Joy of Home Wine Making (26 page)

If the PA is below 12 percent (and it probably will be), stir in the other half pound of sugar well and check the PA again. Don’t worry if it is a degree off. The fruit still has sugar in it, too, don’t forget.

Pour the water and sugar syrup mixture over the fruit, and add the acid, yeast nutrient, and tannin. After the must cools, add a crushed Campden tablet, if you choose to use one. Cover and fit with an air lock. Twelve hours after the Campden tablet, add the pectic enzyme. If you don’t use the tablet, merely wait until the must cools down to add the pectic enzyme.

Twenty-four hours later, add the yeast.

Let it ferment for five days, stirring daily. When the PA falls to 3 to 4 percent, remove the fruit. Drain it well, but don’t squeeze;
it will simply turn to fine pulp that will displace the wine. Let the wine settle, then rack it into a gallon jug. Bung and fit with an air lock.

Rack the wine once or twice over the next three to six months. When the fermentation is done, taste and decide how you like it. If you want it sweeter, stabilize it, and sweeten it up a bit with a couple of ounces of dissolved sugar or boiled honey, and bottle it.

NOTE: To make this wine with canned sweet eating cherries, use Bings or some other red sweet cherry, and add 2 teaspoons of acid blend, following the above recipe. If you want to live dangerously, you could try using a can of both kinds of cherries.

CANNED PINEAPPLE WINE

Canned pineapples make a pretty good wine—and you don’t have to worry about their ripeness or getting the rind off. Use a good brand, not a cheapie. Try to use pineapple canned in its own juice, because you get more pineapple flavor that way.

water, about 3½ quarts

2 16 oz. (or so) cans of pineapple, crushed in juice

2 lbs. sugar (if fruit is canned in syrup, subtract another ¼ lb. of sugar) or 2 lbs. light honey

1 tsp. acid blend

1 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 Campden tablet, crushed (optional)

½ tsp. pectic enzyme

1 packet champagne yeast

Heat the water. Drain the juice from the fruit, place the fruit into a nylon straining bag, and put it in the bottom of a sanitized primary fermenter. (The fruit is already crushed.)

Measure out 3½ quarts of warm water to start with, and add the fruit juice. Add 1½ pounds of the sugar and stir till dissolved. Be sure it is dissolved. Check the PA. For this wine you want about 12 percent potential alcohol.

If the PA is below 12 percent (and it probably will be), stir in
the other ½ pound of sugar well and check the PA again. Don’t worry if it is a degree off.

Pour the water and sugar syrup mixture over the fruit in the fermenter and add the acid, yeast nutrient, and tannin. After the must cools, add a crushed Campden tablet, if you choose to use one. Cover and fit with an air lock. Twelve hours after the Campden tablet, add the pectic enzyme. If you don’t use the tablet, merely wait until the must cools down to add the pectic enzyme.

Twenty-four hours later, add the yeast.

Let it ferment for five days, stirring daily. When the PA falls to 3 to 4 percent, remove the fruit. Drain it well, but don’t squeeze; it will simply turn to fine pulp that will displace the wine. Let the wine settle, then rack it into a gallon jug. Bung and fit with an air lock.

Rack the wine once or twice over the next three to six months. When the fermentation is done, taste it and decide how you like it. It’s nice dry. If you want it sweeter, stabilize it and sweeten it up a bit with a couple of ounces of dissolved sugar or boiled honey, and bottle it.

NOTE: To give this more body, use ½ pound soaked golden raisins, chopped, with the fruit, or 1 12-ounce can of frozen white grape juice or a quarter pint of white grape wine concentrate. In any case, subtract ¼ pound of sugar from the recipe. Later in your winemaking career, you will discover that a can of pineapple is a useful thing to add to bland fresh fruits.

CANNED PLUM WINE

water, about 3½ quarts

2 16 oz. (or so) cans of plums, any kind, in light syrup

2 lbs. sugar (if fruit is canned in heavy syrup, subtract another ¼ lb. of sugar; if canned in water, add ¼ lb.)

2 tsps. acid blend OR juice and zest of 2 lemons

¹
/
₈
tsp. tannin

1 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 Campden tablet, crushed (optional)

½ tsp. pectic enzyme

1 packet Montrachet yeast

Heat the water. Drain the syrup from the fruit. Take out any pits, and place the fruit (and zest if you are using it) into a nylon straining bag. Put it in the bottom of a sanitized primary fermenter.

Measure out 3½ quarts of warm water to start with, and add the fruit syrup. Add 1½ pounds of the sugar and stir till dissolved. Be sure it is dissolved. Check the PA. For this wine you want about 12 percent potential alcohol.

If the PA is below 12 percent (and it probably will be), stir in the other ½ pound of sugar. Stir it in well, and check the PA again. Don’t worry if it is a degree off. The fruit still has sugar in it, too, don’t forget.

Pour the water and sugar syrup mixture over the fruit, and add the lemon juice, if you are using it, or the acid, yeast nutrient, and tannin. After the must cools, add a crushed Campden tablet, if you choose to use one. Cover and fit with an air lock. Twelve hours after the Campden tablet, add the pectic enzyme. If you don’t use the tablet, merely wait until the must cools down to add the pectic enzyme.

Twenty-four hours later, add the yeast.

Let it ferment for five days, stirring daily. When the PA falls to 3 to 4 percent, remove the fruit. Drain it well, but don’t squeeze; it will simply turn to fine pulp that will displace the wine. Let the wine settle, then rack into a gallon jug. Bung and fit with an air lock.

Rack the wine once or twice over the next three to six months. When the fermentation is done, taste it and decide how you like it. If you want it sweeter, stabilize it and sweeten it up a bit with a couple of ounces of dissolved sugar or boiled honey, and bottle it.

GENERAL NOTE: If you think most of these recipes look alike, you’re right. You can adapt almost any canned fruit to these recipes with very little risk. Explore!

DRIED FRUIT

Dried fruit has all the advantages and disadvantages of canned fruit, though in a slightly different way.

Canning fruit preserves the fruit, but it changes the color, flavor, and texture because the fruit has been cooked for sterilization.

Similar changes occur when fruit is dried, although the fruit is heated rather than cooked. It is not necessarily sterilized. Preserving fruit by removing most of the moisture both takes away and replaces some of the fruit’s original qualities.