Virtually anything can be fermented. I happen to like fruit, other people might ferment their peas, just so they can offer a glass of "my pee wine" to their friends! The following recipes have all been tried and tested over the past 14 years or so - we no longer drink wine and the last wine was made in 2017 as we started to switch towards the simplicity of liqueurs.
Put your cleaned fruit into a bucket, cover in boiling water and add a crushed campden tablet and leave overnight
The following day add sugar until you reach an SG of 1.080
Add other ingredients such as citric acid, pectic enzyme, TronOzymol and
Pitch in the yeast to ferment
After a few days, strain out the fruit pulp and add more sugar until the SG is up back around 1.020 and ferment again for a few days
Strain and funnel the liquid into a demijohn, add more sugar, add airlock and ferment for 3 months until there's little to no activity
Bottling is simply a case of syphoning the liquid off the sediment, filtering through a coffee filter and bottling it ... then waiting for 3 months or more before tasting
Red Cherry Plum Wine
I was so lucky when I wrote this cherry plum wine recipe to have any cherry plums at all, but being as I had spent the afternoon collecting 5 Lbs in a couple of buckets, I just had to use them :)
There's nothing unusual about making this wine recipe, it's completely straightforward This cherry plum wine recipe makes a great clean light red wine, like a red currant. Cherry plums ripen before other plums and wine making is such a great use of excess fruit if you know someone who has one.
A rule is of thumb is as always: Only add as much sugar as you need to reach an SG of say 1.080 - 1.085 and that will almost guarantee a dry ferment at 12%.
Red Cherry Plum Wine w Mixed Berries
I was so lucky when I wrote this red cherry plum wine recipe to have any cherry plums at all and even luckier to have half a gallon of other wines and top ups to blend it with to create a new unique new wine.
There's nothing unusual about making this wine recipe, it's completely straightforward - I just topped up the demiohn with a bottle of mixed berries wine from the fridge, and if you're like me, you'll have quite a few to choose from!
Red Currant & Cherry Wine
This red currant and cherry wine recipe is a deeper colour than a straight red currant. It matures faster than a straight cherry and tastes perfectly fruity. If you read the record below the story of this recipe is more complicated. There was honey in there and I ended up starting one of the stuck gallons with a new half gallon of Damson wine! However, these are the ingredients for a red currant and cherry wine.
As with any wine making, the easiest way to mess it up is by putting too much sugar in so that the alcohol kills the yeast before it's finished fermenting. So, only add as much sugar as you need to reach an SG of say 1.080 - 1.085 and that will almost guarantee a dry ferment at 12% when the hydrometer reads dry (0.990 - 0.995).
Red Currant Wine
This red currant wine recipe is easy. It clears fast, matures quickly and tastes perfect. It's worth making as much as you can, red currant wines are thin without the red grape juice, but bright red and unmistakably fruity.
From my notes:
It was July 2010, the day after Independence Day I found myself lying under one of the hillside Red Currant bushes at a 45 degree angle between the weed fabric and the bird netting. I stripped 4 Lbs of bright ripe translucent Red Currants in a matter of minutes and froze them in single layers on baking trays in the chest feezer!
Red Currant & Plum Wine
This recipe is the basic idea for a red currant and plum wine recipe. It should come out a rich amber red colour depending on the variety and colour of the plums. I suspect a late season redcurrant and an early plum would be necessary without a freezer.
Drip strain the must into the demijohn, I find that squeezing plum pulp lets too much sediment into the demijohn.
As a rule of thumb for adding sugar: Use a hydrometer and add sugar only a few Oz at a time. Aiming for a starting point around 1.085 is perfectly adequate to end up with a 90 point drop and a 12% wine almost guaranteed.
Rhubarb Wine
If you grow your own rhubarb, you know how few ways there are to use it ... you can't even give it away some weeks. A decent rhubarb wine recipe will get rid of 4 pounds into one demijohn without any fuss. This recipe is a perfectly good rhubarb wine recipe,ust make sure you put the raisins, ginger & cloves in a bag in the must,
As a rule of thumb for adding sugar: Use a hydrometer and add sugar only a few Oz at a time. Aiming for a starting point around 1.085 is perfectly adequate to end up with a 90 point drop and a 12% wine almost guaranteed.
Scilly Blackberry Wine
While Katriona & I like to visit the Isles of Scilly, I like to be there when the blackberry brambles are out or when the puffins arrive. This blackberry wine recipe is perfect in taste and the colour is deep but I have no idea what puffin tastes like. :)
Katriona in the Scilly Isles is always a joyful occasion ... Getting up in the morning, eating breakfast, getting out, catching a boat, walking for miles stopping every couple of hours for something to eat or a cream tea, or just the tea. I love the place too, it's no quieter than where we already are. It's the 1950's there rather than the Nineties, Noughties or the Teenies. It's a goldfish bowl, everyone knows everyone else's business. One girl told us that her husband had been seen carrying a table from their house and by the time she'd got home her phone was full of condolences from people who thought he was moving in with someone else. If you can turn a table repair into a divorce in under 6 hours, you have a close knit community of bored gossips and dramatists ... lovely place :)
Sloe and Raspberry Wine
This sloe and raspberry wine recipe is unusual in that it's not a seasonal mix, but I had fresh raspberries from Sparkford and the sloes in the freezer from the previous year. But you ferment together just by crushing them separately in 3 pints of boiling water then add the juices together. Or you can crush all the fruit together in one fermentation bucket.
After the primary fermentation you can sieve the stones and seeds out quickly then strain it through a muslin or nylon straining bag for a very clean demijohn ready liquid.
A sloe and raspberry wine recipe is a great early summer wine if you saved some sloes in the freezer from the previous year ... or you can buy some dried in most hop shops. Some raspberries mature in late June and it's a good way to get a deep red wine off early in the wine making year after you've made your white Elderflower Wine.
As always, be careful adding the sugar, according to this record, mine stuck. As a rule of thumb for adding sugar: Use a hydrometer and add sugar only a few Oz at a time stirring well so you can take another reading. Aim for a starting point around 1.085. 1.080 is a perfectly adequate point to end up with a 90 point drop to dryness and a guaranteed 12% wine.
Damsons and Sloes are notoriously high in pectin so maybe 1 1/2 tsp of pectic enzyme (pectolase) is a good idea to keep the wine clear of haze.
Putting too much sugar in without taking an SG reading is the most common mistake in wine making - A rule is of thumb is as always: Only add as much sugar as you need to reach an SG of say 1.080 - 1.085 and that will almost guarantee a dry ferment at 12%.
Spiced Bramley Apple Wine
This spiced bramley apple wine recipe is flexible. The ginger, cloves & cinnamon are important, but the apples can be cut, pulped or juiced to extract the flavour. To be honest, however you get the flavour into your water depends on you and your equipment rather than the apple wine recipe.
This was the first use of my own Lovington Bramley Apple tree for wine. Apple wine can be a little odd. A lot of people like to leave the fruit in the primary for 10 days so the flavours get into the liquid and some of the natural sugars start fermenting like it was a cider - a Gooseberry Wine follows the same squish and soak method. Sometimes though you can borrow a pulper, use a kitchen processor or go for the very fine cutting and just head for the three week ferment. On this occasion I went for the 'cut into little bits' variation. Even though it's a boring task it's surprising how adept you can become at slicing 12 Lbs into little pieces in a short space of time.
Strawberry and Boysenberry Wine
This strawberry and boysenberry wine recipe is not unusual from a seasonal point of view, I had fresh Elsanta strawberries from Sparkford and fresh Boysenberries from Chosen Hill Farm. Even though I wrote this as a strawberry and boysenberry wine recipe the berries here are interchangeable. I mean let’s face it, you’re not going to be lucky to find any Boysbenberry canes in the hedgerows.
Supermarkets have a frozen fruit area, they usually have names like 'summer fruits' but sometimes they are tropical under-ripe rubbish. Most organic farm shops have boxes of frozen fruit, so if you have the strawberries, replace the boysenberries with some frozen supermarket berries.
As always, be careful adding the sugar. As a rule of thumb for adding sugar: Use a hydrometer and add sugar only a few Oz at a time stirring well so you can take another reading. Aim for a starting point around 1.085. 1.080 is a perfectly adequate point to end up with a 90 point drop to dryness and a guaranteed 12% wine.
Strawberry and Raspberry Wine
Wine Recipe: Strawberry and Raspberry Wine
This strawberry and raspberry wine recipe is not unusual from a seasonal point of view, I had picked fresh Elsanta strawberries and Glen Ample raspberries from Sparkford so it's a perfect seasonal mix.
Most organic farm shops have boxes of frozen fruit that could inspire you, so if you only have enough strawberries or raspberries growing in your garden for an occasional treat, scour the supermarket shelves for sell by date bargains or look through the frozen supermarket berries.
As always, be careful adding the sugar. As a rule of thumb for adding sugar: Use a hydrometer and add sugar only a few Oz at a time stirring well so you can take another reading. Aim for a starting point around 1.085. 1.080 is a perfectly adequate point to end up with a 90 point drop to dryness and a guaranteed 12% wine.
From my records I've used Light Brown Sugar, Dark Muscavado Sugar & Wildflower Honey, so don't be shy about not following recipes to the letter. If you come up with a total winner, you'll have created your own family recipe!
Strawberry Wine
If you have a huge bed of strawberries, this is a great recipe .. or if you're lucky enough to have a PYO farm nearby, it's just an hour's pick in the morning for a gallon of wine, and you get to eat all your own strawberries!
My rule is of thumb is as always, only add as much sugar as you need to reach an SG of say 1.080 - 1.085 and that will almost guarantee a dry ferment at 12%.
White Currant Wine
This white currant wine recipe is going to be a rare occurrence for anyone without their own bushes. I just have one of my own at 3-4 years old and a cutting that may have rooted by now :) The only other recipe anyone knows about for white currants is to make the world's most expensive jam. Expensive because the seeds are removed by hand with a quill so that the fruit appears to be whole in the preserve. It's called: Bar-le-Duc confiture and sells for around £16 per 100 grams.
As a rule of thumb for adding sugar: Use a hydrometer and add sugar only a few Oz at a time stirring well so you can take another reading. Aim for a starting point around 1.085. 1.080 is a perfectly adequate point to end up with a 90 point drop to dryness and a guaranteed 12% wine.
Yellow Cherry Plum and White Currant Wine
This yellow cherry plum and white currant wine recipe is probably going to be a classic, it's certainly a rare one. It's only when I come to write out the recipe for this wine I reflect on how lucky I was to find yellow cherry plums on my doorstep and white currants (well worth the drive) an hour or so away.
There’s nothing unusual about making this wine recipe, it’s completely straightforward.
You can crush all the fruit together in one fermentation bucket. After the primary fermentation you can sieve the stones and seeds out quickly then strain it through a muslin or nylon straining bag for a very clean demijohn ready liquid.
You can leave out the grape juice but make sure you put the sultanas in for tannin or a 2 bag cup of tea. IMO it's better to use grape juice and it's cheaper than using expensive (but better quality) hop shop grape concentrates to thicken things up.
A rule is of thumb is as always: Only add as much sugar as you need to reach an SG of say 1.080 – 1.085 and that will almost guarantee a dry ferment at 12%.
Yellow Cherry Plum Wine
I was so lucky to find so many yellow cherry plums to make this yellow cherry plum wine recipe but as I had them, I just had to use them. I suspect that the abundance of cherry plums will spawn all sorts of blends and variations of yellow cherry plum wine in the coming years.
There’s nothing unusual about making this wine recipe, it’s completely straightforward. You can leave out the grape juice and the tartaric acid but make sure you put the sultanas in for tannin or a 2 bag cup of tea.
If you have access to any yellow cherry plums then this yellow cherry plum wine recipe will do you proud. Yellow cherry plum wine is a clean tasting light amber glow in a bottle.
A rule is of thumb is as always: Only add as much sugar as you need to reach an SG of say 1.080 – 1.085 and that will almost guarantee a dry ferment at 12%.