Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Wine

Edit:  This was supposed to post last week.  Not sure what happened...

Last winter I got it in my head that I should try making wine.  I scoured the interwebs, read tons of sites and blogs.  I figured I could do this.  And I wanted to make blueberry wine, with blueberries grown and picked right here in the woods.

I read all the reviews and did comparisons on all of the wine kits on amazon, picked the one I wanted, and added it to my wish list.

My birthday came and went, with no wine kit arriving at my door.  Mother's Day came and went.  Still no wine kit.

When the blueberries started to ripen in June, I decided to order it myself.  And then amazon laughed at me!  Damn those US sellers refusing to ship the kit of my dreams!  (Oh, fine, apparently there are laws about shipping that sort of thing over the border, and they vary from province to province, so we Canadians are a pain in the ass.  Who knew?)

So I went to the make your own wine store in the little city and asked them for a kit.  They kindly offered me a box of wine.  Um, no.  I explained what I wanted, the fellow said he could order in all the bits and pieces from their supplier, and the cost would actually be less than the kit, and the quality better.  Cool!  But it would take a month or so.  Drat.

Ok, not a big deal.  I could start my blueberries fermenting in a clean, food grade bucket.  The supplies should be in before I need them anyway.

And then the berries played a foolie on me.  Tough pickin's!  No blueberry wine this year.

But wait!  I have so many other choices!  Elderberries, raspberries, pea pods, oh my!  I can make wine.

I went to the little city to collect my treasure.  Except the owner told me the young fellow who had agreed to order my collection had quit and left him in the lurch.  Some stuff had come in, some stuff he had used.  Some stuff he didn't know whether it even got ordered.  He kindly led me around his shop collecting things off this shelf and that, and sent me off with assorted odds and ends, new and used, my head swirling, because, you know, I've never made wine, so do I need that?  What about one of those?  What is that?  On the plus side, he was very friendly and apologetic, and charged me less than half the price of the amazon kit.

I took it home and tucked it away.  I needed to reread instructions, recipes, clear my head.  But that was high into green bean, canning and pickling season.  No wine for me.

Last week, I finally sat and read.  And watched you tube videos.  And cleared my head.  I went in to the little make your own wine store in the big city, where they had all of the chemicals and additives on a shelf for the real do it yourselfers.  I bought a little of this and a little of that.  I probably have everything I need for a dozen batches of wine.

So where to begin?  Well, I like peaches, and this is just too easy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_I1sTZviWw

So, I'll just mess with that a bit...  Hmmm...  These all ask for pretty much the same additives.  I'll put some of that in...

Can I drink it yet?  No, eh?  Ok, I guess I'll have to wait and see.

5 comments:

  1. Such good timing. I had just made the comment on another blog that my next endever was going to be wine. I've got black berries in the freezer from summer. I think I can handle this too. Love your post, gave me a good laugh. did you go with the canned peaches and are you using the store bought yeast(assuming you bought some w/the supplies)? Peach really sounds good but I'll make room in my freezer using the blackberries. Keep us posted on how it's going. I bet Kimber has some good ideas to share. She seems like a homemade wine kinda gal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Excellent! I've seen lots of recipes for blackberry wine. I think it's supposed to be another easy one.

      I figure I've got nothing to lose. Rumour has it, if I can't make good wine I should at least be able to make good vinegar. And I certainly use my share of vinegar, lol.

      Yes, I bought canned peaches. On the one hand, I should be ashamed of myself. Canned peaches are so not local, nor sustainable for me, lol. I just wanted an easy recipe to work with while I figure out the process and equipment.

      I added champagne yeast, pectic enzyme, Potassium Metabisulfate, and yeast energizer. I'll post a link to my wine journal under the header.

      Delete
  2. teeheee - geezuz crap Wendy - you just can't stop yourself from adding more stuff to your daily tasks! and to be honest, herdog, i love wine but i have never tried to make it even tho i keep thinking about it. Wendy, for the love of gawd, please learn how to make wine and then share it all with us. yer our freakin hero and we like to learn only from the best!

    lots of love to you and all of them boys! your friend,
    kymber

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. lol. You crack me up. It's not really adding anything to the daily routine though. Just a day here and there. Mostly it's a sit and wait process...

      thanks, luv. Take care of yourself!

      Delete
  3. I haven't tried to make wine. Looking forward to seeing your results.

    ReplyDelete