Making Fresh Fruit & Berry Wines
Introduction to Fruit Wine Making
Fruit winemaking is an excellent way to use fruits available in your local area, or from your own backyard to make unique and rewarding wines.
As with all home beer and winemaking endeavours, the most important step you will take is sanitising all of your equipment: everything that comes in contact with your fruit wine must be sanitised with a sulphite solution and rinsed with clear water.
These recipes are all geared to make 23 litres: if you are using 19 litre carboys, reduce all of the ingredients by 20%.
Equipment Required
PRIMARY FERMENTER: Food-grade plastic container, with a cover. Must be at least 20% larger than your juice volume. For example, 23 litres of juice will require a container of at least 28 litres.
CARBOY: A bottle-shaped container made of glass or food-grade plastic.
AIRLOCK AND RUBBER BUNG:Together they form a valve that seals the carboy at the neck. It prevents oxygen and spoilage organisms from entering while allowing fermentation gases to escape.
SIPHON HOSE AND SIPHON ROD: 1.8 m (6 ft.) of food-grade tubing attached to a rigid acrylic rod. Used for transferring beer from one container to another while leaving sediment behind.
HYDROMETER AND TEST JAR: A hydrometer measures specific gravity (S.G.) and is very useful for monitoring the progress of fermentation. You should take a hydrometer reading at each step and record the S.G. in the space provided.
WINE THIEF: Used for removing samples from the carboy in order to measure specific gravity (S.G.). Lower thief into carboy and allow it to fill. Place finger over open top and remove.
SPOON: Food-grade plastic, approximately 70 cm (28 in.) long.
FLOATING THERMOMETER
MEASURING CUP: A 500 ml cup is useful for measuring and mixing.
WINE BOTTLES, CORKS AND CORKER: For every 23 litres of wine you will need thirty 750 ml bottles, thirty corks and a corker.
Wine Making Terms
RACKING: Transferring wine from one container to another using a siphon hose and siphon rod.
CLEANING: Removing visible residue from equipment.
SANITISING: Disinfecting equipment to prevent spoilage.
FINING: Clearing the wine through the use of products such as bentonite and Enolofin.
SPECIFIC GRAVITY (S.G.): Measurement of the density of your juice in relation to water. Used for tracking the progress of fermentation (as sugar is replaced by alcohol, the wine becomes less dense, giving a lower reading on the hydrometer).
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