Coffee Maker

I like to make many different types of homemade wine, but this is one of my particular favourites. I have made this with real strawberries, but they are very very expensive when out of season, so take note of my very cheap ingredients, but the taste is exactly the same as with real strawberries.

So here is you shopping list:

2 litres of red (or purple) grape juice. Make sure it is pure. We hate additives!

1 small (500ml) bottle of strawberry sauce (You know, the type you squirt over your ice-cream)

1 kilo of sugar

That’s it!  At my local Asda or Tesco that would normally set me back about £3.70. If you pay more you have been ripped off.

Now i am going to assume that you have all the necessary tools for the job. i.e. Demijohn, steriliser, airlock, funnel, yeast and yeast nutrient, etc. If not then see my recipe for apple wine that i published earlier.

You would have sterilised the demijohn in preparation of course, so first of all you place the funnel into the demijohn and pour the two litres of pure red grape juice into it.

Then you take the sugar and fill up a measuring  jug and pour on boiling water. You must stir it vigorously. This is called changing it into inverted sugar, which is what the yeast feeds on. When it is totally dissolved you pour it into the demijohn. Repeat until the whole kilo of sugar is added to the juice.

Next comes the strawberry syrup. This also needs to have boiling water added to it, and stir as if your life depended on it. Add the resulting solution to the demijohn as well, and you should have about 3.5 litres of liquid in there by now. Don’t worry if it is more  or less.

Now you need to cover the top of the demijohn and give it a good swirl around to mix it up well, and to take the heavy sugar off the bottom.

You are nearly there now. Add enough water to take it to about 4 litres, give it another shake, and then add your teaspoon of Super Wine Yeast. Stick the airlock on top and leave it in a warm place.

In a few days, when the initial ferment has calmed down, you go back and add a couple of teaspoons of yeast nutrient to the solution. It’s probably best to do this in the sink or bath as occasionally it can bubble like hell for a few minutes. When it has settled down again, top up the demijohn with cold water up to the gallon mark, give it a shake, and then put it away again for at least a month, or until it has at least stopped bubbling. (Don’t be so impatient!)

When you can’t handle the suspense any more (and it has stopped bubbling) the sensible thing to do would be to siphon it off into another demijohn, leaving all the lees in the bottom. If you don’t have another one spare, don’t worry. Add a crushed Campden tablet to the mix to kill off any active yeast that is left, and then leave it in a cupboard somewhere out of the light and heat.

You COULD bottle it just a couple of days later if you wanted, but i recommend you leave it as long as possible. After a week it will be nice. After a month it will be excellent. But leave it for three months and you will be amazed at your work of art.

Generally i want to use the demijohn again quite quickly, so after a week i would transfer it to plastic bottles (and have a sneaky glass!) then let it mature in the bottle(s) while i am brewing my next gallon in the demijohn.

There you are. You have made a gallon of strawberry wine for around 60p a bottle. You can’t get better than that!

Hi, I am an experienced brewer and writer, and I contribute to many websites.
http://justwebsitereviews.com - Site Reviews
http://justhomebrewtips.com How to make your own beer and wine at home
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