Making Wine - How To Make Winter Wines

While visiting with an aging Cajun cousin near Chachahoula, Louisiana, I was presented with a hat box of handwritten recipes. "Family secrets, Cher," Cousiane Celine remarked as she gave them to me. The present came at one of those large family gumbo ya-yas (everybody talking all at once -- loudly) parties. It was a chilly winter night, too chilly to be outside with a bunch of half drunk Cajuns, all huddled around a campfire out in the backyard -- when there was a perfectly good warm house.

I was cold and miffed at the discomfort, until she handed me another gift, a mason jar of mulled wine. It was her homemade version of a hot toddy.

"Sip it and your cheeks will be as deep red, as the beetroot I made it from."If it hadn't tasted so delicious, I wouldn't have gotten past the beetroot part of it's name. I am not much of a drinker of anything alcoholic, but it seems that Cousiane Celine's "winter punch parties" were an obvious hit with everyone. Tasting the wine -- I now knew why.

As the new year comes around, what I learned from Cousiane Cecline, is that this is the greatest time of the year to be making home made wines, and drinking last winter's wines for a variety of reasons. Winter wines are all about vegetables and herbs and surpass the average imagination when it comes to winemaking. Furthermore, if you are new to making your own wine, winter can be the perfect time to read up on and develop a new found passion.

If you were to play a word association game, mention the word "wine" and the most likely answer you'll hear is "grapes." Making winter wines goes way beyond grapes and other fruits. There is a very cheap source of wine making from either local produce of the season, or what you have left over in your winter gardens (depending on where you live). They are even made from dried fruits.

Aside from being a great hobby, and a social outlet for many people, the value in making your own wine at home stems from a greater need -- the ability to control and know what ingredients are in the wine that you drink. Almost all American wines contain sulphates, which for some individuals give headaches. As with any food or drink, there is nothing better than going organic or natural. Making homemade wine, allows for both, depending upon the recipe or it's adaptation.

Even though inexpensive wines are widely available today, found even in our grocery stores and convient stores, it is still less expensive overall to make your wine. Beyond that, there is a certain amount of satisfaction (and sometimes challenges) in learning the fine art of wine making.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds celery
• 1/2 pound seedless raisins
• 2 pounds of Domino white granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon citric acid
• 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
• 1/2 teaspoon grape tannin
• 1 Campden tablet
• 1 pkg all-purpose yeast
• White Grape Concentrate (to taste)

Instructions:

• Wash celery thoroughly
• Cut into 1/4 inch pieces and place into large cook pan
• Cover with cold water (about 6-8 cups) and bring to boil
• Lower heat and simmer for twenty-five minutes to 1/2 hour (celery should be somewhat soft)
• Cool and strain off liquid into demijohn (I use the celery to add to a soup or stew)
• Add sugar that has been dissolved in 1 cup boiling water to jar shoulder
• Add citric acid
• Add yeast nutrient
• Add pectic enzyme
• Fit airlock and rest for twenty-four hours in warm environment
• Add package of all-purpose yeast
• Refit airlock and leave in same warm environment
• Shake daily
• When wine starts to clear, allow to settle
• Add crushed Campden tablet when ready to rack
• Top with boiled water that has cooled
• Rack again six months later

Maturity: Six months

Note: When ready to serve, sweeten if desired with white grape juice concentrate

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds of carrots
• 2 cups of white grape concentrate
• 2 pounds Domino white granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon citric acid
• 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
• 1 teaspoon pectic enzyme
• 1/2 teaspoon grape tannin
• 1/2 pound of seedless raisins (chopped)
• 1 Campden tablet
• 1 pkg all-purpose yeast

Instructions:

• Activate yeast
• Wash carrots thoroughly
• Slice into 1/4 inch sections
• Place in pan
• Cover with water and boil
• Reduce heat and simmer until tender
• Strain liquid (while hot) into fermenting container (I use carrot pulp for soups)
• Add sugar (while still hot) and stir well
• Cool to room temperature
• Add White grape juice concentrate
• Add citric acid
• Add yeast nutrient
• Add pectic enzyme
• Add grape tannin
• Cover and allow to sit for twenty-four hours in warm environment
• Add activated yeast packet
• Add chopped raisins
• Ferment for five days
• Strain off raisins
• Transfer to sterile demijohn
• Top with boiled water that has been cooled
• Fit with airlock
• Ferment to dryness (approximately two weeks)
• Allow to clear and settle
• Keep in cooler environment
• Rack when sediment appears
• Top with sweet apple juice
• Repeat racking if necessary
• Top with sweet apple juice each time

Maturity: Six to nine months

Notes: If you wish for a sweeter carrot wine, inquire the amount of carrots and white grape juice concentrate

Ingredients:

• 6 pounds old potatoes (I prefer heirloom potato varieties)
• 3 pounds Domino white granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon citric acid
• 1 teaspoon pectic enzyme
• 1 teaspoon diastase (starch reducing enzyme)
• 1 cup strong cold tea
• 1 Campden tablet
• 1 pkg all-purpose yeast
• White grape juice concentrate

Instructions:

• Wash and scrub the unpeeled potatoes
• Slice 1/8 thick
• Place in large saucepan and cover with 10-12 cups of water
• Bring to a boil
• Reduce heat and simmer for 1/2 hour (potatoes should be somewhat soft)
• Cool and strain off liquid into sterile demijohn
• Add sugar dissolved in 1 cup boiled water after cooling
• Add citric acid, yeast nutrient, and pectic enzyme
• Seal with airlock
• Allow to sit for twenty-four hours in a warm place
• Add yeast package
• Refit airlock
• Ferment in warm place, shaking daily until clear
• When clear, allow to settle
• Rack, but add crushed Campden tablet and top again with cooled but boiled water
• Rack again in six months

Maturity: Eighteen months to two years.

Note: When mature it can be sweetened with white grape juice concentrate

Anyone who has ever attempt to make homemade wine quickly realizes that fermentation is a fine art that you had better master.

Fermentation is what turns juice to wine. Scientifically, it is an age old formula: Sugar + yeast = alcohol + carbon dioxide. The results is a conversion of natural sugars into alcohol, and once the carbon dioxide is removed from the equation, you have wine.

For the yeast to do it's job, it pretty much has to be at a constant temperature. (66 to 70 degrees F is best). Being too hot is even worse than being too cold when it comes to fermentation. Additionally, preferred fermentation room temperatures vary according to the type of wine. For example: Red wines fermentation is best when the room temperature is around 70 degrees F (but should never be over 90 degrees F. Warmer temperatures will ruin the wine and all your work.

My best advice to anyone starting out to make their own homemade wine, is to read up and understand the fermentation process of the whole endeavor. This will greatly aid in understanding the importance of paying attention to the recipe directions until you get the hang of the whole "how-tos." It's not really not complicated.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds beetroot
• 2 pounds Domino white granulated sugar
• 3 medium oranges
• 6 whole cloves
• 1 teaspoon tartaric acid
• 1 teaspoon pectic enzyme
• 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
• 1 pkg all-purpose yeast

Instructions:

• Wash beetroots well, but do not peel
• Cut into 1/8 inch slices
• Place into saucepan with 10 cups of water, and bring to a boil
• Lower heat and simmer until beetroots are tender
• Strain off the liquid and set beetroot aside if desired
• Return liquid to saucepan
• Add the use and zest of the oranges (no pith please)
• Add sugar
• Add cloves
• Heat until sugar is dissolve, stirring at all times
• Add crushed Campden tablet
• Add pectic enzyme
• Cover everything and allow to sit for twenty-four hours in a warm place
• Add all-purpose yeast and yeast nutrient
• Cover and leave for seventy-two hours, stirring once daily
• Strain into a demijohn up
• Top the liquid with cooled boiled water up to the shoulder
• Seal with airlock
• Ferment until dry
• When fermentation is done, rack into a 2nd demijohn to clear
• Repeat racking again as necessary

Notes: Best if you use young beetroot, instead of older roots

Maturity: Six months

Amylozyme -- Known as Amylase in the U.S. it is a enzyme used to break down starches (see Diastase).

Campden tablet-- Potassium or sodium metabisulphite tablets that kill certain bacteria while also inhibiting the growth of wild yeast. Note: Some people who are sensitive to sulphates, omit them in their recipes.

Citric acid --An inexpensive way to boost acidity of wine. It is almost always added after the first fermentation process is done.

Demijohn -- It is a glass or plastic vessel used in fermenting beverages, with a rubber stopper and fermentation lock. It helps to keep bacteria and unwanted oxygen to enter during fermentation. (Also sometimes referred to as a "carboy").

Diastase -- Is an enzyme product from malting barley. It helps starches convert to sugars.

Grape Tannin -- Aid to stabilizing the color of the win and add astringency.

Pectic enzyme -- Eats the natural pectin, helping the wine to clear as it ferments.

Tartaric acid-- Technically speaking it's a white crystalline diprotic organic acid naturally found in certain fruits. What it does is lower the pH during fermentation to a point where undesirable bacteria can't live. It also acts as a preservative.