Well Known Recipes

I'm just starting to learn winemaking and I am making a batch of Skeeter Pee now and then my next batch will be Dragon's Blood.

Are there any other really well known recipes similar to these two?

Well known, not sure about that but here is an easy go to recipe I use often.

Basically you are fermenting Realemon and Realime juice, then adding a flavored concentrate, ie: Old Orchard, Welchs, etc.


For a 2 gal. batch.
2 gal. water
15 oz. Realemon juice
8 oz. Realime juice (this goes in around 1.020 - 1.030)
2 tsp. nutrient, then step in 1/2 tsp. at 1.070 and 1/2 tsp. at 1.050
Energizer per manufacturers recommendation
1/4 tsp. tannin
Pectic per manufacturers recommendation
Sugar to bring SG to 1.090 - 1.100 (depending on how much alcohol you would like. I usually push mine to 1.095)
EC-1118 yeast
Ferment dry, down in the .990's.

Once dry, rack to secondary carboys. Add SuperKleer. It should be crystal clear within a week.

Once clear, add 12oz. concentrate(this may be adjusted to suit your tastes, this is the amount I have settled on), such as Old Orchard Blueberry/Pomegranate, Cranberry, Strawberry/Kiwi, etc. to clean carboys then rack clear lemon/lime fermented liquid on top of it.
From there, you can backsweeten to your liking. For me, I usually add 1/4c sugar per gallon. It makes a semi-sweet finished product. I don't like sweet wines.
Also, at the final stage, I add kmeta and sorbate.
Bottle after a week of backsweetening.

This usually takes 3-4 weeks tops from pitching yeast to bottling.

Joe's Ancient Orange Mead (frequently just called JAOM) is another popular recipe, but a mead is a very different style than DB or SP. In my limited time in the hobby those are the recipes I think are the most "well known." I'm pretty sure you can find it in the mead section of this forum.

Another one is Apfelwein. It's a high alcohol cider more than a real "wine", but the forum on home-brew talk has over a thousand pages! You could say it's popular as well

Basically all of your most common fruits are popular with those of us making "Country Fruit Wines" as the name of this forum would suggest that would include the following for starters"
Apple
Plum
Peach
Cherry
Blackberry
Blueberry
Strawberry
Apricot
Black Raspberry
And a few more

Keep in mind also that with some fruits the "wild" versions can have some distinctively different tastes than the commercial 'store bought' varieties too. If you find it in the fruits section of your supermarket or at the roadside stand - it's probably among the popular wines folks on here make.

The only caution I would issue to a beginner is that a few are sometimes a bit more challenging to a beginner (Apple - often slow to clear completely).

The amount of the fruit is the only other thing to watch. For Most of these I listed the more fruit you use per gallon the stronger the flavor. Normally on the neighborhood of 5-7 lbs per gallon for most of these will produce a very good wine. Avoid any recipe that calls for 4 lbs or less of these fruits, you may be disappointed in the depth of the flavor. (There are exceptions for some fruits but for those I listed above you want 5 lbs or more per gallon)

For recipes you can go to Jack Keller's site for listings for individual fruit varieties - just remember to increase the fruit quantities and adjust the starting SG to keep the ABV under 13%.