Larryh86GT
Member
I have always wanted to make my own wine. I roast my own coffee beans, have a 86 Fiero GT for a toy, I am a DIYer around the house, veggie garden in the summer, 3 apple trees, couple white seedless grapes going, blueberries growing. 6 various hops plants growing. Lots of dandelions in the lawn in the spring.
I planted raspberries a couple of years back and this year was able to freeze around 10 lbs of them. So off to the winemaking supply store and bought myself a 1 gallon kit. The recipe book and instructions were a little vague so I do an internet search and find this forum. I've been lurking and looking at the raspberry threads for awhile now. I then did my first batch. First lesson learned was 3 lbs of just thawed out raspberries are darn cold while you are squishing them out by hand. I'll let them warm up a little bit more on the next batch. I also had a hard time getting it started but finally worked that out. (by searching here). Found out that the recipe I'm using leaves my gallon a little short of a full gallon when I put the wine in the secondary fermenter. So from that I put it in a 3 liter bottle to finish, but had a little (few,ok four, glasses) left over that I put in the fridge. It's a beautiful color, just a little cloudy. It was not bad at all, a little yeasty but tasty. Yes, I know, be patient, let it finish. I know this, but it was the first wine I ever made and I was really curious if it was really wine. And it was. Cool.
I'm not usually this long winded.
Larry
I planted raspberries a couple of years back and this year was able to freeze around 10 lbs of them. So off to the winemaking supply store and bought myself a 1 gallon kit. The recipe book and instructions were a little vague so I do an internet search and find this forum. I've been lurking and looking at the raspberry threads for awhile now. I then did my first batch. First lesson learned was 3 lbs of just thawed out raspberries are darn cold while you are squishing them out by hand. I'll let them warm up a little bit more on the next batch. I also had a hard time getting it started but finally worked that out. (by searching here). Found out that the recipe I'm using leaves my gallon a little short of a full gallon when I put the wine in the secondary fermenter. So from that I put it in a 3 liter bottle to finish, but had a little (few,ok four, glasses) left over that I put in the fridge. It's a beautiful color, just a little cloudy. It was not bad at all, a little yeasty but tasty. Yes, I know, be patient, let it finish. I know this, but it was the first wine I ever made and I was really curious if it was really wine. And it was. Cool.
I'm not usually this long winded.
Larry