Joy of Home Wine Making (21 page)

There is currently a lot of discussion about using yeast nutrient in mead. Some people feel it gives an “off” taste, and they are using an all-natural product called yeast extract or yeast hulls. The following recipe works just fine with them. Charlie Papazian talks about mead in
The NEW Complete Joy of Home Brewing
, and there are whole books on the subject. Check out the bibliography.

Try this for a start. It makes a light, pleasant mead.

3 lbs. honey, light or dark

water to make up the gallon, about 3 quarts

3 tsp. acid blend

1 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 crushed Campden tablet (optional)

1 packet mead yeast (if you can get it), or champagne yeast

Boil the honey with quarts of the water. Skim if necessary. Pour into primary fermenter. Cool, and add acid blend and nutrient. You can add the Campden tablet here, if you use it. Cover and fit with an air lock. Twenty-four hours later add yeast. Stir daily. Check the PA in a few days. When it gets down to 3 to 4 percent, rack the mead into a secondary glass fermenter. Bung and fit with an air lock. A few weeks later rack it again. When it ferments out dry and clear, stabilize and sweeten if you like, and bottle.

Mead takes a while to age. I’ve seen books recommending five years! But you don’t have to wait
that
long. Try it in a year, then two years, and see how it comes along.

NOTE: For a sweeter mead, start with three pounds of honey, and then add another one half pound to one pound when you rack it into the secondary container the first time, keeping track of your original PA and how much sugar you are adding. You will have to remove a little of the original must. This gives the yeast a chance to cope with all that sweetness. It will take longer to ferment out, and probably won’t ferment out all the way. When you think it is done, stabilize and bottle it. It takes longer to age, but it keeps for a good long time. You will be drinking a little piece of history.

MEG’S MELON WINE

I was muttering about making melon wine and fussing about the recipes I had, so my sister said, “Well, just do it!” And I did. There are as many different kinds of melons as there are instruments in an orchestra. Every area has its favorite, which comes ripe late in the summer and is bought cheaply. Whatever kind of melon you use, make sure it is completely ripe and flavorful. Melons can’t always be frozen for eating, but they all can be frozen for wine. I like to use them absolutely fresh if I can, though, to make sure to capture the wonderful flavor and aroma. They make a thin wine, and it comes out different than you would expect. Try a few types to see how you feel about it. My favorites are watermelon, and the local muskmelon, a kind of cantaloupe that nearly falls apart when you cut into a ripe one. The scent is like perfume ought to be and isn’t.

You’ll have to decide for yourself if it is a table wine or a social wine.

3½ quarts or so of water

2 lbs. of sugar or 2 lbs. light honey (highly recommended)

3-4 lbs. very ripe melon from the centers of the melons

2 tsp. acid blend

1 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 Campden tablet, crushed (optional)

1 packet champagne yeast

Boil the water and sugar or honey, and skim, if necessary. Cut the melon in chunks and put them in a fine nylon straining bag and into the bottom of a primary fermenter. With clean hands or a sanitized potato masher, squish the melon. Don’t worry about seeds.

Pour the hot sugar water over the crushed fruit. If you prefer, you can chill and reserve half the water beforehand; if you’ve done so, you can pour it in now to bring the temperature down quickly. Add the acid, tannin, and yeast nutrient, but wait till the temperature comes down to add the Campden tablet if you choose to. Cover and fit with an air lock. Twelve hours after the Campden tablet, add the pectic enzyme. If you don’t use the tablet, then merely wait until the must cools down to add the pectic enzyme.

After a week, lift out what remains of the melon, and let the bag drain into the primary fermenter. Don’t squeeze. When the
wine settles, check the PA. If it is above 3 to 4 percent, let it continue for another week or so, then rack the wine off into a glass secondary fermenter. Bung and fit with an air lock. A couple of weeks after that, do it again, making up the level with a little boiled water if you have to.

Rack the wine again in the next two to six months, and wait for it to ferment out and clear. This is better when sweetened a little, so stabilize, and add 2 to 6 ounces of sugar in a bit of water, and bottle. Keep it six months to a year. Serve chilled.

NOTE: If you don’t use the honey, subtract half of the sugar and add a 12-ounce can of white grape juice to give this wine more body.

MULBERRY REVENGE

Mulberry trees produce a huge amount of fruit, which falls when it darned well pleases and makes a mess. Birds and squirrels love them, but they should be planted well away from houses. If anyone out there is really interested in a renewable resource, mulberries are it; they set seed all over the place and grow like lightning.

White mulberries taste insipid. The black or red mulberries have a nice, if mild, flavor. Our neighbor’s tree overhung part of our yard, and drove us crazy by dropping fruit all over the path to the garage.

One year I spread a tarp and knocked a lot of the pesky fruit off the branches over the course of a week, then froze it, and made this wine. It was pretty darned good! When our neighbors finally got rid of the tree, I gave them a bottle. They laughed at the label and drank the wine.

3¾ quarts water

2¼ lbs. sugar or 2½ lbs. mild honey

3-4 lbs. fresh or frozen mulberries

1 tsp. acid blend OR juice and zest of one small lemon

¹
/
₈
tsp. tannin

1 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 Campden tablet, crushed (optional)

½ tsp. pectic enzyme

1 packet Montrachet or champagne wine yeast

Put the water mixed with the sugar or honey on the stove to boil. Pick over the berries carefully, discarding any that are not up to par. Rinse lightly. Put the berries into a nylon straining bag and tie the top tightly.

Put the bag of fruit into the bottom of your primary fermenter and crush the berries within the bag. You can use a sanitized potato masher if you prefer, but hands in sanitized rubber gloves are best.

Pour the hot sugar water over the crushed berries. You can chill and reserve half the water beforehand; if you’ve done so, you can pour it in now to bring the temperature down quickly. Add the acid, tannin, and yeast nutrient, but wait till the temperature comes down to add the Campden tablet if you choose to. Cover and fit with an air lock. Twelve hours after the Campden tablet, add the pectic enzyme. If you don’t use the tablet, merely wait until the must cools down to add the pectic enzyme.

Check the PA and write it down.

Twenty-four hours later, add the yeast. Stir daily. After two weeks, remove the bag (don’t squeeze). After the sediment has settled down again, check the PA. If it is above 3 to 4 percent, give it another week or so, and rack the wine into your glass secondary fermenter. Bung and fit with an air lock.

Rack the wine at least once during fermentation. Be sure to keep it in a dark jug, or put something over it to keep the light from stealing the color.

In four to six months, check the PA. Taste it, too. I like it dry, but you might want to sweeten it. Add some stabilizer and 2 to 4 ounces of sugar dissolved in water. Bottle it, label it, let it rest a year, then open and enjoy it. A nice table wine, served lightly chilled. It’s a good one on which to start people new to fruit wines.