Ok ladies and gentlemen................... raise your glasses.............. Cheeeeeerrrrrrrsssssss!!!!!!! It's time to make some vino......... Wine is christmasy, very very christmasy..... it is MERRY Christmas after all. . Come on....... what about that song, Christmas time, mistletoe and wine........... la la la , , I love that one by the way............
In my very Christmasy "spirit" I have decided to share my very treasured recipe for Apple wine. Just the sound of it makes it so treasured. Don't you think so. I love trying out wines and over the years I have realized that wine making is pretty simple; you can make it with almost any fruit, the process and recipe is sorta similar. You need to follow a few guidelines while making wine. These are like universal wine making rules for homemade wines. Follow them honestly and your wine ain't gonna be sour.
1. Stir your wine, regularly, for the days, mentioned in the recipe.
2. Wait, is this microphone on????? LISTEN TO ME!!!! I"m only gonna say this once " ALWAYS USE A DRY SPOON TO STIR YOUR WINE" LIKE ALWAYS, ALWAYS. There's no 2 ways about this. Here's the thing; you're going to ferment the wine, and once it starts fermenting, no fresh water can be mixed with it. So when you're stirring your wine everyday, make sure you're using a dry spoon. Also make sure, this spoon is used only for stirring wine. You don't wanna use a spoon that you just used to stir your curry or something. Here's what I do, I use a long wooden spoon, stir my wine, rinse the spoon and let it sit in a cup next to my wine jar. It gets dry by the time I need to use it again and I just follow the process every time.
3. So yes, you'll be fermenting the wine, Make sure, you're using a good quality yeast. You can tell if the yeast if active, but stirring in a little warm water. If it bubbles up in about 10 mins, that yeast is good to use. Don't go ahead with it, if it doesn't.
4. Use clean, dry bottles to store your wine, once strained. Here's a mistake we could end up with. I did, a couple of times. After faithfully using a dry spoon to stir my wine everyday, I finally strained it into a bottle that still had a bit of moisture left in it after it had been washed. So, inspite of my wine, tasting perfect on day 1, it turned sour over the next few days ......... Boo hoo, but lesson learnt. So, these days, I wash the bottles on the day I start making my wine and then let them dry upside down and upright in the sun for a couple of days. This way, I'm not scrambling to get them ready and dry in a hurry on the day my wine is ready.
And those are the golden rules for wine making. Don't worry too much about getting the measurements perfect, 1 kg sugar or 1.1 kg sugar, is only gonna make it a bit sweeter or lesser. What really matters, is using a good quality yeast and using that DRY SPOON. TRUST ME!!!!!!!!
So here we go.
First get your wine jar ready. I picked up mine in shivajinagar,Bangalore, a couple of years ago, at Adams, a very popular crockery store around here. You should find them in any good , traditonal crockery store. Not gonna see these babies at home center or some place like that.
Once your jar is washed and dry, measure your ingredients and put them in the jar in any order. It really doesn't matter. Clean and chop the apples roughly before tossing them in. Measure out the water and from that, take about 200 ml of water and bring it to a slightly warm temperature, not boiling though and add the yeast. Let it sit for about 10 mins, and watch it, ensuring that it bubbles and is good to use. Once you have all your ingredients in the jar, stir it well and put the lid on. Cover it with a cloth, fastened with a rubber band.
Put a reminder in the place that you're bound to see without fail every morning. Let it say "STIR WINE". I generally put my reminder on the fridge. Stir the wine everyday with a dry spoon (See notes above) for 18 days. When the wine is done, strain it and bottle it. To strain it, I put it over a large strainer, covered with a clean, fine, dry cloth. Again, make sure, the vessel and bottles you're using are clean and dry. Also use glass bottles, I personally, don't like the idea of storing it in plastic bottles.
When you first strain the wine, it's going to look a bit cloudy and thick , coz, its's still got a lot of sediments in it, like you see in the first picture. So let it stand for a couple of weeks and then strain it again, it will be clear and also have a much better colour. The more you let it stand, the nicer colour you're going to get. This wine turns to a lovely golden colour. If you get started this weekend, you are going to have lovely homemade apple wine ready, right in time for Christmas. CHEERS!!!!!!
Apple wine
Makes around 3 bottles
Ingredients :
1 kg apples
2 litres water
1 kg sugar
300 gms raisins
1 piece cinnamon
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 litres water
1. Measure 2 litres water,put it in the jar, reserving about 200 ml water.
2. Warm the reserved water and add the yeast. Stir and let it stand for about 10 minutes.
3. Wash the apples, roughly chop them. Put them in the jar.
4. Add the rasins , sugar and cinnamon to the jar.
5. When the yeast bubbles in the water, add all of it to the jar
6. Stir well and cover the jar.
7. Keep covered to ferment for 18 days, stirring the wine once everyday, using a dry spoon.
8. On the 18th day, strain the wine and bottle it.
9. Let it stand for about 10 days, strain and bottle again..
In my very Christmasy "spirit" I have decided to share my very treasured recipe for Apple wine. Just the sound of it makes it so treasured. Don't you think so. I love trying out wines and over the years I have realized that wine making is pretty simple; you can make it with almost any fruit, the process and recipe is sorta similar. You need to follow a few guidelines while making wine. These are like universal wine making rules for homemade wines. Follow them honestly and your wine ain't gonna be sour.
1. Stir your wine, regularly, for the days, mentioned in the recipe.
2. Wait, is this microphone on????? LISTEN TO ME!!!! I"m only gonna say this once " ALWAYS USE A DRY SPOON TO STIR YOUR WINE" LIKE ALWAYS, ALWAYS. There's no 2 ways about this. Here's the thing; you're going to ferment the wine, and once it starts fermenting, no fresh water can be mixed with it. So when you're stirring your wine everyday, make sure you're using a dry spoon. Also make sure, this spoon is used only for stirring wine. You don't wanna use a spoon that you just used to stir your curry or something. Here's what I do, I use a long wooden spoon, stir my wine, rinse the spoon and let it sit in a cup next to my wine jar. It gets dry by the time I need to use it again and I just follow the process every time.
3. So yes, you'll be fermenting the wine, Make sure, you're using a good quality yeast. You can tell if the yeast if active, but stirring in a little warm water. If it bubbles up in about 10 mins, that yeast is good to use. Don't go ahead with it, if it doesn't.
4. Use clean, dry bottles to store your wine, once strained. Here's a mistake we could end up with. I did, a couple of times. After faithfully using a dry spoon to stir my wine everyday, I finally strained it into a bottle that still had a bit of moisture left in it after it had been washed. So, inspite of my wine, tasting perfect on day 1, it turned sour over the next few days ......... Boo hoo, but lesson learnt. So, these days, I wash the bottles on the day I start making my wine and then let them dry upside down and upright in the sun for a couple of days. This way, I'm not scrambling to get them ready and dry in a hurry on the day my wine is ready.
And those are the golden rules for wine making. Don't worry too much about getting the measurements perfect, 1 kg sugar or 1.1 kg sugar, is only gonna make it a bit sweeter or lesser. What really matters, is using a good quality yeast and using that DRY SPOON. TRUST ME!!!!!!!!
So here we go.
First get your wine jar ready. I picked up mine in shivajinagar,Bangalore, a couple of years ago, at Adams, a very popular crockery store around here. You should find them in any good , traditonal crockery store. Not gonna see these babies at home center or some place like that.
Once your jar is washed and dry, measure your ingredients and put them in the jar in any order. It really doesn't matter. Clean and chop the apples roughly before tossing them in. Measure out the water and from that, take about 200 ml of water and bring it to a slightly warm temperature, not boiling though and add the yeast. Let it sit for about 10 mins, and watch it, ensuring that it bubbles and is good to use. Once you have all your ingredients in the jar, stir it well and put the lid on. Cover it with a cloth, fastened with a rubber band.
Put a reminder in the place that you're bound to see without fail every morning. Let it say "STIR WINE". I generally put my reminder on the fridge. Stir the wine everyday with a dry spoon (See notes above) for 18 days. When the wine is done, strain it and bottle it. To strain it, I put it over a large strainer, covered with a clean, fine, dry cloth. Again, make sure, the vessel and bottles you're using are clean and dry. Also use glass bottles, I personally, don't like the idea of storing it in plastic bottles.
When you first strain the wine, it's going to look a bit cloudy and thick , coz, its's still got a lot of sediments in it, like you see in the first picture. So let it stand for a couple of weeks and then strain it again, it will be clear and also have a much better colour. The more you let it stand, the nicer colour you're going to get. This wine turns to a lovely golden colour. If you get started this weekend, you are going to have lovely homemade apple wine ready, right in time for Christmas. CHEERS!!!!!!
Apple wine
Makes around 3 bottles
Ingredients :
1 kg apples
2 litres water
1 kg sugar
300 gms raisins
1 piece cinnamon
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 litres water
1. Measure 2 litres water,put it in the jar, reserving about 200 ml water.
2. Warm the reserved water and add the yeast. Stir and let it stand for about 10 minutes.
3. Wash the apples, roughly chop them. Put them in the jar.
4. Add the rasins , sugar and cinnamon to the jar.
5. When the yeast bubbles in the water, add all of it to the jar
6. Stir well and cover the jar.
7. Keep covered to ferment for 18 days, stirring the wine once everyday, using a dry spoon.
8. On the 18th day, strain the wine and bottle it.
9. Let it stand for about 10 days, strain and bottle again..
If the postal service will accept this parcel, please do not hesitate to send a bottle across the seas!
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