Monday, November 08, 2010

Home brewing - Grapefruit wine

It's been a very productive few days and I have a few blog posts to catch on with so without further ado I shall begin...

One grapefruit tree, heaving with fruit
An overflowing bucket
36 to be precise (hardly made a dent in the tree)
Mmm juicy grapefruit
So glad I have a juicer!
36 grapefruit gave just over 1.25 litres of wonderful smelling juice
I was given this book sometime ago and I am following the recipe in here for this grapefruit wine, well almost following it! Ya know I have to fiddle a bit!
The basic recipe is as follow's and is for making 4.5 litres, and I have big buckets, seems as shame to leave most of it empty, so I've quadrupled the amounts. (My measurements in brackets)

Grapefruit wine
8 grapefruit (36)
1.6kgs sugar ( I used a 5 kg bag)
yeast, nutrient, vitamin B1 (Follow quantity guidelines on back of packet)
water to 4.5 ltrs (I topped up to 20 litres and put the juice of about 4 more grapefruit)

  • Dissolve sugar in warm water
  • Add other ingredients
Crush tablets between two spoons
I didn't secure the lid for the first 3 days as I wanted to stir the must each day
But when it tried to escape and take over the spare room I put the lid on properly!
Looking quite lively!
Once the lid is on, fit your airlock and ensure the water level stays topped up. You don't want air getting into your wine or it will be buggered! Sorry about the 'technical' term! :D
And now we wait.

I have some plums and more feijoas in the freezer, I shall make more wine with them over the next couple of days. I've probably left it too late for it to be ready at Christmas, but ya never know.

Watch out for upcoming posts, In the Veggie Garden - Tomato beds and Sunday workshop - Clay sculpting

9 comments:

  1. I have made home brew but never wine, scared I'm going to poison myself.. If you have to keep the water level topped up without removing the lid, is that wiggly thing on top a two way valve or something..

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  2. No need to top it up Wendy, that level will remain the same. The airlock is a means of allowing the carbon dioxide to escape and stops any air getting in. It's hard to poison yourself I would think, pretty easy to make bad wine though!;D

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  3. I have never made wine but would like to have a go one day cause I do like to drink it :0)

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  4. It's pretty easy Debbie, you should try it! :D

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  5. Wow how lucky you. Grapefruit. Yum!
    Sue I don't know why, perhaps the millage here but it takes forever for me to download your site.

    Marlyn

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  6. I *love* grapefruit juice and I think it would be so much fun to try grapefruit wine! Jeez, wine can be made out of about anything, can't it?! lol
    What a wonderful grapefruit harvest you are getting this year.

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  7. I'll let you know how the wine goes dk :D And yes you can make wine out of just about anything. ;D
    Hi Marilyn, I've got a lemn tress heaving the same too! Been making lemonade too. It must be the distance or maybe all the little extras we have added, as your blog takes a while to load for me. All I do is open another blog in another tab and come back to yours. :D ♥

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  8. Well now I know what I could make with all the grapefruit I have growing out the back lol.

    Very interesting post...

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  9. I've no idea how it will turn out :D Not made grapefruit wine before, all I can say is it's gurgling away quite nicely :D

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