Would like to try making from scratch

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BruceL

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Hello I'm new to wine making talk and wine making.
I have a bunch of fruit peels and wonder if anyone has ever made wine using this stuff.
If so could you please share your recipe with how much of each ingredient you used and how much you made.
We prefer a dry red/white wine.
Also when using a warming belt where is the best place to put it on the carboy.
 
Hi BruceL - and welcome. Some may disagree with what I am about to say but for what it's worth here it is. Wine making is really about the transformation of the juice of the fruit into alcohol. There are some exceptions (certain flowers can make quite incredible wines - and here I am thinking of elderflower or hibiscus for example) but with most fruit you want to be able to express (expel) the juice and you want to ferment the juice (often with added sugar as most fruit will have enough sugar to produce juice with a density (specific gravity) of about 1.045 - 1.050 and most wines we make need to have enough sugar in solution before we add the yeast to have a density of about 1.090. But fruit peel tends to have no juice and little sugar. What peel tends to possess are essential oils (flavors) and so one really useful thing to do with peels (actually the surface of the peel, known as the zest, and not the white pith that sits close to the fruit) is to add zest to spirits such as vodka or rum or whisky and the alcohol in those spirits can extract the flavors in the oils. Think Limoncello. But to make a wine from lemons you want to use the juice.

If you then say, OK but how much fruit would I need to make wine. Here different people disagree. Many who prefer a wine with a light fruit flavor might use 3 lbs of fruit for each (US) gallon of wine (British gallons are larger) and you might need about 1 lb of sugar added to the fruit to give you the desired starting gravity (density) of close to 1.090 (for a wine that is intended to be bottled at about 12% ABV (alcohol by volume). Those who prefer a richer fruit flavored wine might suggest 5 -6 lbs of fruit for each gallon. And some fruits (which are very light in flavor - say strawberries or peaches or pears) you may not want to add any water but use as much fruit as from which you will be able to extract the volume of juice you want to ferment.

Warming belts are wrapped around the carboy (although I am not sure that they should be used with glass carboys). It doesn't really matter where they are placed. The idea is the heat they generate will warm the carboy and the carboy will then warm the wine. Perhaps a better method of heating wine (and you need to know why you are heating your wine: some yeasts prefer lower temperatures and with fermentation slower is usually better than quicker) is to stand your carboy in a large bucket or container that you fill with warm water and you heat the warm water with an aquarium heater. Aquarium heaters are designed to heat different volumes of water and while you have very little control over the heat they put out you can in fact control the temperature by placing a thermostatic control between the heater and the electric supply so that when the temperature of the water rises above the limit YOU set the controller to the heater is switched off and when the temperature of the water falls below the temperature you want the heater is switched back on and so even if the heater is designed to warm say five gallons of water to 90 F you can set the controller to a max of 70 and a min of 65. I am thinking of a plug and play temperature controller such as those made by Ink Bird. (and I don't shill for them but they do make an excellent device).
 
Hello welcome to WMT and wine making! What types of fruit peels are you planning on using? I'm not familiar with using only peels to make wine, lots of people will add the zest of orange or lemon to add flavor, Skins of other fruits will add color and other valuable notes to there wine. hopefully someone more experienced with this topic will chime in. Good Luck.
 
At the risk of sounding negative - I would recommend against using peels of any fruit for your first batch or two. There are certain basics that need to be somewhat mastered before jumping into the unusual fruit sources for a wine. As mentioned peels of citrus fruits in particular contain oils that could actually significantly complicate the wine making. Typically using cast-off parts of fruit for wine can make it just a bit more of a challenge than you need for your first time out making wine.
Certainly folks do jump right in the 'deep end' with their first batch of wine but folks on here really like to see new winemakers succeed with their time and efforts. If you have a bit of experience making beer or other types of alcoholic beverages you might not have any problems but again getting a firm understanding of the steps, the points where care needs to be taken and signs of possible problems can happen is usually best learned with a more conventional fruit source for your wine.
 
@BruceL, welcome to WMT!

I agree with the previous posters -- starting with regular fruit will provide you with a much greater likelihood of producing a product you'll be proud of.

You made the right decision -- you are asking question before starting. What fruit do you have access to? It's possible to ferment any vegetable matter, so fresh fruit, frozen fruit, commercial juice (without preservatives) all work. If you want an quick-n-easy drinker to start, look at the threads for Skeeter Pee and Dragon's Blood.
 
Sorry, but I have to offer a friendly amendment, winemaker81. Skeeter Pee makes a very delightful summer wine BUT it can cause a new wine maker some headaches. The lemon juice is VERY acidic and the acidity can knock the yeast for a loop. I would suggest that making an apple cider or apple wine (apple cider would use just the natural sugars in the juice whereas for apple wine you would want to add about 1 lb of sugar to the juice. The trick is to look for juice that is preservative free. But with preservative free juice to which you simply add some yeast you will have a very pleasant hard cider after a few weeks or a very drinkable wine after another few weeks - and a wine that will improve with flavor if you can allow it to age six months to a year. The wine (and the cider) won't be gold medal winners because they may need some tannin and they may need some acidity (malic acid) but even without the addition of either (and store bought juice is likely to be poor in acidity and in tannin) the wine (or cider) will be good.
And that said, any store bought fruit juice from pomegranate to cranberry blends (as long as they are preservative free) will result in easy to make and very drinkable country wines at the cost of less than a dollar a gallon (five bottles).
 
Welcome to wine making talk.
My point of view as an industry person is that the fiberous pulp is a waste product. Usually hauled back to the field for compost or trucked to a local animal farmer. A low percentage is cleaned up as a dietary fiber source or turned into another saleable product as dried lemon zest or rice hulls as a filter aid
 
In this day and time when folks are looking for ways to reduce waste it pays to think ahead. Citrus Peels contain elements that are 1) Aromatic 2) Solvents
The article below lists a variety of uses for lemon peels in particular. I'm certain that other uses can be found as well. (Some of the newer paint removers are citrus based - So there is some power in those peels.)

https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/how-to-use-lemon-peels
 

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