I've been making wine since I was 14. It started by accident when I left a bottle of grape juice, previously opened, in my closet and forgot about it. When I came across it again it was because the bottle had burst and sprayed the wall with purple wine. There was still about half a quart of wine still in the bottle that had a very strong alcohol smell to it.
I hit the library and cracked some books (1970s Go Ogle) and learned everything about natural yeast and making wine. It was amazingly simple.
I only make it occasionally now and if it has been more than a few years I do a few practice batches with grocery grade grape juice before risking the cost of wine grape concentrate. So this evening I'm drinking from 2 bottles I made in October of 2018 from Welch's white grape juice and their "purple" juice. I normally don't let this kind of cheap shit age so long.
What's amazing is that both bottles taste the same, and its shockingly good. It's semi-dry with no weird finish like one gets from using baker's yeast (I used Montrachet wine yeast). I am planning to make 2 gallons of blueberry wine this week.
There's a farmer's market down the road that sells blueberry cider (they grow a lot of blueberries in Georgia). I have used their cider before and it made an excellent red wine with virtually no blueberry flavor. It tastes like a Shiraz or Cabernet. And this was with the same Montrachet yeast.
I got 2 half-gallon jugs the other day, so I plan to make 2 gallons of the good stuff. I have two 6-gallon carboys (Demijohns for you archaic bastards), but I'm not ready for such a large batch yet. I'll post pics when I set this next batch in motion. The blueberry cider is less than $10 for a half gallon, which I make into a gallon of wine with sugar, pure water and yeast. I figure it costs me about $12 to make a gallon of table quality wine.
I hit the library and cracked some books (1970s Go Ogle) and learned everything about natural yeast and making wine. It was amazingly simple.
I only make it occasionally now and if it has been more than a few years I do a few practice batches with grocery grade grape juice before risking the cost of wine grape concentrate. So this evening I'm drinking from 2 bottles I made in October of 2018 from Welch's white grape juice and their "purple" juice. I normally don't let this kind of cheap shit age so long.
What's amazing is that both bottles taste the same, and its shockingly good. It's semi-dry with no weird finish like one gets from using baker's yeast (I used Montrachet wine yeast). I am planning to make 2 gallons of blueberry wine this week.
There's a farmer's market down the road that sells blueberry cider (they grow a lot of blueberries in Georgia). I have used their cider before and it made an excellent red wine with virtually no blueberry flavor. It tastes like a Shiraz or Cabernet. And this was with the same Montrachet yeast.
I got 2 half-gallon jugs the other day, so I plan to make 2 gallons of the good stuff. I have two 6-gallon carboys (Demijohns for you archaic bastards), but I'm not ready for such a large batch yet. I'll post pics when I set this next batch in motion. The blueberry cider is less than $10 for a half gallon, which I make into a gallon of wine with sugar, pure water and yeast. I figure it costs me about $12 to make a gallon of table quality wine.
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