Watermelon Wine Recipe – Fresh, Fruity & Refreshing

A watermelon wine is a tricky balancing act. You need to balance the delicate flavour and enhance the aroma that would be lost if the wine is too dry. This watermelon wine recipe has had multiple iterations and will show you how to make the best watermelon wine without losing that subtle flavour.

Balancing Flavour & Sweetness

The great thing about watermelon is the sheer amount of flesh and juice you get in one fruit. This is great for wine making where you need that juice and flesh for flavour, colour and sugar. 

However, in a wine the watermelon flavour can get lost so we have to balance the alcohol with sweetness which will accentuate the subtle perfume of the fruit.

How Red Is Watermelon Wine?

We all know how deep the colour of watermelon is so you might expect a watermelon wine to be like a light Lambrusco or Pinot Noir.

If you are expecting a red wine you may be disappointed because watermelon wine will usually be rose or even white with a subtle red hue.

Red watermelon makes a rose wine and I think this suits, the refreshing quality of watermelon seems to suit a nice chilled rose.

Retaining A Little Sweetness

In order to preserve and enhance the watermelon flavour we need to make sure the wine is not too dry. If your watermelon wine is too dry the subtle flavour is lost and the wine will be thin and insipid.

To maintain a little sweetness we can do a couple of things:

• Selecting the best yeast
• Back sweetening

To select the right yeast we need to look at the attenuation of the yeast. Attenuation tells us how much of the available sugar will be fermented. A high attenating yeast will leave very little sugar after fermentation, a lower attenuating yeast will leave more.

A good choice for watermelon wine is Lalvin 71B or Mangrove Jack MA33

Using the correct amount of sugar in the fermentation and then back sweetening after fermentation give you a really good degree of control over the final sweetness of the wine.

We will cover all this in the recipe below so don’t worry.

Selecting The Best Watermelons

The key to maximum flavour and sugar available from the melon is getting them at peak ripeness. These watermelons will yield the most juice and best colour.

Ripe watermelons will sound hollow when tapped, a pale yellow spot will be visible on one side of the melon and if the watermelon has stripe the stripes will be darker.

What You’ll Need To Make Watermelon Wine – Makes 1 gallon / 4.5 litres

• Large Stock Pot
• Small Fermenting Bucket
• Demijohn
• Syphon
• Fine Straining Bag
• Potato Masher
• Airlock & Bung

  Watermelon Wine Ingredients

• 2kg Watermelon
• 4 litres Water
• 950g White sugar
• 1/4 tsp Wine Tannin
• 2tsp Mixed Acid
• 1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
• 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
• 1 Campden Tablet
• 1 Sachet Yeast (Lalvin 71B-1122 or Mangrove Jack MA33 is a good choice but experiment with others)

Prepare the watermelon by cutting out the flesh from the centre, cut the flesh into chunks. There is no need to worry about seeds but you want to avoid having any skin in with the flesh.

Heat up half the water along with the sugar in a heavy based pan. Bring to a boil for a few minutes.

In the sanitised fermenting bin add the mesh straining bag and tuck the top around the fermenter opening. 

Tip the watermelon chunks into the bag and then begin mashing the fruit with the masher to crush it, don’t worry about any chunks, a rough mash is fine. This will break down the fruit and release a lot of juice.

Once the melon is crushed pour over the boiling sugar solution and give a good mix with a sanitised spoon. Then add the remaining water to bring the temperature down. 

Add the acid, tanning and yeast nutrient, mix with a sanitised spoon, cover with the lid leave to stand until cooled.

Once cooled to ambient temperature add the Campden tablet, cover and leave to stand overnight or at least 12 hours. A hydrometer reading at this point is good to know the opening gravity.

Add the pectic enzyme and mix thoroughly before adding the yeast to the surface of the must. You don’t need to mix the yeast in. Cover with the lid and airlock and fermentation should start after 48 hours or so.

Once fermentation has begun give the watermelon a stir once or twice a day for 5 days very gently with a sanitised spoon.

After 7 days of primary fermentation lift out the straining bag with the watermelon in and allow it to drain without squeezing. After drip draining, discard the fruit and recover the fermenting vessel and allow to settle for 2 – 3 days.

After 2 – 3 days rack the watermelon wine to a sanitised demijohn/carboy and seal with a bung and airlock. The wine will continue to ferment and condition in the demijohn for the next few weeks to a month. After this time you may notice the wine beginning to clear.

Rack the wine to a new demijohn after a considerable amount of sediment has built up and the wine is noticeably clearer. The wine can condition for at least 3 – 4 months or longer in the demijohn.

After conditioning for a few months take a sample of the wine and consider if you need to back sweeten the wine. This will help balance the alcohol with the watermelon flavour. A full guide to back sweetening can be found here.

At this point, the wine can be bottle and allow to mature as you see fit. I like to keep the bottles for a number of months and you will find the wine rounds out and the flavours settle. The wine will be good for a few years.