Growing grapes and making wine in Bellevue
Posted in Recipes, tomato wine, winemaking on Dec 22nd, 2007
I sowed seeds that sprouted into seedlings. I transplanted the seedlings to beds. I fussed over the tomato plants. I planned. I harvested. Now, at last, I’m finally making tomato wine! Ingredients Juice from 18 lb (8.2 kg) tomatoes – about 1.67 gallons (6.3 liters) 4.84 lb (2.2 kg) sugar 2.5 quarts (2.4 liters) water [...]
Posted in apple wine, Recipes, winemaking on Nov 5th, 2007
Apple wine is great as a dry white. I make it every year from apples, store-bought juice, or a combination. Here’s how I do it:
Posted in halloween, pumpkin wine, Recipes, winemaking on Oct 18th, 2007
How much pumpkin and acid? This isn’t a common wine to make, even for a country wine, but I did find some recipes. Every single one of them agreed on using 5 lb/Gallon (600 g/L) of pumpkin, but they were very different in the amount of acid and sugar. I think it makes sense to [...]
Posted in enology, Raspberry Wine, Recipes, winemaking on Oct 3rd, 2007
I made raspberry wine last year. I haven’t talked about it before because I made it and racked it before I started blogging. I also made it before I owned a pH meter or an acid test kit, so I was really flying blind. How do you make raspberry wine without measuring the acidity? I [...]
Posted in enology, Recipes, winemaking on Aug 27th, 2007
Welch’s wine? While you’re at the grocery store, head over to the freezer section for some frozen grape juice concentrate. Then try my Welch’s wine recipe and see how it compares.I’ve always wanted to make wine from grocery store grapes. It’s not that I’m expecting greatness, but that I’m really curious. Grapes were on sale [...]
Country wine, second wine, and melomel Cherry mead, often called “cherry melomel”, is usually made like a country wine. You make a country wine with small amount of fruit, 2-6 lb, per gallon of water (250-750 g/L) with enough sugar to bring the alcohol up to 12% and acid to balance. You would do something [...]
Posted in cherry wine, Recipes on Jun 30th, 2007
I made the case for white wine from cherries a while back, but when I made cherry wine yesterday it was a red. I bought 43 or so pounds of Bing Cherries, and after setting aside 4.5 lb for cherry liqueur, I had about 38 lb left for wine. They’re dark skinned cherries with red [...]
And you thought tomato wine sounded strange! Years ago I started an oregano bush from seed. Each year I harvest a little for cooking, but it’s huge and most of it goes to waste. What’s a winemaker to do? Use this recipe from Terry Garey’s Joy of Home Wine Making, my first winemaking book. It’s [...]
This great tasting mead is easy to make. Illustrated, step-by-step instructions.