[earthkitten]

Here's the recipe I am currently using to make Hooch. I can't remember where I got it from, and I've never used it before today. Let this be my Disclaimer: Beware, ye wine lovers! May work, may not. But it's been lots of fun, so far!


I'm using some grapes that grow on my property, and that, up until now....have been feasts for the birds every year. But I finally got the energy and courage to try making them into something. As to what that something will be when I am done, well....Bob's your uncle.


Without further adieu,


'GHETTO WINE':

Ready to drink and bottle in 11 days.

1. Choose ripe Wild Grapes, bring clusters home, and wash them in cold water, leaving them on the stems.

2. Place grapes with stems on in water just to cover, in an enamel or non-metallic kettle.

3. Bring just to a boil, simmer until skins on the grapes pop. Mash the grapes in the water, strain juice into a non-metallic container, through several layers of cheesecloth or a tea-towel to remove grape pulp, seeds, and stems.

4. Reserve juice, throw away pulp and stems.

5. Measure the juice.

6. Add equal amounts of sugar and water (ex: 1 gallon juice, 1 gallon water, 1 gallon sugar.) Put mix in a crock.

7. Spread or sprinkle 1 cake or 1 package of dry yeast on a dry bread crust and allow it to float on top of the mixture. Cover the crock with a clean dish towel, and let ferment for 3 days. Strain wine into non-metallic container such as an enamel canner kettle, wash the crock and be sure to rinse it VERY well. Put wine back in it, allow to ferment for 4 days, stirring every day and skimming the foam off the top. Strain the wine again as before, wash the crock again, and put wine back in the crock.

8. Allow to ferment 4 days, stirring and skimming everyday.

9. Strain the wine once more, and this time it's ready to bottle.

10. The older it gets, the better it is.

(You can bottle it in wine bottles, beer bottles, etc....
Lay the bottles on their sides so the corks stay wet.)

ENJOY!!!!


(And wish me luck.)

[jobe05]

Seems you have an old recipe there, still may work, but it's an old recipe. If you use a "gallon of sugar", your also going to be in trouble.... unless you have a Jet that you can put this fuel in...........

I'll keep in mind, that you want to do this whithout the use of chemicals, which means that you'll want an early drinking wine, because it won't last long....... a few months in the bottle at best.

I would take all the tiny grapes off the stems. If you don't, you'll probably have as many stems (wood) as you have grapes.

Don't throw away the pulp! The skins will impart a lot of flavor and tanins into the wine. Wrap the skins in a cheese cloth, tie it in a ball and throw it in the fermenter with the juice.

I have use fleshmans yeast in a mead (made with honey) before, but never a grape wine.

You will need about 2 1/4 cups sugar per gallon of juice to an ABV of about 11%.

I would guess however that you will need about 2 quarts of grape juice and 2 quarts of water to come out with a descent flavored wine. JW in Minnesota just made a wild grape wine, but don't remember what he said he diluted his juice to, here's the link: http://www.finevinewines.com//Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3845

Or....... You could just make a wild grape mead. Forget the sugar, get some honey from Sam's Club and mix it up and ferment.

[jobe05]

I forgot to add in the above post:

You can also pick more grapes (if they have a nice flavor) and add the juice to the wine when it is finished and cleared. This will help hide that young taste that wines have, and will help it be an early drinking wine.

Hope that helps.

Also, if you freeze your grapes, it helps them break down so you get more juice from them. Maybe freeze for just a couple of days.

[Wade E]

I really dont understand what the bread would be for and totally agree with jobe with getting rid of the stems and keeping the skins for color, flavor and tannins which will help your wine withstand time much better.

[earthkitten]

Ooooh gosh, great advice! I love it. I know, the bread-thing is so weird....I think that's why I like the recipe, it seems older than dirt.


So more sugar equals more alcohol, in the end? Do you think it would taste bad or something? I tried a homemade blackberry wine once that was REALLY strong....but it was nice! Kind of like a fortified wine, or something.


Thanks for the link, I am going to check that out for sure.


I have a yeast called LANVIN that I picked up...don't even know if it's proper, but I knew I probably shouldn't use bread yeast...that would be a bit nutty, I'm sure.


What's the deal with Grape Mead? Could I use fresh, regular honey for that? Sounds very intriguing.

[Wade E]

Some wines hide a higher alcohol (ABV) than others. In example a delicate Pear wine would not benefit from a high abv but strong red wines and strong fruits such as Blackberry and Black Currant will do a very good job of hiding high ABV. Meads are a very smooth wine made with honey and the better the honey the better the end product but even a store bought honey can make a good mead. The honey gives the wine a smoother mouthfeel and a thicker texture. The Lalvin yeast you bought is a very well known wine making yeast and will work well for you Which type of Lalvin yeast did you get? Some yeasts will only render 13% while some will push as high as 20% if you really want it to and Jobe is in the process of making a Blackberry Port right now and as someone who has had it, let me tell you it is awesome.

[smurfe]

Actually a gallon of sugar may not make too high an SG if common table type grapes are used as they have a much lower brix. I will say though that for an average recipe, that is a lot of sugar. What you think, maybe 10 pounds of sugar in a gallon? I used 7 pounds of sugar in may last 3 gallon batch of Raspberry (Vintner's Harvest)and a bottle of WE Red Grape Concentrate and had a starting SG of 1.090.
Overall, as stated, that is just an old time recipe for winemaking. When I first learned how to make wine in the 70's by watching my Mom make wine, she made hers basically the same way. She even used the piece of bread with the yeast sprinkled on it. She made wine from Welches juice as well as the Concord grapes she grew. It definitely worked for us back then.

[jobe05]

Thanks Smurf, I was thinking the same thing this morning after I re-read the post. You may need more sugar just based on the Brix (amount of sugar) in the grapes that you have. So for a gallon batch, without a hydrometer, I would guess 3 to 3 1/2 pounds of sugar. I think the Flieshmans yeast will ferment to a higher ABV, so you can start with that, when the bubbles slow down, taste it, if the ABV is not enough, add a 1/2 cup sugar and see what that does.

Earthkitty: Do yo like your wines dry or sweet?

[Wade E]

So what is the bread for?

[jobe05]

You would sprinkle the yeast on the bread then float the bread on the must. As the bread soaked up water, it would rehydrate the yeast. As the bread denigrated, in a day or so, it would introduce the now rehydrated yeast to the must. The yeast would turn the starches that the bread was made from into sugar and eat it and P!$$ out Alcohol................ to put it simply ....
Edited by: jobe05