Find yourself with an overabundance of fruit and want to make a fun drink for yourself, your family, and your guests? Country wine is a general term for homemade wine made from fruit, generally any kind of fruit except for grapes. Now, you can ferment wine yourself and wow your guests!
Country Wine: The Players
- 2 quarts (2 L) filtered water
- 2 cups (400 g) granulated sugar
- 2 cups (450 g) finely chopped, unpeeled seasonal fruit
Country Wine: The How-To
Boil the water in large pot over high heat then stir in the sugar until dissolved.
Turn off the heat. Let it cool to body temperature or below. Transfer to a large crock or glass jar. Add the fruit.
Cover with a clean cloth, kitchen towel, paper towel, or coffee filter and secure it with a rubber band. Write the date on a piece of masking tape and stick it to the outside of the vessel.
Let it sit at room temperature. Uncover and stir vigorously 3 times a day every day then cover it again.
Bubbling action should start within 24 to 72 hours. Each time you stir, more bubbles should appear. On day 5 or later (depending on the temperature), when the bubbling action slows, strain out the fruit and transfer the liquid into a clean glass jug. Close with an airlock (where to buy airlock).
Leave for several weeks until the bubbling has died down completely. Decant or siphon off the liquid, leaving behind as much of the sediment as possible. (Don’t forget that the sediment is edible too!)
You can drink the wine immediately! Otherwise, you can bottle it in wine bottles (where to buy bottles), flip-top Grolsch-style bottles, clean kombucha bottles, or Mason jars and refrigerate.
Discover more yummy recipes for kombucha, kefir, and homemade wines in Kombucha, Kefir, and Beyond by my dear friends Alex Lewin and Raquel Guajardo!
EXCERPTED FROM KOMBUCHA, KEFIR, AND BEYOND BY ALEX LEWIN AND RAQUEL GUAJARDO. PHOTOGRAPH BY NADER KHOURI. USED WITH PERMISSION OF FAIR WINDS PRESS.
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This is a topic that I don’t see discussed very often. It looks like fun though and I love how simple the concepts are.
It’s a super easy and fun thing to make homemade wine this way!
I have mason jars large enough to store the wine and fruit in and I have flip top bottles for kombucha, but no jug with an airlock. Is this a problem, is there any way to skip that step? or is an airlock absolutely required?
thank you this article was good and a must try one . plesase keep sharing
Thank you for sharing these good article it’s much more helpful and very much needed tips to follow. Keep sharing thank you.
WOW! awesome blog. THANKS FOR SHARING.
O Man this is good. I will do this and surprise my family with it. I need to bookmark your post. Thank You for the info