Fruit wine makers out there?

[FoodFreedomNow]

New winemaker here - I'm having fun making country wine. I started a mixed berry a few weeks ago, an orange about a week ago and, today, an apple cider. I am trying to imagine what onion wine tastes like...I have a recipe but am not sure I'd actually go there. lol

Anyone else making fruit wine, mead, hard cider, melomel, etc. out there? Do you have a favorite recipe to share?

 

[Jiffyrocks]

Ya. Besides the price of the honey, it's a pretty decent expense. Plus it's fun!
And it will look super cute in my wine rack (once uts built!)
I really like the ones where I added cinnamon. Was super yummy.

 

[crescentson]

Nothing to share, but I am just beginning to dabble myself. A buddy of mine just posted some apple wine he is bottling to Facebook. So jealous right now.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Nothing to share, but I am just beginning to dabble myself. A buddy of mine just posted some apple wine he is bottling to Facebook. So jealous right now.

I wish I was bottling now, too. LOL Apple cider and wine are pretty easy if you just start with juice. I bought a couple of gallons of organic juice (for the glass jugs as much as the juice), you just pitch the yeast, add pectin, acid, tannin, and nutrient, stir it up, close the primary fermenter and airlock it. Let it ferment for about a week, then siphon it into a gallon glass jug to sit for another couple of weeks. After that, you can bottle it. Pretty easy, right?

Can you believe you can make cabbage wine? I'm going to stick to the basic fruit until my results confirm that I know what I'm doing, then I'm going to get more adventurous - carrot wine, here I come!

 

[crescentson]

I am amazed at all the herb infused varieties that are out there. Dandelion, mints, chamomile... lots of room to play. I saw a strawberry mint mead recently (tecnically a melomel). Gotta try that one.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

How can you not want to make something called a "melomel"? Strawberry-mint has to be tasty!

I was going to make elderberry wine this summer, but the birds (including the chickens!) decimated them before I could harvest. I collected enough to do an elderberry syrup, though. Next year, I'm going to collect dandelion blooms (plentiful here - lol) and elder flowers for wine. There's nothing quite as fun, IMO, as making food or beverages from your own backyard.

 

[crescentson]

Couldn't agree more. Although busy with the new home, I have been identifying all the local foliage. In addition to elderberry and sassafras, there is red bay (like the seasoning), beauty berry, black berry, all kinds of oak for acorns, pine, youpon holly.

The holly is my favorite, illex vomitoria, which is the only north american source of natural caffeine. Makes a delightful tea.

I really need to see what edible "weeds" are sluming about, too. That will be quite the chore. And the food forest is already under construction.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Couldn't agree more. Although busy with the new home, I have been identifying all the local foliage. In addition to elderberry and sassafras, there is red bay (like the seasoning), beauty berry, black berry, all kinds of oak for acorns, pine, youpon holly.

The holly is my favorite, illex vomitoria, which is the only north american source of natural caffeine. Makes a delightful tea.

I really need to see what edible "weeds" are sluming about, too. That will be quite the chore. And the food forest is already under construction.

Congrats on your new home! Sounds like you have a lot of great plants on your property and that you'll be capitalizing on them.

I didn't know you could make holly tea. From just the leaves, right? I'm not sure we have Yaupon holly here, will have to research.

I only recently realized the power of plantain (plantago major). It grows like a weed here!

 

[crescentson]

Search the term "black drink". The history is very interesting. In the meantime, just ran a batch of apple, grape, and banana kvass through the strainer. It'll be capped for another day or two to mature before bottling.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

That is interesting...I trust it doesn't induce vomiting?

Now that fruit kvass sounds (and looks) good. Better than beets...