Summer wines brewing now

[BonnetMaker]

The thread about beer made me wonder what other brewers were doing this month in the way of wine. I've just put on 5 gallons of mostly damson (with a few blackcurrents and some leftover dried elderberries from last year), 2 gallons of gooseberry, 2 gallons of apple and ginger, and an experimental gallon of peach using a catering tin of peaches in syrup that I couldnt think of a better use for.

We still have bilberries/whinberries on the mountain, but if I can pick any and they are still ok I think I'll make a liqueuer with them rather than wine.

What wine is on the brew in your house this month?

[piperdbh]

I've never made any wine, but I'll be glad to stop by your place to sample the ones you're making!

[BonnetMaker]

I've never made any wine, but I'll be glad to stop by your place to sample the ones you're making!

Anytime, we're always at home to friends out on adventures

[Pleater]

Drinking ice cold real ginger beer and watching the apples swell and ripen, thinking how on earth am I going to process so many apples if they all get to the normal size.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Bugbear]

Drinking ice cold real ginger beer and watching the apples swell and ripen, thinking how on earth am I going to process so many apples if they all get to the normal size.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

Apple Jack, Pleater. Unless your freezer is full of kilts.

[McClef]

Mmmm - whinberries make lovely pies so it would be interesting to taste them in liqueur form.

[BonnetMaker]

Mmmm - whinberries make lovely pies so it would be interesting to taste them in liqueur form.

We did an evilly decadent one a few years back, a whinberry liqueur and a honey liqueur, and you pour a little of both into a glass so they layer, and get something that looks like a sunset over the Brecons. Dangerously sweet, but really delicious.

[Bugbear]

A long time back, I used to make assorted fruit wine like that; peaches etc. I also grew Thompson seedless grapes, and made small batches of wine from those, now and then. The citrus I grow gets way too acidic to drink when it ferments, but is nice to mix in after the fermentation has stopped.
Did not age the wine, of course.

If I remember correctly, a family member started a batch of "orchard" wine in June, peaches apples, pears, etc, and there would have been black currents in the mix. They sometimes make cherry wine, too. They live up north with a lot longer winter chill time for the trees, though.

[BonnetMaker]

Oh to be able to grow citrus fruit. I grew a 'gin and tonic' plant once from a pip from the bottom of a glass of G&T, (probably a lemon, might have been a lime) but it never fruited. Here in the wilds of Wales we grow mud, sheep, wellies and whinberries, and not much else

[Bugbear]

I think a wine can be made from the zest of the sour orange, but I never tried it. You would need a whole lot of peals to make enough zest...

Out here in the desert, all our fruit, like peaches, ripen at the same time, then fall off the tree in a three or four day period. Might as well make wine from then.

I understand the assorted cactus fruits that grow out here were used to make a wine long, long ago. They're a little like watermelon in flavor, and watermelon can make a nice wine.