• For 1 gallon / demijohn of wine…

1] Sterilise everything!  Use chemical or heat (the oven or boiling)

2] Blend 1 gallon of filtered water in a container with 1.5Kg of fruit (without stalks) – don’t be afraid to throw a bit more in if you want..

3] Add 1/2 teaspoon of pectic enzyme

*note – this is an enzyme that ‘eats’ the pectin that make jelly set and coagulates elements in the wine making it cloudy

4] Add a campden tablet

*note – used to inhibit the growth of most wild yeast and to eliminate chlorine from the water.

5] Leave for 12 – 24 hours

6] Add 1/4 teaspoon grape tanin

*note – tanin is found in the grape skin, the darker the grape (if you were using them the higher the tanin content); tanin is one of the four ingredients that must be balanced in a good wine (alcohol and sugar against acid and tannin).

7] 1/2 teaspoon of acid blend

*note – acid blend is roughly a mix of 50% tartaric acid, 30% malic acid and 20% citric acid – so can add the relevant amount of these quatities if you have them seperatly, but would like to see you add accurately 20% of 1/2 a teaspoon!

8] 1/2 teaspoon of yeast nutrient

*note – feed the yeast – it isn’t only sugar that a happy yeast makes.. include yeast nutrient – (essentially nitrogen, but can be a lot more besides.. but trust in the word ‘nutrient’)

9] Yeast

*note - are all yeasts created equal? – Bread, beer, wine, athelete’s foot… I digress! They all create CO2 but their qualities are as numerous as their applications.. A beer yeast can only tolerate a certain % alcohol volume before dying off, so should never be used for wine – unless thinking of a drinking friendly bottle of plonk? But seriously a wine yeast will turn fruit sugars into alcohol to around 12% alcohol.. there are many on the market and those that sell them are better at that than me at doing so, so will leave it upto you – wouldn’t get too hung up on it though..

10] Grape juice – ok so it doesn’t make it a true country glass and so is an optional extra – but available to buy and does improve, I believe, so add a cheeky one into the demijohn and ….

11] Place into a sterilised demijohn, of course add a bunk and air lock

12] Allow fermentation to happen…. zzz…..zzzz….zzzzz….zzzzzzz……zzzzz…..zzz…..z

13] Finished.. Rack off into a secondary demijohn

*Note this doesn’t have to be demijohns can be 2 litre bottles ‘converted’: of course the above measures need to be adapted but just so long as the bottle has a bung cut to size with a bendy air gap like you would find in a toilet (but a lot smaller!) – possibly using straws, then all good.  Remember to sterilise!

14] Wait 6 months!  Yep and then rack off into bottles…

15] The boring bit – if 6 months wasn’t enough- Now wait a year!!!!

*note – probably worth remembering the time it takes to mature.  Some longer than others, but like growing veg, do it in phases so there is always something coming through.. I am not at that phase yet but see that the principal is sound!