HOW TO MAKE PERFECT WINES & SPIRITS OF FRESH RUITSFROM HOME
FRESH FRUIT WINES
There is no need for me to mention the enormous popularity this branch of home wine-making enjoys, or that countless thousands of people all over the world embark with tremendous enthusiasm each summer upon turning wild fruits and surplus garden fruits into wines fit to grace the tables of a banqueting hall. Just let me say that, no matter how advanced methods become and how easily obtainable special ingredients for wine making are, there will always be in the hearts of everyone a place for the true country wines, for they have that indefinable ’something’ which sets them apart from all others, a uniqueness that cannot be found in any other wine either commercial or home produced.
The methods I use myself are described here, and although they are the simplest and the surest ever evolved, it is necessary to point out the complications that arise if these methods are not used.
Years ago-and, I am very sorry to say, even today-many thousands of unfortunate home wine makers are following methods which advocate: ‘crush the fruit, add the water and leave to ferment’. Other methods advise boiling the fruits. In both cases disappointment is almost a certainty, and the reason for this is easy enough to understand.
The gray-white bloom that forms on grapes and other fruits is yeast put there by nature and it may be said that the first wine known to early man was the result of this yeast fermenting fruits crushed for a purpose other than wine-making. In the ordinary way, this yeast might well make good wine if allowed to ferment alone. Unfortunately with this yeast comes what we term ‘undesirable’ yeast (wild yeast), and several kinds of bacteria-each of which can ruin our wines. They bring about what we call ‘undesirable’ ferments that usually take place at the same time as the ferment we want to take place so that instead of a wine of quality the result is one tasting of flat beer or cloudy evil-smelling liquid fit only for disposal. Another bacterium, known as the vinegar bacterium, will turn wines into vinegar.
Since there is nothing we can do when any of these calamities has occurred, they must be prevented from happening.
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Clearly, we must destroy all these enemies before beginning. The simplest method is of course-at first thought anyway-is to boil the fruits. But here rises another problem. All fruits contain pectin, a glutinous substance which causes jams to ’set’. Boiling fruit releases pectin. This pectin holds itself and minute solids in suspension. Giving the wine a cloudiness that is impossible to clarify or even filter out. We may put the crushed fruit through a jelly-bag to remove every particle of pectin-bearing fruit and then boil the juice only, but this is a messy, tedious job that takes hours and eliminates all the pleasure from wine-making.
Obviously, what we need is a method which will destroy the wild yeast and bacteria on the fruits (as boiling does) without actually boiling, and, indeed, without heating our fruits at all because it needs very little heat to bring out the pectin.
Our method, known as the ’sulphiting’ method, does just this and produces full-bodied, crystal-clear wines easily and quickly without fuss or bother. All that is necessary to achieve this are tablets costing just pennies. Campden fruit-preserving tablets are available in bottles of twenty from most chemist. In the ordinary way-and provided the fruit is not too heavily affected with wild yeast and bacteria-one tablet will destroy the undesirable element contained in one gallon of crushed bruit pulp, but we cannot be sure of this. Now, two tablets will surely do this, but being a comparatively heavy dose this might also destroy the yeast we shall be adding so that the ferment we desire does not take place. My method takes care of both these risks, not only destroying the wild yeast and bacteria on the fruits, but also allowing the yeast we add to ferment alone and unhindered to produce wines of clarity and quality the like of which cannot be produced by any other method. By adding one Campden tablet to a good deal less than one gallon of fruit pulp (’must’) this will represent a rough equivalent to two tablets per gallon. But before we add our yeasts we shall have increased the amount of liquid or pulp to nearly twice the amount, consequently reducing the amount of sterilizing solution to half or the equivalent of one Campden tablet per gallon. In this way we achieve our overall aim.
Each Campden fruit-preserving tablet contains four grains of sodium metabisulphite; therefore, any readers finding Campden tablets in short supply may ask their chemist for four grains of sodium metabisluphite (or potassium metabisulphite-there being two forms), and use this. But because a chemist would find a single order of four grains rather trivial, it would be best to ask for say, six or ten packets each containing four grains. If you are making two-gallon lots of wine the amount to use
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would be eight grains. Do not be tempted to buy by the ounce and measure out a grain as this is impossible unless you have the appropriate scales.
Just in case you happen to be one of those people who, even in these enlightened days, abhors the use of chemicals, let me assure you that sulphur dioxide (the solution which results when Campden tablets are dissolved) is quite harmless to humans when used in the proportions recommended. Indeed, as many as eight tablets (thirty two grains) may be used with safety, but such heavy dosing would prevent a ‘must’
fermenting.
The sulphiting method is used by the trade, so we shall be following a method well tried and proved.
Heaven knows how many hundreds of gallons of wines I have made by this method and all with the same unfailing success.
Method 1 makes wines of the heaver type; their flavors are more pronounced and their color more full than those produced by method 2. Those wishing for lighter wines more suitable for serving with meals should use method 2. The main difference in the two methods is that we ferment the fruit pulp itself in method 1, and the juice only in method 2. It will be appreciated that when fermenting the pulp we must as a matter of course get far more from our fruits. But we do not want too much in a light wine otherwise the subtle difference between a heavier wine and the popular lighter wines is lost.
The short pulp ferment of method 1 ensures that we get all the flavour and desirable chemical matter from our fruits in the right proportion.
The best method to use for each type of fruit is given with each recipe. It should be taken into account that varied amounts of fruit and sugar with the use of proper method produce distinctly different types of wine.
METHOD 1
Crush the fruit by hand in a polythene pail and pour on one quart of boiled water that has cooled. Mix well. Crush one campden tablet and dissolve the power in about half an egg cupful of warm water and mix this with the fruit pulp.
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Leave the mixture for one or two hours. A little bleaching will take place but this is nothing to worry about. After this, take one-third of the sugar to be used (or approximately one-third) and boil this for one minute in three pints of water.
Allow this syrup to cool and then stir into the pulp. Then add the yeast (or nucleus) and ferment for seven days. After seven days, strain the pulp through fine muslin or other similar material and wring out as dry as you can. Put the strained wine into a gallon jar and throw the pulp away. Then boil another one-third of the sugar in one pint of water for one minute and when this has cooled add it to the rest. Plug the neck of the jar with cotton wool or fit a fermentation lock and continue to ferment in a warm place for a further ten days.
At this stage, if you have not a spare jar, pour the wine into a polythene pail leaving as much of the deposit in the jar as you can. Clean out the jar, sterilize it and return the wine to this. The remaining one-third of the sugar may now be boiled for one minute in the remaining pint of water. When this has cooled, add it to the rest. Refit the lock or plug the neck of the jar with fresh cotton wool. After this, the wine should be left in a warm place until all fermentation has ceased.
NOTE: If there is not quite enough space for all of this last lot of syrup, put the remainder in a sterilized screw-top bottle and store for a few days in a cool place. This may be added when fermentation has reduced the level of the liquid in the jar. If you have to do this, don’t forget to refit the lock.
METHOD 2
Crush the fruit in a polythene pail and add one quart of boiled water that has cooled. Mix well. Crush one Campden tablet and dissolve the powder in about half an egg cupful of warm water and mix this with the fruit pulp. Leave the mixture in a cool place for twenty-four hours, stirring twice during that time. Strain through fine muslin or other similar material and squeeze gently but not too hard. Discard the fruit pulp.
Then boil one-third of the sugar in half a gallon of water for one minute and allow to cool. Mix this with the juice and return the lot to the polythene pail. Then add the yeast (or nucleus), and ferment for ten days. After this, pour the top wine into a gallon jar leaving as much of the deposit behind as you can. Boil another one-third of the sugar in half a
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pint of water for one minute and when it is cool add it to the rest. Plug the neck of the jar with cotton wool or fit a fermentation lock and ferment in a warm place for fourteen days.
After this, boil the remaining sugar in the remaining half-pint of water for one minute and when cool add it to the rest. refit the lock or plug the neck of the jar with fresh cotton wool and leave in a warm place until all fermentation has ceased. The recipes are designed to make one gallon of wine, it two gallons are being made at once twice the amount of each ingredient must be used (including Campden tablets) and the sugar and water added in double quantities. This principle applies where three or four gallons are being made and it is easy enough to work out. Just to be sure that mistakes do not occur when adding the syrup-sugar and water-stick a label on the jar and note on this the amount added. Readers will be quick to appreciate that certain fruits are more suitable than others for making certain types of wine. Clearly, it would be as hopeless to try to make port from rhubarb as it would be to try to grow potatoes on a pear tree, and I think it is in this respect that many people go astray; they make wines from the cheapest and most readily available fruits (naturally enough) but they do not give the slightest thought to what the result will be or whether they will like it or not. Before you begin decide on the type of wine you are most likely to prefer and then use the fruit and the method which will make this type of wine. Elderberries make an excellent port-style wine and many variations, each with the basic port style underlying them, so that from this lowly wild fruit we may obtain not only a full-bodied port-style wine, but also a Burgundy style, a claret and others according to the whim of the operator.
Blackberries make similar wines, as do certain varieties of plumbs, damsons and black currants. The juice from lighter-colored fruit such as raspberries, loganberries, red and white currants and others make excellent table wines. But there is no need to cover this aspect fully here because every recipe is preceded by the name of the type or style of wine that can be expected from each recipe. I say ‘expected’ because to guarantee that the wine will be identical to the one expected would be unwise, but only because the amounts of sugar and acid present in the fruits vary from season to season-indeed, they vary with the type of tree, soil, situation and with the sort of summer we have had while the fruits have been growing. A hot summer produces fruits containing more sugar and less acid than a wet sunless summer, when the effect is the reverse.
In each recipe appears the name of the best yeast to use and this is best added as a nucleus as already described. If you must ‘use bakers’ yeast or
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a dried yeast, merely sprinkle it over the surface of the ‘must’ at the time given in the method you are using.
A final word. Make sure all fruits are ripe. This is far more important than most people imagine. Half-ripe fruits or those with green patches on them should be discarded as it needs only one or two of these to give a gallon of wine an acid bite. Fully ripe fruit is essential if we hope to make the best wine.
When we have decided that our garden fruits are ripe enough or those you have your eye on in the hedgerows, leave them for another three or four days before gathering.
RECIPES 1 - 32 (BERRY WINES)
1. BLACKBERRY WINE (Port Style):
4lb. blackberries, 4lb. sugar (or 5lb. invert), 7pts.
water, port yeast, nutrient.
Use method 1. Ferment the pulp.
2. BLACKBERRY AND ELDERBERRY WINE (Port Style):
2 1/2lb. elderberries, 2 1/2lb. blackberries, 7pts. water,
3 1/2lb. sugar (or 4lb. invert), port yeast, nutrient.
Use method 1. Ferment the pulp after crushing and mixing
together.
3. BLACKBERRY WINE (Burgundy Style):
4-5lb. blackberries, 3 3/8lb. sugar (or 4lb. invert),
burgundy yeast, nutrient, 7pts water.
Use method 1. Ferment the pulp.
4. BLACKBERRY WINE (Beaujolais Style):
This recipe was passed on to me by a friend. It won 1st
prize among 600 entries on the occasion of the 2nd
National Conference and Show for Amateur Wine-Makers at
Bournemouth. Unfortunately it wasn’t my original recipe,
or I could have won that prize!
4 1/2lb. blackberries, 2 1/2lb. sugar (or 3lb. 2oz.
invert), burgundy yeast, nutrient, 7pts. water.
Method 1 was used. The wine was, of course, dry.
5. BLACKBERRY WINE (Light Table Wine):
3lb. blackberries, 3lb. sugar (3 3/4lb. invert), 7pts.
water, burgundy yeast, nutrient.
Use method 2. Ferment the diluted juice.
6. BLACKCURRANT WINE (Port Style):
4lb. blackcurrants, 1lb. raisins, 3lb. sugar (or 3 3/4lb.
invert), port yeast, nutrient.
Use method 1. Ferment the pulp with the raisins.
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7. BLACKCURRANT WINE (Port Style):
4lb. blackcurrants, 7pts. water, 3 1/2lb. sugar (or 4lb.
invert), port yeast, nutrient.
Use method 1. Ferment the pulp.
8. BLACKCURRANT CLARET:
3l
b. blackcurrants, 2 1/2lb. sugar (or 3lb. invert), 7pts.
water, all purpose wine yeast, nutrient.
Use method 2. Ferment the diluted juice.
9. BLACKCURRANT WINE (A Light, Sweet Wine):
3 3/4lb. blackcurrants, 3 1/2lb. sugar (or 4lb. invert),
7pts. water, al-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.
Use method 2. Ferment the diluted juice.
10. CHERRY WINE (A Delightful Sweet Wine):
8lb. black cherries, 7pts. water, 3 1/2lb. sugar (or 4lb.
invert), all-purpose wine yeast or Bordeaux yeast,
nutrient. Use method 1 Weight with stones and ferment the pulp.
11. CHERRY WINE (A Light Dry Wine):
8lb. black cherries, 7pts. water, 2 1/2lb. sugar (or 3
1/4lb. invert), sherry yeast is best, otherwise
all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient. Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.
12. REDCURRANT WINE (Light Table Wine):
3lb. redcurrants, 7pts. water, 3lb. sugar, (or 3 3/4lb.
invert), all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.
Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.
13. REDCURRANT WINE (A Light Medium-Sweet Wine):
4lb. redcurrants, 7pts. water, 3 1/2lb. sugar (or 4lb.
invert), all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient. Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.
14. DAMSON WINE (Port Style):
8lb. damsons, 7pts. water, 4lb. sugar, (or 5lb. invert),
port yeast, nutrient. Use method 1. Weight with the stones and ferment the
pulp.
15. DAMSON WINE:
Suitable for making into Damson Gin-See ‘Recent
Experiments’. 5lb. damsons, 7pts. water, 3lb. sugar (or 3 3/4lb.
invert), all-purpose wine yeast, nutrient.
Use method 1. Weight with the stones. Ferment the pulp.
16. DAMSON AND ELDERBERRY WINE (Port Style):
3lb. damsons, 1 1/2lb. elderberries, 3 1/2lb. sugar (or
4lb. invert), port yeast, nutrient, 7pts. water.
Use method 1. Ferment the pulp.
17. DAMSON AND DRIED PRUNE WINE (Burgundy Style):
Prunes should be soaked overnight, the water discarded
and the prunes added in the crushed state to the crushed
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damson.
4lb. damsons, 2lb. dried prunes, 7pts. water, 3lb. sugar,
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(or 3 3/4lb. invert), burgundy yeast, nutrient.
Use method 1. Ferment the crushed pulp.
18. RASBERRY WINE (Light, Dry):
4lb. raspberries, 2 1/2lb. sugar, (or 3lb. 2oz. invert),
7pts. water, sherry yeast or all-purpose wine yeast,
nutrient.
Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.
19. RASBERRY WINE (Sweet Dessert): b. raspberries, 1lb. raisins, 7pts. wat
4l er, 3 1/2lb.
sugar, (or 4lb. invert), all-purpose wine yeast and
nutrient. with
Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice but d raisins for the first seven days.
the choppe
. ELDERBERRY WINE (Port Style):
20
4lb. elderberries, 7pts. water, 4lb. sugar (or 5lb.
invert), port yeast, nutrient.
Use method 1. Ferment the crushed pulp.
21. ELDERBERRY WINE (Medium Dry): invert),
3 1/2lb. elderberries, 3lb. sugar (or 3 3/4lb.ts water, sherry yeast or all-purpose wine ye
7p ast,
nutrient.
Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.
22. ELDERBERRY CLARET (Dry, of course): b. elderberries, 2 1/2lb. sugar (or 3lb
3l . invert), 7pts.
water, sherry yeast or all purpose wine yeast, nutrient.
Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.
INE (Burgundy Style):
23. PLUM W
8lb. plums, any fully ripe variety is suitable, 7ptter, 3lb. sugar (or 3 3/4lb. invert), burgundy ye
s.
wa ast,
nutrient.
Use method 1. Weight with the stones and ferment the
crushed pulp.
. PLUM WINE (Port Style):
24
Dark red, fully ripe fruits must be used. 10lb. plums,
7pts. water, 3 1/2lb. sugar (or 4lb. invert), port yeast,
nutrient. h the stones. Use method 1. Ferment the crushed
Weight wit
pulp.
. RHUBARB WIN
25 E:
This wine is best made on the dry side and used as an
appetizer. If you try to make it sweet, it would have to
be rather too sweet. Four pounds of sugar will make it a et wine, but even this will not reduce the
medium swe
acidity which gives this wine its character which, unately, is causing it to lose its popularity. It
unfort poss
is ible to remove the acid by using precipitated
chalk, but this is hardly for beginners and a practice
which, in any case, alters the whole flavour of the
resulting wine.
5lb. rhubarb, 3lb. sugar (or 3 3/4lb. invert), 7pts. ien
water, sherry yeast or all purpose wine yeast, nutrCrush the rhubarb with a rolling pin, starting in the
t.
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middle of each stick. Soak for five days in three p
intbeen dissolved.
s
of water (boiled), and in which one Campden tablet has
Then strain, wring out dry and warm just enough to
dissolve half the sugar.
Having done this, ferment for ten days and then proceed
as you would with any other recipe here, adding the rest
of the sugar and water in stages.
26. LOGANBERRY WINE:
3 to 4lb. loganberries, 3lb. sugar (or 3 3/4lb. invert),
burgundy yeast, nutrient, 7pts water.
Use method 1. Ferment the crushed pulp.
INE (Table Wine):
27. GOOSEBERRY Wb. gooseberries
6l , 3 1/2lb. sugar (or 4 1/4lb. invert),
7pts. water, tokay yeast or all purpose wine yeast,
nutrient. e method 1. But ferment
Us pulp for three days.
28. GOOSEBERRY WINE (Sherry Style): e are those that have
The best gooseberries for this winen left on the bushes to turn red
be or yellow, according
to variety. They should be firm but soft and at the same
time not damaged. Any damaged ones and any with a must be discarded.
suggestion of mould or mildew on them
For a dry sherry style use 2 1/2lb. sugary use 3lb., and for a medium sweet use , for a medium
dr 3 1/2lb., or the
corresponding amounts of invert sugar.
5lb. gooseberries, 7pts. water, sugar (as above), sherry
yeast or all purpose wine yeast, nutrient. 1. But ferment the pulp for five days only
Use method .
. WHORTLEBERRY WINE (Burgundy Style):
29
Whortleberries are a small wild fruit which many people
come to the country to pick; they make excellent jams and
jellies-and very good wines, otherwise known as ‘herts’.
6pts whortleberries, 7pts. water, 3lb. sugar(or 3 3/4lb.
invert), burgundy yeast, nutrient.
Use method 1. Ferment the pulp.
30. WHORTLEBERRY WINE (Port Style): sugar (or 5lb.
8pts. whortleberries, 7pts. water 4lb.
invert), port yeast, nutrient.
Use method 1. Ferment the pulp.
. WHORTLEBERRY WINE (Table Wine):
31
5pts. whortleberries, 7pts. water, 2 1/2lb. sugar (or
3lb. 2oz. invert), all purpose wine yeast, nutrient.
Use method 2. Ferment the strained diluted juice.
32. SLOE WINE: is very popular with
Sloes make a delightful wine which is
those living in the country, andr turning into sloe gin. Not m
particularly suitable
fo ore than 4 lb. should be
used owing to their astringency.
4lb. sloes, 3lb. sugar (or 3 3/4lb invert), 7pts. watert. ,
all purpose wine yeast, nutrienUse method 1. But ferment pulp for three days only.
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