Thursday, July 14, 2011

Homemade Raspberry Wine


 For the past few months we have been in wine mode (and construction mode). But that's another blog story which you can read here.

 Hmmm that sounds like we were drinking and doing construction work. It sure would have made pounding my fingers with the hammer more bearable.

RASPBERRY WINE
4 lbs. raspberries
2 1/2 lbs finely granulated sugar
1/2 tsp citric acid
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
4 litres water
1 tsp nutrient
1 crushed Campden tablet
wine yeast
 (*we use 1 package of wine yeast per 20 liters of water*)
We times this recipe by five to make a 23 litres batch. (standard  carboy size)
This is how we do it.....

We are blessed with many raspberry bushes.
  Many jars of jam have been made here.  A few years ago we tried our hands at making wine.  It was pretty good.  Last year we made over five gallons and this year we are aiming for 12.5 gallons.  





We froze raspberries for about two weeks.  About 2  buckets per day were harvested and then we would pop them into freezer bags and freeze.

  When we had enough for a five gallon batch, we got busy.
 In a large bucket we measured 20 lbs of raspberries.
 When defrosted. yep you guessed it, a potato masher was put to work.
We added the campden.  This mixture is left overnight before anything else is added.



The next day, the pectin enzyme and yeast energizer are added.


Now  the sugar.  12.5 lbs of sugar
is added to 8 litres of water and heated until sugar is completely dissolved.
.

We dump this over the raspberries and added 12 more litres of tap water.
Stir the sugar water and raspberries and cool to room temperature.  Once at room temperature, add the yeast and stir.  Cover with lid.  This is called your primary fermenter and is available at wine making stores and is food safe.  You do not want anything contaminating your batch or you will end up with vinegar.

SORRY NO PHOTOS..... After steeping for about 3 days on the fruit, the mixture is run through a sanitized coarse strainer to remove as much of the pulp as possible.  The mix is strained one more time through thick cheesecloth.  This is left overnight to ensure no juice is left behind!  The juice is poured back into the primary fermenter and left for 2 to 3 weeks to get the yeast working.

The juice is siphoned into a sanitized plastic carboy a.k.a..... secondary fermentation.  This step of transferring the wine is called racking.
It is racked again 6 weeks later and left to clear for about a week.

Now to bottle the goods...  Sterilize thirty two  750 ml bottles and soak thirty two  corks.  The corks soak in a water/ metabisulphite mixture.  One tablet per 4 litres of water.  The next two photos show the wine being racked into a sanitized  pail. We do this so as not to disturb sediment from the carboy when we haul the wine upstairs for bottling. You can skip this step and rack right into your wine bottles if you choose but you risk getting sediment into your finished product.  YES...LOTS OF SANITIZING!!!
Have to taste before you bottle.  It is going to be a good batch!


The bucket is hauled upstairs to our counter. 

We use our siphoning hose to fill our bottles. 

While I am filling the bottles, Hubby is corking.  

This is the finished product.  The wine bottles are left upright for two days and then flipped on their sides for storage.  This keeps the corks from shrinking.  We use dark wine bottles as the color of red wine will degrade if exposed to light.


CHEERS!


FOR YOU PAT!!
PEACH WINE:
makes 10 British gallons

Peaches  30 lbs
White Sugar 22 lbs
Citric Acid  3 ounces
Grape Tannin  1 1/2 tsp
Water   45 litres
5 tsp nutrient
3 crushed Campden tablet
2 packages wine yeast


STRAWBERRY WINE
Strawberries   4 lbs.
Citric Acid   1 TBSP
Grape Tannin  1/2 tsp
Water   1 Gallon
1 tsp. nutrient
1 crushed Campden tablet
1 package wine yeast


Cheers!!