This bottle of wine (pictured above) is the crabapple that I made last fall (2011). Isn't it beautiful! It's perfectly clear with a mild crabapple flavour and no bitterness! Perfect! We bottled it today.
If you want to know how to make your own organic wine like this at home, feel free to download my book "Making Organic Wine At Home". It's free but I do ask for a donation of whatever you can afford and think it is worth. You can get it here: "Providence Acres Farm Free E-Books"
We are driving away in our camper at the end of July, so are trying to finish all the wines now, before we leave. They will make good hostess gifts when we stop to see friends along the way. Today we bottled the crabapple (pictured left) and the two gallons of wild grape picture below. 
Pictured right is the carbuoy of rose petal wine. It is finished and clearing now. It's almost ready to bottle! It's already delicious and my favourite! The rose petal wines don't need to age very long. I made one gallon of rose petal last year and loved it!
Pictured left is the other carbuoy of wild grape yet to finish. We added extra sugar to it about a month ago to raise the alcohol level. The Lalvin E-1118 yeast can tolerate up to about 18% alcohol. This is a bit of an experiment. We added enough extra sugar to bring it up to about 18% so it has a few more weeks to finish before we bottle it. We are going to call it a "Dry Liqueur". We are hoping it will be done before we go. If not, we will leave it with someone here, to finish and bottle.
My one wine making regret is that I still have 4 gallons of packed and frozen hibiscus petals in the freezer with which to make wine. They would also make fabulous jelly, perhaps together with some rose hips. I have offered these to friends who make jams and jellies, or for making wine, but no one seems to want them. I am really going to hate tossing them into the compost when we leave!
I consider my wine making research and practice to be very successful! I enjoyed making it (and drinking it! lol!). When and if we settle somewhere in the future, I will make it again, although perhaps not on this large scale. The first year I only made one gallon at a time of various kinds. In a way it's more enjoyable like that, not as much work all at one time. I usually get about 4.5 -5 bottles (750ml) of wine from a one gallon jug. If drinking only a little at a time and savouring it, that amount will last a long time and make good gifts at Christmas too.
7 comments:
Wine making is an area I have absolutely no experience in and am clueless about. Your successes and enthusiasm though, make it very appealing. I will have to put it on my "someday" list. :)
Hibiscus petals??????? Oooooh. Too bad we didn't live closer. Joyce would make a fabulous jelly from them. I think you're right about the rosehips - they'd be a great addition.
Mike
If you lived closer I would gladly give them to you :-) Bulk Barn near us has some hibiscus and rose hip tea that's delicious!
Winemaking is so easy, Leigh! It mostly just makes itself.
It's still hard to think that ya'll are going to pick up and drive off.
I know, eh! I can hardly believe it myself!
thanks for commenting on my blog! I love the sound of rose petal wine... but I gave up on the idea of making some myself (any wine really), because we don't drink it anyway. pity about the hibiscus though - if noone wants it for jam, it might be good for dyeing wool/yarn if nothing else? better than composting it all!
your description of shedding off your belongings and moving on sounds tempting and a bit scary at the same time! will you be able to blog about it all? sounds like it's going to be an interesting time for you...
I wish you all the best for your coming journey!
Bettina (from ireland)
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