What Is A Country Wine
In my eyes a "Country Wine" is one that is made from fruits, vegetables or flowers other than the traditional grape wines we are all used to. In most instances the ingredients are grown, picked or foraged although buying the base ingredients…
Country Wine Making in a Nutshell
For simplicity, in this introduction I am not going to delve too deep into the whys of each step of the wine making journey or it’d end up far too long. Instead, I’m going to explain how you go from the fruit to the wine and what each step…
Basic Equipment That You’ll Probably Have
Making country or fruit wines is pretty simple requiring a few basic bits of equipment to get started. You probably will have some of the stuff necessary to start straight away but there are a few other bits you might need to beg, borrow or…
Equipment You’ll Probably Need To Buy
Plastic Fermenting Bucket with Lid
A fermenting bin is used for the initial stages of fermentation of the wine. You can either buy a fermenting bin from a home brew shop or use a food grade bucket of some sort. The size is up to you of course,…
Extracting Flavour From Your Fruit
Now it comes to the fun part where we take our ingredients and try to capture as much flavour and aroma from them as we can. I’m sure people have tried hundreds of ways to extract as much flavour and colour from fruit as possible but generally…
All About Wine Yeast
Yeast may be one of the most important ingredients in any wine. Regardless of the flavouring ingredient whether it be fruit, flower or vegetable without yeast there wouldn’t be any wine. This is the reason why it’s good to know a little…
Wine Fermentation
Ordinarily the first stage of fermentation is carried out in a bucket or fermenting bin. It is possible to kick start your yeast reproductive cycle and boost numbers with a yeast starter and that’s something we’ll look at in more depth soon.…
Getting Prepped
Most people will want to dive straight into making their first ever wine and I remember I was very much the same. But when I made my first blackberry wine it was made more difficult purely because I hadn’t prepared everything properly. I…
Racking and Clearing A Wine
It is usual to move a wine from a fermenting bucket into a demijohn because at this point in the fermentation process there is a lot less activity from the yeast, they are producing less CO2 which forms a protective barrier on top of the wine.…
Making A Raspberry Wine
There is perhaps nothing quite as refreshing and delicate, yet full of flavour as a Raspberry wine. The delicate berries lend themselves to wine making very easily and give up their flavour, juices and colour readily. This makes raspberries…