Making New Wines

Well, it’s raining and blowing outside, a good day to work in the kitchen and make more wine!

Today I racked the banana and apple wines into new jugs. They tasted great but very sweet right now as they still contain a lot of sugar.

I started two new wines today–maple and mint!

The maple was made from real maple syrup. I started with a pint of syrup and added enough water to make a gallon. If you have a gallon of maple syrup, you can use it all to make wine. I only had one pint, but it will still make a great maple wine. It will be light-bodied, which is the way I like wine.

The mint was a bit more time-consuming. Yesterday, I picked enough fresh spring mint growth to make a gallon of leaves packed into the bucket. I added a gallon of water to them, put it all in a pot and brought it to a boil. It sat in there with a lid until this morning. I strained and squeezed the mint with sterile hands and made wine with the strong mint tea.

I put each one in it’s own one gallon bucket. Using a hydrometer, I added enough sugar to each wine to make them 12% – 13% alcohol when finished. I also added one teaspoon of pectic enzyme and two teaspoons of acid blend to each one.

I proofed each yeast in warm must in a sterile glass for about 30 minutes. This is both buckets waiting for the yeast. The one on the left is the mint. Odd colour for mint, eh? It was green until I added the acid blend. This is mint tea that I didn’t use.

Now it is an attractive, pinky shade. Really strange! I love mint! It’s one of my favourite flavors, along with maple! Both wines will probably be ready to drink in 6-8 months!


Editors Note: Sheryl has a free e-book “Making Your Own Organic Wine At Home” on her site.

Sheryl – Runningtrails blogs at Providence Acres Farm.

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