Making Wine

first fermentation

I like to brew beer, BUT we don't grow barley.  We DO grow fruit that can be made into country wines and melomels (honey based fruit wines).  So I make what is called "country wines."













\

first fermentation - inside the bucket

Each year I like to make elderberry wine - our first country wine that we received as a wedding gift some twenty years ago.  Elderberries boost the immune system, and we were told to drink that first elderberry wine if we felt we were getting ill or just "under the weather."

first fermentation - under the fruit

I also like to make wine from our apples, Nanking cherries, grapes, strawberries and raspberries.  It all depends upon whether or not we have surplus and berries that are small, seedy or harvested during wet weather.  There is a hierarchy of fruit - best to CSA and on line or on farm sales, slightly blemished fruit and a sharp knife makes great jam, and then the seedy, soft or otherwise unmarketable fruit makes great wine!

Right now I have some apple grape and some elderberry in the second stage of fermentation.  Next I will be sorting berries from the freezer and making jam and more wine.