

[Lehcar]

Try The Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible by Leon Kania.

His descriptions of wine making include not only what to do but why to do it so that you can use your own reasoning to make choices in your wine making from the very first batch. There are several ideas for rigging your own wine-making materials like airlocks and how to choose preparation/aging materials for your own health and safety.

I made my first batch of wine from an adaptation of his recipe using pears from our neighbor's yard (free), 2 10-gallon food-grade plastic jugs (from work, it held pizza sauce and we washed it out with a little bleach water; free), latex-free disposable gloves and some rubber bands. I found a bunch of mason jars on craigslist for free (didn't want to spend the money to find and cork recycled traditional wine bottles), had to buy all new lids and half were missing their screw-tops so I just bought a whole new set for them (about eight dollars). Between the yeast and the sugar, that brought my total for 8 gallons of wine to about $20.

I racked the wine several times (reducing the amount of sediment in the bottom of the jars) and put it up for 8 months before trying it.

The bragging rights were EPIC. Even my husband's chest expanded a few inches. "Wow! Taste what Rachel made! I can't believe you -actually- made wine!" Me - "Yeah, I know, wasn't too hard... no trouble at all..." It was actually a big, giant pain in the butt but you'll find it's totally worth it!

In most states (with a few exceptions since the federal law specifically states that a state-wide law may supersede the federal law in this matter) in the USA, you are allowed to brew 100 gallons of beer or wine per person per household for personal consumption only with a limit of 200 gallons per household without declaring it to be taxed. I say... the more homebrew the better!

I've made pear wine, strawberry (of course!), cucumber (didn't taste much like cukes after a year and a half... hmm...) and carrot (the best out of the bunch). The only "bad" experience I've had was with the cucumber wine because it just didn't taste like cucumbers after it was aged. Maybe it was one of those wines that do best 6-10 months after it is bottled or 2-3 years because I used it all up within 18 months of making it (not much drinking, lots of cooking) so I don't know.

I must make a confession... one of the reasons I've been wanting to start my own little garden is to be able to get enough "free" fruits or veggies to be able to make my own spirits again... hmm... beet wine... that sounds like a good start!

[applestar]

Hmm... a NEW PROJECT! ?
I've put the book on my wishlist

[tedln]

Gary, have you ever let a batch ferment to vinegar? A friend did once and it was pretty strong grape vinegar. I've though about doing that and allowing the vinegar to age a few years in an oak barrel to get a good balsamic vinegar.

Ted

[Lehcar]

Oooooohhh! What a great idea!

[garden5]

OK, now forgive me if this is a dumb question, but would you be able to make a non-alcoholic wine? This would be a very good product for folks who cannot have alcohol.

[rainbowgardener]

Sure... it's a similar process to wine making except you use no yeast and no fermenting time. Juice grapes or berries, add water and sugar, simmer for awhile, skimming off film from the top. Pour into bottles, cork and seal.

[garden5]

Thanks, RBG, that sounds really easy!

I wonder why you simmer it . Maybe it adds flavor, or concentrates these existing flavor.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Sounds like syrup making to me. Heat basicly induces the sugar into the liquid.

Eric

[tedln]

When I was a kid, I could buy big, clear glass bottles of cherry cider. The seller always had the bottles floating in one of those metal horse tubs full of water and big blocks of ice. Nothing better on a hot summer day. I always thought it was as close to wine as you could get without any alcohol.

Ted

[Lehcar]

OK, now forgive me if this is a dumb question, but would you be able to make a non-alcoholic wine? This would be a very good product for folks who cannot have alcohol.

It really depends on your preference, alcohol-free vs. non-alcoholic and commitment to keeping the taste as close to its alcohol-filled cousins.

Many people use the terms "alcohol-free" and "non-alcoholic" interchangeably when they are as different as "low in trans fat" and "trans fat-free"... there's a big difference! Alcohol-free beverages contain no alcohol, have never at any point contained alcohol and will in no way act upon your system as alcohol does. On the other hand, non-alcoholic beverages start out like their fully-loaded cousins but then undergo an additional filtration stage to remove the majority of the alcohol but do leave a small amount of alcohol left in the beverage (think .5% alc/vol) which is why, in the U.S., those under 21 years of age cannot purchase "nonalcoholic" beverages because 10 of those beverages will equal the alcohol content of one "alcoholic" beverage.

For alcohol-free beverages you'll have to be content with the non-fizzy kind as just about the only option you have to make your drink fizzy is to forcefully dissolve CO2 into your mix. This leaves out beer and sparkling wine/cider. Alcohol-free beverages made from fruit are otherwise known as "juice". People boil the juice and sugar blend to kill the wild yeast that may be left on the fruit so as to stop the fermentation process. When you skim after heating, you're skimming their little bodies from your sugared fruit juice making a more clear end-product.

To make traditionally alcoholic beverages non-alcoholic, you have two options: you can boil out the alcohol or you can filter it out. Filtering is usually the method of choice because it leaves most of the bouquet and taste of the original beer or wine in tact. To add fizz to your beer or wine once again, an additional fermentation is used resulting in putting alcohol back into the beverage but at a much reduced percentage. For table wine, the filtering process results in a much "dryer" wine and therefore an additional flavoring of sugar is added to these wines to make them taste more like their counterparts. Now, you -can- boil out the alcohol (as alcohol has a lower boiling point than water) but it can result in damaging the original flavor of the beverage and most often results in a more concentrated form of the beverage because some water -does- get caught up in the moment and flee with the alcohol.

So.

Phew.

After my long and ridiculously complicated explanation... yes... you can make alcohol-free wine and do make alcohol-free wine every time you turn on your juicer. How you store that juice is really up to you but be sure to kill off the wild yeast and bacteria that are surely floating around in there or you'll get wine at best, vinegar if you're lucky, spoiled juice at worst.

[garden5]

WOW, thanks a lot for your in-depth explanation. I must admit that after I thought about my question, I realized that I was probably just asking if it is possible to make juice .

OK, now you said:

To make traditionally alcoholic beverages non-alcoholic, you have two options: you can boil out the alcohol or you can filter it out. Filtering is usually the method of choice because it leaves most of the bouquet and taste of the original beer or wine in tact. To add fizz to your beer or wine once again, an additional fermentation is used resulting in putting alcohol back into the beverage but at a much reduced percentage.

If I filter it, but just don't ferment it to add fizz, would it technically be alcohol-free?

How do you filter it?

Yeah, I know these questions are kind of pointless.....but I'm curious now! Thanks for your help.

[applestar]

Ozark Lady started a thread on Kefir in which she confirmed that cultured Water Kefir drinks are fizzy/bubbly. I wonder if you could combine the two methods to get alcohol-free fizzy drinks

[Lehcar]

If I filter it, but just don't ferment it to add fizz, would it technically be alcohol-free?

How do you filter it?

Yeah, I know these questions are kind of pointless.....but I'm curious now! Thanks for your help.

No, not pointless at all! When I found out I was pregnant I cut out alcohol entirely and soon found myself longing for that glass or two of wine a week I'd drink with dinner and despite mixed reassurances that a single glass of wine once every other week would do no harm to my baby I resisted. I'm in my 20s and it was pounded into my generation that eating a single piece of raw fish (mercury), smoking a single cigarette (obvious) or drinking a single glass of alcohol was tantamount to ruining your unborn baby's health for life!

So, obviously, I began searching for ways to get the taste of my table wine without a spittoon next to my place setting or the alcohol.

I found out pretty quickly that if the difference between absolute 0% and .5% alcohol in your beverage was too much, I would be stuck with grape juice for dinner and sparkling cider for New Year's Eve as most commercial non-alcoholic wines go just far enough to slide under the .5% US standard for non-alcoholic beverages and not much farther.

There are basically two methods to produce non-alcoholic beer or wine and a single, patent protected method to produce alcohol-free wine.

1. Alcohol-free - table wine is combined with de-mineralized water and poured into a centrifugal evaporator where alcohol is spin off to produce a alcohol free wine base. Then grape juice concentrate is added to alcohol free wine base to make alcohol free wine.

2. Non-alcoholic - Vacuum Distillation where real wine or real beer is exposed to vacuum. Where due to change in atmospheric pressure with low heat or no heat the alcohol is distilled off. Very few companies use this method as the vacuum chamber required would be enormous to make this process viable for commercial use.

3. Non-alcoholic - (most common and can be done at home with specialized equipment) Reverse Osmosis which uses filters with teeny tiny pores. These pores filter out only alcohol and water with the volatile acids in wine or in beer remaining intact. Then those volatile acids and additional water is put back into a mixture of sugar and flavor compounds (usually super-secret-awesome compounds developed in a tasting lab to taste most like the bouquet the company is trying to replicate... or, in the case of the do-it-yourself-er, nothing at all).

I've been told that a simple household reverse osmosis system for water will do the trick for wine but it has been difficult for me to find a counter-top system (as most of the systems are designed to filter your water to come out of your faucet). Also, the counter-top systems that I -have- found have such low back flow pressure that I'd use up an entire bottle of wine for one glass of non-alcoholic wine that could vary from .1%-.5% alc/vol.

The entire debacle has convinced me that it is much easier to get hammered drunk than it is to enjoy a single glass of nonalcoholic homemade wine, LOL!

Fre Wines make a decent Cab-alternative called Premium Red (less than .5% alcohol but still contains alcohol).

http://www.navarrowine.com/shop/product ... prodid=949
But really, Navarro Wineries in California is just about the only good thing going that even wine critics have to tilt their hats to. I wasn't impressed with the "Gewürztraminer" (their answer to a dry red) but the white or "green" Verjus is tart and clean-finishing. I placed my order at the end of the 2009 season but before the 2010 season so I didn't get a chance to try their Pinot Noir which has gotten decent reviews.

Navarro wines, btw, are entirely alcohol-free.

I hope this helps!

[garden5]

Thanks for the link and advice.

I guess we can sum things up by saying that if you ar going to make your own wine, you may as well just accept the alcohol content, although you can lower it.

If you want alcohol free wine....just buy some and deal with the lack of diversity.

Sound about right?

[Gary350]

Thanks for the links, Gary. Your experiences with the dandelion wine makes me wonder: are there any hazards to making wine? Can you get seriously (permanently ?) ill if you do something wrong?

Rbg, I've heard from folks who've made dandelion wine and they never reported any negative effects.

I am extremely alergic to pollin dandelion wine is not for me.

[Gary350]

I'm not sure how to make wine, but its just as good to make friends with a wine maker! I'm looking forward to see what comes of the 50 lbs. of honey I gave to my neighbor. He makes a blackberry / mead - he wanted local blackberry honey to go with the local blackberries. I can't wait to see what comes back!

WOW that is going to be good wine.

I have made mead it is probably the best wine a person can make flavored with your favorite fruit. I made some Pomegranate Mead wine 3 years ago won best of show in the local wine contest. This is expensive wine to make Pomegranate juice and honey are both $15 a quart. I made a very small batch. I also made some Persimmon Mead too, wow that was excellent wine. I wish I have 50 lbs of honey I would have about 25 gallons of mead going within a few weeks.

[Gary350]

OK, now forgive me if this is a dumb question, but would you be able to make a non-alcoholic wine? This would be a very good product for folks who cannot have alcohol.

Yes you can. Make wine then when it is finished boil it in a pan to remove the alcohol. You can do this with store bought wine. Hold a match over the boiling wine the flame from the match will try to ignite the alcohol as it boils off. When the flame no longer tried to ignite the alcohol is gone. If you know your chemistry and have a very good accurate thermometer the wine will boil at 185 deg F that is about the boiling temperature of alcohol. After all the alcohol boils off the temperature will go up to 212 deg F. When the temperature goes up alcohol is gone. You can use a pressure cooker as a mini still pipe the vapor through copper tubing it turns to 90% alcohol clear as water.

Long ago wine was given to the sick because it is predigested food and the body can use it without using any energy. Sick people are extremely low on energy so wine is excellent food but alcohol limits how much a person can drink. Alcohol is boiled off then given to the sick. Next time your extremely sick give it a try it really works. Way back 100s of years ago wine was typically 4% to 6% alcohol at the most wine was made from fruit and fruit juice with natural sugar. Now days hybide grapes can produce wine with higher alcohol and if you add sugar you increase the alcohol even higher.

[Gary350]

Thanks, RBG, that sounds really easy!

I wonder why you simmer it . Maybe it adds flavor, or concentrates these existing flavor.

All fruit has wild yeast plus there is yeast floating round in the air. If you leave any juice setting around the house at room temperature in a week or so it will start to ferment. Yeast is easy to kill heat the juice to 160 deg F simmer for 5 minutes then let it cool.

[Handsomeryan]

I have an apple tree but it does not make good wine.

Wine made from apples is thin and even if the flavor is okay the mouth feel isn't. The best use for apples in making an adult beverage is to make Graff. Technically a cider since it is made of apples but because it is malted and hopped it brews and drinks more like a beer.

I've personally brewed about 25 gallons of the stuff with the ingredients for gallons 26-30 sitting in my basement waiting on me to brew them.

Amazingly good stuff!

GRAFF

Materials needed for a 5 Gallon Batch

Ale yeast (Nottinham or Safale-05)
.5 lbs of Crystal 60L Malt (available from the internet or your local home brew shop)
1 oz of torrified wheat (optional, head retention)
4 Gallons of apple juice (make sure it doesn't have any preservatives in it)
1 gallon of water
2 lbs of Dry Malt Extract (I use amber or dark, doesn't seem to make a big difference)
0.5 oz of you favorite hops around 6%AA (Cascade is ideal for this)

Directions for brewing:

Steep the 60L and torrified wheat in .75 gallons of water @ 155 degrees for 30 mins.
Sparge with .25 gallons 170 degree water and throw away grains.
Add DME and bring to a boil.
Add hops when boiling starts and boil for 30 mins.

Cool down the wort (if you choose not to cool the wort and just let the AJ do the cooling then your cider won't be as clear). Pour the wort and apple juice into your carboy and pitch yeast.

Ferment 2 weeks at 64-68 degrees then keg or bottle.

Try this. You'll thank me later.

[Runningtrails]

I make wine all the time, from all kinds of things! I have dandelion wine aging now, as well as lilac, maple, mint, apple and banana. I am currently drinking rose petal and sugar snap pea pod wine. Today I started 5 gallons of rhubarb. It will go into the primary tomorrow morning after it cools.

It's so easy and good! I have not made a bad wine yet. I love it! Hubby and I cannot drink wine with sulphite, so this has enabled us to drink wine again!

I wrote a book entitled "Making Organic Wine At Home". It's free and downloadable from my site, in my signature. It's just free, honest.
No strings attached.

[rainbowgardener]

I'm resurrecting this thread, because I got inspired. I never did make the dandelion wine last year, because it's hard collecting enough dandelions a few at a time and saving them.

So I was thinking about flower wines and what flowers do I have in large quantities.... LILACS! My gigantic old lilac is covered in blossoms now, just opening up. I dead head it every year when the blossoms are done and get gallons and gallons of flowers. So I will pick some of them this year before they are spent, and try my hand at lilac wine. Doesn't it sound amazing!?

[rainbowgardener]

So I have about a gallon of lilac must (wine precursor) sitting around fermenting! It started out kind of grey-lavender and cloudy, but as it sits is turning a lovely clear pale pink. Currently it smells very yeasty, you would think I was making beer or bread...

Now I have plans for honeysuckle wine, mulberry wine, and of course lavender wine!

Still debating whether to start a bunch more of the lilac, since the gigantic lilac tree probably has enough flowers on it to make 100 times as much. But I've never done this before and don't know how it will turn out. So I think I will stop and maybe just make some lilac jelly/ syrup and dry some for potpourri.


If the lilac wine turns out really nice, next year I can make a bunch of gallons of it.

This wine making thing may call for more patience than I can muster up! If I'm lucky, I will have a few bottles of wine ready to give as Christmas presents, starting now. The projects I like usually go quicker than that!

[applestar]

I was waiting for your followup!
Sounds good -- Keep us posted.

[rainbowgardener]

I will, but don't sit around holding your breath! It will be at least close to Christmas before I will even know how this turned out. The lilac flowers infused for a couple days. Then you strain them out add sugar and yeast, etc. then it ferments for at least a week, closed up. Then you rack it, draw it off leaving sediment behind, into a fermentation jug with airlock for a month. Then you keep racking it once a month for about three months or until there is no more sediment and no more bubbling. THEN you can bottle it and cork it and then you let it age at least 3 months, preferably more like 6.....

Like I said, tries my patience. I want to know NOW if I'm going to even like this stuff... sigh...

[rainbowgardener]

So I siphoned off the wine into my homemade fermentation chamber. A regular plastic 1.5 gal canister (sold I think for storing cereal in) with a lid. I poked a hole in the lid and pulled a balloon through it. Put some pin pricks in the balloon. That's the airlock. Not much air can get in through the pin pricks in the collapsed balloon, but if pressure builds up inside from the fermentation, gases will be able to escape. Pretty tricky! They sell fancy airlocks, but when I read about the balloon version was when I got inspired to think I could do this at home.

Anyway, in this process I tasted a little and I am really pleased. It's still a little bit sharp and yeasty, but recognizably wine and with some nice flavor. I think when racked and aged it will be nice. It's always exciting when this stuff actually works!

Now I wish I had made more, this is only about a gallon. There's still lots of lilac flowers, but they are now a bit past their peak. I'm debating about making another batch of lilac or going on to the next thing. Honeysuckle is in bloom now. I have a recipe for honeysuckle wine. Gathering up enough of the little honeysuckle flowers will be more challenging than the lilac....

So much fun!