Notes on Older Ferments:
Pina Colada - pretty good, but left on the lees too long, and that resulted in a bitter flavour with a ton of burn. That will teach me not to leave it alone for too long. (This was frozen and thawed for better flavours.)
Skeeter Pee/Lemon Wine from Concentrate - I left this recipe alone for a month before bottling and tasting it. It was pretty foul. Too sour and really too bitter - possibly the same result from the Pina Colada version.
Fruite/Fruit Punch Wine - The simplest method. I took some juice out of the bottle and added sugar and yeast. It fermented very well and pretty much turned into a sweet dessert wine. I mixed my last batch with equal parts of flavoured vodka, and it truly made the stuff shine. (Also, hangover time...hurgh.) Also, mixing it with the vodka caused a ton of sediment to drop out of the wine - I don't know the exact reason why...because I left it for about a month and a half before looking at it again.
Welch's Dark Grape Wine - This stuff turned into passable wine, even with a small addition of the Fruite brand fruit punch. Aging this stuff works a charm (about two months), and I have about a cup in my steel flask right now. It is probably the best thing to start with.
Apple Cider - again, an easy batch to do. Only thing I changed was to add brown sugar to it - it turned into a very strong and very apply wine. Gave away much of this batch...
Lo Han Ko - This is a very sweet, earthy smelling herbal drink. It comes in a powdered form (kind of like Kool-Aid), and you make it with hot water. I made a concoction using six tablespoons of this stuff, a cup of water, bread yeast, six tablespoons of sugar and boiled it for an hour. I then cooled it, added the wine yeast and let it sit for about 4 weeks. The result was a sweet, really alcoholic kick of a drink. The burn on the end of the drink was almost like taking a shot of vodka. It had the earthy tones of the herbal drink. Also made a hot version of this drink for my mother - added about two tablespoons of the original powder, and about a cup of the brewed stuff and added hot water. It's pretty strong and tasty.
Things Brewing Now:
Raisin Jack - equal parts of pureed raisins, hot water and sugar, plus a little bit of tea. It's bubbling away now, but smells promising. It is a thick ferment (like loose stools!), but it smells really good.
Sugar Wine - 2 cups sugar, little bit of tea, cranberries, yeast and water. It's not a strong ferment - but I plan to make pineapple coolers with this stuff.
Maple Syrup Mead - 1.5 cups pure maple syrup (yes, this stuff is...well, expensive!), a little bit of brewed tea and a few dried cranberries to start the ferment. It's about half a week in, and the ferment is strong (I brew in small batches - plastic soda bottles), and it has gotten so light in colour.
Cranberry Cooler - This stuff is a very slow ferment, even when boiled and left out in warm weather. Probably because the damn stuff is sour. I've had to add a ton of yeast to this to get it started and it is very slow. (Will probably add brewed tea to this next time I attempt this...so much yuck!)
Okay, I don't plan on drinking all of this...obviously. My liver would probably kill me...
The cranberry cooler is for a friend, the sugar wine is an experiment (because my love of pineapple and brown sugar is pretty weird), the maple syrup mead is for me (in September, for my birthday), and the raisin jack is an attempt to get a recipe that is cheaper for college punches.
Also, don't attempt brewing your own wine unless you are of age to drink the results!
Pina Colada - pretty good, but left on the lees too long, and that resulted in a bitter flavour with a ton of burn. That will teach me not to leave it alone for too long. (This was frozen and thawed for better flavours.)
Skeeter Pee/Lemon Wine from Concentrate - I left this recipe alone for a month before bottling and tasting it. It was pretty foul. Too sour and really too bitter - possibly the same result from the Pina Colada version.
Fruite/Fruit Punch Wine - The simplest method. I took some juice out of the bottle and added sugar and yeast. It fermented very well and pretty much turned into a sweet dessert wine. I mixed my last batch with equal parts of flavoured vodka, and it truly made the stuff shine. (Also, hangover time...hurgh.) Also, mixing it with the vodka caused a ton of sediment to drop out of the wine - I don't know the exact reason why...because I left it for about a month and a half before looking at it again.
Welch's Dark Grape Wine - This stuff turned into passable wine, even with a small addition of the Fruite brand fruit punch. Aging this stuff works a charm (about two months), and I have about a cup in my steel flask right now. It is probably the best thing to start with.
Apple Cider - again, an easy batch to do. Only thing I changed was to add brown sugar to it - it turned into a very strong and very apply wine. Gave away much of this batch...
Lo Han Ko - This is a very sweet, earthy smelling herbal drink. It comes in a powdered form (kind of like Kool-Aid), and you make it with hot water. I made a concoction using six tablespoons of this stuff, a cup of water, bread yeast, six tablespoons of sugar and boiled it for an hour. I then cooled it, added the wine yeast and let it sit for about 4 weeks. The result was a sweet, really alcoholic kick of a drink. The burn on the end of the drink was almost like taking a shot of vodka. It had the earthy tones of the herbal drink. Also made a hot version of this drink for my mother - added about two tablespoons of the original powder, and about a cup of the brewed stuff and added hot water. It's pretty strong and tasty.
Things Brewing Now:
Raisin Jack - equal parts of pureed raisins, hot water and sugar, plus a little bit of tea. It's bubbling away now, but smells promising. It is a thick ferment (like loose stools!), but it smells really good.
Sugar Wine - 2 cups sugar, little bit of tea, cranberries, yeast and water. It's not a strong ferment - but I plan to make pineapple coolers with this stuff.
Maple Syrup Mead - 1.5 cups pure maple syrup (yes, this stuff is...well, expensive!), a little bit of brewed tea and a few dried cranberries to start the ferment. It's about half a week in, and the ferment is strong (I brew in small batches - plastic soda bottles), and it has gotten so light in colour.
Cranberry Cooler - This stuff is a very slow ferment, even when boiled and left out in warm weather. Probably because the damn stuff is sour. I've had to add a ton of yeast to this to get it started and it is very slow. (Will probably add brewed tea to this next time I attempt this...so much yuck!)
Okay, I don't plan on drinking all of this...obviously. My liver would probably kill me...
The cranberry cooler is for a friend, the sugar wine is an experiment (because my love of pineapple and brown sugar is pretty weird), the maple syrup mead is for me (in September, for my birthday), and the raisin jack is an attempt to get a recipe that is cheaper for college punches.
Also, don't attempt brewing your own wine unless you are of age to drink the results!
