Fruit Season... Cherries mmmmm

I found a bunch of cherry trees nearby where I live!!! Within about 30 minutes I had picked 12lb of cherries.. we are making this in bulk. The problem is going to be balancing making wine and having demi johns free as each fruit comes into season.

Recipe:

• 3lb Cherries
• 2lb Sugar
• 1 tsp Yeast
• 1 tsp Yeast nutrient
• 1 tsp pectolaise
• 1 tsp citric acid
• 1 litre grape juice
• Enough water to fill demi john

Method:

• Bring the cherries to the boil, allow to soften enough to mash.
• Add the sugar to dissolve.
• Pass the stock through a sieve.
• Pour into demi john
• add water
• add the various powders
• add yeast
• top up with water
• put the trap on and wait

We actually made 3 demijohns (18 bottles of wine) but the camera batteries died lol.

Oak leaf wine

An old school friend told me that Oak leaf wine was a good one to make. Whilst waiting for the fruit season it seemed like a good idea. So early one Sunday morning I went to the local park with my daughter to pick oak leaves. Apparently you have to get them as soon as they have sprouted.

We managed to pick about 2lbs of leaves (which wasn't enough) due to feeling a little bit guilty and also it takes a lot of leaves to make up the estimated 6lbs that I think you would need to do this wine justice.

To make up for the lack of leaves I added some oranges and lemons. Making the mixture it certainly had a nice aroma.

Recipe:

• 2lb Oak Leaves (new) took these from 400 year old tree and several other trees.
• 2.2 lb Sugar
• 2 oranges
• 2 lemons
• 1 tsp Yeast
• 1 tsp Yeast nutrient

The usual method was used, boil up the leaves, oranges, lemons, sugar, then give it a good stir in a bucket and allow the aromas to flavour the stock.

This made a light green liquid which then was put into the demi - john.

After about 4 weeks the wine was ready it was extremely clean and looked great, however the taste was a bit bland, but I will be attempting this again next year.

As you can see the wine looks great, but unfortunately the flavour is not strong enough. Next year I will use more leaves and some white grape juice to give the wine body. Not a failure, a lesson!

Tea update

just a quick update the tea wine is going mental lol the fumes of alcohol are incredible... enough to make the missus complain. interested to see what it turns out like, the colour looks great.

May 2010

Happy New Year!!!!
As far as we are concerned this is the new year, a new fruit season approaches!

There are still no 'fruits' available due to the cold winter, but the weather has been clement of recent and we are expecting a bumper year of wine making.

Due to excitement we cannot wait for the fruit season and so we are going to make 3 different wines, the first is our classic red which has already been mentioned in a previous blog (4l Red Grape juice pure, 1.5lb sugar1tsp yeast 1tsp yeast nutrient).

Apple Pear Passion Fruit Wine


We fancied something different from the usual wine and fruit is the order of the day! So to start with we are making Apple Pear and Mango Wine, with 1 litre of white grape juice to add body.

Recipe:

• 2 litres of Tropicana Apple Pear and Passion Fruit Juice (Pure premium)
• 1 litre of White Grape Juice
• 2 lb of Sugar to make up for the lack of the 4th litre of juice
• Top up with water to make up enough to fill the demi-john
• 1 tsp yeast, 1 tsp yeast nutrient

As usual wait for about 4 weeks before racking off!

Tea Wine


We wanted to make Oak leaf wine but again due to the cold winter and possibly a lack of patience the Oak leaves are not ready (read as out yet), so to satisfy the need to make more wine (drink more when the last supply runs out) we have decided to make Tea wine. Our good friend Cossi swears that this is the most difficult wine to get right, but as yet we have not made a bad wine... so here goes:

Recipe:

• 8 x PG Tips Tea Bags
• Sauce pan of water heat it up with tea bags in
• Add 2 lbs Sugar
• Allow to cool
• Pour in demi john
• Add 1tsp yeast, 1 tsp yeast nutirent
• Top up with cold water to fill demi john
• Wait for 4 weeks maybe more, rack off and drink when you patience runs out or when you need more wine because your stock has run out.

Update on previous wines

Red grape juice wine from any carton makes a very fruity, incredibly drinkable red wine, it has maintained warmth through the winter. Despite Cossi believing this to be an sacrilegious act against wine making, it has sustained us through the cold winter months. As wines go as far as we have made so far this stuff is right up there.

Here is to a new wine making season, I predict a fruit famine due to all the wine we will be making.