I grew up on tales of my Dad's 1970s homemade hedgerow wines. Their fruity aroma and potency were legendary. All that remains of this heady era are five very dusty bottles of "vintage" wine sitting in my father's garage. Of what vintage, or even of what fruit these wines are made, has been long forgotten. But the bottles, and a glut of apples and blackberries, inspired me to start making my own wine. Beautiful jewel-coloured liquids and the constant plop of air locks have formed a backdrop to my living room ever since.
Many microbes are capable of obtaining energy by consuming sugars, and many liberate the alcohol ethanol as a by-product. Unfortunately for the microbes, they are also producing their very own poison. Ethanol will kill most microbes even at low concentrations. Fortunately for us, yeast is different. It can survive in up to about 20% ethanol before it is overcome, and for millennia we have made use of this ability in many fruitful ways.
The truth is that Dad's "vintage" wines have taken the inevitable final step of fermentation: their alcohol has turned to vinegar. In fact it is vinegar, not wine, that is God's gift to man; all we can do is hold it a little while at the wine stage.
It was only when we moved from being hunter-gatherers to agriculturists about 8,000 years ago that we could accumulate enough grapes for winemaking to begin. From this point on grapes held sway in winemaking because of the ease with which they can be turned into wine. Even the word "wine" has the same ancient root as "vine". However, almost anything can be used to blush water into wine: fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, teabags – whatever you think might taste good.
The recipe
Whatever ingredients you choose, the basics are the same: get the right balance of flavour, sugar and acid, add some yeast, and away you go. The following will work for most fruits. For strong-tasting fruits like elderberries use slightly less fruit (say 1.5kg). For fruit with gentle flavours, such as apples and grapes, you can use the pure juice (but then use less sugar).
About 2kg fruit
1.5kg sugar
4.5L water
Packet of yeast (normally 5g)
Pectic enzyme
Lemon juice
Strong tea (alternatively, use raisins or tannin extract)
Stage 1 - prepare the fruit
When making wine it is important to control the microorganisms that grow. Wild yeasts and bacteria exist all around us and for much of the history of wine were used to ferment the fruit into alcohol. Unfortunately, many of these will produce unpleasant flavours and some can make toxins. To ensure that only the microbes you have chosen grow, make sure you sterilise all your equipment before you start.
To prepare the fruit, first remove any stalks and leaves – you can remove skins if you want but you will lose lots of colour and flavour. Next, crush the fruit in a large plastic food-grade bucket. Sterilise the fruit by adding boiling water to your bin. This has the advantage of killing most microorganisms but may affect the flavour of the fruit. Alternatively, use normal tap water and add a Campden tablet. Invented in the eponymous Cotswold village, Campden tablets release sulphur dioxide into the mixture. This will kill most bacteria and will inhibit the growth of most wild yeasts. The rest will die later as the alcohol content rises above 5%.
Allow the water to cool to below 50C and then add some pectic enzyme. Letting the water cool will avoids damaging the enzyme, which breaks down the networks of pectin molecules that help hold plant cell walls together. By breaking these down, more juice is released and we avoid the formation of "pectin haze" in the finished wine. Letting the water cool before adding avoids damaging these little chemical factories.
Leave this mixture, or "must", for 24 hours to allow the juices to escape the fruit and the sulphur dioxide to disperse. If you add the yeast now, the bubbles created can push fruit to the top of the bucket and out of the water, reducing flavour transfer.
Stage 2 – open fermentation
Before we can start fermentation we need to add sugar to the must. The type of sugar you use depends on which kind of flavour you're after: cane sugar, beet sugar and brown sugar will all produce different effects. Whichever you choose, the yeast will work its way through the sugar until it is used up or until so much alcohol is produced that the yeast dies. This recipe will give a wine with about 13-15% alcohol. You are now ready to add your yeast, the miracle that makes wine work.
Once you have added, or pitched, the yeast into the must give it a good stir. Over the next 24 hours you can watch as the calm wine-dark sea is disturbed by bubbles of carbon dioxide coming to the surface. Yeast can live with or without oxygen but it can create much more energy with it, so we start our fermentation open (but covered) to allow the yeast to multiply and completely take over the must.
3 votes Thanks 4
celenagwa123
this is the best that I can do hope it helps...
Answers & Comments
Answer:
I grew up on tales of my Dad's 1970s homemade hedgerow wines. Their fruity aroma and potency were legendary. All that remains of this heady era are five very dusty bottles of "vintage" wine sitting in my father's garage. Of what vintage, or even of what fruit these wines are made, has been long forgotten. But the bottles, and a glut of apples and blackberries, inspired me to start making my own wine. Beautiful jewel-coloured liquids and the constant plop of air locks have formed a backdrop to my living room ever since.
Many microbes are capable of obtaining energy by consuming sugars, and many liberate the alcohol ethanol as a by-product. Unfortunately for the microbes, they are also producing their very own poison. Ethanol will kill most microbes even at low concentrations. Fortunately for us, yeast is different. It can survive in up to about 20% ethanol before it is overcome, and for millennia we have made use of this ability in many fruitful ways.
The truth is that Dad's "vintage" wines have taken the inevitable final step of fermentation: their alcohol has turned to vinegar. In fact it is vinegar, not wine, that is God's gift to man; all we can do is hold it a little while at the wine stage.
It was only when we moved from being hunter-gatherers to agriculturists about 8,000 years ago that we could accumulate enough grapes for winemaking to begin. From this point on grapes held sway in winemaking because of the ease with which they can be turned into wine. Even the word "wine" has the same ancient root as "vine". However, almost anything can be used to blush water into wine: fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, teabags – whatever you think might taste good.
The recipe
Whatever ingredients you choose, the basics are the same: get the right balance of flavour, sugar and acid, add some yeast, and away you go. The following will work for most fruits. For strong-tasting fruits like elderberries use slightly less fruit (say 1.5kg). For fruit with gentle flavours, such as apples and grapes, you can use the pure juice (but then use less sugar).
About 2kg fruit
1.5kg sugar
4.5L water
Packet of yeast (normally 5g)
Pectic enzyme
Lemon juice
Strong tea (alternatively, use raisins or tannin extract)
Stage 1 - prepare the fruit
When making wine it is important to control the microorganisms that grow. Wild yeasts and bacteria exist all around us and for much of the history of wine were used to ferment the fruit into alcohol. Unfortunately, many of these will produce unpleasant flavours and some can make toxins. To ensure that only the microbes you have chosen grow, make sure you sterilise all your equipment before you start.
To prepare the fruit, first remove any stalks and leaves – you can remove skins if you want but you will lose lots of colour and flavour. Next, crush the fruit in a large plastic food-grade bucket. Sterilise the fruit by adding boiling water to your bin. This has the advantage of killing most microorganisms but may affect the flavour of the fruit. Alternatively, use normal tap water and add a Campden tablet. Invented in the eponymous Cotswold village, Campden tablets release sulphur dioxide into the mixture. This will kill most bacteria and will inhibit the growth of most wild yeasts. The rest will die later as the alcohol content rises above 5%.
Allow the water to cool to below 50C and then add some pectic enzyme. Letting the water cool will avoids damaging the enzyme, which breaks down the networks of pectin molecules that help hold plant cell walls together. By breaking these down, more juice is released and we avoid the formation of "pectin haze" in the finished wine. Letting the water cool before adding avoids damaging these little chemical factories.
Leave this mixture, or "must", for 24 hours to allow the juices to escape the fruit and the sulphur dioxide to disperse. If you add the yeast now, the bubbles created can push fruit to the top of the bucket and out of the water, reducing flavour transfer.
Stage 2 – open fermentation
Before we can start fermentation we need to add sugar to the must. The type of sugar you use depends on which kind of flavour you're after: cane sugar, beet sugar and brown sugar will all produce different effects. Whichever you choose, the yeast will work its way through the sugar until it is used up or until so much alcohol is produced that the yeast dies. This recipe will give a wine with about 13-15% alcohol. You are now ready to add your yeast, the miracle that makes wine work.
Once you have added, or pitched, the yeast into the must give it a good stir. Over the next 24 hours you can watch as the calm wine-dark sea is disturbed by bubbles of carbon dioxide coming to the surface. Yeast can live with or without oxygen but it can create much more energy with it, so we start our fermentation open (but covered) to allow the yeast to multiply and completely take over the must.