I have been wanting to make my own wine for years! Not the nitrate-ridden, chemically enhanced wine you buy at the store, but naturally-fermented, organic wine that I have made without any added crud. When researching online for wine recipes, I had a very hard time finding anything that didn't call for "yeast and nutrient", "enzymes", or "Campden tablets". All I want is old-fashioned wine, is that too much to ask? Way back when, they didn't have all those fancy additives, and I don't want to use them.
I discovered that my favorite online herb store, The Bulk Herb Store, carries a product called Berry Herbal Brew- a naturally-fermented herbal wine mix! I was curious and wanted to try it for myself... I already had a few cups of organic, homegrown, wild muscadine grapes that I picked on our property- that was a good start!
The directions for Berry Herbal Brew called for ingredient in "parts": one part herbal mix, three parts water, two parts seeded grapes, one part blueberries, one and one-half parts sugar. The ingredients in the herbal mix are listed here- nothing artificial, no commercial yeasts, no crud! \
The final product is a non-pasteurized, no-nitrate wine that is fruity, tasty and full of herbal goodness! I let mine brew for three weeks and finally strained and bottled it today. It filled an empty wine bottle I had saved for this purpose, plus there was about a glassful left over to sample :) I am amazed that my first attempt at homemade wine turned out so well!
So, if you are interested in making your own homemade wine, don't settle for those recipes calling for extra crud! Wonderful homemade wine can be made from nothing but fruit, herbs and sugar. Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment