recipes from rec.crafts.winemaking

[winemaker81]

I spotted a resurrected thread in which a recipe for grapefruit wine was requested. This made me think of the recipe archive published by Don Buchan, former keeper of the FAQ for rec.crafts.winemaking.

In pre-historic times (the 1990's) Usenet AKA New Groups was the most common form of world-wide mass communication. Most ISP's had a UseNet server their subscribers could access -- I recall my ISP hosted 22,000+ news groups on every topic imaginable (and some I'd rather not imagine). Using a 9,600 baud modem it took a while to simply download the list of groups. I'd kick it off before bedtime and hope it finished by morning and that I'd not lose the connection overnight.

Usenet servers talked to other Usenet servers to distribute posts. My post would be sent to nearby Usenet servers which would continue to send, until posts made it around the world. This could take hours or even days (remember, we are discussing pre-historic times!). Due to limited server space, after a time posts would cycle off and be gone, lost forever. Groups that allowed binary files (music & video) cycled even faster. /end of history lesson

Don still publishes the FAQ, last updated in March 1999. While the links all appear as dead as Usenet, it's a snapshot in time. He amassed a lot of good information that is relevant today, as the basics of wine making don't change much.

In addition, Don collected recipes to preserve them before they cycled off Usenet. He collated by subject matter, zipped each text file, and published on his web site. This collection is a crapshoot -- his goal was preservation so 99% of the recipes are untested, and in some cases he accumulated numerous recipes for a given fruit type, and some conflict with each other. Regardless, it's a potentially useful resource.

 

[cmason1957]

I made grapefruit wine, twice I think. The second time was much better than the first, came out almost tasting like a Sauvignon blanc, just not as much body as a grape wine. I believe this is the recipe I used:

Grapefruit Wine from Fresh Fruit

Makes three gallon.

Ingredients:
For a medium body wine:
18 Grapefruits
18 pints Water (to three gallons plus)
6 -3/4 lbs. Sugar – about 1.090 SG
3 Campden Tablet, crushed
3/4 tsp. Tannin
1 pkg. Champagne Yeast

Keep your acid tester and hydrometer handy. As with all wild fruit the sugar and acid content varies greatly from year to year and even from one location to another. The recipe above is a general recipe to use which, you may have to adjust.

Directions:

Grate rind from 6 grapefruits; exclude any of the bitter white part.
Peel fruit and separate segments. Place fruit and grated rind in nylon straining bag.
Using the nylon straining bag (fine mesh) squeeze and strain juice into primary fermenter. Tie straining bag and put into primary fermenter.
Add warm water and all remaining ingredients, except yeast. Stir well.
Cover primary fermenter.
Wait 24 hours, then add yeast and re-cover primary fermenter.
Stir daily, check S.G. and press pulp lightly to aid extraction.
When S.G. reaches 1.040 (usually 3-5 days), strain juice from bag. Then siphon juice into glass container and attach airlock.
When S.G. reaches 1.000 (usually about 3 weeks), fermentation is complete. Siphon juice off sediment into clean glass container. Re-attach airlock.
To aid in clearing, siphon again in 2 months and again, if necessary, before bottling.
Allow the wine to age.

To sweeten this wine, at bottling, add 1/2 tsp. stabilizer. Then, add 1/4 to 1/2 lbs. of dissolved sugar per gallon.

 

[hounddawg]

I spotted a resurrected thread in which a recipe for grapefruit wine was requested. This made me think of the recipe archive published by Don Buchan, former keeper of the FAQ for rec.crafts.winemaking.

In pre-historic times (the 1990's) Usenet AKA New Groups was the most common form of world-wide mass communication. Most ISP's had a UseNet server their subscribers could access -- I recall my ISP hosted 22,000+ news groups on every topic imaginable (and some I'd rather not imagine). Using a 9,600 baud modem it took a while to simply download the list of groups. I'd kick it off before bedtime and hope it finished by morning and that I'd not lose the connection overnight.

Usenet servers talked to other Usenet servers to distribute posts. My post would be sent to nearby Usenet servers which would continue to send, until posts made it around the world. This could take hours or even days (remember, we are discussing pre-historic times!). Due to limited server space, after a time posts would cycle off and be gone, lost forever. Groups that allowed binary files (music & video) cycled even faster. /end of history lesson

Don still publishes the FAQ, last updated in March 1999. While the links all appear as dead as Usenet, it's a snapshot in time. He amassed a lot of good information that is relevant today, as the basics of wine making don't change much.

In addition, Don collected recipes to preserve them before they cycled off Usenet. He collated by subject matter, zipped each text file, and published on his web site. This collection is a crapshoot -- his goal was preservation so 99% of the recipes are untested, and in some cases he accumulated numerous recipes for a given fruit type, and some conflict with each other. Regardless, it's a potentially useful resource.

Cool
Dawg