Joy of Home Wine Making (23 page)

2 lbs. of sugar or 2 lbs. light honey (highly recommended)

3-4 lbs. ripe pineapples

½ tsp. acid blend

¼ tsp. tannin

1 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 Campden tablet, crushed (recommended)

½ tsp. pectic enzyme

1 packet champagne yeast

Boil most of the water and all the sugar or honey, and skim, if necessary.

Remove the leaves and skin the pineapple, saving any juice you lose. Watch out for stickers! Don’t worry if you don’t get all the knots out of the skin. Cut the pineapple in half, and take out the core, then cut the fruit into small pieces over a bowl, saving the juice. Put it in a nylon straining bag and into the bottom of a primary fermenter. With a sanitized potato masher, mash the pineapple with the Campden tablet.

Pour the sugar water over the fruit. See if you need to add the rest of the water to make up the gallon, allowing for the bulk of the fruit, of course. When cooled, add acid, tannin, yeast nutrient, and another Campden tablet if you choose to. Cover and fit with an air lock. Twelve hours after the Campden tablet, add the pectic enzyme. If you don’t use the tablet, merely wait until the must cools down to add the pectic enzyme.

Twenty-four hours later add the yeast. Stir daily.

After a week, lift out what remains of the pineapples, and let the bag drain into the primary fermenter (don’t squeeze). When the wine settles, check the PA. If it is above 3 to 4 percent, let it continue for another week or so, then rack the wine off into a glass secondary fermenter. Bung and fit with an air lock. A couple of weeks after that, do it again, making up the level with a little boiled water if you have to.

Rack the wine again in the next two to six months, and wait for it to ferment out and clear. Pineapple wine is better when sweetened a little, so stabilize it, and add 2 to 6 ounces of sugar in a bit of water, and bottle. It should be very fragrant. Keep six months to a year. Serve chilled and think of Hawaii. Ukeleles optional.

PLUM OR NECTARINE WINE

There are many different kinds of plums and nectarines, which are a cross between peaches and plums. Plums are yellow, red, nearly black, and even green. Get what tastes the best and is ripest. Fresh prune plums are good, too. Plums are grown in much of the United States and Canada.

Wild plums are lower in sugar and higher in acid, so use fewer of them and add a half pound more sugar or honey.

Plum or nectarine wine is mild and tends to be thin, but it has a rightful place in home winemaking, since plums are so easy to grow. Plum wine is a favorite in Japan and China.

3½ quarts or so of water

2 lbs. of sugar or 2 lbs. light honey (highly recommended)

4 lbs. ripe sweet plums or nectarines or 3 lbs. wild plums

1½ tsp. acid blend (none for wild plums)

¹
/
₈
tsp. tannin

1 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 Campden tablet, crushed (recommended)

½ tsp. pectic enzyme

1 packet champagne or Montrachet yeast

Boil most of the water and all of the sugar or honey, and skim, if necessary.

Wash, stem, and pit the plums. No need to peel them. Then cut them into small pieces over a bowl, saving the juice. Put it in a nylon straining bag and into the bottom of a primary fermenter. With a sanitized potato masher, mash the fruit.

Pour the water and sugar over the fruit. See if you need to add the rest of the water to make up the gallon, allowing for the bulk of the fruit, of course. When cooled, add acid, tannin, yeast nutrient, and the Campden tablet if you choose to. Cover and fit with an air lock. Twelve hours after the Campden tablet, add the pectic enzyme. If you don’t use the tablet, merely wait until the must cools down to add the pectic enzyme.

Twenty-four hours later, add the yeast. Stir daily.

After a week, lift out what remains of the fruit, and let the bag drain. When the wine settles, check the PA. If it is above 3 to 4 percent, let it continue for another week or so, then rack the wine off into a glass secondary fermenter. Bung and fit with an air lock. A couple of weeks after that, do it again, making up the level with a little boiled water if you have to.

Rack the wine again in the next two to six months, and wait for it to ferment out and clear. Plum wine is better when sweetened a little, so stabilize it, and add 2-6 ounces of sugar in a bit of water, and bottle. Keep it six months to a year. Serve chilled.

RHUBARB RHUBARB RHUBARB

In high school drama class we were told to murmur
rhubarb
over and over during crowd scenes. I still can’t say it more than twice in a row without stuttering and smelling greasepaint.

Rhubarb grows all over the United States, in cities and out in the country. If you are driving around in the country and see a big patch of rhubarb out in a field on its own, you know there was once a farmhouse on the site. Rhubarb is a vegetable, not a fruit, although we use it as a fruit.

Use ONLY the stalks of rhubarb, never the leaves, which are highly poisonous. In the spring, you can buy rhubarb in grocery stores and farmers’ markets. Rhubarb is a high-acid fruit, so don’t use more than 3 pounds to a gallon, unless you are willing to use precipitate chalk to take down the acid contents. It makes a fine wine.

1 gallon water

2½ lbs. of sugar or 3 lbs. light honey (highly recommended)

3 lbs. rhubarb stalks, the redder the better, fresh or frozen

1 6 oz. can frozen apple or white grape juice, optional

no acid blend

¹
/
₈
tsp. tannin

1 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 Campden tablet, crushed (optional)

½ tsp. pectic enzyme

1 packet champagne or Montrachet yeast

Boil the water and sugar or honey, and skim, if necessary. Wash and cut the rhubarb stalks into small pieces. Put them in a nylon straining bag and into the bottom of a primary fermenter. With a sanitized potato masher, mash the fruit.

If you use the apple juice or white grape juice, leave out ¼ lb. sugar or honey. Pour the hot water and sugar over the fruit. Let it cool a bit, then mash it again, and add the apple or grape juice if you are using them. When cooled, add the tannin, yeast nutrient, and the Campden tablet if you choose to. Cover and fit with an air lock. Twelve hours after the Campden tablet, add the pectic enzyme. If you don’t use the tablet, merely wait until the must cools down to add the pectic enzyme.

Twenty-four hours later, add the yeast. Stir daily.

After three to four days, lift out what remains of the fruit, and let the bag drain. Don’t squeeze. When the wine settles, check the PA. If it is above 3 to 4 percent, let it continue for another week or so, then rack the wine off into a glass secondary fermenter with a little boiled water if you have to. Bung and fit with an air lock.

Rack the wine again in the next two to six months, and wait for it to ferment out and clear. Rhubarb wine is good dry, but you might like it better sweetened a little. If so, stabilize it, add 2 to 4 ounces of sugar in a bit of water, and bottle it. Keep it six months to a year. Serve chilled. Very nice with poultry, fish, and grain dishes.

LIPS LIKE STRAWBERRY WINE

The above bit of song lyric always kept me wondering as a kid. My first kiss fell considerably short of that ideal.

Strawberries never fail. Local strawberries are best, because they don’t have to be bred to withstand shipping, like the ones from California. Local strawberries will make a sweeter, redder wine. But the commercial California berries will make a good wine, too. Be picky about what you get; sometimes you can get a flat of berries that are dead ripe and cheap because they won’t hold another day. For the freshest and best, go to a pick-your-own farm.