Wolf-Kim
Lovin' The Homestead
I posted this elsewhere and then realized I should post it here as well.
This is a recipe an old beekeeper shared with me, he makes it every year and gifts if out for Christmas. Adam and I used this recipe this year for the first time with great success, everytime Adam sips a little while cooking in the kitchen he grins and boasts how much he likes 'our' wine.
Okay, here is the recipe. Use at your own risk!
2 qt Welches Grape Juice (We choose the red/purple because it's a pretty color. )
2 1/2 gallons of water
1 packet of yeast
6 lbs of sugar
Mix the grape juice, the water, and the sugar all in a large food safe container. We used a orange "Gatorade" type cooler with the spicket on the bottom, makes it easy to filter later. The beekeeper used a food safe 5 gallon bucket, avoid used pickle buckets they could taint the taste and smell of your wine! Try to dissolve as much of the sugar as you can. Then add the yeast and mix just a little bit more.
Cover with a towel and sit in the corner. Do not seal the container, as it gives off gases and will most likely expand and ruin any containers that are airtight. We used a towel and it worked great, this is also what the beekeeper suggested using.
The next day, stir it up again. Just trying to keep sugars from settling to the bottom.
Let it sit for a week undisturbed. Best to keep it in the house, you don't want it to freeze or any unwanted critters in it. Also, please keep in mind that it is grape juice, Adam wanted to place it in a carpeted corner, um, no.
After a week has passed, your wine is ready. It will be carbonated at this time, you can keep it carbonated or remove the carbonation. We chose to remove it. Adam placed a lid on the container, shook it up, opened it and repeated the process until it was flat.
Next we ran it through a coffee filter. This is the most time consuming part of the process, it goes sloowwwwww... Patience.
We jarred it into quart mason jars, but after the jars sat for a day, we realized there was still a lot of sediment. So we filtered it a second time(much faster) and rebottled it.
Voila! Homemade wine. You can even choose to decorate the mason jars as we did, with just a square of red and white plaid fabric placed between the lid and the ring of the jar.
Have fun!
This is a recipe an old beekeeper shared with me, he makes it every year and gifts if out for Christmas. Adam and I used this recipe this year for the first time with great success, everytime Adam sips a little while cooking in the kitchen he grins and boasts how much he likes 'our' wine.
Okay, here is the recipe. Use at your own risk!
2 qt Welches Grape Juice (We choose the red/purple because it's a pretty color. )
2 1/2 gallons of water
1 packet of yeast
6 lbs of sugar
Mix the grape juice, the water, and the sugar all in a large food safe container. We used a orange "Gatorade" type cooler with the spicket on the bottom, makes it easy to filter later. The beekeeper used a food safe 5 gallon bucket, avoid used pickle buckets they could taint the taste and smell of your wine! Try to dissolve as much of the sugar as you can. Then add the yeast and mix just a little bit more.
Cover with a towel and sit in the corner. Do not seal the container, as it gives off gases and will most likely expand and ruin any containers that are airtight. We used a towel and it worked great, this is also what the beekeeper suggested using.
The next day, stir it up again. Just trying to keep sugars from settling to the bottom.
Let it sit for a week undisturbed. Best to keep it in the house, you don't want it to freeze or any unwanted critters in it. Also, please keep in mind that it is grape juice, Adam wanted to place it in a carpeted corner, um, no.
After a week has passed, your wine is ready. It will be carbonated at this time, you can keep it carbonated or remove the carbonation. We chose to remove it. Adam placed a lid on the container, shook it up, opened it and repeated the process until it was flat.
Next we ran it through a coffee filter. This is the most time consuming part of the process, it goes sloowwwwww... Patience.
We jarred it into quart mason jars, but after the jars sat for a day, we realized there was still a lot of sediment. So we filtered it a second time(much faster) and rebottled it.
Voila! Homemade wine. You can even choose to decorate the mason jars as we did, with just a square of red and white plaid fabric placed between the lid and the ring of the jar.
Have fun!
))
)
