Homemade

Guide to Homemade Wine, Beer, Cider & Mead

Alcoholic beverages; commonly beer and wines and made at home. Most often brews are made from brewing kits purchased at shops specialized in spirits. Cheap Draft features homebrew recipes, equipment requirements, and best practices needed to deliver the perfect batch!

A wine with the fragrance and delight of apple blossom.

Ingredients:

4 lbs. pink rhubarb - cut into dice
4 lbs. sugar
1 lb. maize
1 lb. raisins
1 egg white
I slice of toast
1 oz. yeast
1 lb. crab apple blossom
½ lb. barley
4 quarts water

Method:

Put all, except the flowers, into a big jar and stir daily for 14 days. Keep covered and warm.

Add the flowers and stir a further 6 days.

Strain, bottle and cork.

Keep for 6-12. months. See that the wine is clear, add the bubbles for “making sparkling wines” and keep for a further 1-5 months before drinking.

This is a refreshing wine, deep gold in color.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. vegetable marrow
2 lbs. apples-chopped up
½ lb. sultanas
½ lb. prunes
½ lb. maize
1 beaten egg white
1 slice of toast
1 oz. yeast
5 quarts water

Method:

Put all into a big jar and stir daily for 10 days. Keep covered and warm.

Strain-stand for 2 hours. Pour the clear off, measure it and add 1 lb. sugar to each quart of liquid. Stir well.

Bottle and cork.

Keep for 6 - 12 months. See that the wine is clear, add the bubbles for “making sparkling wines” and keep for a further 1-5 months before drinking.

Tasty and strong. Each ingredient in this amber-colored wine enhances the other.

Ingredients:

1 lb. figs
4 lbs. sugar
3 lbs. rhubarb-peeled and cut into dice
2 lbs. rice
1 egg white
1 slice of toast
1 oz. yeast
1 lb. crab apple blossom
4 quarts water

Method:

Put all, except the flowers, into a big jar. Stir daily for 14 days. Keep covered and keep warm.

Add the flowers and stir for a further 5 days.

Strain, bottle and cork.

Keep for 6 - 12 months. See that the wine is clear, add the bubbles for “making sparkling wines” and keep for a further 1-5 months before drinking.

This recipe includes balm which is a noted cure for headaches and imparts a pleasing fragrance.

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs, rhubarb-peeled and cut into dice
• ½ lb. raisins-shredded
• ½ lb. barley
• ½ lb. maize
• 1 egg white
• 4 lbs. sugar
• 1 slice of toast
• 1 oz. yeast
• 1 lb. balm (lemon scented mint)
• 4 quart water

Method:

Put all, except the balm, into a big jar. Stand. Stir daily for 14 days. Keep covered and warm.

Add the balm-stand for a further 4 days.

Strain, bottle and cork.

Keep for 6 - 12 months. See that the wine is clear, add the bubbles for “making sparkling wines” and keep for a further 1-5 months before drinking.

This is dark amber in color and more mellow than the preceding recipe. It is a champagne-type wine.

Ingredients:

• 3 oz. tea
• 1 lb. figs-shredded
• ½ lb. maize
• ½ lb. barley
• 1 egg white
• 1 slice of toast
• 1 oz. yeast
• 1 lb. rhubarb-peeled and cut into dice
• 1 lb. privet flowers
• 4 lbs. sugar
• 5 quarts water

Method:

Put tea bag into 3 quarts of water and boil for 5 minutes and then remove bag. Put all, except the flowers, into the liquid and stir daily for 14 days. Keep covered and warm.

Add the flowers and stir for a further 4 days.

Strain-stand for 2, hours. Pour clear liquid off.

Bottle and cork.

Keep for 6-12 months. See that the wine is clear, add the bubbles for “making sparkling wines” and keep for a further 1-5 months before drinking.

As the name implies, this is an amber-colored wine.

It has a “bite” in it and even without the flowers it is very good.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. dates shredded
• 3 lbs. rhubarb-peeled and cut into dice
• 1 egg white
• 1 lb. bread-toasted
• ½ lb. rice
• 5 quarts water
• 4 lbs. sugar
• 1 oz. yeast
• 1 lb. yellow mimulus

Method:

Put all, except, except the flowers, into a large jar. Keep covered and warm. Stir daily for 10 days, squeeze the bread out.

Add the flowers and stir for a further 5 days.

Strain, bottle and cork.

Keep for 6 - 12 months.

See that the wine is clear, add the bubbles for “making sparkling wines” and keep for a further 1-5 months before drinking.

Whilst many recipes will make good wine without the flowers, the addition of the flower petals, with careful management, will give a delightful fragrant bouquet which is so desirable in a sparkling wine, and make it distinctive from the ordinary still wines.

To get a sparkling wine, you make the wine, clear it, turn it over and then add the sparkling agent. When ready for drinking it will bubble and sparkle, leaping joyfully in the glass on being broached.

Wine making is an educational hobby with a pleasing ending. You learn to appreciate the bounty of the earth and in time you realize what a pleasant effect it can be on the body without being a drunkard or abasing one’s self in any way, and you get really full enjoyment when you offer the glass you’ve made in hospitable generosity.

How does one launch a brew of wine? You need a big jar-one to hold 2 or 3 gallons. Those old-fashioned ware bread mugs or a cream jar, such as farmers use to gather cream in, are ideal. An old fashioned potato masher is grand to mash fruit; then you need a wooden spoon to stir with and a sharp knife to shred up dried fruit.

You must also have bottles and corks arid a place to keep the wine undisturbed at a temperature of 50°-60°F for 6 or 9 months.

Use an aluminum steam pan to strain the rough flowers out, then you lose no liquid. 2 yards of muslin double is an excellent strainer.

Always keep a brew well covered with a thick cloth. Flies will strike wine in hot weather in the same way as they strike meat, so carelessness in protecting the bowl or jar could result in a mass of maggots forming, as the winey smell attracts flies. Also, letting the air to the brew means you make a sourness impossible to cure and the whole lot turns to vinegar.