Winemaking

The first time David made wine, it was kinda terrible.

We had an unspecific amount of blueberries from my in-laws' bushes taking up the freezer, so he briefly checked out some online sources and threw stuff together. The alcohol content wasn't very high, and he found out later that blueberries are a natural yeast-inhibitor, so fermentation appeared to be over.

Once bottled, the fermentation continued and the bottles became pressurized, resulting in hurried phone calls to friends and family who had gotten gifts of these ticking bombs. We figured this out when David opened one to have with dinner, and half the dining room was stained purple. (On the plus side, we finally had initiative to paint!)

One bottle from this first batch remains (not under pressure anymore) as a decoration in the kitchen.

Things have changed since then.

We've had several successful batches of apple cider wine the past few falls, using unpasteurized cider. One turned almost to vinegar when the cat chewed through the airlock and we didn't find it until it was too late. David has also made honey meade using honey from his dad's bees, mixed with the cider. He once experimented with watermelon and made a very pretty pink wine that tasted lovely but smelled like rotting fruit. ("Don't smell it, just drink it" was the motto.)

But now, we have an abundance of just-about-too-bad blueberries, and David did his homework and got some more supplies, so here's to second chances. Cheers!

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David makes his wine in five-gallon batches, so for this recipe, he used roughly 18 pounds of blueberries in my stainless steel pressure canner. Somewhere between 15 and 20 is ideal. Fill with water til the berries are covered and smash them up a little. Using a tool like a potato masher could crush the seeds inside, which would add a bitter flavor to the wine, so hand-mashing is a preferred method.

Using a half gallon mason jar, he measured out about 1.5 gallons of sugar (roughly 10 lbs). Once most of the berries have been crushed, add five ground campden tablets.

Campden tablets kill micro-bacteria that's already in the pot, creating a clean environment for our yeast to thrive. Any left over campden will be overpowered by the distiller's yeast.

Mix all of this up well and heave the pot over to the stove. While it heats, add:
          2.5 tsp acid blend for tartness (optional, if you don't care for tart wine)
          5 tsp yeast nutrient (yeast cannot survive on sugar alone)
          2.5 tsp pectic enzyme to increase juice yield from the fruit (without it, the wine may be hazy from the other ingredients and taste less juicy)
          2.5 tsp wine tannin to clarify the wine (grapes have natural tannin in their skins, so grapes could be added. When grapes are crushed, like when stepped on in barrels, it releases the tannin and gives the wine a pretty, clear look. Alternately, you could let the wine sit for a while and let the sediment settle. We chose tannin.)

Heat the wine and simmer for about half an hour, stirring occasionally.

Siphon the wine into your five gallon fermenter.

We tried something different this time. David laid a colander lined with cheese cloth across the fermenter and dumped as much of the berry mash into it he could get. Then he tied it up in a bag and left the bag in the liquid, thinking this could help make straining quicker in the future. The bag ended up just getting in the way and busted open later anyway, so it only helped keep some mess contained. 

Also the colander fell into the bucket a bunch of times and splashed sticky sugary blueberries all over the kitchen floor and refrigerator, so that was exciting, too.

There are measurements on the outside of the bucket, so in order to get to the five gallon mark, we needed one more gallon of water. Put an airtight lid and airlock on it, and let cool.

During this time, prepare 1-2 grams of yeast per gallon of mash in a glass of warm water. It'll get fizzy and smell like bread. When it's ready, add it to the cooled mash, reseal the lid, make sure the airlock is on, and let it sit for a loooong time.

Length of sitting depends on the airlock. Watch it daily for when the water in the lock stops bubbling. Could be a week or a month, depends on the yeast. When the bubbles stop, siphon from the sealed fermenter to a secondary fermenter, in our case a glass carboy. We prefer the glass container because you can see the sediment settling. The carboy gets capped with a clean airlock and sits for as long as you like. We like to let it sit for a few months to clarify and get really pretty. 

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Last fall's apple cider all prettified.

Once you're happy with the clarity and flavor (take a test every once in a while), siphon into your bottles! Get as close to the top as your caps allow so there's less contact with the air. David bought a case of EZ Caps on Amazon and we've saved a ton of bottles and jars for gifts. 

Wine is a great late-summer through fall hobby - using up the rest of the summer's garden haul or getting lots of fresh apple cider. It takes a good portion of the winter to sit, so the house smells like wine for a while. Then you get to spend the darker, more miserable parts of the winter on the couch with your own glass of wine. Excellent.