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July - Blueberry Wine

A Blueberry Wine Artilce for Your Viewing

Selecting the Right Ingredients for Home-Made Wine

Tips for choosing the best home-made wine ingredients:

Fruits must be ripe, but not over-ripe. A few shriveled grapes or black currants are unlikely to harm a brew. In the case of larger fruits such as plums, the doubtful ones should be taken out.

The choice of roots (beetroot, parsnips, etc.) for wine-making purposes should not be dismissed so readily. The best, (or even the only) roots suitable for wine-making are those that are old and shriveled. Parsnips that have been stored throughout the winter or left in the soil are at their best for our purpose in March, as are old potatoes purchased in June when the new ones are coming in. They are ideal if they are well shriveled and/or sprouting. (Be sure to break off the roots before using them.)

These old roots contain less starch than the fresher ones, and we do not want starch in wines because it slows down the clearing process. Besides this, when old roots are used, they flavor the wine less, and it is not in the least bit earthy.

It is a mistake to believe that using additional ingredients, (such as less water, or more sugar/yeast), than is indicated in the recipes, will produce a more potent wine. The strength of wine is decided by the volume of alcohol in which the yeast can live and continue to do its work, and not on the quantity of any ingredients. Too much sugar makes the wine far too sweet. More yeast makes no difference at all, simply because it cannot make more alcohol than it can live in. Age makes very little difference to the alcohol content of wines. Too many ingredients will produce a liquid of too high a specific gravity and a liquid containing too many solids per part of water, (in other words a liquid which is too thick) and this will take a very long time to clear.

Because of this, you should never use more ingredients than the recipe indicates.

About Straining:

Fine muslin is best for straining mixtures produced when making root wines. Tie one piece on the tub - allowing sufficient sag - and place a second piece over this.

This top piece containing the solids can be lifted off without letting them fall into the brew. Jelly bags or similar things made of suitable material are needed for fruit juices, as will be seen in the recipes.

About Sugar & Yeast:

You should always use white sugar, and make certain that all the sugar is dissolved before adding anything (like wheat or raisins) to the brew. If all the sugar is not dissolved, the yeast might not ferment properly & some of the sugar could settle in the form of syrup and be left in the lees when they are thrown away. As a result of this, the wine could turn out quite sharp. With a lot of other ingredients in the brew, it is quite impossible to tell whether all the sugar is dissolved or not.

Baker's yeast is all we need during this stage. This can be purchased at your local bakery. Yeast is added at the rate of one ounce per 1, 2 or 3 gallons.

Do not add the yeast too early...as a temperature well below boiling point will destroy the yeast organism and fermentation will not take place.

About the Author

James Wilson owns & operates www.e-homewinemaking.com, a site providing wine-making tips, tricks and techniques. If you're interested in making your own wine, visit www.e-homewinemaking.com today and sign up for the FREE wine-making mini-course!

Thoughts about Blueberry Wine

Selecting the Right Ingredients for Home-Made Wine

Tips for choosing the best home-made wine ingredients:
Fruits must be ripe, but not over-ripe. A few shriveled grapes or black currants are unlikely t...

Click Here to Read More About Wine ...

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1:31 AM

Monday 06/30/08 - Wine Magazines

The Best Articles on Wine Magazines

How to Grow Grapes for Excellent Wine

I think it quite safe to say that more has been written about the cultivation of grapes than has - or ever will be - written about any other fruit. This is not surpris?ing, considering that the grape is probably the oldest of known fruits.

Surprisingly, grapes do not need loads of manures and fertilizers; they grow well on quite poor soils and need little after-attention. The roots will search out and find what they want; all we have to concern ourselves with is where to put the top-growth - the vine itself.

If one wall of your house faces south, south-west or even west, that problem is solved very easily. If you cannot plant the vine under that particular wall, plant it round the corner and train the vine round to the sunny side of the house. Grapes may be grown in the open garden in similar fashion to loganberries, or they may be trained over sheds, garages, out-houses and such-like.

Vines are not expensive, and if two are planted, the yield may be regarded as fantastic when considering the value of the wine that may be made for many years.

Planting is best carried out in autumn and in any case before Christmas. If planting against a wall, take out a hole about two feet each way and plant so that the stem of the vine is about fifteen inches away from the wall itself. Dig deeply and work in any compost that may be available and some builders' rubble if you can get some. A dusting of lime forked in will be helpful. Spread out the roots well and plant as recommended for fruit trees.

Having planted the vine, spread a little manure above the roots: this will not be necessary in subsequent seasons, but the vine will benefit from a mulch each spring if you can give it one.

Vines must not be allowed to fruit the first season; therefore they must be cut back to about four buds.

Having planted the vine and cut it back, we must decide how to train it to cover the wall.

The best plan is to use special wall nails, run wires to and from these and train the vine to the wires.

The four long growths that come from the four buds you left when cutting back are stopped at the bud nearest the growing point. These four leaders are the basis from which the vine will be built up to cover the wall. If flower buds form during the first season, they should be nipped off so that the vine uses its energy producing wood for subsequent fruiting. First-season fruiting often permanently weakens a vine.

When pruning, remem?ber that next year's fruit will be borne on the wood made this year. But we do not want masses of long, straggling growths hanging about all over the place, so during the summer it is best to cut some of them out. Those left to bear next year's fruit should be cut back to five or six buds in autumn or early winter. Only new growth should be cut during the summer; never cut old wood during summer - indeed old wood must never be cut after Christmas, as this can cause profuse bleeding which may be quite impossible to stop. By all means cut away some of the old growth to make way for new wood, but if this has not been done before Christmas leave it until the next winter.

Many varieties ripen in September - or earlier if the summer has been good. This is especially advantageous because the weather is still warm enough for a satisfactory fer?ment when you come to make the wine. This is not so important to those who carry out their fermentation in the house, but where it has to be carried on in a shed or outhouse the warm weather is a great help.

About The Author

Brian Cook is a freelance writer whose articles on home wine making have appeared in print and on many websites. You can find more of these at: www.makinggreatwine.com

Thoughts about Wine Magazines

How to Grow Grapes for Excellent Wine

I think it quite safe to say that more has been written about the cultivation of grapes than has - or ever will be - written about any other fruit. Th...

Click Here to Read More About Wine ...

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