Proud of my common wine

[KeithTheSnake]

I proudly make wine from frozen grape juice concentrate. Have been since this last fall. Since then, I've bottled two successful batches. I've got two more on the way: One is stabilizing and soon to be backsweetened; and the other is due for another racking soon. It all started with Welch's, then it progressed to Old Orchard, and now it's Aldi's concentrate. It all has produced tasty wine. I've got a two-gallon experiement of white grape concentrate ready for racking, and a one-gallon experiment of still hard cider stabilized and ready for backsweetening and bottling.

I gathered my equipment a bit at a time, cheaply, mostly by buying used stuff off of craigslist. I've got two seven-gallon, and three five-gallon glass carboys. I've got two plastic primary buckets, four one-gallon jugs. I am the proud owner of a snazzy Italian floor corker, and of a Berrarducci Brothers fruit press and grape crusher that I bought last fall. I can hardly wait to use the press this season.

I love my little setup, and I'm quite proud of my wine. Friends and family keep asking for more of it. I think it's perfect with burgers, spaghetti or pizza. It is a common man's wine made by a common man.

This spring, I'm hunting for dandilions. Fields of them. I'm going to need more carboys.

Best regards,

Keith

 

[Runningwolf]

Keith welcome to the forum. For a "common" man you're not doing so bad in our eye's. In JohnT's that could be a different story. LOL

Really its good to see you diving in and experimenting. You have more patience then me if your doing dandelion wine. I understand you can pick it each day and freeze them until you have enough to do an entire batch. Good luck and keep us posted. Feel free to ask questions anytime.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome aboard!!

 

[Flem]

----and proud you should be!!! Welcome to the forum.

 

[Wade E]

Welcome. 7 gallon carboys??? are you sure on that or are they demijohns or 6.5 or 6 gallon carboys? Imperial gallons maybe?

 

[mrzazz]

Wade, I actually have two 7 1/2 gallon carboys. A friend of mine found them at a garage sale

 

[Angie]

Welcome to the forum. I hear dandelion wine is really good. You sound like the adventerous type with your wine - try making some birch sap wine too. It is a super dry, crisp white. I've had it and it is good - a bit too dry for me so I added some 7-up for a spritzer and that was perfect.

 

[jtstar]

Welcome you have come to the right place we have a large recipe section on this forum feel free to look around and ask questions

 

[KeithTheSnake]

Welcome. 7 gallon carboys??? are you sure on that or are they demijohns or 6.5 or 6 gallon carboys? Imperial gallons maybe?

Nope, I wasn't sure. Turns out the big ones are 7.5 gallons. They're glorious. Am going to keep looking for more of that size.

I found a nice way to transport my carboys, both 5 and 7.5 gallon. I put them in plastic milk crates. The crates serve two important purposes: They provide a bit of insulation from the basement floor; and they make carrying the carboy easy with the crate handles while the crate supports the carboy from the bottom.

 

[Runningwolf]

I also have a 7 gallon carboy I picked up used. They are quiet nice to have.

 

[Brian]

Welcome to a great forum. It is great to experiment some. I do it all the time.. Let us know how the dandelion wine turns out..

 

[KeithTheSnake]

Welcome to the forum. I hear dandelion wine is really good. You sound like the adventerous type with your wine - try making some birch sap wine too. It is a super dry, crisp white. I've had it and it is good - a bit too dry for me so I added some 7-up for a spritzer and that was perfect.

Thanks for turning me on to birch sap wine. Just so happens that there are a lot of birch trees in central and northern Michigan. It gives me an excuse to take an early spring trip to gather sap from mature trees.

Is there any particular recipe you'd recommend?

 

[Angie]

Thanks for turning me on to birch sap wine. Just so happens that there are a lot of birch trees in central and northern Michigan. It gives me an excuse to take an early spring trip to gather sap from mature trees.

Is there any particular recipe you'd recommend?

I just looked through the recipes Bill had given me and the birch one is not included...did a quick search and Jack Keller has one on his site. It's been a number of years since I tasted it but I remember it being reeaallly good. Not many birch trees in my area - I wonder if anyone has ever tried this with apple trees???

recipes seem to be the same:

1 gallon birch sap
2 lemons and 2 oranges
1/2 lb raisins or sultanas, minced or chopped
3 lbs sugar or 1 quart honey
yeast

Briefly;
Peel and slice the citrus fruits, discarding pith and peel. Put fruit into sap and bring to boil and simmer for 10 -20 minutes. Pour into fermentation vessel with sugar and stir until dissolved. Add yeast when cooled and leave for three days, stirring regularly. Put liquor into demi john and ferment.

When kept for a year it will be ready to drink or rack it off and keep for further twelve months. (if you can keep your hands off it!)

Instructions for gathering the sap are varied...drill a hole, insert a bung with a length of hose attached, or simply cut a V into the bark, insert a small twig at the bottom and let the sap drip into a pail. I know you can buy special taps designed to drip the sap into a pail. Lots of fun - but it needs to be done in the spring when the sap first starts to run.

 

[KeithTheSnake]

Thanks, Angie. That Keller recipe is one I researched after you turned me on to birch bark wine. I'll give it a try.

I don't know, but the spikes for collecting maple syrup might do the trick just fine. That's what I plan to use. I'm going to try collecting sap maybe this coming weekend. We'll see how it turns out. I'll try to collect from a half a dozen trees to make sure enough is collected for a five-gallon batch.

This one's going to be a long wait -- much longer than my grape juice concentrate wine that I just bottled this afternoon. Still, it seems like about the time it will take for dandilion wine. I'll just wait patiently.

Thanks, all, for the warm welcome.

 

[Angie]

there are some interesting videos watching people drain the sap from birch trees. It runs just like water - I thought it would be fairly thick but it isn't.

If you manage to get enough sap and make wine start a new thread and keep us up to date on the progress!! Like I said before it made a very crisp dry white wine and a person would have never suspected it was tree sap!!

 

[Daisy317]

I proudly make wine from frozen grape juice concentrate. Have been since this last fall. Since then, I've bottled two successful batches. I've got two more on the way: One is stabilizing and soon to be backsweetened; and the other is due for another racking soon. It all started with Welch's, then it progressed to Old Orchard, and now it's Aldi's concentrate. It all has produced tasty wine. I've got a two-gallon experiement of white grape concentrate ready for racking, and a one-gallon experiment of still hard cider stabilized and ready for backsweetening and bottling.

I gathered my equipment a bit at a time, cheaply, mostly by buying used stuff off of craigslist. I've got two seven-gallon, and three five-gallon glass carboys. I've got two plastic primary buckets, four one-gallon jugs. I am the proud owner of a snazzy Italian floor corker, and of a Berrarducci Brothers fruit press and grape crusher that I bought last fall. I can hardly wait to use the press this season.

I love my little setup, and I'm quite proud of my wine. Friends and family keep asking for more of it. I think it's perfect with burgers, spaghetti or pizza. It is a common man's wine made by a common man.

This spring, I'm hunting for dandilions. Fields of them. I'm going to need more carboys.

Best regards,

Keith

Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined us! There's no shame in "common" wine. I make it too! You just wait... carboys are addictive...